Brazil in Focus

After Hours with Wagner Cinelli

Tinker, tailor, soldier - virtuoso. Brazil has all of these and more. But what do all these hardworking professionals do when they aren't at their day job? Work after hours, of course. Brazil in Focus is pleased to present After Hours, a feature dedicated to those who keep working when the workday is done.

Foreign talent flocks to Brazil for jobs and opportunities

by Adriana Marcolini
And suddenly, they are everywhere. They are Portuguese, Spanish, Greek, Irish, French, Italians, Americans. You can find them in the bars and restaurants, on the streets and public squares of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. They are engineers, marketing executives, financial wizards and oil industry experts. And gradually, this high-skills immigrant tide is transforming the landscape of major Brazilian cities - indeed of Brazilian society itself.

Brazil shrinks the wealth gap

by Marcelo Côrtes Neri
Long known and criticized for its world beating gap between rich and poor, Brazil has seen income inequality decline to record levels in recent years. This is the mirror opposite of the picture in almost every other country in the world where income inequality spiked before the global economic crisis, receded briefly during the downtown, and now is on the rise again. This is the case in China and India, where simultaneous economic booms lifted the poor but helped the rich even more, widening social inequality. It was also the story of Brazil during the 1960s.

Brazil's social priorities need rescuing

by Roberto DaMatta
In Brazil, emergency is a word with many meanings, most of which reveal the deepest dimensions of local culture. If an Englishman screams "Help!" he is immediately helped. If a U.S. airlines, whether small or large, receives a request for an emergency ticket - this has happened with me - a seat will promptly be granted. In both places, words like help, danger, aid, emergency, and expressions such as "life or death" wield the power to suspend the daily routine and trigger effective responses. No one needs to be reminded that the ensuing attention and assistance must be immediate.

Photographer Ricardo Azoury explores the gemstone mines of Minas Gerais where dreams of fortune still fire the imaginations of today's garimpeiros.