Affairs – BRIC Plus News

Boris uses UK migration stats to renew ‘Brexit’ calls

Jamie Zega — Thu, 26 May 2016 15:45:56 +0000

The stakes continue to rise as both sides are grabbing to garner support for the UK’s upcoming EU Referendum on Thursday, 23 June.

In what some ‘Brexit’ campaigners may see as a an addition to their arguments, the Office for National Statistics released its quarterly report on migration Thursday. The report showed that the net number of migrants in the UK rose to 330,000 in 2015, up 20,000 from the year ending December 2014.

The net migrant number is calculated as the difference between immigration and emigration, the ONS says, or in other words, the difference between those entering the country for more than a year and those leaving it.

Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London-turned-prominent Vote Leave supporter said voting In will be “kissing goodbye permanently to control of immigration.”

“The only way to take back control of immigration is to Vote Leave on 23 June. The public should be able to vote for those who make the laws of this country including on immigration. It is intolerable to continue without democratic consent for Britain’s immigration policy.”

The ONS reported the estimated net migration among EU citizens was 184,000, the net migration for non-EU citizens was 188,000 and the net migration of British citizens was estimated to be -39,000, which means more British people left the UK than came to it.

The report also found that in 2014, 13% (about 8.3 million) of the UK’s resident population was born outside the UK, which has risen from the 9% recorded in 2004.

Glen Watson, Deputy National Statistician for Population and Public Policy, said the ONS is “confident the International Passenger Survey remains the best available way of measuring long-term migration to the UK.”

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Here is why Portugal is the next investment destination

Constance VIctory — Wed, 25 May 2016 10:32:40 +0000

Recently, BRIC Plus was invited to attend a most informative and enlightening breakfast briefing jointly spearheaded by the Portuguese US Chamber of Commerce and the AICEP, the leading Portuguese Trade and Investment Agency. AICEP Chairman and CEO, Miguel Frasquilho, inspired guests with a range of formidable facts about investment opportunities and lucrative incentives awaiting foreign prospects in Portugal.

There are several distinctively attractive factors about the country as it relates to Western investment opportunities; according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) competitiveness ranking, Portugal rose 15 places within the past 4 years, becoming the 36th most competitive country worldwide, and the steady decline in unemployment is accompanied by an increasing number of exporting companies and world market share gains. In 2014, the Financial Times named Lisbon the second best city to invest, whilst the World Bank ranked Portugal as the 1st country within the EU-28 where it is simpler to create a new company– forming a new business takes up to 2.5 days and 3 procedures. Property registration easily transpires within 1 day and 1 process.

For the skeptical mind, there is additional evidence that supports and further encourages investment in the country. According to WEF, Portugal ranks number 12 in the world as far as quality of infrastructures; it has the second best quality of roads in the world, 23rd amongst the quality of port infrastructure, 20th amongst the best quality of air transport– the Porto Airport was “distinguished” as the 3rd Best European Airport in 2013– and ranks 23rd among the best on the world for quality of railroad infrastructure. The attractiveness of the country’s importing and exporting sector is enhanced by the recently launched Atlantic Corridor, a rail freight line between Portugal-Spain-France that will be extended to Germany by November 2016.

Not only is the country invested in its roads, railways and international impression, there is a tireless devotion to maintaining the rigorous standards of its universities and educational institutions. According to the Global Competitiveness Report 2014-15, performed by the WEF, the quality of management schools in Portugal ranks number 4, for quality of scientific research institutions it ranks at number 18, and there are several beneficial tax incentives provided to businesses that generate employment opportunities for the unemployed aged between 18-30 years old. It is commendable how committed the country is to improving the lives of residents, and prospective inhabitants.

Mr. Frasquilho proudly boasts that Portugal is not only a great place to invest, but is also a uniquely wonderful place to live and enjoy. Not only is the country safe, sunny and typically mild in climate, it also has high quality health care facilities. Adding to the allure of its rich leisure and cultural amenities, Forbes magazine listed the city of Algarve as the Best Place in the World to Retire (2014). Spellbound by visions of leisure in Lisbon? Rest assured; Portugal is transforming itself into a formidable oasis for both business and pleasurable endeavors.

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The Dominican Republic re-elects Danilo Medina

Pablo Mingoti in Rio de Janeiro — Tue, 24 May 2016 12:46:53 +0000

The president of the Dominican Republic, Danilo Medina, always appeared in polls as the favorite for re-election. Medina will have another four-year term and will have the challenge of making economic growth reduce poverty.

On 15 May, the Dominicans went to the polls and faced difficulties. The voting centers opened two hours late due to defects with digital recording electronic machines and layoffs of technical assistants on the eve of the vote.

With 58% of cleared polls, Danilo Medina was re-elected with 61.96 % of the votes against the Modern Revolutionary Party’s Luis Abinader’s 35.23%. Medina is considered a popular ruler because his style of government used in campaigns and increased economic growth through tourism.

The president, 64, is an economist and belongs to the Dominican Liberation Party which has been in power for 12 years. In 2012 he was elected for the first time without the immediate re-election option, but in 2015 pushed through a constitutional reform that allowed the second term dispute.

Despite having the majority in Congress with 24 of the 32 seats in the Senate and 112 of 190 deputies, Medina will have the challenge of reducing poverty, which affects 40% of the 10 million Dominicans. According to the British NGO Oxfam, 20% of the poor do not receive even 5 % of the country’s wealth, while the richest 20% benefit from 50%. Oxfam is one of the international non-governmental organizations spearheading the relief work in emergency situations in the world to end poverty and inequality.

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Opinion: Dilma’s ousting was a corporate coup

Frederico Noleto — Thu, 19 May 2016 09:23:20 +0000

Brazil is not divided only because of its current political crisis, translated as a kind of “Yankees vs. Red Sox” local. We must recognize that we have been always divided. This is not an ideological dichotomy, but pure and simple class struggle. To realize this, just a little reflection as to when exactly and why pans started beating. Or rather, for whom the pans hit in Brazil?

Just remember how much was common, in a not too distant past, the fact that working class people used to eat meat only on weekends. It was natural to hear: “Today is Sunday, let’s eat meat.” Imagine being born and never having the right to even go into debt? Yes, in the capitalist system, which by the way is in decline, the right to further debt is a kind of “citizenship”.

It turns out that in Brazil, that time, about 70% of the population did not even have the right to be seduced by the pyramidal debt system, which makes us all bank slaves. And this is why the country has been divided: on one side those who were born to “join the party” and on the other, those whose fate has always been to work to make a perfect party for the first ones.

The Brazilian Constitution is one of the most modern and respected in the world, despite its scammers’ loopholes. It is the only one that includes in its text all the precepts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is beautiful, but has always existed only “on paper”. It was then that, finally, after 500 years of a lot of “fun” of the local elite, emerged to power the iconic union leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Lula symbolized the unusual participation of the descendants of the servants in the illusion of trying to put rules in the “enjoyment”, suggesting menu repertoire, increasing the number of tickets for a more affordable price and, finally, dignifying the service of the waiters and other subaltern.

Parables apart — to “break caste” with income distribution programs and allow workers to finally have access to consumer goods — Lula was one of the best friends of great local and global capital owners. But make no mistake, he did not ascend to power as a Robin Hood in democratic times. Power was allowed to him temporarily.

The profiteering allowed Lula to assume the post of president of the Republic as in those films in which billionaires have fun turning beggars into business for a few weeks. And like in the movies, the humble origin worker surprised: his team put his ideas into practice and suddenly the national and international capitalist world realized how it could be profitable to allow the vast mass of workers to begin to have access to consumer goods.

For this, he was forced to sign a document called “Letter to the Brazilian People” who, actually, made a commitment to the financial market: There will be no major changes in party rules, but more people will be able to participate. Finances aside, politically Lula was the first ruler of the history of the country that fought to try to enforce the words of the Constitution. Nothing more, nothing less.

What the baronage imagined was that one day such servant ideas help to change the correlation of geopolitical forces. On the one hand, it interrupted the dismantling process of local sovereignty strategic enterprises. Petrobras again came to be the Brazilian industry locomotive. Valorization of the minimum salary, very low unemployment rate and the known income distribution policies, have made the economy rise from 13th to sixth in the world rankings.

Suddenly Brazil became a global player, and Lula lead the main tables of the planet negotiations. He began to bother not just local elites, visibly upset by the loss of privileges. The international financial power and their dark forces realized that should act. Because no one would welcome the resumption of power in a remarkable democracy by military way, a more subtle modus operandi was necessary. The plan had already been put into practice in neighboring countries like Honduras and Paraguay.

This is a new way of coups, the “White Scams”. The famous programs of training with those that intelligence agencies considered “possible local leaders” are public knowledge. Outstanding young people in the legal environment that could, within the law, in collusion with the native media (fully bankrolled by Rentier system), take advantage of legal loopholes to overthrow these governments are mapped and recruited.

The so-called “Mensalão” was just a test for this type of coup. A kind of self-centeredness with evil refinement of Lulas’s rival, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), preferred to see him bleed to his political death: the defeat at the polls. But FHC planned wrong, Brazilians preferred a Lula, though crippled by the systematic assassination attempts of his reputation by the local media, to the neoliberal project. Recalling that later part of the European and American electorate also became this kind of option. Lula and Dilma won because its rivals represented a clearly harmful to the interests of the nation project.

Today the “Carwash Operation” is just a project that functions as a kind of Trojan Horse for the coup: the judiciary staff work together with the big media conglomerates that control how people should think about each subject. Use of a supposed “anti-corruption” was meant as a premise to derail governments. After all, which country has no corruption? Who doesn’t want to see this evil rooted out?

The method can work in any nation whose institutions are not yet fully reliable. Start “discovering” misdeeds of evidence among the players that annoy the world patronage. The press then begins to hammer it and make public opinion quickly absorb the idea that signs are evidences and evidences are proofs. The eyes of suspicious people automatically turn into perpetrators and those judges who do not punish “in the rigor of the law” were certainly co-opted.

From there anything goes: guided investigations, handled depositions and delations, selective leaks, illegal clips of telephone conversations by the President of the Republic, ministers of the Supreme Court and lawyers of the defendants; theatrical actions and abuse of preventive arrest resource to force testimony. Brazil became Guantanamo and nobody realized: they investigated and investigated relatives, who were eternally imprisoned until they delivered the gang members and, preferably, “the leader“.

While presidents’ countries resign to the position before the vexatious exposure situation in the recent scandal of the Panama Papers, here you see the members of the judiciary do turn a blind eye to members of a particular party whose investigations point to the existence of several accounts in tax havens and while systematically persecute others (with no accounts and no evidence) simply because they belong to the ideologically opposite party. The dirty work just received a 70% salary increase.

Dilma Rousseff has even a thousandth of political tact of Lula, but she is an extremely honest and correct president, and that is her problem, apart from being a woman in a patriarchal society. The world watches dumbfounded to her agony against their tormentors, the most corrupt politicians and scoundrels of the country’s history, inflated by engaging media and groups of local protesters financed by the Koch Brothers.

Her struggle is not only to ensure a mandate elected by 54 million Brazilians. It is not only the maintenance of the country’s democracy. Her struggle is for the defense of Brazilians historical achievements threatened by the most disgusting collusion between the political and financial powers of the planet. Politics, unfortunately, is not scouting. Worse, it is said “Brazil is not a country for amateurs”.

The local elite and political opposition, which together are no more than world elites office boys, have a project that have been systematically defeated at the polls. This project cannot coexist with what social welfare workers both want and deserve. Now the world watches a coup in the public square.

But scam artists’ hypocrisy is such that managed to unite academics, politicians, and artists, historically conflicting political tendencies and even jurists and businessmen known for scathing criticism of the economic policies of Labour governments. They even say there is already a spontaneous movement of repudiation of the coup mobilized by the athletes who will compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Scammers hate being called scammers. But then-Vice President (now interim in office) Michel Temer entered the plate just to unify his party on behalf of a project and started using his legend just to blackmail increasing power in exchange for governance.

It was not enough for the plot that he came to power illegitimately and also illegal, Michel Temer, as a kind of obscurantist merchant, arrives with the mission to ensure the continuation of the ancient subjugation process of a people who had been stopped.

The International Monetary Fund, Paris Club, and other representatives of the current market slave system that forces fragile countries to use the people as a guarantee of increasingly unpayable debts, here use the Law of loopholes for the strike again.

The conspiracy was such that, barely signed his interim tenure in office, has exchanged official logo of the government and all ministers and positions of the second tier. Definitely the government of Michel Temer (which the press, now his friend, has started to forget to call interim) knows what was coming.

Its economic recipe is old-known to all, but the profiteering uses up their local media servants to sell as if it were new and infallible: increase in interest rates, decreased wages and flexible labor rights.

Revenue gets even harmful when all the ingredients and machinery are usurped. The result will be the end of the so dreamed social welfare state hard-won, much worse, likely around the country to shame Map of Hunger, which with great effort we got out.

So if beyond the love for the beautiful beaches, the joy of Carnival and the rhythmic wealth or all the cultural diversity that make the fame of the country, if much more than your love for our country is your respect for human rights, please, say no to the coup in force in Brazil.

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Opinion: Temer’s government is not representative

Ana Paula Picasso — Tue, 17 May 2016 14:58:59 +0000

When new Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau presented his very gender- and race-diverse ministry cabinet, a reporter asked: “Why did you make gender diversity a priority in your cabinet?” Trudeau simply replied: “Because is 2015”. The answer was followed by very enthusiastic round of applause and praise from Canadian and international media.

The news of new Brazilian President Michel Temer’s nomination of an all-white male ministry cabinet, Brazilian mainstream media received that news with little criticism, and, as usual, memes flooded social networking sites defending the nominations.

The general feeling was, “It doesn’t matter that there is no women or blacks (sic) as long as they are competent”. International news sites were much more critical about the lack of diversity, like this article from The Guardian.

On top of that, after just 5 hours, Temer terminated 9 ministries, including important ones like the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Telecommunications and not surprisingly, the Ministry of Women and race equality and human rights. Now, Brazil simply has no budget or planning dedicated to Culture. What baffles me is that, even countries with the most serious monetary and human issues, like Haiti have a Ministry of Culture.

Going back to the argument that only competent people are important: The new Minister of Agriculture, Blairo Maggi, is one of the country’s biggest soy producers and a fierce proponent of destroying environmental regulations.

The new Minister of Development, Industry and Commerce, Marcos Pereira, is a bishop (on leave) of the Universal Church from the Kingdom of God (UCKG) – an evangelical church which is owned by Edir Macedo, multimillionaire and owner of the second biggest TV channel, Record. Just for the record, from time to time Macedo and UCKG always pop on the news, around allegations of tax evasion and money laundering.

Until a few days ago, Pereira was almost certain to take over the Ministry of Science and Technology, but Temer backed down after some media scrutiny over his religious background.

The new Minister of Justice, Alexandre de Moraes, is better known for his tenure as Security Secretary in São Paulo, when he ordered the police to beat up poor high school students after they had occupied their buildings to protest the planned closure of several public schools (the government eventually backed down from its plans).

The new health minister, Ricardo Barros, has no background in medicine. In his first press conference, when question about the “cancer pill” that had been just allowed to be used for treatment in the country, despite the lack of scientific evidence, he responded “At least it can cause a placebo effect, faith can move mountains”.

On top of all that, seven ministers are involved on Petrobras (the Brazilian oil company) “Lava-Jato” corruption scandal.

Indeed, Temer’s cabinet’s lack of diversity portrayed a government that doesn’t respect gender and minorities, and that is a very dangerous message.

The diversity in a government is very important for a number of reasons. One is representation. In a democracy, the idea is to have leaders who represent the people and their interests. When people feel that their interests are not being represented or people who look like they (male & white) have a voice in government, it creates an atmosphere of injustice. And the international press really picked on that.

I don’t think public opinion alone will be enough to change the macho mentality that Brazil has. Nor do I think president Temer is in a hurry to care about what the international press has to say.

In this excellent N+1 article, Alejandro Chacoff says “What they’ll [Brazilian population] remember in ten, twenty years, is that there was an impeachment in 2016, a break with institutional norms that set the country back. That in 2016, the opposition engineered a coup.”

I have to disagree with him, I sincerely don’t think this moment will make into the history books as a coup. It will be remembered by what portrayed by the mainstream media – that “Brazil had to be saved from corruption brought by PT (Worker’s party)”.

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Dilma Rousseff has been removed from office

Pablo Mingoti in Rio de Janeiro — Fri, 13 May 2016 14:11:49 +0000

Brazilian and international press were in Brasilia waiting for the Brazilian Senate’s decision whether or not to approve the removal of President Dilma Rousseff. After the process of impeachment was approved by the House of Deputies on April 17, senators debated for more than 20 hours in a section that began on May 11, and early morning May 12.

At the end of the vote, 55 senators approved and 22 disapproved the beginning of Dilma’s impeachment. For the process to be initiated, it took at least 41 affirmative votes. In this section 77 senators voted, there were two missing and the President of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, did not vote.

The quietest time of the debate was the speech from Senator Fernando Collor, the first impeachment target in 1992. He said he warned the government about the possibility of withdrawal. At the end, the impeachment committee rapporteur in the Senate, Antonio Anastasia, spoke for 15 minutes, followed by the Ministry of Attorney General of the Union, José Eduardo Cardozo who defended Dilma.

The president was away for 180 days and Vice President Michel Temer is already in charge of Brazil. From now on, the Senate will have to gather evidence and hear prosecution and defense witnesses. The judgememt will be chaired by President of the Supreme Court, Ricardo Lewandowski.

If found guilty, Dilma Rousseff will leave office and definitely will be ineligible for eight years. Temer will be president until the end of 2018. If cleared, she back go back to the presidency. This depends on the Senate again, and it must be approved by 54 votes out of a total of 81 senators. This section does not have time to happen, and may take up to 180 days to occur.

Even away from the Presidency, Rousseff still has the right to an official residence, personal safety, healthcare, air and ground transportation, compensation, and a staff service office.

In recent weeks, Michel Temer was beginning to think of their future government talking to businessmen and politicians. The new government ‘s slogan is order and progress, phrase described in the Brazilian flag.

One of the main charge against Rousseff is so-called “tax pedaling”, a practice that was used to delay payments from the National Treasury to public banks to temporarily improve the fiscal situation, which could be a tax liability offense. Another accusation is that President Rousseff edited a series of decrees in 2015, that resulted in the opening of additional credits, of very high values, without the preview authorisation of Congress. This too could be a crime of tax liability.

The process is not over and the press from all over the world are still attentive to Brazil. Meanwhile, the government of Michel Temer is working to try to lessen the economic crisis and the unemployment rate.

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Can Mauricio Macri fix Argentina?

Pablo Mingoti in Rio de Janeiro — Tue, 10 May 2016 13:45:03 +0000

As he became President of Argentina in December of last year, Mauricio Macri knew what he would face in government. His first task would be to build trust with Argentina and the world, and to ease inflation and debt. In addition, former President Cristina Kirchner had a strong political presence, a stark contrast with the Macri government’s minority in Congress and the Senate.

In his first month in office, Macri promoted a series of changes in the structure of the Argentine government in order to reduce the populist measures adopted during 12 years of Kirchnerism.

Since the beginning of the government, the President has created economic reforms, but even with these measures, the country may take a while to recover. Inflation rose with the devaluation of the peso (Argentine currency) and subsidies to public service providers have been ceased.

With this economic situation, and after Macri’s announcement that he was against a bill which would increase the cost of layoffs, thousands of people with anti-government banners took to the streets. Unemployment is the main concern of Argentines. In light of this, Macri sent a bill to Congress which would promote the employment of young people between the ages of 18 and 24, in an attempt to propose an alternative to the bill that he does not support.

However, there is not only bad news for Argentina’s economy. In mid-April, Mauricio Macri achieved one of his main campaign promises. After 14 years, the country paid the creditors of bonds due in 2001 and left the moratorium, a legal provision which provides for the suspension of payments owed to international creditors when a country is in a serious economic crisis. It is now the first time since 2001 that the Argentines may negotiate the country’s debt securities freely on the international market.

In late March, President Barack Obama visited Argentina in order to “turn the page” in relations between Washington and Buenos Aires, which has been marked in recent years by the fierce anti-US rhetoric of former President Cristina Kirchner. During the visit, Obama said the US is ready to work with Argentina on this ” historic transition”, saying he was “impressed” by President Macri’s energy and drive to improve the country’s economy.

Macri ran his campaign on a platform of zero tolerance for corruption. However, in early April, Argentine prosecutors were asked to initiate an investigation to determine whether the president Mauricio Macri had omitted certain companies from his asset declarations.

Chief among the charges is that Macri has financial ties and participated “maliciously” with offshore companies, most recently revealed in the major international ‘Panama Papers’ leak and investigation. He denies any illegality.

The opposition is also being investigated for alleged corruption. In early April, former president Cristina Kirchner testified about a specific case. The Public Ministry is investigated her involvement with the business dealings of Lázaro Báez, a family friend who was a major beneficiary of government contracts during the Kirchner period.

In early April, she was denounced for money laundering and since 2003 , Kirchner has been the subject of 420 complaints of corruption case. With this, the former president, and her party has lost some popularity.

Macri was elected with 51.4 % of the vote and his government has many supporters but also many in opposition. Argentina is another country in Latin America that will have to face up to its political problems. Previous governments have left major economic and social problems behind, and Mauricio Macri still has a long presidency ahead. Can he make Argentina grow up?

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A new era begins in Cuba

Pablo Mingoti in Rio de Janeiro — Mon, 09 May 2016 10:58:49 +0000

Vin Diesel, Gisele Bündchen and Kardashian Family are just some of the characters who have visited Cuba recently. Even before the easing of the long-standing economic embargo by President Barack Obama around 94,000 Americans visited the island in the first four months of 2016. The expectation is that this number will increase, and not only among Americans.

The luxury brand Chanel chose Cuba to present a new collection and centered the historic show around the Paseo del Prado, avenue of Havana. The British model Stella Tennant opened the show, on May 3, modelling clothes from the new collection. Brazilian models Gisele Bundchen and Alice Dellal, the English actress Tilda Swinton and the American actor Vin Diesel honoured the parade, wearing looks that recall the hallmarks of Cuban culture.

In recent years, Chanel has chosen tourist sites to present their new collections and the brand said in a statement that the cultural wealth and opening of Cuba to the world made the country a source of inspiration for the brand and Karl Lagerfeld, its creative director.

Pedal taxi in Cuba. (Courtesy: Bud Ellison / CC BY 2.0)

On May 1, the first American cruise ship bound for Cuba left Miami and arrived in Havana the next day. The Adonia ship took 700 passengers to Cuba, and now offers the route twice a month, in order to promote cultural exchange between the two countries. Cubans living in the United States were also passengers. A former law prohibiting Cubans entering the country by sea was suspended by the government of Raúl Castro.

Vin Diesel has not been to the island just to see the Chanel parade. He is participating in the recordings of the eighth film of “Fast & Furious” – the first Hollywood production to be filmed in Cuba in more than half a century. Though filming disrupted roads, many curious locals gathered with interest, to see what was happening.

American socialite and reality TV star Kim Kardashian, along with her sisters Kourtney and Khloé Kardashian, visited to the island to film for the latest installment of ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’, the family’s reality show.

Both Raúl Castro and Barack Obama seem eager to create new agreements before Obama leaves office in January 2017. With all of these visits, it is apparent that a new era is beginning in Cuba.

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Brazilian broadband providers want to limit usage

Robert Born — Wed, 04 May 2016 12:18:24 +0000

For the past month, the top three internet providers in Brazil have felt the wrath of their clients. Vivo, Oi and NET added a clause limiting internet access if more than a certain number of Gigabytes (GB) is used. After public outcry and more than 1,65 million signatures on an online petition against it, the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) prohibited companies from imposing limitations on fixed broadband usage until further notice.

The companies studied internet usage by their clients and discovered an overall average which they then used to come up with internet packages and their costs. According to NET, limiting internet usage is beneficial for everyone. “The data package we propose aims to preserve the user experience, both for those who use it sparingly and those who use it intensively”, stated the company in a press release. Vivo and Oi, completing the trio of Brazil’s top cable internet providers, expressed similar arguments.

In other words, these companies want to effectively transform home internet to be similar to that which is used on cellphones. After exceeding a set data limit, internet access would decrease to a minimum, or possibly even be cancelled until the end of the month unless the user buys a new package.

The packages offered by all companies vary between 10 GB and 250 GB, meaning clients could use the internet with a speed between 1 Megabyte per second (Mbps) and 120Mbps until reaching that data level. To put it in perspective, streaming services use the most data. A Netflix video in high definition consumes 3GB per hour. Brazilians spend an average of 104 minutes every day on Spotify listening to music, consuming 125MB daily and 3,75GB at the end of the month.

According to specialists, over a 25Mbps connection, it would only take 11 hours of video streaming, whether Netflix or YouTube, to use all 130 GB of data limit imposed by Vivo for example. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) there is an average of three people per house in the country with tablets, smartphones, television and videogames connected to the same internet router at the same time. If this is taken into account, monthly internet limits could be exceeded without much effort.

Anatel’s director of competition Carlos Baigorri signaled that he was in favor of the measures back in March. “There is not one unique consumer […] which means there are those who use internet more than the average and those who use less. In other words, those who use less have to pay for those who use more internet”, he explained.

As soon as Baigorri made those remarks, people across Brazil showed anger towards proposed internet limits. An online petition gathered more than 1,65 million signatures in less than a month while government branches went in favour of consumer’s rights and against the limit imposed by companies.

A video went viral showing depicting internet companies, which also provide telephone lines and cable television, as waging battle against their customers, explaining that people were no longer turning on their television because of online streaming and no longer calling or messaging one another because of online services such as WhatsApp.

On April 18th Anatel decided to prohibit data limits imposed by the companies for 90 days. The online petition against it became more famous, and the pressure exerted by online users grew stronger, forcing Anatel to forbid these measures until further notice less than a week after.

“The Board of Directors of Anatel decided on Friday, 22 – through deliberative circuit proposed by the President of the Agency, João Rezende – to examine the issue of franchises in fixed broadband, based on complaints received by the agency. […] Anatel constantly monitors the telecommunications market and believes that changes in the form of collection – even under the laws – need to be done without hurting the consumer’s rights, which is why we have prohibited any immediate change in the way providers charge fixed broadband.”

Anatel is in the process of analysing the broadband changes and it is not possible to determine when the agency will make its final remarks deciding whether or not the measures proposed by internet providers are legal.

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Is Ted Cruz’s VP choice pragmatic or positioning?

Luis Durani — Tue, 03 May 2016 11:26:15 +0000

After making an alliance with John Kasich to prevent Donald Trump from reaching the golden number of 1,237, Ted Cruz decided to jolt his campaign one more time by doing something that is traditionally performed by a party’s nominee not candidate. Ted Cruz announced his running mate, Carly Fiorina.

The announcement came as a surprise to many who usually expect a vice president (VP) pick after the nominee is chosen at the convention. After the announcement, different media outlets attempted to speculate why Ted Cruz chose Carly Fiorina and make the announcement. While the latter is obvious, to jolt his campaign after Super Tuesday III’s sweep by Donald Trump, it is the answer to why that has many perplexed.

It was somewhat known prior to Super Tuesday III but officially confirmed after that sweep, that Ted Cruz is now mathematically unable to win the Republican nomination outright through the primary elections. Hence his alliance with John Kasich to stay out of each other’s way and focus their efforts on preventing Donald Trump on securing the 1,237 delegates needed to win the first ballot at the convention.

Ted Cruz has been working behind the scenes and laying the groundwork for his presidential bid for a couple of years now. Aside from acquiring data, Cruz has laid out the groundwork for winning over delegates in the 50 states and territories. Such tactics have paid off in primaries where voting has become secondary such as Colorado and Maine.

Knowing that his chances of winning the popular votes relative to Donald Trump are slim, Ted Cruz is hedging his bets of becoming the party’s nominee through the delegate process at the convention. By denying Donald Trump the first ballot victory through delegate wins via the primary races, Ted Cruz believes he will be able to win the nomination through a second ballot process at the convention. In such a case, Cruz is better positioned than Donald Trump with respect to delegates. If the 1,237 delegates are not secured by Trump, then all bets go out the door on who becomes the party’s nomination.

While Ted Cruz has laid a strategy to prevent Trump from the first ballot victory, Super Tuesday’s sweep puts a major dent into his plans. In a last step maneuver, Ted Cruz attempted to kill two birds with one stone. With Trump polling less favorably with women, Cruz hopes to win the female demographic by having a woman VP run alongside him. Carly Fiorina brings with her a strong resume and a business background. Simultaneously, she demonstrated her ability in the debates by moving from the secondary debates to the primary debates before stepping down.

But more importantly, Carly Fiorina can be the last chance that Ted Cruz has to stop Trump from securing the necessary delegate count by winning in California. Carly Fiorina hails from California and while Trump is projected favorable amongst the state’s Republicans, Carly can help move the tide in Cruz’s favor.

California is the most populous state in the US meaning it will hold the largest number of delegates. Thus, a Cruz victory in California would mean that Trump’s march to the convention can be stopped and Cruz can employ his second ballot strategy and win the Republican nomination.

Even though Carly Fiorina is not the worst VP pick and brings with her many strengths, Ted Cruz’s main decision to select her has to do with her potential ability to win California and help stop Trump from crossing over the golden number of 1,237 delegates. If successful, Cruz and Fiorina can both see each other become the party’s nominee through the second ballot process where Cruz has an advantage.

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