Because of the global recession that is said to affect the world’s poorest the most, the International Monetary Fund is in focus once again. The crisis has brought it back from the dead. ‘Two years ago the world’s main international economic institution was heading for irrelevance, its homilies ignored by rich countries, its advice despised in poorer ones and its lending unnecessary in a world flush with private capital. Today the fund is widely hailed as a flexible and innovative crisis-responder. It has committed over $160 billion in a host of new loans and credit lines, up from barely more than $1 billion in 2007. Its lending capacity is being trebled to $750 billion.’

The economic crisis has been good to the IMF, the official emergency lender in tough times. The institution is important once again. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF chief, has pushed through ‘reforms that allow the fund to dole out large amounts of money fast, while convincing a broad array of countries, including rising powers like China, India and Brazil, to contribute to its coffers.’ He also wants the fund to grow to as much as $2 trillion.

But the IMF may not necessarily be seen as the panacea for these times of crisis. After all, it is still, first and foremost, a lending institution whose capital comes from rich-country governments.

There is the speculation that ‘emerging economies are unlikely to rely on it as a lender of last resort unless there are clear rules that promise free lending in future panics. Such promises, though necessary to convince the prudent to rely on the fund, will however tempt some countries to run profligate policies. At the same time the fund still has no clout over countries it does not lend to, even if their policies hurt the global economy (as the excess build-up of reserves, especially in China, surely did). This poisonous combination could fuel instability rather than assuage it.’

Via Economist.com

PayPal is the largest “intermediary payment” service in the world. For those who do not know, works like this: you create a PayPal account (usually associated with a credit card) and when you do some shopping online, instead of passing your bank details to any vendor that you may not know, you use PayPal as an intermediary and thus completes the operation safer.

But if you’re one of the 2 million people who use the service, you already knew that. What I did not know is that the company chose Brazil to be its base of operations in Latin America. Since the form of payment used by 13% of Brazilian Internet users who buy online, the company recognizes its importance in the Brazilian market.

“You cannot remain indifferent to these numbers. And we’re talking about a customer base that we did not experience anything in the country, “said Director of Strategy René Pelegero during the E-Commerce Summit in Sao Paulo.

The company will assemble an office in Brazil, but there is no timeframe for this. According Pelegero, the rate of growth of electronic commerce in Brazil is important for the company’s decision.

According to research conducted by VisaNet in Latin America, in 2012 electronic commerce will be moving US$ 13 billion in the country (twice as Mexico and Argentina), which means a growth projection of 21% per annum. Today online sales move US$ 7 billion in Brazil.

Fonte: Folha.

Brazil will soon be the world’s hottest sports center as they will host the World Cup 2014 followed by the Summer Olympic Games in 2016. As Brazil prepares to play the role of a punctilious host, officials in its capital, Rio de Janeiro recently unveiled their plan to build a beautiful green-roofed eco-hotel that focuses on its surrounding environment with utmost priority.

Pedro II, Emperor of Portugal built the original of this Hotel Paineiras in 1884 as luxurious rest stop for the wealthy travelers on their way to the Corcovado statue, which is the famous symbol of Rio de Janeiro. Although the hotel has received the green signal from the highest authorities for its renovation, the actual process of rebuilding it will perhaps be a great challenge.

As the hotel is in a pathetic condition, much in the state of total disrepair, it needs to be torn down completely before renovating the site. The plans for the new complex include a tourism center for the memorial and national park, an eco hotel and a convention center. Interestingly, the tourism center will stretch much further as it plans to include indoor public place, exhibition halls, lockers, shops, a cafe, and changing rooms for hikers, outdoor space, and a train station that will ferry the visitors to the monument. Rio will definitely look better than ever and it will surely attract a lot of tourists.

Via: Plataformaarquitectura

The social network LinkedIn focused in professionals announced that now has 50 million users in the world.

In a post in the official blog, CEO Jeff Weiner detached the participation of India as one of the reasons for the ascension of the site. In a small period of time, he says, the country almost reached three million users.

The announcement was given one day after the French company Viadeo acquired the Canadian Unyk to turn itself into the second largest global company in this segment.

Yesterday, Viadeo said that, after the agreement, it possesses more than 25 million users. In the occasion, the CEO Dan Serfaty also communicated that the company will continue reinforcing the position particularly in the market and try to grow in Mexico, Brazil and India.

In Europe, where Viadeo has its headquarters, LinkedIn is leading the market in most of the countries. About 11 million users live in the continent.

The largest slice is in Holland. According to LinkedIn, the nation is the one that possesses the largeest percentage of per capita users. About 30% of the Dutchmen possess profiles in the site, overcoming even the Americans mark.

In America, the fight should be more intense. While LinkedIn possesses about 25 million users in the United States, Viadeo, now takes care of the 16 million users of Unyk, that, in its majority is in Canada.

Via: Media Post News.

Over the years, Goldman Sachs has declared that the emerging nations like Brazil, Russia, India and China. (BRIC) will be the economic powerhouses in future. Citigroup too has declared the increasing influence of China and India in the rest of the world with their increasing prosperity.

However, this economic prosperity has not actually trickled down the millions of Indians who live below the poverty line. According to the Institute of Development Studies, at least 2000 to 3000 children starve to death everyday. At least 25 % Indians still don’t get to eat one square meal a day. 880 million Indians earn less than $ 2 per day. Others earn on an average $ 5 per day. These figures are actually worse than the sub Saharan Africa.

The middle class is mainly the contributor to the boom in the Indian economy with their increased purchasing power.  The majority of Indians living in the rural areas in poverty are neglected. Politics, caste system, religion, superstition, traditional prejudices are some of the root causes of poverty in India. For example, a woman from a lower caste would not be allowed to attend government initiatives to educate the villagers about malnutrition. India’s progress to reduce malnutrition is still very slow in comparison to China.

If majority of the children are still starving to death and are growing hungry, what good is an economy that grows consistently? How is it going to sustain the growth if its future generations are growing up malnourished and uneducated?

Via: Dailyfinance

In the beginning of July, a preliminary study was published which was prepared by the Herzog & Of Meuron office, and contracted by São Paulo State’s government. Just one hundred square meters will separate the building of the Júlio Prestes Station – projected by Christiano Stockler of Neves and in which ten years ago Dupré inserted the Sala Sao Paulo – from the cultural compound that, according to the government will put São Paulo definitively on the map of the great projects of international architecture.

According to São Paulo’s government, the summons of Herzog & Of Meuron, contracted for well-known specialization, among other reasons, happened after the English company TPC Theatre Projects Consultants, had defined the profile of the complex and detailed the program of each item. Their technicians studied and analyzed the city to visualize a theater of unique characteristics.

From that study, the state government selected architects’ international offices that could be interested in developing the project: English Norman Foster, the Argentinian rooted in the EUA Cesar Pelli, and the Dutchman Rem Koolhaas. “We wanted to provoke a scandal in the Brazilian architecture. In the good sense”, it provokes the secretary of Culture, João Sayad.

Even holders of Pritzker, Oscar Niemeyer and Mendes of Rocha were discarded, according to Sayad, for they already have other projects in the city. In the secretary’s evaluation, Foster’s architecture, Pelli and Koolhaas turns their projects easily recognizable in any part of the world, while the one of Herzog & Of Meuron it is always revealed innovative, not vulgar.

The intrinsic concept to the project of Herzog & Of Meuron was to mix and combine the maximum possible activities, transposing in the building, the dynamics of the metropolis. The group possesses four pavements (and medium height of 23 meters), from which it’s possible to do a lineal external reading nor to define a hierarchy among the facades.

A possible approach is the suspended square, composed by a game of sheets interlaced in the two senses, that integrates into the green areas that the architects propose.

This project is part of the renovation of São Paulo’s downtown, an area that until the 90s used to be dilapidated and is now becoming the most important cultural center in Brazil.

Via: Arcoweb.

Four selections of Europe conquered their vacancy on this Saturday, after the next to the last round of the preliminary rounds for the World Cup of 2010. Denmark, Serbia, Germany and Italy didn’t give chances to their opponents and stamped their respective passports. Of the nine groups, only two will still need to define which will be them classified direct (2 and 3).

In the total, 19 selections are already guaranteed in the World Cup: South Africa, Holland, Japan, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Mexico, United States, Korea of the South, Australia, Korea of the North, Ghana, Costa of the Ivory, England, Spain, Serbia, Denmark, Italy and Germany.

In 2010 Africa of the South will be headquarters of the first World Cup in the African continent. The expectation is very big, in spite of being a developing country. There will be nine host cities that will be the nervous center of the Cup 2010.

Several world leaders will give prestige to the event, besides Barack Obama. The President of the United States Barack Obama will be illustrious visitor in the ceremony in the opening of the World Cup of 2010 in South Africa, Blatter said to journalists.

Mr. Obama, whose the father was kenyan, said that will go to participate in the event that will happen on June 11, when the first World Cup will be commemorated in the African continent.

The American leader calendar can change in one year, however, he said that if he can, he will be there.

Via: Copa do Mundo 2010.

Forget peak oil. What the world will grapple with in the future is something far scarier than the alarm over peak oil: peak water. And just like oil, the problem behind water scarcity is the unequal distribution of and unequal access to the resource.

The global imbalance in the distribution and access to water looks dismal: ‘With 31 percent of global freshwater resources, Latin America has 12 times more water per person than South Asia. Some places, such as Brazil and Canada, get far more water than they can use; others, such as countries in the Middle East, get much less than they need. One and a half billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America may be exposed to increased water stress as a result of this. Much of the western United States might face a similar situation, since there is a 50% chance Colorado River reservoirs will run dry by 2057 under current climate change and water management scenario.’

Water scarcity will also pose huge political problems that can lead to compromised peace and security. ‘Over 260 river basins are shared by two or more countries. As the resource is becoming scarce, tensions among different users may intensify, both at the national and international level. In the absence of strong institutions and agreements, changes within a basin can lead to trans-boundary tensions.’

Only advanced technologies and wiser use of water resources will stall the impending water scarcity.

Via The Daily Galaxy

It happened on that last Saturday in Iguaçu Falls the second edition of the South American Championship of Cell Phone Throw and the 1st World Championship of LaptopThrow, event that gathered 120 participants. The intention of the event was make people becoming aware on the final destination importance of the electronic garbage.

Collecting 2 kilos of food from each participant of the championships, the winner was rewarded with entrances for fine hotels and tourist walks. The whole material used in the tournament didn’t work plus, they were scraps donated by their owners or technical supports informs Gabriel Campos, coordinator of the event.

Gramadão of Vila A, place of workers’ of the hydroelectric power station Binacional Itaipu (the biggest dam in the world), based the entertaining championships, that had great repercussion in the city and in the national media.

“Our objective was to call the attention for the amount of electronic products produced in the world, 50 million tons per year, and to do the question: Which is the final destiny of these products?” said Gabriel, that was satisfied with the national media repercussion.

Ricardo Pires Garcia took the first place when flinging his cell phone 87,44 meters of distance, breaking his own record achieved in the previous year, and Roberson da Luz was the winner of the laptops category, reaching the mark of 25,85 meters. The cell phones and laptops collected were donated to COAAFI (Cooperative of the Environmental Agents of Iguaçu Falls – in Portuguese) and the food will be donated for an institution that assists street residents in Iguaçu Falls city.

Via: Yahoo!.

Latin America is rich in oil. It has 132 billion barrels of ‘proven’ reserves. The US sources much of its oil supplies from the region. ‘Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, and Ecuador have significant reserves and strong state involvement in the exploration and production of oil through their nationalized companies Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), Petrobras, Pemex, and Petroecuador, respectively.’

In Brazil, there are new and ‘stricter tax framework.’ The country has also instituted ‘more aggressive terms with foreign companies around the country’s new-found offshore oil.’ A new state-owned company named Petrosal is tasked to give licensing, while mandated to ‘award some exploration and production rights straight to Petrobras without options for foreign firms.’

In Mexico, the state ‘intervenes in the market to maximize domestic job provision.’ A new law increases ‘local content in the Mexican energy industry to 25%.’

In Venezuela, a new law allows ‘PdVSA to expropriate oil and gas assets from foreign companies, who were refusing to work until a backlog of receipts were paid (PdVSA owes around $12 billion to foreign contractors).’

In Ecuador, ‘30,000 indigenous peoples have filed a lawsuit against Chevron for environmental damage in Lago Agrio,’ demanding $27 billion in additional compensation for the oil spills. The massive case is endorsed by the Ecuadorian government.

The newfound oil nationalism in Latin America reeks of protectionism. And because Latin America is the ‘energy partner of choice for the United States, both the government and the U.S. oil majors will now have to work a little harder to stay there.’

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Via Foreign Policy in Focus