Brazilian Government to launch “Culture Voucher”

Minister of culture Marta Suplicy, explaining the program.

The Brazilian Minister of Culture Marta Suplicy has announced that, as of August, companies will be able to offer workers a new ‘culture voucher’.
The culture stipend is a benefit that can be offered to any worker who earns up to five times the minimum wage (around R$3390 or €1280). The program has the goal of assuring access to cultural activities and products, stimulating creative industries and forming citizens who can appreciate and consume culture. The worker will receive a magnetic debit card credited with R$50 (€19) per month to spend on shows, theaters visits, movies, books and other cultural products.Employers who participate in the program can deduct 90% of the cost of the voucher from their annual income tax, and the other 10% is withdrawn from the worker’s salary. Both the employer and the employee can choose if they want to participate in the program. There are options for workers who receive more than five times the minimum wage and want to benefit from the initiative, but the percentage that can be deducted from the annual income tax becomes increasingly lower.It is calculated that around eighteen million Brazilians could benefit from the program, which would represent an R$11.3 billion increase on the cultural market. Such a huge boost in demand for cultural goods and services is fundamental in the consolidation of the proper functioning of the cultural industry as a whole. The amount may seem relatively small for each individual, but the large-scale impact is very significant.As a country with an immense variety of cultural goods and traditions, Brazil has much to offer to its people and to other nations. Developing a solid internal cultural market is a fundamental step towards the implementation of this valuable commodity as an international relations tool.

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Governo Brasileiro Prestes a Lançar o“Vale Cultura”

A ministra de cultura do Brasil, Marta Suplicy, anunciou que a partir de agosto, as empresas poderão oferecer o novo vale ao trabalhador.

O Vale Cultura é um benefício que pode ser dado a qualquer trabalhador que ganhe até cinco salários mínimos (cerca de R$3390 ou EU$1280). O objetivo do programa é assegurar acesso à atividades culturais e produtos, aquecer o mercado cultural e formar cidadão capazes de apreciar e consumir cultura. O trabalhador receberá um cartão magnético de débito com R$50 (EU$19) por mês para gastar em shows, teatro, cinema, livros e outros produtos culturais.

O empregador que participar do programa poderá deduzir 90% do valor do benefício do imposto de renda anual e os 10% restantes podem ser retirados do salário do trabalhador. Tanto o trabalhador quanto o empregador podem escolher se querem participar do programa. Existe a opção para os trabalhadores que recebem mais de cinco salários mínimos e queiram ganhar o benefício, mas a porcentagem que a empresa pode deduzir do imposto de renda vai reduzindo proporcionalmente.

Calcula-se que cerca de 18 milhões de brasileiros podem se beneficiar com a iniciativa do ministério, o que representaria um impacto de R$11,3 bilhões no mercado cultural. Tamanho aumento na demanda é fundamental para equilibrar o funcionamento da industria cultural. O valor pago pode parecer pouco individualmente, mas o impacto em larga escala é muito significativo.

Sendo um país com uma incrível variedade de produtos e tradições culturais, o Brasil tem muito a oferecer para o seu prórpio povo e outras nações. O desenvolvimento de um solido mercado cultural interno é um passo fundamental que esse commoditie tão valioso torne-se disponível para uso nas relações internacionais.

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Amnesty International's Trial By Timeline

Raising Awareness Through Social Media

We all know how social media plays an important role on raising awareness for several important issues. We also know how that can lead to the online activism that can be criticized for being difficult to convert to offline action, slaktivism, clicktivism etc. Nonetheless, many times, good ideas rise! In this case, it is not directly involved with culture (which is the predominant topic on this blog), but I think that it actually permeates culture: human rights.

I don't think there is an order of importance or any kind of hierarchy here. Culture is just as important as human rights, simply because identity and sense of belonging are just as important as the right to be free and to have a fair trial, for example. It would be hard, and a bit pointless I would say, to try and put some sort of order of importance.

But I think human rights permeates culture in the sense that it is, in theory (and that can be a very long discussion), universal, whilst culture varies greatly. Culture can be one thing for a group of people but a totally different set of things for another. Human rights (again, theoretically) is the same for all humans of this planet.

I added the "in theory" part just because I know that there is a very wide philosophical debate about it, but I do stand on the side of the universality of human rights. The correlations between human rights and culture will soon become a serious investigation for me. Until then, suggestions for this topic are very welcome!

Well, without further ado:

New Zealand has the highest level of human freedom, according to the Canadian Fraser Institute. These are happy times for being a Kiwi! The New Zealand Amnesty International very wisely saw this as an opportunity to raise knowledge about the not-so-privileged-rest-of-the-world situation on human rights. Thus, they prepared a very smart Facebook app that will analyse your timeline and tell you how many crimes you would be violating in each country and all the following terrible punishments that come along.

I, for instance, would have been arrested 51 times and tortured 16 times among a number of beatings, persecutions and more.. Luckily, I've escaped being beheaded. Though it can appear a bit funny, at the end all you have left to think about is that there are a number of places in the world where the things that we judge so natural, like having a beer next to a non-married woman or joining a human rights group like Amnesty International, can be punished by death. It is sad and overwhelming.

www.trialbytimeline.org.nz/ 

What results did you get? Surprised to see some unexpected countries on your list?
A very good initiative by Amnesty International New Zealand. They seized a good moment to draw attention, not them selves, but to the rest of the world. I congratulate you!

  

Cultural Diplomacy: Brazil in Latin-America

For the last 50 to 60 years, along with a global tendency, there has been a movement from the governments of Latin America to form a regional union. The idea of an integrated continent has been topic for discussions since the first independency movements in the area, and it was in the 20th century that this project was first seen as a tangible possibility.  Agreements have been settled for the purpose of uniting Latin America, along with the formation of supranational organizations. Yet the success of these endeavors has only gone so far. True integration is showing hard to achieve as governments tend to see diplomatic relations in the region through the lens of politics and economy only. Brazil is obviously no exception to that, and cultural diplomacy is currently not viewed by its government as the important tool for soft-power it in fact is. 

So why would cultural diplomacy be important in this context and how could it contribute to the integration project of the continent? Although many scholars positively agree on the answers, the Latin national leaders and their diplomatic institutions do not seem to share the same perspective.

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UNESCO: The World We Want

With roughly 2 years to reach the dead-line for the Millennium Development Goals, UNESCO is opening-up the debate on what should be our next step. We are all invited to participate and to advocate beside UNESCO on the importance of culture and education for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Let's join the global conversation!


- Caio Bertazzoli