Brazil’s airports — in private hands

This article was published in the December 2011 issue of Brazil’s Speak Up magazine (www.speakup.com.br). View the pdf below:

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Policing favelas in Rio de Janeiro

This article appeared in the October 2011 issue of Brazil’s Speak Up magazine (www.speakup.com.br). View the pdf below:

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More Brazilians shopping in the U.S.A

(This article appears in the December 2010 issue of Speak Up magazine in Brazil, issue no. 280. View the pdf below)

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Brazilian shoes take on China in growing domestic and export markets

(A shorter version of this story was originally published in February 2010 by U.S. magazine Footwear News. The version below will appear in the April 2010 issue of Brazil’s Speak Up magazine)

By Bob Moser

SÃO PAULO, Brazil – In an international footwear market increasingly dominated by China, Brazilian shoe producers are confident they’ll gain ground on the Red Giant in 2010, keeping their main competitor at arm’s length domestically, while hooking China’s growing middle and upper classes on stylish Brazilian shoes.

Vendors sell Brazilian shoes to buyers from around the world at the Couromoda Fair in Sao Paulo. (photo courtesy of Abicalcados)

At Couromoda, Latin America’s largest footwear expo which was held in Sao Paulo in January, trade was brisk amidst optimism that the Brazilian government would extend an anti-dumping tariff against Chinese shoe imports. As the world economic crisis unfolded two years ago shoe inventories built up in China, and Brazil was a main outlet for those reserves because it’s one of the few countries where local industry is relied on to support the domestic shoe demand.

A basketball adventure in Brazil

(This article appeared in the May issue of Speak Up magazine in Brazil, no. 273. View the pdf here, and full text of the story below)

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By Bob Moser

With less than a minute to go in overtime at Club Athletico Paulistano in Sao Paulo, Tony Stockman steps to the free throw stripe with a chance to win the game. A native of Ohio in the United States and now star guard for one of Brazil’s best basketball clubs, Franca/Vivo, Stockman is surprisingly calm considering the challenges he has faced throughout the night.

Tony Stockman, a native of Medina, Ohio, stars for Franca/Vivo in the NBB. (photo by Marcos Limont/Franca)

His coach keeps screaming at him to do something important, but Stockman can’t always understand the man’s Portuglês. Stockman also hits a language barrier with referees, and sometimes thinks they favor Brazilian players over foreigners when choosing how to call fouls.

With ball in hand, Stockman’s feet steady and arms raise, while the crowd hurl obscenities that bounce off the gymnasium walls. He exhales, makes the shot, and turns downcourt with a smile as Franca seals another win this year in Brazil’s national basketball league, Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB).

Ele é frio, Paulistano fans grumble, upset their catcalls couldn’t shake the Gringo and NBB All-Star.

If only they knew how easy clutch free throws can be when you don’t understand what the crowd is shouting.

Tens of thousands of miles from home, Stockman is one of 13 Americans playing in Brazil’s NBB this season, raising the level of competition for a league that’s trying to recapture the passion Brazil once had for basketball. They came chasing the promise of a paycheck and expecting “everything to look like the Amazon,” but these Americans say they’ve fallen in love with Brazil like countless foreigners before them.