Edgard Leite in English
Sustainability public policies in a peripheral country like Brazil pose several challenges to their implementation. To begin with, the history of Brazilian society is marked by low demographic density in a very vast territory and a natural environment highly favourable to agricultural producti
"Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987) was one of Brazil's greatest thinkers. His most influential book is "The Masters and the Slaves", published in 1933. In his book, Freyre defends the thesis that Brazil has three founding ethnic groups: the Portuguese, indigenous peoples and Africans. In the author's opinion, the Portuguese's great virtue as colonizers was that they were much less racist or excluding as compared to other European settlers."
"Brazil, then the Empire of Brazil, was a monarchy between 1822 and 1889. Two monarchs, D. Pedro I and D. Pedro II, both from the European royal family, ruled the country. D. Pedro II, the longest-ruling emperor of Brazil, reigned for 49 years, between 1840 and 1889. The republic was installed by a coup d'Etat. Thus, it was natural that the President of the Republic inherited the authoritarian culture and character proper to the Royal tradition that created the State and Nation's identity."
"The first peculiarity involving the history of Brazil, which distinguishes it from the histories of other Latin American countries, could be summarized in the following terms: a lack of a clear institutional or revolutionary rupture from the juridical situation that is typical of the colonial system, or the Ancient Regime. "
Brazil is a privileged country in what refers to wealth of natural resources and faces the same environmental challenges of other societies and times. The collapse of its biomes follows the expansion of Brazil’s and the world’s borders. In Amazon’s specific case, the process of deforestation is linked to internal expansionist movements and to global economy’s expansion – which exports their ecological borders to peripheral areas in the world, mainly Brazil’s.
"José Bento Monteiro Lobato (1882-1948) was one of the most popular Brazilian writers. An author of a vast number of publications, he became notable for being one of the first in Brazil to write books intended exclusively for children. According to André Campos, who is a researcher of Lobato's work at the Rio de Janeiro State University, Lobato's goal was to encourage children to become independent thinkers. He did this in a "humorous and creative" way."
"Brazil is a religious country. A 2007 survey made by the Datafolha Institute revealed that 97% of Brazilians interviewed said they believe in God. In an international survey carried out by Reuters, Brazil ranks third in number of believers in the world, second only to Indonesia and Turkey."
"The internationalization of higher education has been understood as an academic action of crucial importance in an increasingly integrated or globalized world, from an economic or cultural perspective. According to Lutjen-Lub, it is defined as a 'systematic effort aimed at making higher education more responsive to the requirements and challenges related to the globalization of societies, economy and global markets' ".
"Francisco José de Oliveira Viana (1883- 1951) was a Brazilian intellectual who lived in the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1918, he finished writing one of his most relevant books: "Meridional Populations of Brazil". Like many of his contemporaries, Oliveira Viana believed in the importance of deciphering the mysteries behind the country's social and historical background."
"Brasil is an old name. According to Celtic traditions, the name was given to a mythical island allegedly located off the coast of Ireland. The island was constantly covered by fog and hardly ever visible. The first docum ented account of this mysterious place is on a map made by Angelino Dalorto in 1325. According to Pereira Ferraz, old maps, such as the Medicis Atlas (1339), pointed at two islands with this name. One, in fact, located on the Irish coast, and the other near Saint Vicent's Cape in Portugal."
"The oldest written account of Brazil was made by Pero Vaz de Caminha in 1500. He says: "as far as the sight can reach, there extend very healthy and pretty beaches … everything thrives in it because of the water it contains". "This land is very fertile, all covered by very tall and lush trees", writes Pero de Magalhães Gandavo in 1576."
"In 1776, at the threshold of the United States of America’s independence, John Adams got involved in a debate through a series of letters exchanged with James Sullivan, a politician from Massachusetts, who proposed that the right to vote should be extended to “every individual of the community, old and young, male and female, as well as rich and poor”. Contrary to such proposition, Adams advocated the existing criterion at the time, i.e., censitary, male and age. He argued that such debate should not even occur, for there would “be no end of it. New claims would arise. Women would demand the right to vote. Lads from 12 to 21 would think their rights not enough attended to…”, and, he goes on to mention that “every man who has not a dime would demand an equal voice with any other in all acts of State”