Moving..

Well im all but finished here in Planaltina now and waiting for my last couple of days to pass before i move cities. I have some oral tests for a VIP student and then im free, well until 1st Feb as then i start teaching at the other school. Just to teach in one place will be alot less stressful and having the mornings to myself as there wont be any classes at this time is wonderful. I get to have a lie in every day ;-)

Theres in interesting story online about overweight people in Brasil. Apparently some newspaper in the US ran this story and now some newspapers here in Brasil are saying that its full of shit and totally untrue. In reality though its probably getting close to the truth. A walk down the streets shows lots of people who are overweight and many people with huge beer guts from the constant overmarketing of alcohol products. Its normal here to see people drinking at 6am. Junk food is also widespread here, in the streets generally poor people watch cars in carparks to buy cheap bbq on sticks thats full of fat for R$1 a shot. I remember the fuss about Lulas drinking habits well, but i find here that my students have a very little opinion of Brasils president with alot thinking that it was a big mistake that people voted for him to be president. He spends more time out of Brasil travelling on his newly refurbished plane than he does in Brasil solving the many problems that exist here. I dont think hes dont a quarter of the things he said he would do if people voted for him. Mind you we're talking about a person who has no education and struggles to communicate with the rest of the world as he speaks just portugues, badly too so im told. I copied the story below for you to read:

Brazil Newspaper Slams NY Times Over Obesity Story

A Brazilian newspaper on Thursday accused the New York Times of illustrating a story on obesity in Brazil with a picture of three flabby-looking Czech women on a beach famed for its shapely local beauties.

The Times story went to the heart of Brazil's self-image as a place of sunny sexiness and was the second in less than a year to provoke strong criticism in Brazil, where the globally influential newspaper's coverage has faced heavy scrutiny by local media.

The Jan. 13 story by correspondent Larry Rohter was based on a government study that said more than 40 per cent of Brazilians are overweight.

It noted that Brazil's "gifts to global culture" included the Girl from Ipanema and the thong, or "tanga," bikini.

The photograph, by John Maier, showed three overweight women in bikinis on Rio de Janeiro's Ipanema Beach.

However, according to Globo newspaper, the women were not Brazilians but Czech tourists. "Certainly I am not a girl from Ipanema. I am a woman of a certain age," 59-year-old Milena Suchoparkova told Globo in an interview.

"I think I'm overweight but I never was skinny. I was always robust but I wouldn't say I was obese," said Suchoparkova, Czech-born but a naturalized Italian.

Globo, one of Brazil's biggest dailies, ran its story under the headline "New York Times Screw-up." It ran a separate article on Rohter and questioned the Times' ethics and credibility.

Suchoparkova and her friends were upset because, they told Globo, the photographer had not asked their permission before taking the shot. They were not mentioned in the story itself.

Rohter declined to comment to Reuters. A statement in Friday's New York Times said "The Times regrets that the nationalities of the women in the photo were not verified."

Last May, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ordered Rohter's visa canceled after he wrote an article that many Brazilians were concerned by Lula's drinking habits.

Lula reversed the decision under pressure from domestic and international media groups, and the Human Rights Watch advocacy group cited the government's reaction to the drinking story as a threat to freedom of expression.