Thursday, March 31, 2016

Budapest, 1944: busquen al judío

Tropas del Partido de la Cruz Flechada, en Budapest, en 1944.

El Gobierno de Hungría, aliado del Reich, protegió a sus ciudadanos hasta que Alemania invadió sus fronteras. Y entonces, el pánico

JULIO MARTÍN ALARCÓN
@Julio_M_Alarcon
31/03/2016 15:57

La historia dicta que los nazis fueron responsables del mayor genocidio de la historia, pero a menudo obvia que lo hicieron con la inestimable colaboración de aliados y gobiernos títeres en los países de Europa que ocuparon entre 1939 y 1944. Entre ellos, la Francia del Gobierno de Vichy del mariscal Pétain.

La muerte de Imre Kertész, uno de los testigos de aquella tragedia, devuelve a la memoria la historia de su país durante aquellos años. Hungría, aunque aliado de Alemania desde 1941, fue uno de los gobiernos que menos colaboró para la Solución Final nazi. Bajo la figura del general Miklós Horthy, que ejercía de jefe de estado del país desde 1920 como regente de Hungría (heredó la legitimidad del Imperio Astro-Húngaro tras su derrota en la Primera Guerra Mundial y su desmembramiento en diferentes naciones), las autoridades húngaras preservaron el grado de autonomía necesario para eludir la persecución y deportación de los judíos a los campos de exterminio. El Gobierno de Horthy -que nunca promovió la persecución- resistió la presión, especialmente a partir del 20 de enero de 1942, cuando el Tercer Reich sentenció a todos los judíos de Europa a las cámaras de gas tras adoptar la denominada Solución Final en la conferencia de Wannsee.

Antes de esa fecha el régimen nazi no sólo permitió, sino que alentó a los países bajo su esfera de influencia a solucionar el "problema judío" por medio de la expulsión de sus fronteras. Sin embargo, a partir de Wannsee, la furia asesina del Reich se extendió a todos los rincones de Europa y se tradujo en continuas presiones para que sus aliados se implicaran de forma efectiva en el judenrein -estado "libre de judíos"- y por tanto, el asesinato masivo.

Horthy se resistió entonces a las demandas nazis al igual que había hecho Mussolini en Italia -que eludió con evasivas a sus aliados-, hasta que la paciencia de Hitler se agotó. En marzo de 1944, las tropas de la Wehrmacht entraron en Hungría forzando al regente a nombrar a un ministro pro alemán. La comunidad judía húngara, que había permanecido prácticamente a salvo del horror con el que se alimentaban ya los campos de exterminio de Auschwitz, Treblinka o Sobibor, corrió la misma suerte que en el resto de países ocupados. Fue entonces cuando comenzó la crucial labor de los diplomáticos de Suecia, Raoul Wallengberg, España, Ángel Sanz-Briz, Suiza, Carl Lutz, y la decisiva ayuda del Nuncio Apostólico de Roma, Angelo Rota, que salvaron miles de vidas.

Las protestas lograron que Horthy rectificara su política y suspendiese las deportaciones de judíos a los campos del este hacia julio. Sin embargo, en octubre de 1944, tan sólo seis meses antes de que el Tercer Reich fuera definitivamente aplastado por los aliados, y cuando el Ejército Rojo se encontraba ya a en la frontera húngara, los nazis derrocaron el gobierno de Horthy -que había intentado firmar un armisticio con los aliados- e impusieron el del partido nazi húngaro, la Cruz Flechada de Ferenc Szálasi, que tomó el poder en noviembre.

A partir de entonces comenzaron las deportaciones en masa y los asesinatos cometidos por los nyilash húngaros, que llegaron a ejecutar a unos 10.000 judíos hasta febrero, cuando el ejército de la URSS tomó Budapest. En total, se estima que más de 430.000 judíos fueron deportados en esos pocos meses, de los cuales la inmensa mayoría fueron llevados a Auschwitz-Birkenau donde fueron asesinados en las cámaras de gas.

Source: El Mundo (Spain)
http://www.elmundo.es/cultura/2016/03/31/56fd2cd3e2704eab638b45c1.html

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

La edición crítica de ‘Mi lucha’ es objeto de deseo en todo el mundo

Una treintena de sellos internacionales, también españoles, tratan de publicar la versión comentada del libro de Hitler, agotado en Alemania. De momento, sólo saldrá en inglés

Luis Doncel
Berlín 26 FEB 2016 - 16:48 BRT

Un ejemplar de la edición crítica de 'Mi lucha', en una librería de Múnich.
El mundo editorial alemán sufrió una pequeña revolución el año pasado. El anuncio de que Mein Kampf (Mi lucha)—el libro maldito que había permanecido durante 70 años fuera del circuito comercial— estaba a punto de ser reeditado generó un apasionado debate. A un lado estaban los que defendían el proyecto de presentar de una forma crítica las tesis que Adolf Hitler comenzó a escribir desde su cautiverio en Múnich en 1924. Al otro lado, los que temían que sirviera de inspiración a los nuevos cachorros de la ultraderecha. La polémica llegó hasta los servicios secretos alemanes, que concluyeron que el interés en los círculos ultras por la obra fundacional del nacionalsocialismo había caído en las últimas décadas.

Lo que nadie podía anticipar era cómo iban a reaccionar los lectores y editoriales internacionales. Pasados casi dos meses de su salida a la venta por 59 euros, se puede decir que los resultados son espectaculares.


No se trata solo de que Hitler, Mein Kampf. Eine kritische Edition se haya encaramado esta semana al segundo puesto en la lista de libros más vendidos de la revista Der Spiegel. El Instituto de Historia Contemporánea de Múnich-Berlín —el centro de investigación responsable de la minuciosa edición con 3.500 notas que explican, matizan o simplemente desmienten las tesis del líder nazi— ha recibido en las últimas semanas una avalancha de peticiones de editoriales internacionales deseosas de publicar la obra en sus países.

Varias españolas lo han intentado también, según confirman a EL PAÍS en el organismo alemán. Pero tras recibir una treintena de peticiones —algunas de países tan lejanos como Corea, China o Japón— el instituto prefiere por ahora permitir tan solo una edición en inglés.

“No podemos asumir el trabajo que supondría asegurar que todas las traducciones se hicieran con nuestros estándares científicos. Cada país, además, tiene sus particularidades. No son las mismas explicaciones necesarias para un lector coreano que para uno europeo, por ejemplo” asegura una portavoz del instituto. Dada la complejidad del proyecto, los historiadores alemanes prefieren centrarse por ahora tan solo en la versión inglesa. No hay nada cerrado aún con las editoriales interesadas, pero los investigadores del instituto creen que el trabajo podría alargarse durante este año; para que la nueva versión llegara al mercado anglosajón en 2017.

El libro del que hasta 1945 se imprimieron 12 millones de ejemplares ha sobrevivido en los últimos años gracias a ediciones antiguas, a Internet o a su sorprendente popularidad en países como India. Es ahora, tras vencer los derechos de autor que estaban en manos del Estado alemán de Baviera, cuando se hace evidente el interés en Europa.

Además del proyecto alemán, la editorial francesa Fayard anunció el año pasado su propia versión de Mi lucha, que, al igual que la del otro lado del Rin, contara con anotaciones que contextualicen un texto que en Francia se publicó en 1934. Esta edición, acompañada por un breve aviso del contenido de las páginas, era la única disponible hasta ahora en el mercado francés.
Perfil del comprador

Al mismo tiempo, muchos se preguntan en Alemania por el éxito del libro que sirvió para prender la llama del odio y la violencia por todo el mundo. Tras subir en las listas de ventas, el mamotreto de 2.000 páginas se ha agotado en todas las tiendas. Pero el perfil del comprador no responde al del simpatizante hitleriano, sino a investigadores o a personas interesadas en la historia, dicen los responsables de la edición. Tras distribuir a las librerías 24.000 ejemplares, ya han encargado nuevas impresiones.

“El gran interés que suscita Mein Kampf está relacionado con su aura de misterio, especialmente después de que Baviera hiciera todo lo posible para evitar su reproducción. Y este gran interés ha hecho que los editores no hagan una obra destinada solo a los especialistas, sino que hayan buscado un público más amplio”, señalaba hace unas semanas a la radio pública alemana el historiador y biógrafo de Hitler Peter Longerich.
Historia de un libro maldito
  • El 18 de julio de 1925 se publica el primer volumen de Mi lucha, escrito por Adolf Hitler en la cárcel en Múnich. Un año más tarde aparece el segundo.
  • Durante la dictadura nacionalsocialista (1933-1945) se convierte en libro de culto, de estudio en las escuelas y que incluso regalan las administraciones públicas a las parejas de recién casados. Hasta 1945 se llegarán a imprimir 12 millones de ejemplares.
  • Tras la derrota alemana y la muerte de Hitler, el Estado de Baviera se queda con los derechos de autor. Pese a que el libro no está oficialmente prohibido, las autoridades no conceden permiso para su publicación, pero es fácil de conseguir en librerías de segunda mano, y más tarde en Internet.
  • Los derechos de autor vencen en 2016. El Instituto de Historia Contemporánea de Múnich-Berlín edita una versión crítica, que cuenta con 3.500 notas que contextualizan el texto que sirvió de base ideológica para el nazismo.
Source: El País (Spain)
http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2016/02/26/actualidad/1456508623_592314.html

Monday, March 28, 2016

Prohibiciones, vetos, censuras

No hay nada como prohibir un libro para convertirlo en fetiche: miren el éxito de la edición crítica de 'Mein ­Kampf', publicada en enero

Manuel Rodríguez Rivero
24 MAR 2016 - 19:52 BRT

Adolf Hitler revisa una edición de 'Mein Kampf' en una fotografía sin datar. Afp
No hay nada como prohibir un libro para convertirlo en fetiche: ¡la de bodrios del Instituto de Marxismo-Leninismo de la URSS y de malas traducciones de novelas “con sexo” que leyó mi generación, atraída por el veto de la censura franquista y por el misterio de las trastiendas de las librerías más audaces durante el franquismo, imaginadas como auténticas cuevas de Alí Babá repletas de pretendidos tesoros bibliográficos! El amante de Lady Chatterley (D. H. Lawrence) o Sexus (Henry Miller), por ejemplo, dos de las joyas más cotizadas en el apartado de ficción prohibida, no sólo nos abrían los ojos a otras literaturas, sino que realizaban una función consoladora bastante más imaginativa que la que hoy cumplen los videoclips de la exuberante rapera Ni­cki Minaj entre los varones adolescentes con hormonas disparadas. En todo caso, el éxito espectacular de la edición crítica de Mein ­Kampf —2.000 páginas de texto con 3.500 notas que lo contextualizan, discuten o contradicen— confirma, a pesar de su disuasorio precio (59 euros), que su eventual prohibición constituye uno de los más poderosos reclamos de cualquier libro. Desde que se publicó en enero, ya se han vendido decenas de miles de ejemplares de este nuevo y muy rentable best seller (beneficiario del copyright: el land de Baviera), que ha conseguido encaramarse en la lista de más vendidos de Alemania, al tiempo que se multiplican las peticiones para traducirlo (hasta la fecha denegadas, excepto al inglés). Tras 70 años de prohibición, el libro que más difusión ha tenido en la historia de la edición alemana puede volver a leerse. El morbo respecto a la obra “cumbre” de Hitler —una mezcla estúpida y siniestra de autobiografía reinventada, feroz antisemitismo, prejuicios raciales y machistas, delirios imperialistas irredentos y letales mensajes de incitación al odio— tardará en disiparse al menos hasta que Mein Kampf pueda ser leído y discutido abiertamente por las generaciones posteriores a la guerra y el Holocausto. Hasta entonces, las ediciones primitivas seguirán alcanzando precios fabulosos, como esos 20.655 euros obtenidos recientemente por un ejemplar encuadernado que perteneció a su autor (es decir, que fue tocado por Hitler). En todo caso, las nuevas camadas de nazis, grupos afines y movimientos antimigrantes y antirrefugiados (como los cada día más rampantes Pegida o Alternativa por Alemania) no han necesitado leerlo para trufar de odio su discurso xenófobo. Mi lucha, la historia del libro que marcó el siglo XX, de Sven Felix Kellerhoff, publicado por Crítica, es el mejor y más asequible vademécum para entender los orígenes, la historia editorial y la difusión del libro, así como una buena introducción a la mediocre inteligencia de quien lo imaginó y escribió. Si se desea leer un complemento de ficción al libro de Kellerhoff, puede recurrirse a Su lucha (editorial Adriana Hidalgo), primera novela del argentino Patricio Lenard, de reciente distribución en España. Utilizando el viejo artificio narrativo del “manuscrito encontrado”, Lenard transcribe el imaginario diario de Rudolf Hess, confinado en la cárcel de Landsberg con Hitler, para ofrecer una perspectiva inédita de las relaciones entre el futuro Führer y su fanático discípulo durante el periodo en que, entre los dos, fueron componiendo el maldito libro maldito.

Clandestino

De entre las obras prohibidas adquiridas en las trastiendas de las librerías, todavía conservo la Historia de España del estupendo periodista socialista Antonio Ramos Oliveira (1907-1973). Comenzado en Londres, donde ARM permaneció exiliado hasta 1950 tras haber trabajado durante la Guerra Civil como agregado de prensa en la embajada dirigida por Pablo de Azcárate, el libro —tres pequeños pero compactos volúmenes en tapa dura de color rojo— fue publicado en México en 1952 por la Compañía General de Ediciones. Visto con perspectiva, no se trataba de un trabajo historiográfico excepcional (se basaba sobre todo en fuentes secundarias y carecía de aparato bibliográfico), pero constituía una tentativa honesta, desde una perspectiva socialista, de contar el devenir peninsular desde la prehistoria al desastre de 1939. Y para muchos de nosotros fue, junto con la brevísima Histoire de l’Espagne (1947), de Pierre Vilar (1906-2003), una herramienta para contrarrestar, aunque fuese débilmente, el relato de la peripecia histórica española que contaban la mayoría de los manuales y que enseñaban algunos profesores aún firmemente anclados en el nacionalcatolicismo (recuerdo, por ejemplo, que Vicente Palacio Atard, también preceptor real, dedicó media docena de clases universitarias a contar a sus adormecidos alumnos los entresijos del Manifiesto de los Persas —1814—, probablemente porque viera en aquel reaccionario apoyo al regreso del absolutismo un posible modelo para combatir la temida evolución “liberal” del régimen de Franco). La historia de Ramos Oliveira dedicaba amplio espacio a las estructuras económicas y sociales y a la descripción de los diversos nacionalismos españoles. Y, aunque sólo sea porque fue en su libro donde leí por vez primera (y completos) la Constitución de 1931 y los Estatutos de Cataluña y el País Vasco, le sigo estando agradecido. He pensado estos días en ARM a propósito de su libro Controversia sobre España (Renacimiento; prólogo de Ángel Viñas), que reúne, además de una interesante y breve correspondencia con el director del ultraconservador The Morning Post —hostil a la República, como buena parte de la prensa británica de la época—, otros dos escritos de tono pedagógico acerca de asuntos españoles, que fueron escritos durante su etapa de agregado en la embajada del Gobierno de la República en Londres. Me ha parecido particularmente interesante el dedicado a demostrar al —en general— pacato y escasamente solidario público inglés de clase media que no todos los católicos españoles iban tras el Caudillo botafumeiro en ristre.

Nuevos

Pasan volando mis sillones de orejas sin tiempo para ocuparme de tantas cosas. Por ejemplo, de que siguen surgiendo, inasequibles al desánimo digital y corsario, pequeñas editoriales independientes. De entre las últimas selecciono dos dignas de tener en cuenta. Arpa es la última (por ahora) aventura de Joaquim Palau (antes en RBA —allí llegó a mandar mucho—, y aún antes en Planeta, Destino, Edicions 62 y qué se yo dónde más) y de su hijo Álvaro: explican que su sello se especializa en “humanidades, ciencias sociales, y pensamiento crítico”. De su catálogo me fijo particularmente en De cómo tratar con las personas, de Adolph Freiherr Knigge, una especie de manual de filosofía moral orientada a la vida social que tuvo enorme influencia en Europa Central durante el Siglo de las Luces. Más nueva aún es Ultramarinos, otro sello barcelonés, dirigida por Julia Echevarría y Unai Velasco, que se inicia con sendas atractivas recuperaciones poéticas, Los eróticos y otros poemas (1976), del mexicano Efraín Huerta (1914-1982), y Mi más hermoso texto, de Alberto Cardín (1948-1992), que recoge los poemarios compuestos entre 1977 y 1982 por el ya casi olvidado antropólogo, escritor y feroz polemista y provocador que brilló fugazmente en la vida cultural barcelonesa durante la Transición. Qué tiempos.

Adolf Hitler Editoriales Escritores Periodismo Nazismo Sector editorial Ultraderecha Segunda Guerra Mundial Libros Literatura Historia contemporánea Guerra Ideologías Gente Medios comunicación Conflictos Historia Cultura Comunicación Política Sociedad

Source: El País (Spain)
http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2016/03/24/babelia/1458818554_641918.html?id_externo_rsoc=TW_CC

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Nazi Medicine: Select Readings from the Collections of the Health Sciences Library: Nazi Medicine Bibliography

The Health Sciences Library's concurrent "Nazi Medicine: Selected Readings form the Collections of the Health Sciences Library" exhibit will be available in the Skyline Library during the Deadly Medicine exhibit area. Scanned and emailed copies of articles are available by request. If interested in obtaining an article please send an email to hsl_nymc@nymc.edu with your email address and article number(s). Books can not be copied. Below you will find a printable PDF version as well as links into a RefShare database which will allow for full-text access for NYMC users.

Nazi Medicine: Selected Readings from the Collections of the
Health Sciences Library, New York Medical College


This bibliography is a selected list of resources available through the Health Sciences Library of New York Medical College on the topic of Nazi medicine and eugenics. The purpose of the list is to encourage further understanding of the topic. It is not intended to be a comprehensive list.

We encourage your suggestions, donations, or short term loans.

Click here to see the list:
http://guides.library.nymc.edu/c.php?g=117981&p=767637

Page in PDF:
Link

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

[OFF] Attention! Coup Attempt in Brazil!


Don’t be mistaken, what is in course in Brazil is a coup attempt.

As a private conversation between President Dilma Rousseff and former President Lula is illegally tapped by the Federal Police following a decision by a first instance judge and selectively disclosed by the press, we must express our deepest concern with the erosion of the rule of law in Brazil. Today’s event is extremely serious and have a real potential to escalate into social unrest and bloodshed.

On 31st March 1964 a military coup was trigged against the legally constituted government of João Goulart. This was a day that lasted 21 years. It was not until 1988 that a new Constitution was drafted and Brazil began its democratization process. Similarly to 1964, the current coup attempt has the backing of the biggest Brazilian broadcaster- Rede Globo. Differently to 1964, the coup is enforced by an ideologically-driven judiciary that has three purposes: overthrown a democratically elected President, prevent former President Lula to run for the 2018 elections and ultimately blocks the Brazilian Workers Party’ license to exist.

There is no doubt that Brazil is undergoing extremely serious political instability. President Dilma Rousseff was re-elected for her second term in 2014. Right at the beginning her government Petrobras, the Brazilian state-owned oil giant, was emerged in corruption scandals. Indeed, only a naïve person would believe that the Brazilian Worker’s Party has invented corruption. As Fernando Henrique Cardoso noted on his own memoirs, he was told that a huge corruption scheme taking place at Petrobras during his term as President. Differently to Dilma, Cardoso didn’t have the courage to initiate any investigation.

While the Cardoso administration undertook 48 federal police investigations in 8 years, the Brazilian Worker’s Party conduced 250. Concomitantly to a significant increase in federal police operations that aimed to tackle corruption, both the Lula and Rousseff administrations strengthened and devolved more powers to judiciary. Prior to 2003 most investigations were filed by the government.

Despite the fact that over the past several months the Federal Police has purposely, and illegally, leaked information regarding ongoing investigations involving people linked to the Brazilian Worker’s Party, last week events escalated with the kidnaping for a few hours of former President Lula. There is no exaggeration in employing the term “kidnapped” as the Brazilian legislation doesn’t allow such event to occur on those terms.

Following the above event, President Dilma decided to invite Lula to became the government’s main minister as an effort to reestablish governability. Members of the opposition accused Dilma to offer this position so Lula would enjoy an immunity granted to ministers. Nothing more misleading… Those who make such claim forget that Lula would still respond at the Supreme Court if needed, a significant disadvantage as if he was responding as any other citizen he would enjoy the benefits of surfing between different court instances…

For those who couldn’t see the coup coming, now it is more than evident. On the same day as Lula assumes as Minister, the Federal Police backed by a first instance judge, decides to publicize conversations between Lula and Dilma to stimulate a social convulsion that could potentially lead to the removal of Dilma as President.

Brazilians must ensure that the rule of law is reestablished and that the democratically elected government can continue its mandate. Tomorrow we will go to the streets to defend the democratically elected president and demand respect to our constitution and to the rule of law! Não Passarão!

By Diego

Source: O Cafezinho
http://www.ocafezinho.com/2016/03/17/attention-coup-attempt-in-brazil/

See more:
The draining agenda of Brazil’s pathetic pro-coup opposition
Ex-President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Faces Charges

Monday, March 14, 2016

[OFF] The photo that’s become the emblem of Brazil’s political turmoil

STEPHANIE NOLEN. RIO DE JANEIRO — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Mar. 14, 2016 7:48PM EDT

Last updated Monday, Mar. 14, 2016 9:46PM EDT

On a day when every Brazilian, or so it seemed, was sharing protest pictures on social media, there was one picture that became the picture, the one everyone was talking about – a sort of Rorschach test for the country.

On Sunday, nearly two million people took to the streets in 121 cities across Brazil to protest government corruption and to demand the impeachment or resignation of President Dilma Rousseff, whose government is enmeshed in a massive graft scandal.

Among the people who went to march were Claudio Pracownik and Carolina Maia Pracownik, a white couple who live on a leafy street in Ipanema. They brought with them their little white dog, on a colour co-ordinated leash, and their two toddler daughters, who rode in a stroller pushed by a black maid wearing the all-white uniform that some wealthy Brazilians prefer their domestic employees to wear.

Joao Valadares, a photographer with the newspaper Correio Braziliense, snapped their picture on the street in Copacabana, and before the protest was even over, it had been shared thousands of times – millions, by nightfall, here in this country that has the second-largest number of daily Facebook users.

Some Brazilians looked at the picture and saw a patriotic family, fed up with a seemingly unending series of revelations about politicians and kickbacks, on their way to make their voices heard – accompanied by a woman who has “an honest job”, as a great many commentators put it, at a time when millions of Brazilians are unemployed.

Others saw the poster-couple for elite Brazil. “I look at this photo and I see primarily the repetition of a scene going back to the time of slavery,” Deborah Thome, a Rio writer and political scientist, wrote on her Facebook page Sunday night. “I am disgusted by the sight of a nanny dressed in a slave-maid’s clothes.”

And that, she said, is emblematic of everything that’s troubling about the current protests.

Polling suggests that Brazilians across all social classes and ethnicities are extremely frustrated with corruption and with the crisis currently paralyzing government. But they differ in where they apportion blame. The half-dozen large anti-corruption demonstrations in the past year have been dominated by white and upper-middle-class protesters, who tend to be supporters of the opposition Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB), and to have little love for Ms. Rousseff’s left-leaning Workers’ Party, which has won four successive elections, the last one with a narrow defeat of the PSDB in 2014. Rousseff supporters say they are using the corruption scandal – in which politicians from virtually every party have been named – to try to unseat a democratically elected government.

The research institute Datafolha said that 77 per cent of participants at the demonstration in Sao Paulo, which was the largest in the country, were university graduates, versus the overall rate of 28 per cent in the city. Half of participants said they earned “between five and 20 times minimum wage,” versus 23 per cent of people in the overall population who earn in this range; 77 per cent self-identify as white although the last census showed just 45 per cent of Brazilians are white.

It’s a troubling moment for the country, Ms. Thome said. “The debate now –nothing will convince me otherwise – is between different and conflicting political visions. I don’t support the protests, but like many friends who went to the street, I want a better country. But the paths we want to take to get there are very different. And, in most cases, those paths will not meet.”

But Joana Gryner, a Rio clinical psychologist who marched on Sunday, said she is frustrated by the suggestion that the Pracowniks have less right to protest than anyone else in this democracy.

“It’s too harsh to say that a particular social group cannot protest,” she said. “We have to stop churning out rules and dictating what is the correct way to protest. They were not hurting anyone, and plenty have done harm to them.”

Ms. Maia Pracownik and Mr. Pracownik did not return calls from The Globe and Mail. But in a Facebook post of his own, he expressed disgust at what he called the violation of his privacy, saying a photo without context was being used as a “distraction” from the country’s political and economic crisis. And he made a pointed reference to Lava Jato, the investigation into an alleged $2-billion (U.S.) contracts-for-kickbacks scheme at the state energy company Petrobras, in which many senior political figures, including former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, are now implicated.

“I earn my money honestly,” wrote Mr. Pracownik, who is the vice-president for finance at the Rio football club Flamengo. “My assets are in my own name, I don’t get gifts from construction companies, I pay taxes (not bribes), I employ hundreds of people in my business and four more in my home. … Everyone gets paid on time. And everyone has a registered employment card and I pay social benefits for every one of them.”

He said the nanny in the picture only works for them on weekends, and is paid extra because of it. “She is free to resign if she would prefer other work or another employer,” he said. “I don’t treat her like a victim, or as if she is a member of my family. I treat with respect and with the dignity that any employee deserves.”

But in the furious debate about the photo, many have expressed scorn – at Ms. Maia Pracownik in particular – that she wasn’t pushing the stroller herself, that she has a nanny even on Sunday. “You don’t know enough to handle a baby carriage, but you think you can give your opinion on how to run a country,” sniped an engineer named Francielle Soares in Sao Paulo.

Others expressed disapproval that employers would take their nanny to a political demonstration. But that part came as no surprise to the nannies watching over toddlers in a childrens’ park near the family’s apartment on Monday. “She’s working, right?” said one of the women – none was willing to be quoted by name talking about their jobs. “She’s obliged to go – she’s earning, so it’s her responsibility to accompany the parents wherever they want to go.”

Brazilians, who are deft and fast with memes, reposted the picture with a thousand snarky captions, such as “Speed it up, there, Maria [the generic ‘maid name’], we have to get out to protest against this government that made us pay you minimum wage.”

Brazil’s economic crisis has seen a huge spike in unemployment – 1.5 million jobs were shed in 2015 and another 2.2 million are expected to be lost as the contraction continues this year. For many women who had new pink-collar positions in the economy that boomed under Mr. da Silva, that has meant a reluctant return to domestic work, traditionally the chief occupational sector for women of colour in Brazil.

When the picture began to be shared with scornful comments, some domestic workers wrote their own comments, pointing out they would be glad to have the job. “What’s the problem?” wrote Marcela Margiotta on the popular Facebeook site Humans of the Protest. “I’m going crazy looking for a job to work on weekends. … Thank god there are nanny jobs out there, because these days you graduate and then, surprise: there are no jobs!”

Source: The Globe and Mail (Canada)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-photograph-thats-become-the-emblem-of-brazils-political-turmoil/article29230399/

Sunday, March 6, 2016

[OFF] Television in Brazil. Globo domination

This post is a Off-Topic, bit I think it has connection with the issue of Media manipulation and authoritarianism.

The article below describes the behavior of TV Globo (Brazil), a TV station that rose in Brazil in 1964, year of the dictatorship, and it behaves like a Totalitarian TV, even in a democracy (the dictatorship ended in 1985 in Brazil, but the Globe has been attacking Democracy until today).

Even a liberal publication (The Economist) shows their shock chronicling the social control exercised by this TV Station in Brazil and the danger that it represents for any country (in case of some Country to copy this model of Globo TV for social control). Worth reading this matter for those who don't know the control model of this TV station in Brazil (Globo is one of the largest TV in the world, a big power, despite the loss of increasing power to the internet who Globo fears), which is "affectionately" nicknamed in Brazil, for popular sectors, as 'Goebbels TV' (Rede Goebbels) (a deserved name, in true).
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Globo’s not so little piece of the ratings
Brazil’s biggest media firm is flourishing with an old-fashioned business model
Jun 7th 2014 | RIO DE JANEIRO | From the print edition

WHEN the football World Cup begins on June 12th in Brazil, tens of millions of Brazilians will watch the festivities on TV Globo, the country’s largest broadcast network. But for Globo it will be just another day of vast audiences. No fewer than 91m people, just under half the population, tune in to it each day: the sort of audience that, in the United States, is to be had only once a year, and only for the one network that has won the rights that year to broadcast American football’s Super Bowl championship game.

Globo is surely Brazil’s most powerful company, given its reach into so many homes. Its nearest competitor in free-to-air television, Record, has an audience share of only about 13%. America’s most popular broadcast network, CBS, has a mere 12% share of audience during prime time, and its main competitors have around 8%.

The company started in Rio de Janeiro with a newspaper, O Globo, in 1925, and was built by a visionary and long-lived media titan, Roberto Marinho, who died in 2003 at the age of 98. As it grew in the television age, Globo has arguably done as much as any politician to unite a vast and diverse country, from the Amazonian jungle to the heart of coffee-growing country, from wretched favelas on the urban periphery to the fancy boutiques of downtown Rio and São Paulo. Today it is controlled by Mr Marinho’s three sons and towers over Brazil like Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue. It is the largest media company in Latin America, with revenues that reached 14.6 billion reais ($6.3 billion) in 2013, having climbed impressively over the past decade. As a powerful, family-owned media firm, it looks like a local version of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, without the family drama.

Globo counts pay-TV stations, magazines, radio, film production and newspapers as part of its empire, but most of its profits come from its broadcast network, which airs salacious telenovelas, or soap operas, that are always the talk of Brazil. In richer countries the habit of “appointment viewing” has declined with the spread of digital video recorders, but Brazilians still tune in devoutly for the three telenovelas that run each evening, six days a week.

Globo airs Brazil’s snazziest and freshest shows, yet its business model feels decidedly old-fashioned. Its programmes are filmed on its own vast studio lot, called Projac, nestled among forested mountains on the edge of Rio. Actors and writers are on contract, just as they were in the early days of Hollywood. Workers stitch lavish costumes and build intricate sets on site, like those of “Meu Pedacinho de Chão” (“My Little Patch of Land”), one of the current soaps, a fantastical tale about a small town seen through a child’s eyes (pictured). The telenovela format can be adapted to audience feedback, and plots can be changed on the fly depending on what viewers like.

Globo executives obsess over the real-time audience figures streamed to their offices. “If ratings decline a tenth of a percent, you feel this building shake,” one of them says. For advertisers wanting to get a message to a national audience, it is the obvious choice. Globo knows this, and is estimated to have raised its rates for prime-time spots by nearly 60% since 2010.

Setting the standard

Not everyone is comfortable with Globo’s good fortune. Critics are unsettled by the firm’s share of advertising and audience. It controls everything from Brazilians’ access to news to the market rates for journalists’ salaries. Even entertainment shows can be remarkably influential. “Salve Jorge”, a recent soap set in Turkey, prompted hordes of Brazilians to take holidays there. Its programmes also shape the national culture. This year it aired what it believes was the first gay kiss on a broadcast network.

Elsewhere in Latin America big media companies are in the midst of real-life dramas. Argentina’s Grupo Clarín is being carved up by the government, and Mexico is trying to make Televisa slim down. But Brazil’s government is more docile towards media owners. It helps that the Marinhos tend to adapt to the political climate. Mr Marinho was a staunch supporter of the country’s 1964-85 military dictatorship; today his sons live in a more liberal, democratic Brazil and stay out of the public eye. Last year they ran an apology for their father’s politics in the “errors” section of O Globo.

Brazil does not have a tradition of sequels and prequels, and popular telenovelas are always killed off after a few months to make way for new ones (“Meu Pedacinho” is a rare remake). Likewise, for two decades people have predicted that Globo’s heady success would come to an end as Brazilians look for entertainment elsewhere. So far it has defied them. Sir Martin Sorrell, the boss of WPP, an advertising firm, points out that, as in Japan, traditional media in Brazil are “like a fortress” and continue to hold strong in spite of the incursions of new entertainment sources.

Because Brazil has lagged media trends in rich countries, Globo has been able to watch foreign firms’ mistakes “so we don’t have to make them”, says Roberto Irineu Marinho, the group’s boss. But internet use has taken off in Brazil, and will alter consumers’ viewing habits over time. Today Brazil has more mobile phones than it has people, and penetration of pay-television has slowly crept up to around 28% of households. In April Brazilians spent around 12.5 hours a week on online social networks from their desktop computers, more than double the global average, according to comScore, a research firm. For the first time in Globo’s history it is facing serious competition for advertisers and audience. Increasingly, Brazil’s advertising market will be a contest between the two Gs: Globo and Google.

Globo is still the biggest fish in a big pond, and can keep a hold on Brazilians’ attention, even as they migrate to new platforms. For example, as more households can afford pay-TV packages, Globo may lose viewers from its free-to-air network, but should gain when they tune in to the group’s paid-for channels. It is experimenting with new online offerings, such as letting people subscribe for a monthly fee to view its content online with a time delay.

“We don’t want to jeopardise our advertising revenues by changing people’s habits, but we have to be ready,” says Jorge Nóbrega, a senior Globo executive. Netflix, an American online-video firm, has entered Brazil, but Globo-boosters argue that Brazilians prefer telenovelas to foreign fare. In television, as in football, they are likely to keep rooting for the home team.

From the print edition: Business

Source: The Economist
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21603472-brazils-biggest-media-firm-flourishing-old-fashioned-business-model-globo-domination

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