Word: silva
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Within days of taking power in January 2003, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew his team of ministers to the three poorest municipalities in Brazil - he wanted the political elite to take a firsthand look at the living conditions of the impoverished voters that had elected them. On a makeshift stage in Brazil's northern scrubland, Lula, like a triumphant band leader, presented his troupe one by one. The crowd welcomed them all politely, but cheered raucously for Benedita da Silva, the black, former housemaid who picked to oversee Lula's social programs, for Culture Minister Gilberto...
...Silva, the new Environment Minister, cut an especially peculiar figure as she ambled timidly into view. While most of the crowd standing under a burning sun wore T-shirts and shorts or miniskirts and halter tops, Silva, a hard-core Evangelical Protestant in the world's biggest Catholic country, was dressed in a skirt down her ankles, and she appeared somber and unmoved by the attention, as though she felt unworthy of such acclaim. But the poor voters had cheered her because she was one of them. She was also a potent symbol of both Lula's all-inclusive government...
...This week, that symbolism went the same way as 17% of the Amazon, when Silva resigned her post and disappeared from view. Although she had looked increasingly worn down by the recent power struggles with governors and ministers who prioritize economic development over environmental protection, her decision was unexpected, and it left Lula and the mandarins of Brasilia stunned...
...really prefer tea over coffee? -Nimna De Silva, Colombo, Sri LankaPG Tips [tea]. All Brits drink PG Tips...
...knows nothing about biofuels. He's more concerned about his tribe's recent tendency to waste its precious diesel-powered generator watching late-night soap operas. But he's right. Deforestation can be a complex process; for example, land reforms enacted by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have attracted slash-and-burn squatters to the forest, and "use it or lose it" incentives have spurred some landowners to deforest to avoid redistribution...