Brazil Nuts : Notes from South America by Tom Phillips

Xingu Flu

Tom Phillips — 2009-08-11

It's hard to escape talk of swine flu in Brazil at the moment - even in the Xingu National Park, which I visited last week. This is Francisco Txicao, an Ikpeng indian from the state of Mato Grosso, who has taken to wearing a face-mask because of concerns that the illness might be reaching Pavuru, the small Amazon village where he lives. Francisco told me he was using the mask because of reports of swine flu in Canarana, an agricultural frontier town just outside his indigenous reserve where many of the Xingu's indians go to sell their produce. Better safe than sorry.

Say it to her face, Hudson

Tom Phillips — 2009-07-29

I'm not sure I've ever had so many emails about one story. The story in question is a piece I wrote, while dressed in the silly blue helment above, for today's Guardian about the growing number of female cops fighting Rio's war on drugs.

The story focuses on Inspector Fabiane de Mello, from Rio's anti-weapons squad, Drae, who is one of a number of women now battling crime in Rio. My inbox has been filling up all day with emails about the story; from men, women, journalists, human rights activists and cops alike. For a change, all of the emails have been positive.

But not everybody is happy, alas. Here's what one grump wrote on the security blog of one Rio newspaper about the story. "To please feminists and feminism and in order to do well in the elections, our politicians allow something serious like public security be treated like a clothes boutique in Rio's south [beach] zone," writes a very snotty sounding 'Hudson'. I would like to see him say that to Inspector de Mello's face.

Brits abroad

Tom Phillips — 2009-07-27

There's always a lot of crime in the pages of Rio's daily newspaper O Dia. But apart from the occasional mugging, it's not common to find a group of Brits at the centre of the dodgy-dealings.

Today, however, O Dia carries a story about a group of British tourists who have been arrested in Rio after allegedly trying to con the tourist police into believing they had been robbed while travelling from Foz de Iguacu to Rio. According to the story they turned up at Rio's tourist police station claiming to have had all of their luggage stolen. They did, however, still have their passports which made the local cops wonder. On a hunch the police took a trip down to the tourists' hotel - where they found the luggage and decided it was an insurance scam.

The tourists, O Dia reports, are now facing a fraud charge. What a way to spend your holidays.

Moustaches against Sarney

Tom Phillips — 2009-07-24

This week was the week of the moustache protest. Following another avalanche of allegations against Jose Sarney, the president of Brazil's senate, a group of Sao Paulo marketeers came up with the idea of a blog where irritated voters could post pics of themselves with Sarney-esque moustaches. The bloggers said they would only shave their moustaches off when Sarney got the boot.

On Thursday the 'Moustache Strike' crossed the Atlantic, with a story in the Guardian.
The story in the Guardian then made headlines in Brazil, which subsequently made they way onto the 'Moustache Strike' website in the form of this photo of one of the protest's creators holding the relevant page of the Estado de Sao Paulo. Page five actually (Was there nothing more news worthy?)

Meawhile, with Sarney showing no sign of making an exit, the moustaches grow longer and longer.

Give a gangster a cigarette

Tom Phillips — 2009-07-23

If a drug trafficker asks you for a cigarette you give him one. Which is exactly what I tried to do earlier this week. I'd just had lunch in a stunning roof-top restaurant in the Vidigal favela in south Rio when I bumped into a group of four or five foot-soldiers who were killing time in an alleyway. "Have you got a cigarette?" the only unarmed member of the group inquired. Without hesitating I went to hand him one only to realize that this man was unarmed in more than one sense. As well as not carrying a rifle, like the others, he was also literally unarmed; both of his arms had been amputated just above the elbow. For a moment I pondered what to do with the cigarette. "You hurt yourself, did you?" I bumbled. To my relief his friends seemed to find this funny. One of them grabbed the cigarette and poked it into his friend's mouth. "It's alright, we have a lighter," one of them said. I didn't stick around to see which one of them was going to use it.

Dancing at the Festival do Rio

Tom Phillips — 2009-07-23

Just over a year after we started shooting 'Dancing with the Devil', a documentary about the lives of three men on the frontline of Rio's drug conflict, the film is going to get its Brazilian premiere in September.

The film's debut will be at the Festival do Rio, South America's biggest film fest. The Festival do Rio takes place between September 24th and October 8th this year. The rest of the line-up is due out in the coming weeks.

Dancing with the Devil

Tom Phillips — 2009-06-06

In early 2007 I came across Pastor Dione dos Santos, a charismatic evangelical preacher who tries to save Rio's gangsters from a life of crime with his Bible. After writing about Dione's work in the slums of west Rio for the Guardian, I started following his life and work on a regular basis, alongside the photographer Douglas Engle. Over two fasincating and at times terrifying years on and we have just finished "Dancing with the Devil", a feature documentary based on Dione's work and directed by the Oscar-winning film-maker Jon Blair. The film focuses on Dione's attempts to convert two of Rio's most wanted men before Rio's drug squad can remove them from power. The film's world premiere will take place near Washington on June 19 at the Silverdocs Documentary Festival. Tickets are on sale now.

Scenes from Goiania

Tom Phillips — 2008-08-06

Covering the appalling murder of British teenager Cara Burke in Brazil's midwest has not made it an easy week. But the sunsets that descend on the city each night were at least some distraction. This is the view from my hotel in the city centre.

Take away Fio-Dental

Tom Phillips — 2008-08-02

This week I'm in Goiania, a small city in Brazil's midwest covering the murder of British teenager Cara Burke. Goiania is known for its cattle industry and the city's steak houses are packed to the rafters with chewy beef. So much so that lots of the restaurants here offer a take-away service in fio dental - or dental floss, available at the counter as you pay.

Scenes from Rio 1

Tom Phillips — 2008-07-09

I visited a contact on the west-side of Rio on Monday. From Rio's beach districts it takes nearly two hours to get there. When I arrived, this is what I found. Two local boys had apparently been shot by the police and taken to hospital. The locals' repsonse was to block one of the region's major roads, setting fire to tyres and forming a human chain across the street. Shortly after, the police arrived on the scene and exchanged their usual high-calibre pleasantries with the local drug faction for half-an-hour. The protestors cowered in a local bar called 'Hello You'. I hid behind a snooker table, much to my contact's amusement. Protests like this are not uncommon in Rio, but they rarely make the news. Not when they take place on the west-side anyway.

The Discrete of Paraty

Tom Phillips — 2008-07-09

Last weekend saw the seaside town of Paraty over taken by its annual literary festival, the brainchild of Bloomsbury's Liz Calder, the publisher behind, among many other things, the Harry Potter series and Alex Bellos' excellent book about Brazilian football and society, Futebol.

The line-up of writers included Tom Stoppard, Zoe Heller, Fernando Vallejo and Richard Price. But, of course, there were some who went more for the party itself, like this motley crew of wealthy locals who I spotted cruising past the authors' tent on Saturday in their oh so 'discrete' motor boat.

Samba @ the Maze

Tom Phillips — 2008-06-18

When I moved to Rio in 2005, The Maze - a mix of pousada, art gallery and museum all located in one of Rio's several hundred favelas - was a work in progress.

Today it still is. But the Maze's British owner, Bob Nadkarni, has since turned his gigantic home into a film location, a popular hang-out for stylish Brazilians and gringos and is now transforming the place into a top music venue, capturing the headlines both in Brazil and abroad with its legendary jazz nights.

This Friday (June 20th) the Maze is launching its first samba night, with a show by Thais Villela and the group Casa Forte. The band will be playing a mixture of old and new samba, with a bit of salsa thrown in and some new compositions by Edu Krieger, who penned a few tracks on Maria Rita's last album, and Rodrigo Penna Firme.

The Maze's well-stocked bar opens at 9pm and the show goes on until 4am. Entrance is R$10.

- The Maze, Rua Tavares Bastos, Catete. Nearest tube Catete/Largo do Machado. Further details can be found at The Maze's website.

Leblon environmentalists

Tom Phillips — 2008-05-15

After a bit of confusion Rio's environment secretary, Carlos Minc, was finally confirmed as Brazil's new environment minister today. He's replacing the Acrean Marina Silva, who resigned on Tuesday, angry at constantly being sidelined by the powers that be.

Not everyone is convinced, however, that Minc is up to the job. Globo's Amazon correspondent, Ronaldo Brasiliense is among the doubters. This is his pretty amusing piece from his blog today about os ambientalistas do Leblon.

Putz grill low

Tom Phillips — 2008-05-08

Brazilians love the internet and they really love taking the mick out of gringo Portuguese speakers and their accents. Put the two together and this is what you get. A friend in Belo Horizonte emailed it to me a few days back...

Um chef de cozinha norte americano, morando há pouquíssimo tempo no Brasil, e falando 'BEM' o português, faz a sua lista de compras e vai ao
supermercado para tentar abastecer a sua despensa e geladeira. Tendo feito a lista, a seu modo, e com o carrinho na frente, vai lembrando do que precisa:

PAY SHE
MAC CARON
MY ONE EASY
PAUL ME TOO
ALL FACE
CAR NEED BOY (MAIL KILO) (esta é genial...)
AS PAR GOES
KEY JOE (PARM ZOOM)
COW VIEW FLOOR (fantástica)
PIER MEN TOM
BETTER HAB
LEE MOON
BEER IN GEL
THREE GO
PAY TO THE PIER YOU (sensacional...)

Ao final ainda dá um tapa na testa,dizendo:
PUTZ GRILL LOW !
IS KEY SEE O TOO MUCH... PUT A KEEP ARE YOU!!

Save the Bonde!

Tom Phillips — 2008-05-07

The bonde trams of Santa Teresa are one of the best-known sights of Rio's hilltop bohemian district. Each year thousands of tourists, not the mention the locals, clamber aboard these deeply uncomfortable but equally charming trams and head for the hills.

Now, however, the bonde seems to have its days numbered. The state government have decided to scrap the bonde and replace it with a snazzy, privatized light railway service.

Furious Santa residents have set up an online petition in an attempt to save the beloved bonde.

Lowering the camera

Tom Phillips — 2008-04-30

A new documentary about Rio's police photographers has just been released in Brazil. It's called 'Abaixando a Maquina' and features several Brazilnuts friends talking about their increasingly dangerous daily routines portraying violence in Rio. One of the photographers interviewed is Severino Silva, the O Dia photographer who took the picture above during a police operation in the Complexo do Alemao last year.
Here's the trailer.

The Amazon's Golden Curse

Tom Phillips — 2008-04-07

In February, while most people were getting up to no good during the carnival, I travelled to the Brazilian and Guyanese Amazon to work on a documentary for the UK's Unreported World series with reporter Jenny Kleeman and director Paul Kittel.

The film shows how the world financial crisis is directly impacting on the lives of isolated Yanomami indians. With the price of gold on the rise, a growing number of illegal miners are heading back into the group's territory putting the Yanomami's health and lives at risk.

The Guardian's TV critic said "it's not an easy story to get - which is why this film is such a treasure" and he's not wrong.

As well as spending a night sleeping on a banana leaf deep in the jungle after one of the team fell ill (pictured above), we had to brave several groups of crack-smoking heavies at a goldmine called 'Frenchman Hill' and take part in a terrifying fly-over of one illegal mine with the Brazilian airforce. Then, of course, there was the hellish evening we spent at Frenchman's local brothel, named ever-so subtly 'The Red Hole'.

If you're in the UK you can see the 'The Amazon's Golden Curse' this Friday (April 11th) at 7.35pm.

Elite Squad celebrates

Tom Phillips — 2008-02-27

Love it or hate it Tropa de Elite (Elite Squad), one of the most controversial films in recent Brazilian history, has just won the Berlin Film Festival.

To celebrate the victory some of the people behind the film are throwing a party at Leblon's Melt club, with a show by local group Stereo Maracana. Andre Ramiro, an amateur rapper turned actor who plays the cop Matias in the film, is billed to perform alongside them. The party will take place on Tuesday March 4th at 10pm.

It's a bizarre choice of venue to say the least. If you've seen Elite Squad you'll know the film is not particularly kind on the upper-middle-class university students who usually frequent places like Melt. In fact they're portrayed as a bunch of hypocritical dope-smokers, who pontificate about Foucalt by day and bank-roll the city's drug traffickers by night while posing as do-gooder NGO workers.

Still Stereo Maracana are a great band, wherever they're playing.

Photographing the Favelas

Tom Phillips — 2008-02-20

Back in January I spent a day on the beat with Severino Silva, from the local newspaper 'O Dia', one of Rio's most courageous and charming crime photographers.

We met up early one morning in his central Rio newsroom and within 3 hours found ourselves dodging bullets in a shantytown in the city's suburbs. Severino described it as a normal day at work.

You can see the story and a video of Severino at work here.

Lola Almudevar

Tom Phillips — 2008-01-09

A few years ago I worked on a story in Rio with an Africa-based journalist from a large international news agency. A notorious bullet-dodger, the journalist in question told me that back home at his office in Nairobi his bosses had put together a photo-wall filled with pictures of reporters and cameramen who had died on the job over the years. The majority, he explained, were not the victims of violence, stray bullets or explosions - but car accidents.

I was reminded of our conversation this morning when news reached me about the death of a young British reporter in Bolivia. Lola Almudevar, who was 29, died at the end of last year in a car crash near La Paz. Lola was considered one of the brightest young journalists currently working in South America. She worked for the BBC and the Guardian as well as other papers in the US. Two memorial sites have been set up by friends and colleagues at the BBC where her stories can be heard. Her obituary in the Guardian can be read here.

Gold Rush in French Guiana

Tom Phillips — 2007-12-29

On Brazil's border with French Guiana thousands of Brazilian garimpeiros or wild cat miners are involved in an illegal gold rush that is devastating the Amazon rainforest.

The excellent British journalist Alex Bellos went there recently for Channel Four's More Four and filed this report which you can watch online.

The Angels of the Amazon

Tom Phillips — 2007-12-29

Back in October I travelled to one of the most northerly parts of Brazil, with a branch of the Brazilian airforce known as CAN.

Based in Manaus, the Correio Aereo Nacional (CAN) carry out regular humanitarian missions in the forgotten backlands of the Amazon rainforest. Our trip took us to several indigenous reserves in the state of Roraima. Here's a link to the story, audio report and video from the Guardian this week.

War in Rio - the board game

Tom Phillips — 2007-11-30

Rio's security bosses are in a huff this week about the invention of a new board game called 'War in Rio', which bases itself on the American strategy game 'War'.

The game - in which players battle it out for control of the city's slums - is actually only a mock-up put together by design student Fabio Lopez and posted on his blog.

But that hasn't stopped the authorities here getting their knickers in a twist. Jose Maria Beltrame, Rio's security secretary, said it was "ugly". Others said it was an "apology for violence".

Today 'War in Rio' found an unlikely defender; the rock musician and human rights activist Tico Santa Cruz, who wrote an op-ed piece for the Globo website. In it he suggests an kind of updated, Brazilian version of Monopoly be created also. Players, he suggests, could bribe officials and do dodgy deals in the country's Congress.

Amazon elephantiasis

Tom Phillips — 2007-10-26

It was a relief to return home from the Amazon this week, after a 6-day trip which included a minor plane accident (above), some terrifying take-offs and three days eating army rations in the rainforest.

Less pleasant was to find this email in my inbox yesterday from an Air Force doctor who I was travelling with. "I'd recommend you take this medicine since we visited areas where 'Filariasis' is endemic - it's a little know disease down there in the south-east, more commonly know as Elephantiasis," she wrote.

A quick bit of internet research tells me that Elephantiasis is transmitted by the Amazon's "pium" bugs and has been known to attack, among other things, the scrotum. How nice of them to have warned me beforehand.

His and Hers Ingariko style

Tom Phillips — 2007-10-22

I've just returned from a week in the Amazonian state of Roraima visiting indigenous reserves with the Brazilian airforce.

One of the places we stopped was Manalai, an Indian village in the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve. The village has a small dirt runway at its entrance and the first thing you see on your right as you land is this - the Ingariko's communal bathroom. Judging by the smell on the runway most don't make it that far.

Bottom Street, Sao Luis

Tom Phillips — 2007-09-27

Those pesky kids! Here's a scene from outside our hotel in the historic centre of Sao Luis this week. Back in the day this was Rua da Cruz. Now look at it!

James Dean in the Amazon

Tom Phillips — 2007-09-22

Brazilians don't half invent some funny names. Everywhere you go they seem to come up with new ones, perhaps the worst being Maicon Jackson (Michael Jackson) who I ran into a few years back.

My latest encounter was with James Dean (read Jay-mees-Gene-y) Souza, who I bumped into this week in a military camp in Novo Progresso, a shabby frontier town in the Amazon state of Para. He blames his mum.

Hot tickets: Nicolas Krassik at Democratics

Tom Phillips — 2007-09-06

This week's hot ticket is a show called Cordestinos, the new project of the incredible French violinist Nicolas Krassik.

The gig is part of the Semente da Musica Brasileira movement and will feature Nicolas' new project, Cordetinos, which has a heavy north-eastern influence.

The show is at the Clube dos Democráticos in Lapa (Rua do Riachuelo, 91, Lapa) and kicks of at 11pm.

Milicias and the media

Tom Phillips — 2007-09-01

Journalists from the O Globo newspaper were probably patting themselves on the back this week. Following a Globo report about the presence of vigilante-style "milicia" groups in one Rio shantytown, the city's police decided to take action.

Hence Globo's front page story this morning, "State reclaims favela from the milicia". The story brought warming news that "after O Globo revealed that the community's president had been expelled by milicia members" four members of the group - all military policemen - had been arrested. The milicia was no more.

The journalist also reported, however, that authorities had not put a security plan in place to prevent the newly liberated favela being reinvaded by drug traffickers.

Well, this afternoon they tried and, according to reports on Globo's website, two people were killed, among them a policeman from the same battalion as the suspected milicia leaders. He was in the favela visiting his girlfriend, or so they say.

The report adds that the traffickers were unable to 'retake' the community. So was the milicia expelled or not? Answers on a postcard.

"It's not a democracy" - Greenpeace in the Amazon

Tom Phillips — 2007-08-30

Last week a group of Greenpeace activists travelled to Juina, a small town in the Amazon state of Mato Grosso. Accompanied by two French journalists they intended to cover the plight of the Enawene Nawe, an indigenous tribe who are trying to fend off illegal loggers and the advance of agro-business.

They didn't get very far. Almost as soon as they arrived the group's members were surrounded by local farmers and politicians, angry about their presence. According to reports in the Brazilian press they were subsequently expelled from the town.

Greenpeace this week released a video called The Amazon in the hands of a Few telling their side of the story.

Samba in Cyber Space

Tom Phillips — 2007-08-30

Rio de Janeiro's burgeoning samba scene, and particularly the young musicians of Lapa, earned a new tribute on the world wide web this week. 'Samba na Rede' - a blog dedicated to samba and written by journalist Daniel Pereira - started up this week on the site of the Rio paper 'O Dia'.

Daniel is one of the composers from the 'Imprensa Que Eu Gamo' samba bloco, which is made up entirely of Brazilian journalists. Check it out.

Amsterdam Favela Painting

Tom Phillips — 2007-08-23

If you're passing through Amsterdam next month, head down to the Favela Painting Exhibition which is about to launch.

Favela Painting is the brainchild of Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn - possibly two of the wackiest Dutch artists ever to have set foot in Brazil. Their work involves transforming Rio's shantytowns into open-air art galleries, using the shacks as their canvases.

When I visitied the Vila Cruzeiro gallery last year, one local lady said the area's dogs had even stopped pissing on her home, they liked the art so much!

The exhibition is on at the Studio Apart (Prinsengracht 715, Amsterdam) from September 1-4. The launch party is set for August 31st from 5-9pm.

Jeroen and Dre are heading back to Brazil later this year so catch the exhibition in Europe while you can.

Designer dogs and Colombian capos

Tom Phillips — 2007-08-22

A few days back we set off for the luxury Sao Paulo home of one Juan Carlos Ramirez-Abadi, a Colombian drug boss better known as 'Chupeta' or Lollipop.

Mr Abadi has been described as the world's most wanted trafficker and, as such, was fairly keen to keep a low profile in Brazil, where he was hiding until his recent arrest. As well as fake-moustaches, dark glasses and peroxide hair he also seems to have adopted one of the most Brazilian habits possible, in order to fit in: buying silly dogs.

If you've visited Ipanema or Copacabana you'll know poddles and 'Footballers Wives'-style dogs are all the range here. And as Doug Engle's shot of Abadia's bedroom window shows, the Colombian capo was no execption. In case you're interested it's a 'miniature pinscher', a snip at around $400 for a puppy.

Hot ticket - Dancing Eldorado

Tom Phillips — 2007-08-07

This week's hot ticket comes from the Centro Cultural Carioca - one of Rio's best samba joints - which is staging 'Dancing Eldorado', half-musical, half-samba party.

The show is a journey back to 1940s Rio de Janeiro, where the dancehalls ruled supreme and features a special performance by the wonderful, veteran singer Aurea Martins. She's the lady in red in this all-star video.

Dancing Eldorado runs on Sundays and Mondays through August. Check the CCC's site for more details.

Shivering in Sao Paulo

Tom Phillips — 2007-07-31

It's been unbelievably cold in the south-east of Brazil these last few days, even for a Londoner like myself.

But, as I sat here shivering in my office this morning, I was comforted by news that I could be even worse off.

According to this report by the Globo network those suffering the most are the prostitutes of Sao Paulo who have had to splash out on a winter wardrobe to resist the cold.

"There's no way you can go around in provocative clothes in this cold," one of the girls tells the reporter. Indeed not.

Gig of the week

Tom Phillips — 2007-07-23

By popular demand every Monday this blog will be bringing you the gig of the week in Rio de Janeiro.

Word reached me over a very loud jam session last night that Tira Poeira, an absurdly talented, experimental choro group will be playing on Wednesday night alongisde the maestro guitarrist Yamandu Costa.

The gig is at the Estrela da Lapa club on Avenida Mem de Sá, 69, 10pm kick-off. It's just past the transvestites and on your right. Can't be missed.

Coconut fights

Tom Phillips — 2007-07-20

What would you do if a barmaid attacked you with a coconut? The answer, according to one Rio policeman, seems to be shoot her five times.

That is apparently what happened in Rio early this morning, anyway. According to reports in the Rio tabloid Extra the policeman in question claims to have been attacked with a coconut after questioning the price of beer at a bar on the Mirante do Leblon, a tourist viewpoint which looks over Ipanema beach. At R$3 a pop, the beer certainly isn't the cheapest in town. But then again, five shots...

The Mini-Motel

Tom Phillips — 2007-07-17

Travelling around Brazil you don't half come across some bizarre images. Last month I was on the Trans-Amazonian highway in Para state with my friend the American photographer Douglas Engle when we stumbled across the Mini-Motel, in all it's multi-coloured glory, perched on the banks of the Xingu river.

This is Douglas' snap of the Amazon love-den, conveniently located next to a motorbike repair shop. Surely a dead-certainty for the World Press Photo award this year. Anyone after a print of the Mini-Motel should get in touch with Douglas' agency AustralFoto.

The New King of the Bandolim

Tom Phillips — 2007-07-11

Rio isn't all doom and gloom of course. If you're looking for something to cheer you up after, say, your house was burgled look no further than the young musicians of Lapa, who are reinventing Brazilian music virtually every night of the week.

One of my favourite arists, and friend, is the genius bandolinista Henry Lentino who is currently working on a new project called Batucada Urbana. There's a great video of him up on youtube from a documentary about choro from a few years back. He's the one in red. Enjoy!

Gated communities

Tom Phillips — 2007-07-09

Many apologies for my temporary absence from Brazilnuts. To blame are the cunning burglers who snuck into my seaside house in Rio a few weeks ago and made off into the night clutching all of my computer equipment.

If you like risky investments, it might be worth snapping up an old mansion in Rio, on the off-chance that security levels improve. Most cariocas who can't afford their own private army to defend their properties are selling up and you can find huge, if slightly rundown, homes at bargain-prices in places like Santa Teresa and Vidigal. The down-side, as I found out the hard way, is that you might wake up one morning to find your Pink Floyd LPs have been spirited away to the Acari flea-market.

If you don't want to take the risk, you can always move to a gated-community, far from anyone who might want to pop in for a midnight shopping spree in your front room. Here's an excellent article by Guardian journalist Rory Carroll about the barrios cerrados of Argentina.

Pink Dolphins

Tom Phillips — 2007-06-17

As far as I known the Institute of Amazonian Research isn't on thetourist trail in Manaus. It should be. I popped in last week to talk tothe Brazilian biologist Vera da Silva about her efforts to save the Amazonian river dolphinfrom the same fate as its counterpart in the Yangtze, recently declared"functionally extinct". INPA, as Brazilians call the research centre,is located on a gorgeous rainforest campus on the outskirts of Manausand visitors can see up close the mysterious peixe-boi (cow fish) orthe giant otter. The site of the Boto Project can be found here in English and Portuguese.

Dead poodles

Tom Phillips — 2007-06-09

A poodle died this afternoon in Ipanema. It was a shocking scene, to besure; hearing the car bumper clatter against the small creature andthen watching its elderly owner dash into the road to scoop up hisbleeding pet and rush it off to the nearby animal ER. Several women whowere crossing the street at the same time even stopped and wept, it wasso unpleasant.

All the same, it's curious how people in Rio canget so upset by, say, the death of a poodle, while simultaneouslyappearing so utterly blasé towards even greater crises taking place notmuch further away. Take today's front pages, hanging from a newspaperstand not far from the poodle's final resting place. "Dentist killedwith two shots," read the Rio paper Extra. "Child of 10 attacked bylawyer," claimed the tabloid Hora H. Globo, meanwhile, carried a storyon its front page about two Brazilian evangelists who have just pleadedguilty in the US on money smuggling charges.

Shocking? Perhaps. But what really shook Ipanema this Saturday was the poodle. May he rest in peace.

Painting the favelas

Tom Phillips — 2007-05-30

The month-long police operation in the Complexo do Alemão shantytowncontinued this week, claiming further lives. According to the Brazilianpress 17 people have now been killed in clashes between traffickers andpolice here and 94 people have been admitted to the local hospital withgun shot wounds. All in just under a month.

Stray bullets and corpses are often the only side of favela life thatgets a show in the media. But it's not all bad news. Several excitingcultural projects are springing up in Rio's shantytowns, aiming to showthat living in the favela is not all about stray-bullets and buckets ofcocaine.

In Vila Cruzeiro, the focus of the recent conflict, two Dutch artists are creating an open-air art gallery, turning the community's shacks into giant portraits with the help of local kids.

More information about the project can be found on the Favela Painting website.

A depressing week in Rio

Tom Phillips — 2007-05-14

It's been a depressing week in Rio de Janeiro, spent visiting hospitals, graveyards, drug dens and talking to the latest casualities of the city's drug conflict.

I ended it in the early hours of Saturday morning sat in a filthy street-corner bar in west Rio with an evangelical pastor and a toothless drug boss aged 23 or 24 (he doesn't know for sure). "I know I need to get out of this life," he said, with a 762 automatic rifle balancing on his lap." Maybe I could be a journalist. What do you have to do to become a journalist?"

A few minutes later the preacher grabbed his arm and looked him straight in the eyes. "You might think that no one cares about you, but He loves you, you know."

The trafficker, surrounded by his heavily armed security team, burst into floods of tears. When I finally made it home, a couple of hours later, I did the same.

Here's an article from Scotland's Sunday Herald based on my experiences.

A day at the hospital

Tom Phillips — 2007-05-07

Yesterday I popped in to the Getulio Vargashospital in north Rio, which is struggling to treatthe victims of the latest battle between police and drug traffickers in twonearby shantytowns, Chatuba and Vila Cruzeiro. In less than a week there havebeen over 50 victims.

The medical director handed the journalists a partial listof the day’s casualties, their ages, injuries and the time of their admission, whichpretty much tells the whole story. Here it is:

“Andre Martins Silva, 18 year-old. Abdomen and skull perforation.Admitted at Midnight. Paulo Joao Alves, 34. 9.12am. Chest. Heliene Frei Santino,37. 9.15am. Shot in back. Ricardo Santino, 3. Shrapnel in right foot. 9.20am. AlessandroSouza Pimenta, special forces policeman, 27. 9.59am. Abrasions from GrenadeShrapnel. Belmiro Rocha Ferreira, right leg. 11am. Wagner Santos Lira, 28. Admitted 11.36am. Left leg. Helton Gomes dosSantos, 24. 12.33pm. Left shoulder. Veronica Ventura Pereira, 24. 1.02pm.Right forearm. Dandara Morais da Silva, 18. Shrapnel wound to the neck. 1.07pm. EdivaldoNascimento, 61. 1.35pm. Abdomen. Vitor Souza Euzebio, 21. 2.40pm. Skull perforation.Dead on arrival.”

“They’re handing out bullets for free up there,” shouted one man in the courtyard outside as he waited for news of hisinjured relative.

The Amazon without the trees

Tom Phillips — 2007-04-25

I've just arrived back from a trip to the Amazon and yesterday went into the studios of a Brazilian TV news channel to record an interview about the journey. The presenter asked me what struck me most about thevisit. Undoubtedly it was that despite spending two weeks in the Amazonrainforest I saw virtually no wildlife and hardly any trees. Most ofthem, in the areas we went to at least, have already been chopped down.

A diary of part of the journey was published here in the UK Press Gazette.

Focus on Brazil exhibition

Tom Phillips — 2007-03-05

A new showcase of gringo photographers based in Brazil opened last week in Rio. The exhibit includes over 100 images snapped by photographers from Russia, the US, Germany, Italy, Poland and Serbia.
Brazilnuts' friends Douglas Engle and Giuseppe Bizzarri are amongst those with their work on show.
There are transvestites, Amazon midwives, gold miners, samba musicians and, of course, the odd couple of machine guns. Don't miss it.
The exhibit is on at Oi Futuro in Flamengo - Rua Dois de Dezembro, 63

Marijuana and the Palace

Tom Phillips — 2007-03-02

Rio's foreign press association met with state governor Sergio Cabral on Friday morning, for "brunch" in the luxurious Laranjeiras Palace. The morning's hot topic was the legalisation of drugs - a discussion which Mr Cabral has been pushing onto the political agenda since he came to power at the start of 2007.
"So," wondered one Swedish journalist present, "does this mean we would be able to buy marijuana in [the supermarket] Sendas?"
Mr Cabral smirked. "If Sendas thought it was good business."