Blogs & Ecology

Angola was recently shaken by terrible news of abandoned, ill-treated, tortured and killed children accused of witchcraft. One of the recent cases was in the municipality of Sambizanga in Luanda. According to local newspapers, the National Police rescued dozens of children who were locked inside a room where a bonfire was lit burning jindungo (a type of chilli). One of them faces the danger of losing an arm due to gangrene caused by blade cuts. The abusers believe that through this method the evil living in the children's bodies can be released.

Over 80 people have been killed in landslides and floods caused by heavy rain in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, and the death toll is rising by the minute, as rescue workers sift through the wreckage of the flooding that started at the weekend. At the moment, it is believed that 1.5 million people have been affected, and about 160,000 people are without electricity. There is no drinking water either, and people are starting to suffer from hunger too. Many of the roads in the region have been blocked by mud and water and eight towns have been cut off by the flood waters.

Chevrolet and NatGeo have launched a reality show that mixes driving, tourism, gadgets and blogging throughout South America. On The Road Again follows 6 bloggers in 6 different countries, driving around, taking tours and documenting their experiences through streaming video, blog posts and pictures, and it will later on be featured on a NatGeo channel show. Leo Prieto from Chile writes:

Brazilian bloggers and netizens took to the streets of São Paulo to protest against the Digital Crimes Bill, which typifies the cyber-crimes punishable by law and stipulates penalties accordingly. They claim the law has so many flaws that, instead of punishing real criminals, it might end up deeming as crime trivial conduct when surfing the Internet. Proposed by senator Eduardo Azeredo, the bill has passed through the Senate, has proceeded to the House of Representatives and has been labeled as urgent, which means that voting might happen at any time.

“Couch career? Don't count on me, I would rather career as a blogger”, said Brazilian football player Romário. Cocada Boa [pt] announces that he has just launched his blog and speculates on the 10 reasons for the star to start to have done so.

For over a month, the Chapada Diamantina National Park, in Bahia, has been burning relentlessly. According to Brazil's environmental agency, 50 percent of the national park's 1,520 km² have burned, which represents 75,000 hectares of forest (roughly the size of New York City). Nearly 500 people - firefighters and volunteers - are battling the blazes, caused by illegal fires supposedly started by ranchers clearing land for pasture. Only heavy rains will stop the flames, but these are not expected until the end of the month.

Paulo Bicarato [pt] echoes the news that fires that have destroyed 50% of the Brazilian Chapada Diamantina National Park, roughly the size of New York City, were likely started by ranchers clearing land for pasture. “For those who had the pleasure to have been to that piece of paradise, it hurts immensely”, says the blogger.

“Architecture Parallax: Book Histories”, 1995-2006. Manipulates image by Alexander Pilis

JotaCê Carranca has created a blog compilation for blogs that talk about Angola aiming to collect all blogs about the country, at the moment organized in three categories: from Angola, from abroad and mixed blogs (written by people in country and abroad).

To bring this series about Brazilian myths, legends and haunts as seen on the Lusosphere to a great close, we couldn't choose a better entity to speak about than Saci Pererê.

Luanda born musician Paulo Flores has won the Angolan National Prize for Arts and Culture. Koluki [pt] takes the opportunity to “dedicate a post to some of his music, focusing on some duets I consider particularly well done.” Hear the selected songs on her blog.

Lou Gold, from VisionShare, blogs (in English and Portuguese) and posts some videos about the musical doctrine of Santo Daime and his personal happiness about the recent visit of an important Daime family and its musical entourage to Brasilia, Brazil.

After questioning the reasons for a recent wave of prices rises in Cape Verde, bloggers were surprised last week at the news that the country is immune to the economic crisis into which the world beyond the archipelago is sinking. The claim was reportedly made by Cape Verdean Stock Market President, Veríssimo Pinto, in a debate at the national radio station. Now local bloggers want to know how this small nation can be crisis-proof and are asking: could God be Cape Verdean?

Paulo Granjo [pt] blogs about a piece of news that local newspapers in Mozambique didn't pay much attention to: an accidental leak of aniline gas in a Mozambican chemical plant caused 14 casualties. Nobody has died. “The information has been provided by the Relief Operations District Command and it is likely that nobody will ask the concerned company what happened and why”.

Eduardo Guimarães [pt] member founder of Movimento dos Sem Mídia [Medialess Movement] calls for citizen participation on the protest against media manipulation and distortion of facts in Brazil. “I am again proposing to make this blog an engine of a national uprising against the media, a peaceful, citizen, public denunciation of crimes that newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, Internet websites have been committing. But it all depends on you too, if you feel that time has come to act.”