Zika and the Olympics In Copenhagen in 2009, Brazil won the privilege of hosting the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro. The games will begin on the 5 th of august, but have been facing some serious threats, like not being able to be on schedule and waters in the Guanabara bay being polluted. Most severe of all though is the threat of the Zika virus, that has been plaguing the country for quite some time now. Despite only show mild symptoms such as fever or a rash, the virus has been linked to microcephaly, a birth abnormality that causes an underdeveloped head and brain of the child. The Zika virus therefore poses the real threat to pregnant women. The World Health Organization received an open letter, signed by 150 health experts, that warns against the risk of transmission related to an event like the Olympics where thousands of people from all over the globe will gather and potentially carry the virus to their domestic countries. However, WHO doesn’t feel that the Olympic...

Since the beginning of February, I have worked as an intern at the political section at the Danish embassy in Brasilia, where I will be until the end of July. Not one day is the same at the embassy I work 37 hours per week from Monday to Friday, but that is also almost the only thing that is certain. My permanent assignments are to follow the Brazilian medias for news about Denmark and keep myself updated on other topics that could be relevant to Denmark. Moreover, I receive daily assignments from the Minister Counsellor, the Cultural officer or one of the two growth advisors. So far I have been working with such different things as Zika, Brazil´s economy, an exhibition about Danish architecture and research on IT and health. Moreover, I am participating in a lot of lectures that the embassy is invited to or that the Universities are arranging. Some of the topics have been Brazilian campaign financing, Brazilian decision-making processes regarding international relation and Br...

On Monday 18 April professors Fernanda Gláucia Pinto and Georg Fischer along with students Juul van de Voort (BA) and Peter Haldborg (MA) had the pleasure of attending a dinner-buffet at the  residence  of the ambassador of Portugal, Rui Macieira ’s residency. The occasion was the visit of professor Ricardo Reis , associate dean for International Affairs of Universidade Católica de Lisboa. After a three-and-a-half hour journey from Aarhus to Copenhagen, a few cups of coffee and a beer, and finally a trip to Charlottenlund, we arrived at Rui Macieira’s residence where we were greeted by the ambassador himself. Shortly after, he thanked everyone for their participation in his welcome speech, soon followed by a short speech by professor Reis – both in European Portuguese, obviously. After the speeches it was time to enjoy the delicious food! Moments after the dinner was served people were flocking around the buffet, enjoying a mixture of Danish and Portuguese delicaci...

At Aarhus University the 2nd semester students and assistant professor Georg Fischer have looked into the chaos that is going on in Brazil at the moment. There is both a political and economic crisis in the country, the corruption scandal with the state-owned Petrobras, the possible impeachment against President Dilma and the corruption scandal against ex-president Lula. In this article we take a closer look at the impeachment process that is happening right now with Dilma Rousseff as key player. How does the impeachment process work? To begin the process, the speaker of the lower chamber of Congress has to accept a petition for impeachment, in order to decide whether the president should face impeachment. If they vote no, nothing happens. If yes, the president must go on trial. The speaker then forms a 65-member congressional panel to investigate the accusations and decide if removal of the president is warranted. The panel is comprised of representatives from all political...