Print/Online
March 29, 2009
The footprint of the UN Climate Conference in Poznan
Feature produced for the Climate Chamge Media Partnership website. The CCMP took 40 journalists from developing nations to cover the UN Climate Change conference in Poznan, Poland, last December. This article discusses the ecological footprint that the massive conference has left behind, and the offsetting programmes the Polish government aims to adopt to neutralize it.
Brazil’s deadly land wars puts indigenous leaders in firing line
I wrote this article for the Independent after the murder of an indigenous leader in Mato Grosso. Ortiz Lopes was a respected leader of the Guarani-Kaiowa community, which was expelled from their traditional land in the 1970s. Forced to live in a small area, the Guarani-Kaiowas have some of the highest rates of violence and suicide amongst the indigenous peoples. Lopez was known for his efforts to reclaim their traditional territory.
Flight logs reveal secret rendition
This article was the result of a one-month investigation that established for the first time which military flights to Guantánamo crossed Europe carrying passengers – and which passengers were on each flight. I assisted Stephen Grey by researching, contacting people, checking and cross-referencing data. Complete tables with extra info about the Guantánamo prisoners can be seen at Stephen’s website: http://www.ghostplane.net/
Brazil’s media agenda: whose news is it anyway?
This opinion piece analyses the consequences of adopting international news agencies as the sole providers of foreign news to the majority of news services in Brazil. It also covers other issues such as the death of the foreign correspondent; the lack of a Brazilian approach to international news coverage; and the public interest.
Flooding: a tale of rich and poor worlds
I wrote this feature while I was an intern at Panos Institute; it compares mitigation efforts in Mozambique and the UK, both deeply affected by floods in 2006. Contrary to the expected, the view of experts is that Mozambique has made enormous progress since then, while the UK’s response was taking longer to materialize.
Feature published at the London-based magazine Jungle Drums about the future of the Brazilian Amazon. While scientists were still discussing the effectiveness of climate models and the reality of climate change, businessmen were trying to figure out a way to make conservation profitable. Kevin Conrad, one of my main sources, ended up playing a crucial part at the Bali Climate Summer by urging the Americans to make up their minds.
4 thinking minds – playing in the jungle
Article about the work of David Reeks and Renata Meirelles, researchers of traditional games and toys who have carried out a pioneer research about children’s culture in the Brazilian Amazon over the past 8 years. Just recently, Renata’s first book – about the same subject – was awarded the biggest literary prize in Brazil, Prêmio Jabuti.
A Bolivian military colonel speaks
Interview with the colonel Jaime Cruz Vera in Cochabamba, Bolivia, for the website Narconews Bulletin. Mr. Cruz Vera, commander of the Mobile Patrol Unit that conducted the forced eradication of coca, talked openly about Evo Morales, who at the time was a leader of the coca growers. He also commented on the pressure made by the US Government: “everything you see at this military base is what the Embassy has given us”.
The Brazilian military and human rights in Haiti
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An interview with James Cavallaro, president of the NGO Global Justice Centre, who had investigated allegations of human rights abuses by the Brazil-led UN peacekeeping forces in Haiti. The NGO had released the report Keeping the Peace in Haiti , bringing together for the first time shocking stories of executions, mass arrests without warrants, and other gross violations.
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A feature about Oxi, a new type of drug that had been recently found in the state of Acre. Oxi is a variant of crack obtained by adding kerosene and quicklime to cocaine hydrochloride. It is a popular drug and extremely cheap (a dollar will buy 5 yellowish rocks), and by the time I wrote the article it was rapidly spreading amongst poor youngsters of the outskirst of Acrean cities.
