Banana Pundits

Solon Brochado: This is not exactly Brazilian news, but it is so fitting to our reality that I just had to post it. It seems some Latin-American movie directors are tired of making political movies, and demand the right to make comedies, dramas and such.

Latin directors defend the right to laugh

The Latin-American cinema reclaims its right to shoot any theme and to not being sentenced to be only a voice of social denunciation, said filmmakers Felipe Cazals and Jorge de Bernardi, who are taking part in the 20th edition of the Latin-American Movie Festival of Trieste.

“Latin America is seen in Europe as the continent that has to make politically commited movies, a cinema of social denunciation, with problems of a political nature”, says Rodrigo Díaz, the festival’s director. “It is an aberration”, comments the mexican director Cazals.

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Cisco Costa: The Workers’ Party has announced it will sue Veja magazine. From Linha Aberta, the party’s newsletter:

PT will take Veja magazine to court

The Workers’ Party (PT) will sue Veja magazine for the claims published in its latest edition, alleging that the party received money from Cuba for its 2002 presidential campaign.

The announcement was made by the party’s national chairman, representative Ricardo Berzoini (São Paulo), during the party’s meeting this Monday the 31st in Congress. Berzoini said that a complaint will be filed against the magazine for libel and slander.

According to the party’s leader in Congress, Henrique Fontana (Rio Grande do Sul), “one can no longer accept this sort of empty, flighty, proofless accusation coming from unreliable sources”. He called the allegations “fantastic, irresponsible” and as having the sole purpose of “feeding an environment of partisan political dispute within the country”.

Solon Brochado: You would’ve thought this kind of thing only happened in Romania, but it turns out vampires are a problem in Brazil as well. From 2003 to 2004, over 40 people have died from rabies transmitted by hematophagous bats in the North. It is quickly becoming a major public health issue for the region, specially since the Health Ministry says it doesn’t know how to handle the situation.

UPDATE: New Scientist picked up the story and has a report on the attacks, with the quality you’ve come to expect of them.

Bats multiply attacks in the Amazon

The number of people attacked by bats in the Amazon region has increased ninefold in two years. That’s what data from the Health Ministry show. In 2004, there were 8.258 agressions, while only 852 in 2003. And the number of deaths rose in last weeks.

The data was obtained after 21 people died in April 2004 due to an outbreak of rabies transmitted by the animal. There was, then, a concern from the health agencies to monitor the attacks on people.

The ministry admits the attacks aren’t new, but that there was no monitoring by state agencies, since they didn’t know the extent of the problem.

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