Americas

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on April 12th, 2011
A Brazilian flag hanging in Sao Paulo. Photo: Alexandre Rampazzo/Al Jazeera

In the industrial outskirts of Sao Paulo, workers at Bandeiras Sukets, a small flag-making factory, are hunched over sewing machines. With great precision, the workers are stitching together high quality, hand-made Brazilian flags.

But the work of making the Brazilian flag is quickly an evaporating profession inside Brazil. Local flag makers are being put out of business thanks to cheap, low-quality imports of Brazilian flags from China.

In the age of globalisation, Brazilians are finding out that even their national symbol is not immune to China’s exports.

"We have been in the Brazilian flag making business for over 15 years," Sueli da Silva Teixeira, the owner of Bandeiras Sukets, told Al Jazeera.

"There used to be flag making places all over this area, it was a good business, there was a lot of work for everyone.

"Today, no, it’s changed.

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on April 12th, 2011
Photo by EPA

Last Friday, just before the midnight deadline to avoid a partial shutdown of the US government, Democrats and Republicans declared victory. 

They agreed to cut $38.5bn from the $3.8 trillion budget.

But it has taken until Tuesday for the deal to be drafted into a piece of legislation for the public to know which programmes are going to be cut.

The biggest cuts are from education, labour and health programmes - they'll lose $5.5bn in funding.

Homeland Security loses $784m, and nearly $200m will be cut from international food assistance.

Tags: Congress
By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on April 11th, 2011
Women embrace during funerals for 12 children killed in school shooting, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [Associated Press]

After a school shooting, there are usually three distinct phases: First the immediate shock of how anybody could do such a thing, followed by grief of young lives ended too soon, and finally the inevitable calls for more gun control.

Brazil is a country still very much grieving, and for good reason. It was last Thursday, just before 9am, when a 24-year-old mentally ill man named Wellington Menezes de Oliveira walked into a packed middle school classroom in the working class neighbourhood of Realengo in Rio de Janeiro and starting executing students who were barely teenagers.

According to eyewitnesses, he had a 38 calibre pistol in one hand, and a 32 calibre in the other - pulling the trigger of each as fast as his fingers would allow.

Oliveira, a former student at the school who might have been a victim of bullying, had a "speed loader" which allowed him to re-load his pistols with minimum delay to continue the killing spree.

By Kristen Saloomey in Americas on April 11th, 2011
Gerard Longuet, left, France's defence minister, briefs media in Paris on the Cote d'Ivoire crisis after Gbagbo's arrest [AFP]

Being sceptical is part of being a journalist.

Especially at the United Nations, where every action - and every failure to act - is influenced by the political interests of countries who sit on the Security Council.

By John Terrett in Americas on April 11th, 2011
Photo by GALLO/GETTY

The 38th International Whistlers Convention has been taking place in the tiny town of Louisburg, North Carolina.

Whistlers from all over the world took part in a competition to find the world champion.

Whistlers often talk about the need to "pucker-up" but oh boy do they need to have rubber lips and flexible tongues to do it.

"I dunno if you saw that but that's how it's done," said competitor Luke Janssen, baring teeth, tongue and epiglottis to demonstrate his own special brand of trilling.

Luke was a champion whistler two years ago and he came for his crown once again ...

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on April 8th, 2011
AFP photo

Republicans and Democrats remain positive that a deal to prevent a partial shutdown of the US government is possible.  Negotiators from both parties and the White House have been mum on what they're discussing and the sticking points.  Republican leaders say they want $39 billion cut from the budget, Democrats say $38 billion.  Some ideological differences remain, meaning federal workers went home on Friday afternoon not knowing whether they'll come back to work on Monday. 

 

By Camille Elhassani in Americas on April 4th, 2011
Photo by AFP
Barack Obama has become the first person to announce a campaign for the presidency next year.  
It was a foregone conclusion that he'd run for office again, and the timing of the announcement 19 months before the election is on par with other past incumbent presidents.  
What's unusual this year is that Obama has no Republican challenger yet. At this time in 2007, the year before the last presidential race, more than a dozen Republicans and Democrats had declared their candidacies.
 
Obama made the announcement with a Monday morning email directly to his supporters and a two-minute web video entitled "It Begins with Us".  The video features a number of supporters from swing states critical to winning, offering their thoughts about the future.
By Camille Elhassani in Americas on April 1st, 2011
[GALLO/GETTY]

There's been mixed reaction to the operation in Libya by the American public.  Prior to the mission, the Pew Research Center found that Americans were evenly divided over whether or not the US should enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. 

 

Since then, the number of people who disapprove has risen.  The US began flying sorties and launching missiles against Muammar Gaddafi's forces on March 19.  Shortly after the operation began, Gallup found 47 per cent of those surveyed approved of US military involvement while 37 per cent disapproved.  One in six people were unsure. 

 

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on March 30th, 2011
Brazil's growing economy is hammering those of its neigbhours [GALLO/GETTY]

On Sunday, Alan Garcia, the president of Peru, said that his country, along with Colombia, Chile and Mexico would form a new regional economic bloc.

Garcia said the presidents of all four countries would meet in Lima on May 2 to hammer out the final details and make the formal announcement.

But all four countries - which have market-oriented economic priorities - already have individual free trade agreements amongst themselves. The stock markets of Colombia, Peru and Chile were even recently integrated.

There are currently no major barriers to free trade between them.

So what is the point of a formal economic block?

The point is simple: Brazil.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on March 24th, 2011
Celebration after the nuclear accord between Brazil, Turkey and Iran was signed last year. Photo: Ricardo Stuckert/PR

Iran and Brazil. My, oh, my.

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