Sesc SP

Technology

It represents an unprecedented technological revolution and, as such, is bound to impact production lines, as it does not require the use of molds and matrices, indispensable in conventional manufacturing processes. The 3D printer has just arrived, yet its market share is gathering pace.

Investment

Brand and patent licensing focused on infrastructure and product distribution rights is just a few decades old in Brazil. Still, and against the skepticism of its early days, it has grown steadily. According to the Brazilian Franchising Association (ABF), the sector ended 2013 with 2,703 networks, 114,409 franchised units, 1,029,681 employees, and R$ 115.5 billion in revenues.

Exportation

Brazilian exports, amounting to US$ 242.2 billion in 2013, down 1% from 2012, may have finished 2014 with a small slump. Commodities no longer contribute as they used to, while last year’s shipments were driven mostly by higher revenues of a few manufactured goods.

Ecology

Brazil is getting close to a zero-waste goal. At least, this is the result achieved so far by the aluminum can industry in reusing its beverage containers, recycling having reached 98%, or 18.4 billion units. Placed side by side in a straight line, these recycled cans are equivalent to 21.3 times the circumference of the Earth.

Cities

State of São Paulo’s third largest municipality in population size, only trailing behind São Paulo City and Guarulhos, glamorous Campinas, with 1.15 million people, has since the mid-nineteenth century imposed itself as the capital’s rival, first on account of its hegemony in coffee farming, and thereafter throughout the industrialization era. With a 240-year-long history, its hallmark is steady economic growth, coupled with high cultural standards, justifying its old motto, “In work and virtue, the city flourishes”.

Health

Bacteria and other microorganisms have become more resistant to antibiotics and are spreading outside hospital facilities. In mid-2014, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a report stating that the threat of superbugs is real, “is happening now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country”.

Beekeeping

For reasons still unexplained, social bees, those living in colonies, are developing a nervous system disorder that impairs their memory and sense of direction. Disoriented, they cannot return to their hives, leaving behind the honey, their offspring, and even the queen. This is affecting pollination and, subsequently, hindering the expansion of farm crops.

Religious tourism

In the wilderness of Brazil’s arid northeastern backland, the sertão, on the right bank of the São Francisco River and 800 kilometers west of Salvador, rises Morro da Lapa, in the municipality of Bom Jesus da Lapa, 68,000 inhabitants, a city that is home to a natural shrine revered by the folk’s Catholic religiosity and that has been the destination of pilgrims, mostly local sertanejos, for more than 300 years.

Interview

Operating in ten states of the Brazilian federation, the Tamar Project is internationally acclaimed for its environmental education and conservation work focused on five species of turtles that, four decades ago, were on the verge of extinction in Brazil. Guy Marcovaldi, a Tamar conservation program founder, says that, today, over 2 million hatchlings crawl to the sea every year.

Old age – 1

In Brazil, from 1992 to 2012, the number of elderly people living on their own has trebled, rising from 1.1 million to 3.7 million, according to the National Household Sample Survey issued by IBGE, Brazil’s national statistics office. Over the same period, the population of Brazilians aged 60-plus leaped from 11.4 million to 24.8 million.

Old age – 2

How do they live and what do Brazilians aged 100-plus do? The centenarians interviewed for this report, both women and men, shared private details of their everyday lives, spoke of the food they take to the table, and said what they expect for their lives from now on.

Memory

Zé Trindade, a short and stocky Bahia-born comedian who, with his shrieking voice and unmistakable thin moustache, embodied like no one else the anti-ladies’ man, took part in 39 films as a genuine “interpreter of the people”, in the definition of writer, and fellow bahiano, Jorge Amado. Celebrated for the gags he shot – “women, here I am”, “my business is women”, or “what a drag it is to be hot” – while making a number of dirty-minded faces, if still alive Trindade would be turning 100.

Books

Recently released by publishing houses Senac and Unesp, the book João Batista Vilanova Artigas – Elementos para a Compreensão de um Caminho da Arquitetura Brasileira, 1938-1967 [Elements for the Understanding of a Road for Brazilian Architecture] delivers more than it promises. Besides focusing on the work of Artigas (1915-1985), it also deals with the history of modern art and architecture.

Thematic panel

Ambassador Marcos Azambuja, during a talk before the members of the Economics, Sociology and Politics Council of the São Paulo State Federation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism, Sesc and Senac, spoke on the group of countries known as BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. In his opinion, although peripheral and secondary, the group is also necessary and represents expectations of a new international order.