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North-east Brazil is a property hotspot : from uv10 Brazil Property News:

The north east of Brazil is rapidly becoming a hotspot for property investment, according to the Global Property Guide.It claimed that the region, which has traditionally been the poorest area in the country, has now become Brazil’s “star economic performer”.The experts told those considering an investment in Brazilian property that while the area, particularly Natal, Recife and Fortaleza, remains poor, it is undergoing a massive transformation.”Prior to the recession, investment opportunities here were concentrated on tourism, and the second-home luxury market geared towards European buyers. Now the area … benefits largely from the residential property boom and improved tourism infrastructure,” the Global Property Guide reported.Demand for both rental and owned Brazilian properties is rising in the north east of the country and is set to grow further as a result of upcoming international events.In 2014 Brazil will host the World Cup, with one of the major stadiums being con

This report on the Brazilian rental and real estate market is worth a read. It provides cursory analysis on everything from the credit bubble, to middle-class growth, to mortgage reforms, inflation, and Minha Casa Minha Vida. To wit:

The situation in Brazil is not dissimilar to the recent US experience, argue worried analysts. Mortgage credit is being pushed by banks to homebuyers, especially to low and mid-income first-time homebuyers who are very sensitive to interest rate movements.  However while in the US, mortgage loan rates were very low, in Brazil interest rates are high, which arguably poses even more danger.

Now, as interest rates go up in Brazil, many analysts worry about the ability of first-time homebuyers to finance their mortgage loans. From 2007 to 2010, real credit to the private sector soared by nearly 200% in Brazil, according to the IMF . In 2011, big banks in the country expect 20% growth in loans.

In Brazil, consumers’ debt service burden now stands at 24% of disposable income. As interest rates increase, the debt service burden of consumers is expected to rise to an exorbitant 30% in 2012, according to Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace, a London-based investment fund. In comparison, US consumers, regarded as being over-leveraged, had a debt service burden of 14% of disposable income when the US sub-prime mortgage crisis erupted.

Roberto Attuch of Barclays Capital Sao Paolo estimates that the residential real estate debt of average mortgage-holders in Brazil rose from 25% of income in June 2006, to around 40% in November 2010.

In April 2011, two small banks in the country were bailed out. Some analysts expect that more banks will declare bankruptcy in the coming months.

There’s a lot to unpack in this short article about a call for more Afro-Brazilian models in the wake of the Sao Paulo Fashion Week. For instance, at the 2008 event only 28 of the 1,128 models were black (that’s 2.2%) . This comes in a country that - according to the article - is 50.8% black.

So you have a black majority get discounted, wholesale from an entire industry. One designer said he wanted to field an all black lineup for this year’s show, but simply couldn’t find enough with the qualifications or talent.

Is it a lack of exposure, or interest in the black community to become fashion models? I would doubt it. It seems like a conscious exclusion. But why?

An article by Vivian Whiteman, fashion editor of the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, noted that bookers claimed they were not hiring more black models because “research showed their clients still reject the  combination of black [models] and luxury clothing”.

Oh. …

Amazon anti-logging activist shot dead (Al Jazeera):

Fifth murder in a month believed to be linked to conflict over land and logging in Brazil’s rainforest region.

A landless peasant activist has been found dead in Brazil’s Amazon state of Para, the fifth murder in a month believed to be linked to the conflict over land and logging in the country’s rainforest region.

The body of the victim, Obede Souza, was found over the weekend in the dense forest surrounding his home in the landless settlement of Esperanca, near the town of Pacaja.

Police said on Tuesday that the activist was killed by a gunshot to his head outside his home and that an investigation was under way.

Witnesses who did not want to give their name told Hilario Lopes Costa, a co-ordinator for the watchdog Catholic Land Pastoral [CLP] in Para, said they saw four men in a pickup truck asking for Souza.

They and Souza’s wife are now afraid for their lives as well, Costa said.

Within the last month, four activists have been shot to death, along with a witness to two of the murders.

Members of a national police force, created by the federal government earlier this month to control violence in the region, took the body to the state capital, Belem, for an autopsy.

It was returned on Tuesday for burial. They could not be immediately reached for comment.

However, the state law enforcement agency in charge of land conflicts, the Agrarian Conflict Delegation, is not participating in the investigation, a spokesman said.

Environmentally sensitive region

Souza, 31, was part of a landless settlement that occupied unused farmland in 2008, setting up a camp whose name, Esperanca, means Hope.

He had been farming a small plot there alongside his wife and three children, while waiting for the government land redistribution programme to recognise their claim.

Costa said that in January, Souza got into an argument with a representative of loggers who are illegally harvesting wood in the region. He knew he was in danger from then on, said Costa.

“There is in this region a really dangerous group of loggers,” said Costa.

“He had a fight with one of them over the cutting of these trees, and he was marked man from then on.”

The CLP monitors the threats made by loggers, ranchers and farmers to silence protest over illegal extraction of wood and the violation of land rights in the environmentally sensitive region.

More than 1,150 rural activists have been killed in conflicts over land and logging in the last two decades, and the group has a list of 125 activists who know their lives are in danger.

The increase in execution-style killings has led to an outcry in Brazil and the creation of a working group to monitor the region.

Paltry local police forces have also been reinforced with officers from the federal police, highway patrol and national guard.

On May 29, Brazilian police confirmed the killing of an Amazon environmental campaigner, Adelino Ramos, who was known for openly denouncing those who illegally fell trees in the rainforest.

Ramos’ death came barely a week after another Amazon environmental activist, José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, and his wife were killed.

fucked up beyond belief

White Monjita

Noivinha

My camera is not a professional camera and because of that my photos dont look so good. But was beautiful

26 YEARS!

Be Proud…