The problem with a BRICS currency would be that it would only be useful for purchasing imports from other BRICS countries. It would not be convertible into dollars or other currencies. It could not be used to purchase U.S. Treasury securities nor to pay off foreign debt. It would be impractical for use in FDI, even in other BRICS countries. FDI generally involves construction and infrastructure projects, requiring raw materials that could not be purchased using BRICS currency.

Born in Bahia, a notheastern Brazilian state, João Gilberto Prado de Oliveira began singing at 18. After moving to Rio de Janeiro, he released the record Chega de Saudade in 1959, which marked the beginning of the world-famous bossa nova music style. His 1964 album “Getz/Gilberto” with American saxophone player Stan Getz sold millions of copies, won several Grammy awards and popularized bossa nova around the world.

Meanwhile in Indonesia, the two presidential candidates – incumbent Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi) and ex-army officer Prabowo Subianto – have given vague promises of environmental protection but few details. That said, Jokowi, who won as an outsider populist in 2014, has done more than some expected to tackle deforestation. As of 2015, Brazil was home to 12 percent of total forest global cover, the DRC nearly 4 percent and Indonesia 2 percent, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. 

The alliance of rich, emerging and poor economies that sealed the Paris climate deal is falling apart. In 2015, the world’s top two emitters, the US and China, joined with Brazil, some small island countries and the European Union, led by Germany, France and the UK, to land the agreement. But climate change politics have shifted significantly since then, with two more big tilts this week. Brazil elected a staunch and radical anti-environmentalist president, while Germany’s Angela Merkel confirmed her exit plans

Both Bolsonaro and Mourão have defended the excesses of Brazil’s military dictatorship, which displaced and killed (intentionally or through diseases) thousands of Indians in the Amazon, amid an effort to build roads and hydroelectric dams in the forest. The armed forces have never recognized any wrongdoing. “If he wins, he will institutionalize genocide,” says Dinamam Tuxá, the national coordinator of Brazil’s Association of Indigenous Peoples, in a phone interview with Climate Home News. 

In the next few weeks, Aug. 5-21, the city of Rio de Janeiro is going to host the 31st Olympic Games. Like a mother preparing her home for 500,000 tourists, Rio has swept the city’s poverty under the rug by increasing police and army presence in favelas. As a result, part of the local population isn’t that anxious about the games. Militarized police presence and violence are only some of the issues that have affected the Afro-Brazilian population.

The painful rout of Brazil’s soccer team by Germany may be a metaphor for the deeper political losses that Brazil has experienced in the past year. Last summer students were marching down the streets of major cities like Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and Sao Paulo protesting higher transport costs.These demonstrations, coupled with public outcries about the cost of hosting a World Cup and an Olympics in 2016 marked a turning point in the Brazilian success story. 

When the Movimento Negro Unificado (United Black Movement) formed in Brazil in 1979, they turned to the anti-apartheid struggle and to Mandela, in particular, for a vision for change and a symbol of empowerment. They looked at the apartheid structure; its separation of the races; the mandatory passes that blacks carried that showed all aspects of their lives; the separation of place and space in social, economic and political spheres, and they concluded that Brazil was an apartheid state.

The giant has awoken,” Paiva added, citing the continued unrest in her home country. That giant represents the millions of Brazilians who feel increasingly left behind by the country’s recent economic success. The protests that began June 17 have since swept across the country, with crowds of up to one million swarming streets in Sao Paulo, Rio and other cities. The latest involved a crowd of some 5,000 in the northeastern city of Fortaleza, where protestors clashed with police during a Confederations Cup soccer match. 

With no end in sight to Europe’s financial strains, countries in Latin America are looking on as their one-time colonizers struggle to keep popular unrest over unemployment and austerity measures at bay. Many see signs of a historical shift in the trans-Atlantic power dynamic. Some, notably Mexico and Brazil, see opportunity. In early March, hundreds of thousands of Portuguese marched from Lisbon to the city of Oporto in protest over slashed budgets.