Saudi Arabia picks princess to head women's sports

Saudi Arabia has selected Princess Reema bint Bandar as the country's de facto minister for women's sports. This year, the kingdom doubled the number of its female athletes from two to four.

Deutsche Welle, 3 Aug 2016

Saudi's Cabinet announced on Tuesday that Princess Reema would head the General Authority for Sports without disclosing further details about her role.

The daughter of the ex-ambassador to the US, Princess Reema spent much of her youth in Washington, D.C. "I am honored to serve my country," she was quoted as saying by the SPA state news agency.

Female athletics have historically not been encouraged in the kingdom, though recently there have been calls for change. In an unprecedented move, one state school introduced sports for girls in 2014.

Evolving on women's sports

In an interview with Fast Company magazine, Princess Reema said she has been working to promote women's empowerment in the country.

"Our society tend to change a bit slower than other," she told the magazine last year. "We have to explain to people that it's evolution, not Westernization."

The Cabinet's announcement comes as the kingdom gears up for the 2014 Olympic Games in Rio, where four of its women athletes will compete alongside seven male athletes. That number represents an increase of 50 percent from the number of Saudi women who competed in the last Olympic games.

blc/kms (AFP, AP)

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"Listening to the Voice of Spirit" (2) - Feb 20, 2016 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (DNA Efficiency is on average at 35 percent now) - (Text version)

“… With free choice, the percentage of DNA efficiently started to go down as humanity grew. As soon as the DNA started to lose percentage, the gender balance was dysfunctional. If you want to have a test of any society, anywhere on the planet, and you want to know the DNA percentage number [consciousness quota] as a society, there's an easy test: How do they perceive and treat their women? The higher the DNA functionality, the more the feminine divine is honored. This is the test! Different cultures create different DNA consciousness, even at the same time on the planet. So you can have a culture on Earth at 25 percent and one at 37 - and if you did, they would indeed clash. …”

“… You're at 35. There's an equality here, you're starting to see the dark and light, and it's changing everything. You take a look at history and you've come a long way, but it took a long time to get here. Dear ones, we've seen this process before and the snowball is rolling. There isn't anything in the way that's going to stop it. In the path of this snowball of higher consciousness are all kinds of things that will be run over and perish. Part of this is what you call "the establishment". Watch for some very big established things to fall over! The snowball will simply knock them down. …”

Controversy-Hit Samba School Wins Rio Carnival Title

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Feb 19, 2015

Members of the samba school Beija-Flor perform on the second day of the
 parades of the special groups of the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro, at the Sambodromo
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 16 February 2015. (EPA Photo/Luiz Eduardo Perez)

Rio de Janeiro. A Brazilian samba school shrugged off a controversy over alleged funding by an African strongman president and went on to claim its 13th win at the Rio Carnival championship on Wednesday.

The Beija-Flor school, whose name means hummingbird, has denied media reports it was bankrolled to the tune of nearly $5 million by the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Obiang Nguema and his son are facing allegations of money laundering and corruption. The leader holds an iron grip over tiny, oil-rich Equatorial Guinea and critics have labeled him a ruthless dictator.

Hailing from the Rio suburb of Nilopolis, Beija-Flor scored 259.9 points to land its 13th title and see off rivals Salgueiro by 0.4 points.

Known for its creativity, the Beija-Flor team will now bring the final curtain down on this year’s carnival festivities at Saturday’s Parade of Champions, comprising the top six schools.

The Portela school came third, and last year’s grand champions, Unidos da Tijuca, were in fourth place.

The press service for Beija-Flor, whose theme was a “strong, joyful and colorful” Africa, told AFP they had merely received “cultural support and imported fabrics” from Equatorial Guinea, which is located on the Atlantic coast in central Africa.

After results were announced, Beija-Flor supporters burst into wild cheers at the Sambadrome in downtown Rio, where Sunday and Monday night the top 12 samba schools had battled it out for glory.

“I am very emotional, very happy,” Rayssa Oliveira, one of Beija-Flor’s beauty queens, told Globo television.

The jury considered various aspects of each team’s performance in carefully choreographed parades at the Sambadrome in front of crowds of some 72,000 people.

The jurors award points in categories ranging from the highly decorative school floats, the quality of their massed ranks of percussionists and how well the roughly 4,000-strong team move in sync with each other while singing their school song.

The record of carnival celebrations dates back to 1723 – but the first samba school was not formed until 1928.

Agence France-Presse

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Public prosecutor presses foreign countries to prosecute SBM Offshore staff

DutchNews.nl,  November 13, 2014

The public prosecution department wants to see former SBM Offshore workers prosecuted for their role in the recent bribery scandal, the department’s chief Marianne Blos told the NRC newspaper.

Yesterday the department announced that the marine services company had agreed to pay $240m in an out of court settlement on bribery and corruption charges. The deal is made up of a $40m fine and a penalty of $200m for financial gain and focuses on corrupt deals made in Brazil, Angola and Equatorial Guinea.

Because the workers involved are not in the Netherlands, they will have to be pursued through the local courts in the countries concerned.

Blos said the Netherlands is in talks with various countries to ensure this is ‘organised’, the paper reported. Less than a handful of former workers is involved but their number does include ‘people whom SBM Offshore has taken disciplinary measures against’.

The prosecution of staff coupled with the record fine would send out a ‘very powerful signal’, Blos said.

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Ghana's amputee footballers strive for international glory

Yahoo – AFP, Chris Stein, 11 July 2014

Amputee footballers jostle for control of the ball during a practice match

on May 7 in Accra (AFP Photo)

Accra (AFP) - On a field scattered with rubbish, ripe with the smell of urine and criss-crossed by commuters and the occasional truck, a group of Ghanaian footballers practise drills, the early morning sun glinting off their metal crutches.

While footballers around the globe have their eyes on Brazil, Ghana's national amputee football team is gearing up to compete in a world cup of its own in Mexico later this year.

But standing between the Black Challenge side and victory in the 2014 Amputee Football World Cup are not just old foes such as Argentina and Liberia.

An amputee footballer kicks the ball

 during a practice on May 10 in

Accra (AFP Photo/Chris Stein)

The team's ability to attract support for their unique brand of football is also in the balance, and unless they can raise the money needed to fund the trip, they may not go at all.

That hasn't stopped them preparing.

"We don't have much time, so we have to train hard," said one of the team's coaches, Benjamin Armah, as he watched his veteran players trickle in for an early practice session on a warm May morning in the capital, Accra.

The Black Challenge started officially in 2007 -- the same year the team won the first Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football, said Theodore Viwotor, administrative secretary for the Ghana Amputee Football Association.

The team came in sixth in the 2012 World Cup held in Russia, after Argentina eliminated the Ghanaians in the preliminary round.

In last year's cup of nations in Nairobi, the team was placed third after being knocked out by Liberia in the semi-finals.

Black Challenge coaches will hold trials in Ghana's two largest cities in August, choosing a squad from new recruits and returning team members for the tournament in November.

Poles apart

The rules in amputee football are much the same as in regular soccer, albeit adapted to take into account what the World Amputee Football Federation calls its "abbreviated" players.

International matches are played with seven on each side for two 25 minute periods, there is no offside and kick-ins replace throw-ins.

On the pitch, the movements stand out.

Outfield players -- all of them missing either an entire single lower limb or part of one -- dash across the field on metal crutches, using them for support as they jostle for the ball and kick goals home.

People with one missing or malformed arm are enlisted as goalkeepers.

While the ranks of Angola and Sierra Leone's amputee football teams are made up of those who lost limbs in brutal conflict, most of Ghana's players were victims of accidents or illness.

"I knew I could still play because I was already a footballer," said Mubarak Ademu, a striker who lost his leg in a car accident when he was aged six.

The Black Challenge's returning players say they are less worried about their fitness to compete than they are about paying their way to the world cup.

The team's practice pitch is a patch of dirt near Accra's shoreline that doubles as a car park, a garbage dump and an open-air toilet for a nearby shantytown.

Just down the street from the amputees' lot, Ghana's national football team, the Black Stars, practise in a monolithic stadium.

The Black Stars came home from Brazil early after failing to advance from the so-called "Group of Death" in the qualifying round, which included Germany, United States and Portugal.

The team's performance was a disappointment to many Ghanaians, as was the drama that occurred behind the scenes in the team's camp.

The players demanded that $3 million (2.2 million euros) in appearance fees be flown to them in Brazil on a charter flight in advance of what ended up being their final game against Portugal.

This ultimatum grated on many in Ghana, which is fighting the fallout from a depreciating currency, a yawning deficit due to falling commodities prices such as gold, plus slower-than-expected growth in its nascent oil sector.

Ghana's John Boye (C) reacts to scoring an own goal with Jonathan Mensah (R)

 during the match between Portugal and Ghana in Brasilia on June 26, 2014

(AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys)

"It's at times very painful that virtually everything is pushed to the Black Stars," Viwotor said. "Government should appreciate that every sport that represents the nation should be given attention."

Money troubles

Going to Mexico will cost about $200,000, Viwotor said. So far, only $22,500 has been raised, from private sponsors.

Without the team, Viwotor wonders what would become of the club's players.

Local governments in Ghana are required to give part of their budget to support people with disabilities.

But the bureaucracy required to access the money is daunting. At traffic lights in Accra, legless men on skateboards appear at the windows of waiting drivers, asking for spare change.

"Many of these people would probably be beggars or have lost hope in life," Viwotor said. "When you watch a one-legged person playing, it gives a sort of hope."

Days after their early morning practice, the Black Challenge arrived at a sports complex in an upscale suburb of Accra, where they split into two squads and played against each other.

Players with cerebral palsy joined in, showing little advantage over the crutch-wielding footballers, despite having use of both of their legs.

Frank Wilson, a non-disabled footballer who watched the Black Challenge play from the side-lines, was impressed by the rigours of the adapted game.

"They put in a lot of effort to play their game," he said.

Hundreds of Ghanaian football fans travelled to Brazil 

to follow their team in the World Cup

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SBM Offshore comes clean on African, Brazil bribery allegations

DutchNews.nl, Wednesday 02 April 2014

A ship of SBM Offshore off the coast

of Rio de Janeiro. (NOS/SBM Offshore)

There is evidence that employees of Dutch maritime services group SBM Offshore may have made payments to government officials in Angola and Equatorial Guinea, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement covers the results of an internal investigation into claims the company bribed officials in Brazil and several African countries.

The investigation, which was carried out by independent external counsel and forensic accountants, focused on the period 2007 to 2011.

Payments

In Angola and Equatorial Guinea ‘there is some evidence that payments may have been made directly or indirectly to government officials’, the company said.

In Equatorial Guinea, the company’s agent has repaid $10m of total payments of $18.8m after being requested to do so. SBM Offshore is ‘unable to determine how much, if any, of the remaining amount was paid to government officials’, the statement said.

In Angola, the company used multiple agents who received payments of $22.7m over the period. It is unclear what proportion of that money may have gone on bribes, the company said.

Brazil

In Brazil ‘there were certain red flags but the investigation did not find any credible evidence that the company or the company’s agent made improper payments to government officials (including state company employees),’ the statement said.

The company paid commission of $139m to its agent in Brazil but they delivered 'substantial and legitimate services at a time when SBM’s permanent non-operational presence in Brazil was very limited  - four people in 2007 compared to 220 today, the statement said.

SBM Offshore says it has tightened up its procedures since the allegations first came to light in 2012.

Chief executive Sietze Hepkema said in an interview with Wednesday's Financieele Dagblad the investigation's findings are currently being discussed with Dutch and American justice department officials.

'I am very pleased with the conclusions about Brazil. We do a lot of business there,' Hepkema said.

Read the report

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Europe's meat waste on African menu

Deutsche Welle, 20 January 2014

EU Agriculture Commissioner Ciolos wants to stop subsidies for agricultural exports to Africa. But that is unlikely to diminish the flood of cheap poultry that is demolishing Africa's domestic poultry industry.

It is 30 degrees Celsius in the shade in the Ghanaian capital Accra. Traders at the Kaneshie market are all sweating profusely. On open counters, the poultry meat is slowly thawing out, water trickles down the glass panes. Cardboard boxes in the nearby cold store are turning wet. In countries like Ghana, where refrigerated warehouses often break down, frozen imported meat poses a huge health risk.

Nonetheless, Ghana imports about 165,000 tones of cheap meat from Brazil, USA and Europe every year. This is meat that nobody in the exporting countries wants to eat.

Back in 1980s and in 1990s Ghana was able to meet 80 percent of its national poultry demand with domestic production says Quame Kokroh, Executive Secretary of the National Poultry Association. "Since then, cheap imports turned the market upside down. But today our farmers have a share of only ten percent and we are afraid that we will lose that too," he said.

Fillets for Europe, inferior cuts of meat for Africa

90 percent of frozen imports are from
Brazil, the US and the Netherlands

Official statistics say every German eats nearly 19 kilograms of poultry per year. Breast of chicken is the most popular cut. It is not only beautifully white and tender and also has a low fat content. It is also what the heath conscious in Europe prefer.

German farmers produce 25 percent more poultry than their consumers eat. Parts of the birds that can't be sold easily in Germany, such as the innards, are shipped to Africa.

Africans are sold the "Chicken Back" which is the bony back part from which the white breast has been removed.

From 2011 to 2012, German exports of poultry to Africa increased by a staggering 120 percent. A total of 42 million kilograms of poultry were exported to African countries in 2012. European Statistical Office (EUSTAT) says ten percent of all poultry exports to Africa come from Germany. The remaining 90 percent comes from Brazil, the US and the Netherlands.

Dumping harms the development

The volume of exports is not the problem says Francisco Mari, who is an expert in agricultural trade at the German relief organization Brot für die Welt. The issue is the low price at which the meat is sold to African consumers. It is so low that the imports capture the market and drive local competitors away.

Mari said Ghanaian consumers can buy imported frozen chicken parts for the equivalent of two euros whereas the price of a whole chicken from the farmer next door is four euros.

Mari believes this makes a mockery of development aid projects that try to help poorer countries stand on their two feet and extricate themselves from poverty.

He is not convinced that the plan by the EU Agricultural Commissioner Dacian Ciolos to halt subsidies for European agricultural exports to Africa will change anything. "Subsidized agricultural exports to Africa ceased in 2008 anyway, so it won't make difference," said Mari.

The reason that the EU poultry parts can be so cheaply exported to Africa is because of the introduction of factory farming. Production costs are covered by European sales alone.

Millions made by selling poultry to Africans

In 2003, Ghana's Parliament tried to fight the cheap imports by increasing in import duties, but after a short time, the government overturned the law. "I think it was the pressure from the international community," says Quame Kokroh from the Ghanaian Poultry Association. Francisco Mari agrees. "Ghana was negotiating with the World Bank for a debt relief loan at the same time. If the government had not backtracked, then the state would have lost a lot of money."

Brazil 'to write off' almost $900m of African debt

BBC News, 25 May 2013

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Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff (L)
wants to boost trade with Africa

Brazil has announced that it will cancel or restructure almost $900m (£600m) worth of debt with Africa.

Oil- and gas-rich Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania and Zambia are among the 12 African countries to benefit.

The move is seen as an effort to boost economic ties between the world's seventh largest economy and the African continent.

Official data in Brazil show that its trade with Africa has increased fivefold in the past decade.

The debt announcement was made during the third visit in three months to Africa by Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, who attended the African Union summit in Ethiopia.

'Strategic'

"Almost all (aid) is cancellation," Ms Rousseff's spokesman, Thomas Traumann, told reporters.

"To maintain a special relationship with Africa is strategic for Brazil's foreign policy."

He added that most of the debt was accumulated in the 1970s and had been renegotiated before.

A spokesman for Brazil's Foreign Ministry told Efe news agency that the debt restructuring for some countries would consist of more favourable interest rates and longer repayment terms.

Congo-Brazzaville owes the most to Brazil - $352m - followed by Tanzania ($237m) and Zambia ($113.4m).

The other countries to benefit are Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, and Sudan.

Resource-hungry

Brazil has been increasingly expanding its economic ties with resource-rich Africa as part of the so-called South-South cooperation.

Trade between the two blocks went from $5bn (£3.3bn) in 2000 to $26.5bn (£17.5bn) in 2012. 

Trade between Brazil and Africa has grown fivefold in the
 last decade, fuelled by South America's hunger for
natural resources

Brazilian companies invest heavily in oil and mining in Africa, and have taken on big infrastructure projects.

Latin America's economic powerhouse has also opened 19 new embassies in Africa in the last decade, and is forecast to grow 3.5 percent this year.

But Brazil's hunt for natural resources has not always been easy in Africa.

Last month, hundreds of protesters in Mozambique blocked the entrance to a Brazilian coal mine in a row over a compensation deal agreed after they were displaced.

Human Rights Watch, a rights group, said farming communities had been resettled on arid lands and had suffered food shortages.

The Brazilian giant Vale, which owns the mine, and the government of Mozambique said improvements were being made.

Related Article:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version) 

“… The Future of the Illuminati

Now, I want to tell you something that you didn't expect and something I've reported only one other time. What about all of the money that the Illuminati has? There are trillions and trillions of euro in banks, under their control, waiting. What are they going to do with it and where are they going to use it? It's still here. They're waiting.

This group is waiting for something to happen that they know is going to happen, for they see it coming as much as I do. However, I would like to tell you something that they don't expect. With awareness comes generational shift. Those in charge of this money will not always be elders. The indigos eventually will have it.

They are waiting for something to happen in Africa - the building of a new civilization, a continent that has nothing to unlearn. Once Africa is cured, once it's ready, a new civilization can be created from the ground up. Africans will be ready to learn everything about building a foundation for the most advanced civilization ever and will do it with the most modern and inventive systems available. Eventually, this new continent will even beat the economics of China.

This is the prediction and always has been, and the Illuminati's money will fund it. Did I say the Illuminati will fund it? [Kryon laugh] The Illuminati's money will fund it, but there is a difference from the past, dear ones. The ones who inherit the positions in the Illuminati will be a different consciousness. Listen, they are not suddenly going to be the ones who have the good of everyone in their hearts - hardly. They want to make money, but what they will see instead is a way to make a great deal of money through this investment. In the process, it will automatically help hundreds of thousands, and they will be at the beginning, the foundation, that builds the new Africa. The new African states of unification eventually will create a continent stronger than any of the others, and it will have one currency. The resources alone will dwarf anything in the world. ...”

BRICS Wrangle Over New Development Bank

Jakarta Globe - AFP, March 26, 2013

Image provided by the South African government shows President Jacob
Zuma speaking in Pretoria on March 24, 2013. (AFP Photo) 

    

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Durban, South Africa. BRICS emerging powers on Tuesday sought a deal on setting up a development bank that would rival Western-backed institutions, trying to iron out significant differences ahead of a leaders' summit in Durban.

The grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and hosts South Africa are racing to flesh out proposals for an infrastructure-focused lender that would challenge seven decades of dominance by the World Bank.

Just hours before leaders kick off the summit at 17:30 GMT, finance ministers were still working to agree key elements of the plan.

Disputes remain over what the bank will do, with each side trying to mold the institution to their foreign or domestic policy goals and with each looking for assurances of an equitable return on their initial investment of around $10 billion.

Failure to secure a deal would be a major embarrassment for many of the participants and would play into the hands of those who argue the BRICS have little to bind them together.

Xi Jinping, who has underscored the growing importance of the group by making Durban his first summit as China's president, earlier expressed hopes for "positive headway" in establishing the bank.

In a keynote speech in Tanzania on Monday Xi vowed Beijing's "sincere friendship" with the continent, and a relationship that respects Africa's "dignity and independence."

Meanwhile host President Jacob Zuma has lauded the summit as a means of addressing his country's chronic economic problems including high unemployment.

"BRICS provides an opportunity for South Africa to promote its competitiveness," Zuma said in a speech on the eve of the summit.

"It is an opportunity to move further in our drive to promote economic growth and confront the challenge of poverty, inequality and unemployment that afflicts our country."

A failure to take concrete steps would raise questions about whether the BRICS grouping can survive.

"Ironically it may be the cleavages within the BRICS grouping that more accurately hint at the future of the global order: tensions between China and Brazil on trade, India on security, and Russia on status highlight the difficulty Beijing will have in staking its claim to global leadership," said Daniel Twining of the German Marshall Fund.

But if the leaders succeed it would be the first time since the inaugural BRICS summit four years ago that the group matches rhetorical demands for a more equitable global order with concrete steps.

That would send a loud message to the United States and European nations that the current global balance of power is unworkable.

Together the BRICS account for 25 percent of global GDP and 40 percent of the world's population.

But members say institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations Security Council are not changing fast enough reflect their new-found clout.

Diplomats say it could start with $10 billion seed money from each country, but the exact role of the bank is up for debate.

Indian officials have pressed for a BRICS-led South-South development bank, recycling budget surpluses into investment in developing countries.

Many developing nations inside and outside BRICS will hope that is a way of tapping China's vast financial resources.

Meanwhile China would no doubt like the bank to invest in trade-multiplying projects.

Aside from the development bank, the group will also try to establish a foreign exchange reserve pool worth as much as $240 billion to be drawn on in financial crises.

China has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, worth $3.31 trillion at the end of 2012, and establishing currency swap lines could help other BRICS tap that massive resource.

Later on Tuesday Brazil is to sign a bilateral accord with China to promote trade in their national currencies.

BRICS leaders will also establish business and think tank councils.

With Syria's two-year long civil war escalating through the suspected use of chemical weapons, BRICS leaders will also have to weigh a call from President Bashar al-Assad to intervene.

In a message to the summit leaders Assad asked "for intervention by the BRICS to stop the violence in his country and encourage the opening of a dialogue, which he wishes to start," said his senior adviser Bouthaina Shaaban after he delivered the message to Zuma.

Agence France-Presse

This handout photo on March 26, 2013 shows South African Finance Minister

 Pravin Gordhan (C) poses with his counterparts (L-R) Minister Chidambaram 

Palaniappan of India, Minister Xiaochuan Zhou of China, Minister Guido Mantega

 of Brazil and Minister Anto Siluanov of Russia on the margins of the 5th BRICS

 summit held at the Inkosi Luthuli International Conference Centre in Durban,

on March 26, 2013. AFP PHOTO / GOVERNMENT HO/ ELMOND JIYANE

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"The U in Kundalini"- Oct 18, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Kundalini, Unification, EU, Nobel Peace Prize 2012, Middle East, South America, Only 5 Currencies on Earth, Old Souls, Duality will dismiss, 3D Humanity will melt with Multi dimensional higher self, Global Unity… etc.)

Brazil census shows African-Brazilians in the majority for the first time

Preliminary results show 50.7% of Brazilians now define themselves as black or mixed race compared with 47.7% whites

guardian.co.uk, Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro, Thursday 17 November 2011

The proportion of Brazilians who define themselves as black or mixed race
 has risen from 44.7% to 50.7% since 2000. Photograph: Caio Guatelli/
LatinContent/Getty

For the first time since records began black and mixed race people form the majority of Brazil's population, the country's latest census has confirmed.

Preliminary results from the 2010 census, released on Wednesday, show that 97 million Brazilians, or 50.7% of the population, now define themselves as black or mixed race, compared with 91 million or 47.7% who label themselves white.

The proportion of Brazilians declaring themselves white was down from 53.7% in 2000, when Brazil's last census was held.

But the proportion of people declaring themselves black or mixed race has risen from 44.7% to 50.7%, making African-Brazilians the official majority for the first time.

"Among the hypotheses to explain this trend, one could highlight the valorisation of identity among Afro-descendants," Brazil's census board, the IBGE, said in its report.

According to the census, 7.6% of Brazilians said they were black, compared with 6.2% in 2000, and 43.1% said they were mixed race, up from 38.5%.

In 1872, when Brazil's first census was conducted, the population was split into just two groups: free people and slaves, who then represented 15% of the population.

The IBGE said that while its researchers had detected the trend about three years ago, the 2010 census was the first full nationwide study to recognise the phenomenon.

In an interview last year Brazil's minister for racial equality, Elio Ferreira de Araujo, attributed the change to growing pride among his country's black and indigenous communities.

"People are no longer scared of identifying themselves or insecure about saying: 'I'mblack, and black is beautiful,'" he told the Guardian.

Ivonete Carvalho, from the government's racial equality ministry, said African-Brazilians were increasingly willing to stand up and be counted: "I'm here. I'm me. I'm not ashamed of my history."

Race campaigners welcomed the growing number of self-declared African-Brazilians, but the census also underlined how the vast social divide between Brazil's white and non-white populations persists.

The 2010 census – a massive operation which involved about 190,000 census takers visiting 58m homes – found that in major cities white inhabitants were earning about 2.4 times more than their black counterparts.

In Salvador, a former slave port with one of Brazil's largest black populations, the findings were even worse: whites earned 3.2 times more than blacks.

"It is a vicious circle," Marcelo Paixão, an economist from Rio's UFRJ University told O Globo. "Poor salaries lead to worse education, which is a barrier to getting a good job. We need more public policies."

A parallel study, released this week by the Data Popular Institute, provided further evidence of the racial divide that continues to blight Brazilian society. The wealthiest group of Brazilians – known as "Class A" – was made up of 82.3% white people and just 17.7% African-Brazilians.

In contrast "Class E" – the poorest section of society – was 76.3% African-Brazilian and 23.7% white.

The same study found that 31.3% of Brazil's white population had private health plans, compared with just 15.2% of the black population.

In an interview this week Ivone Caetano, a prominent African-Brazilian judge in Rio de Janeiro, painted a bleak picture of life in the place some call South America's "rainbow nation".

"In Brazil every black person is going to be a victim of racism, prejudice [and] discrimination, whatever your position," she said. "Our prejudice is disguised and hypocritical."

A news report on the census findings aired by the Brazilian channel Record TV said the rise in Brazil's officially black and mixed race population was "a signal of growing pride among the descendants of Africans". The story was presented by a white reporter and introduced by two white news anchors.

Related Article:

Analysis: As rich world sputters, Brazil looks to Africa

Obama: Brazil's democracy an example for Arab world

Reuters, By Alister Bull and Matt Spetalnick, RIO DE JANEIRO | Sun Mar 20, 2011

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Sunday that Brazil's emergence as a powerful democracy was an example other nations could follow, as young people in the Middle East and north Africa rebelled for greater freedom.

"As two nations who have struggled over many generations to perfect our own democracies, the United States and Brazil know that the future of the Arab World will be determined by its people," Obama said to a standing ovation at a historic theater in downtown Rio de Janeiro.

Obama has ordered U.S. forces into the biggest military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, authorizing strikes against Libya on Saturday as he met with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia.

"We've seen the people of Libya take a courageous stand against a regime determined to brutalize its own citizens. Across the region, we have seen young people rise up," he told an audience of about 2,000 prominent Brazilians in a speech that was televised live across Brazil.

"When men and women peacefully claim their human rights, our own common humanity is enhanced... That is the example of Brazil," he said to loud applause in the ornate hall.

Obama also used the speech to stress that the United States sought a partnership of equals with Brazil, striking a chord that Brazilian officials were hoping for.

Rousseff took a tough tone during their joint appearance in Brasilia and dwelled on issues that divide them like trade tariffs and Brazil's aspirations for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat -- a desire Obama expressed appreciation for but stopped short of endorsing.

In Rio the president deployed his formidable rhetorical skills to assure Brazilians he was not just interested in taking advantage of their country's economic boom, which has lifted more than 20 million out of poverty in the last decade.

"As you confront the many challenges you still face at home as well as abroad, let us stand together -- not as senior and junior partners, but as equal partners," he said.

Obama, America's first African-American president, also stressed the multiracial and multicultural common ground that the United States and Brazil share and described it as a bond that should be exploited for mutual advantage.

"Together, we can advance our common prosperity," he said, citing trade and energy security, in a nod to Brazil's advances in biofuels and offshore oil finds.

"Our two nations face many challenges. On the road ahead, we will encounter many obstacles. But in the end, it is our history that gives us hope for a better tomorrow," he said.

(Additional reporting by Stuart Grudgings, Writing by Alister Bull, Editing by Todd Benson and Cynthia Osterman)

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