Articles Viva Brasil

IT USED TO BE LIKE THIS....
By Deise Cavalheiro

It was July, 9th of 1996 and another family was arriving in Singapore: my family.

We came knowing almost nothing about this city-state that welcomed and enchanted us with all its character, so new and different for us, hailing from the other side of the world. There was so much to learn!

Here we found other Brazilians who, like us, were so far from home. Brazilians that were united through the warmth and friendship that our people are so good at demonstrating.

These last ten years have left stamped in our hearts and minds many memories of incredible events, happy moments and wonderful people who came and gone. Moments and people that in a way or another have left their mark in this land so far from our land. It's unbelievable that friendships born in Singapore are kept alive no matter how far apart we might be.

And since "a picture paints a thousand words", for those who have recently arrived, here it goes a sample of what we've done and, for those of us who are still around, a little nostalgia, trying to keep alive the spirit of this community. A community that, despite its size, when gathered, can be happy and loud like no other. A community that can be vibrant and welcoming even when away from Brazil.

And how we need this !!!

Salvador: Land of Joy
by Christiane Pinto


Known as a land of joy, Salvador is the right destination for those who search for adventure, beauty and entertainment. Its beautiful beaches, tourist places and its peculiar cuisine attracts not only Brazilians but also tourists from around the world.

The "capoeira", a mixture of dance and fight and the "candomblé", a religion originated from Africa, are important traditions in the city.

Salvador is also known for its lively Carnival and other feasts which take place throughout the year, where the contagious happiness of the people from Bahia is always present.

Another attractive sight in Salvador is its beaches: "Porto da Barra", for instance, is integrated with the Salvador urban center. Beyond this one, there are many others around the city which are easy to access and will represent a relief to your eyes.

There are also hotel resorts which are located within an hour from Salvador, like "Costa do Sauipe" a real Brazilian Polynesia.

This is just a sample of the land of "Nosso Senhor do Bonfim". For more information, kindly access http://www.bahia.com.br/ and catch the first flight to paradise.

CAPOEIRA ARGOLA DE OURO (Singapore) is a Brazilian Capoeira and Cultural Arts Organisation. Now registered as an association in Singapore, its purpose is to propagate the teachings and practice of Capoeira, a dance-like fight, fight-like dance Brazilian martial art form in Singapore and throughout the world. In doing so, it is enriching the cultural and artistic expression of people in society.

First of all, I ought to remind that the format of the LatinAsiaBiz 2005 represented a qualitative leap in relation to the one in 2004. The agency "International Enterprise (I.E.) Singapore", promoter of the event, based itself on a close interaction with the embassies of Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Panama, as well as with the honorary representations of Colombia and Ecuador, in which the Latin American representatives tried to correct structural and execution flaws occurred in the previous format. This collaboration enabled a more solid event, in which the macro-economic presentations could better combine with the micro-economic experiences of Latin American and Singaporean companies, thus facilitating direct business contact through networking.The bilateral trade of Brazil with Singapore has presented strong growth both ways, with an edge for exports from Brazil. Nevertheless, in a modern approach, it is inappropriate to assess the economic relations between two countries solely by means of the trade balance in goods, but instead from the standpoint of the current transactions. There is nowadays, in particular with Brazil but also with others in our region, an interesting flow of capital, especially in direct investments, such as, for example, the purchase by Singaporean shipyards of Brazilian shipyards, to meet the close business relations generated by PETROBRAS, the Brazilian national oil enterprise. Platforms for oil drilling and extraction in deep waters have been and are being built or reformed in Singapore and Rio de Janeiro, on the one hand benefiting PETROBRAS with the Singaporean efficiency and know-how in ship-building, and, on the other hand, the Singaporean shipyards in providing service to the only oil enterprise worldwide that masters the full cycle of exploration and production of oil in deep marine waters. Both shipyardsencompass projects assessed at 4.6 billion Singaporean dollars.Nevertheless, large corporations have advantages accruing from their scale and depend little on promotional events. What matters most is to connect, in mutual benefit, the small and medium enterprises on both sides of the Brazil-Singapore and Latin America-Singapore equations, with a view to partnerships encompassing from goods, through services, on to capital. It was rewarding for us, members of the Embassy in Singapore, to be able to rely on a comprehensive Brazilian delegation addressing from analytical insights of a social and economic nature through to the capital market. For 2006, we shall continue to cooperate with "I.E. Singapore" toward an event even more dynamic and useful in this process of confidence-building, for the concrete exploration of partnerships of all sorts and of great impact in bilateral relations.

APEX, the Brazilian equivalent of "I.E. Singapore", brought a great contribution to LatinAsiaBiz 2005, not only by taking part in the event, but also by, simultaneously, undertaking intense surveying with a view to guaranteeing adequate information to Singaporean buyers, regarding the Brazilian product. We have the best agri-business in the world, with a territorial base of 100 million arable hectares still available, without touching on the environmentally-protectable areas.By combining production efficiency with high marketing quality, we make available to Singapore, Southeast Asia and greater Asia beyond products of high quality at competitive prices. Additionally, in the industrial domain, there is a great variety of products of interest for these regions that can be brought over from Brazil, even as alternatives to traditional suppliers and with advantages for the consumer.APEX is assessing the product lines for a trial run, as well as partnerships for the creation of an exhibition and distribution centre, at which the buyers do not have to rely on indirect information and can see what is being offered to them. It is an innovative initiative, of beneficial impact in the elimination of the geographical gap between Brazil and Singapore deriving from the physical distance between both.

The opening of the office of "I.E. Singapore" in São Paulo is the flip side of the coin that brought APEX to Singapore. What we seek is the speedier overcoming of that gap aforementioned. With the Singaporean industriousness, under the leadership of Ter Yeow Ming, Representative for Latin America, there is no doubt that business deals will boom bilaterally. As put by Lee Yi Shyan, Chief Executive Officer of " I.E. Singapore", at the inauguration of the office, "... Brazil, the biggest country of Latin America, is also a market in itself, with 180 million inhabitants and GDP of US$605 billion" and "while attentive to the growth of the markets of India and of China, we should not ignore an emerging powerhouse such as Brazil".The inauguration was led by the Vice Prime Minister of Singapore, S. Jayakumar, in a clear demonstration of the political dimension of bilateral rapprochement, in which is highlighted, as a background, the meticulous diplomatic work undertaken over the years, so as to open communication channels and understanding at all levels, and crowning them with unfettered dialogue, at the highest level of the respective national governments.

The consular area is crucial, in order to facilitate tourism and direct contact between business people. The negotiations are at an advanced stage and, soon, we shall be able to announce an agreement on the matter. Civil aviation agreements are a complex matter; there is one in place, but it needs updating. The co-operation in biotechnology is highly promising. With, on the one hand, the Singaporean experience in public-private partnerships and, on the other, the academic research that has been undertaken by Brazilian research centres and the unique richness of the Brazilian biological universe, the field presents unlimited potential. In electronics, Singapore also stands out as a centre of excellence, in which it concentrated development efforts, since it is an industry that demands little space. Brazil has space and is experiencing leaps in research that deserve to be furthered. The partnerships point to joint Singaporean-Brazilian ventures of great bilateral benefit. As for duty-free zones, I believe them to be in a stage of progressive dismantling. They are no longer needed and even introduce some economic distortions. It is a matter, nowadays, of going for direct relations, economy-to-economy, in order to create synergies that do not depend on special duty-free zones. Regarding the shipyards, I trust that the reply to the second question, further up, is eloquent.

The cultural product is essential. When one buys a sandwich from a US food chain, one is buying the Hollywood film, the potent military aircraft, the pension funds’ money, that is, a chain series that is born from an image perception.Therefore, the dissemination of Brazilian culture is so important, for it creates familiarity with our realities and counteracts ill-founded, if not downright pernicious, biases frequent in the mass media, so as to raise elements of judgement previously unknown to the local population.Brazilian cinema comes from the early XXth century, marked by scarcity of means, but masterpieces of acknowledged aesthetic and artistic value. Despite the predominance of US and European cinema productions benefited by abundant financial sources, the 1950's and 1960's were characterised by a growing number of Brazilian productions, many of them internationally awarded, especially in Europe, whence we took some of our basic cultural and intellectual traits, in an authentic multi-ethnic and multicultural assemblage, in which the human groups truly mix, instead of merely co-existing. After the long phase of low production, during the military governments and their censorship (1964-1984), Brazilian cinema resurrected in the 1990's. Our productions are devoid of luxury, nevertheless with high-quality scene-production, so as to focus less on the ambiences and more on the characters and, therefore, on the message intended by the director. We have, today, as in its inception, a "director's cinema" that, in addition to entertaining, possesses substance. We are ready to meet, with films and other cultural products, such as books, the hunger of the Singaporean "Latinophiles" and "Brasilophiles".

We Brazilians are communicative and expansive, with great capacity of expression. We lack, however, the cohesion found in ethnic groups such as, for example, the Chinese. I do not think it desirable to emulate the latter, for we are structurally distinct, and in difference lies the wealth of humankind. I believe, nevertheless, that the Brazilian community abroad needs to develop a tad further a collective sense, in the conscious search for stimulation and dissemination of our social and cultural richness. We already see improvements also in this field, including the rise of a more encompassing sense of Brazilianness, derived from the inevitable admiration of the joint work we are undertaking as a nation, in Brazil.

Dear All,

Greetings from Carnaval!

We are pleased to announce that we'll be celebratingour first anniversary this week.You are cordiallyinvited to join us for this party.

Due to thedemand, this party will be spread across threedays(thursday onwards).As such,there will be aliquidbuffet with alcohol involved for this joyousoccasion.

There will be finger food and some gameswillbe played.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank youfor your support.Your presence is important to us.

Please RSVP by before 5pm @93800984(Glen)or 98477357(Nicklaus) with regards on the date andnumberof guest attending this event. We hope to hear fromyou soon for the above.

Best Regards,

Carnaval Krewe

Send : Oct, 13,2005

Hi

My name is Emelda Paulo, and I'm the Entertainment Manager for City Bars Pte Ltd in Singapore.

We’re the company behind the St James Power Station Entertainment Complex in Singapore, which is scheduled to launch in mid 2006.

This 90,000 sq ft venue will comprise of 9 distinct entertainment outlets. One of our outlets is a 7000 sq ft Latin Music Room where we're planning to feature resident bands from South America on a 3-6 month contract each time, as well as managers, bartenders and servers from South America. We’re also keen to promote the culture and attractions of each country through promotions and our website, as well as feature their food, drinks, film, art, design etc. For us, we want to be as authentic as possible.
Just wondering if you can help us source such resident bands or be able to put us in contact with anyone from South America. We’re planning to travel to Brazil & Cuba in January 2006 to audition bands and interview staff. It would be great if you can help us in our search for such talent:
This is what we are specifically looking for:

Resident Band
- 7 piece, preferably with female singer
- Plus 2 female dancers (optional)
- Length of contract: 3-4 months, although I believe most bands prefer only 3 months
- First band: arrive mid-July 06, launch the club end July 06 and finish contract early Nov 06
- Second band: early Nov 06 to early Feb 07, and so forth …
Style of music: samba, batucada, rumba
- Performing 5 to 6 nights per week, 2-3 sets per night
- Accommodation: apartment (close to venue)
- We will also provide return airfares (economy class), local transport to venue, and food/drink allowances
- Salaries will be on par with local salaries
If you have materials of such bands including their photo, CD, bio, it would be great if you can send these to us in Singapore.
I look fwd to your reply.
Thanx
Emelda Paulo (Mel)
St James Power Station
Pre-Opening Office
19 Tanglin Rd #12-02
Singapore
247909
t: +65 67337676
f: +65 6733 7626
mobile: +65 90220615
Email: http:///
www.stjamespowerstation.com