“Bogus Boatos on the Bossa Nova Buck”

Source: BCB (2003)

The Banco Central do Brasil dispels a rumor (boato):

Em razão de boatos que circulam especialmente no Rio de Janeiro e em Fortaleza, o Banco Central esclarece que não há fundamento nas informações de que estaria recomprando moedas de 1 real com a figura de Juscelino Kubitschek e do prédio do Banco Central. Assim como as demais moedas bimetálicas de 1 real, as moedas com a figura de Juscelino Kubitschek e do prédio do Banco Central permanecem normalmente em circulação e valem o correspondente a seu valor de face, ou seja 1 real. O Banco Central somente recebe moedas que estejam danificadas, com suspeição de legitimidade ou em processo de recolhimento (perda de poder liberatório).

In reason of rumors that are circulating, especially in Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza, the Central Bank of Brazil announces that there is no foundation to reports that it may be buying back 1-real coins depicting former president Kubitschek and the Central Bank building.

Which is possibly even more of an architectural abomination than that Federal Gothic fortress that Ben Bernanke hangs out at. (I am not a big fan of Brazilian Brutalist hypermodernism, or Oscar Niemeyer.)

Against Babel: The World Bank Scrubs the Hubbub

Anti-Babel: A translation hub designed to reduce the hubbub.

A few years ago, the World Bank woke up to the fact that it sucked at translation.

So it decided to develop

A Document Translation Framework for the World Bank Group and Strengthening Public Information Centers

How has that worked out, I wonder? They promised to produce a progress report in 2004, but I cannot seem to find that on their Web site.

I hope the current availability of the online multilingual terminology database it has developed is not indicative of its progress since then:

I ask because lately I have gotten more involved in thinking about how to help improve the process of translating financial reporting and investor relations materials of various types. And do it relatively cheaply. See, for example,

• “A Rumbling Wrack and a Hell of an Engeneer”

Who does this sort of thing well, and how do they do it?

NYSE-Euronext, for one, it seems to me, from a quick inspection, does this sort of thing pretty well. I should write to them and ask them how they do it.

The principal risk to the Bank lies in not undertaking the investment to manage translation needs more effectively. Without an integrated quality assurance process, or guidelines and criteria to help staff make decisions on languages or translations, the Bank is not carrying out its responsibilities to communicate effectively with stakeholders and people affected by its work.

The consequences of mistranslations:

Rio: Looting of Beer Truck Leads to Reshuffle of Military Police Blogging Brigades

GloboNews segment cites the blog of the officer in charge of internal affairs for the state military police of Rio: “The poorly paid Soldier who lacks decent working conditions becomes easy ‘prey’ for corrupters.”

The film invaded the streets, the TV networks, public debates, the newspapers, the magazines, and, worst of all, the mind of every Brazilian, fascinated with the “hero” who tortures and kills criminals and is a member of the finest urban combat unit in the world, the Special Operations Battalion (BOPE), a troop of “SOCIAL HEROES,” the pride of all of us military policemen and the State Military Police of Rio de Janeiro. … To our mind, the soldier is a hero, especially in the impressionable minds of young people, so that destroying this reality is an antisocial crime, pardon my emphatic way of putting it. –Col. Paul on the film Tropa de Elite, which depicts police corruption and indiscriminate, off-the-reservation ultraviolence.

Cabral exonera comandante da PM e pune oficiais que lideraram manifestação: “Rio de Janeiro governor Sérgio Cabral fires commander of state military police (PM) and punishes senior officers who led protest.”

O Globo reports. The story was covered extensively — and excitedly — by GloboNews. On whose Web site I now cannot seem to find the story. Okay, here is the segment we saw.

But it is hard to get a read on the significance of the change in command other than that it is extremely significant, and that it comes in the wake of a “videoscandal” in which Rio PMs are shown helping themselves to cases of beer from a hijacked truckload.

Also shown was an incident in which PMs from a reputed “narcobattalion” celebrated their release from the disciplinary barracks by shooting off fireworks, dancing in the street, and driving off in luxury cars.

The narcobattalion whoops up it upon receipt of “get out of jail free” card.

The reporter quotes the state public security secretary as saying (but does not show, for some reason) that he will change the command of every single military police battalion in the state. The word faxina (”clean sweep, spring cleaning”) got used several times.

I would venture to say that the key message here from the governor and his security secretary, as they were shown talking on the TV last evening, was that (1) current police leadership has no control over its subordinates and (2) insubordination to civilian authority will not (no longer) be tolerated.

That is to say: The dog seems to be insisting that the tail stop wagging it.

Also dismissed was PM internal affairs command Col. Paul.

“A Rumbling Wrack and a Hell of an Engeneer”

If you are looking to sink some capital into Brazil’s Bovespa, you might be interested in taking a look at the following sector, from the “industrial classification” section of its Web site:

Construction and Engeneering

Also of interest:

Consultive Engeneering

Which I suppose might be something like “engineering consulting services,” depending on the classification system one consults. Brazil’s is the

• Classificação Nacional de Atividades Econômicas / CNAE

Further research on the term is required.

See also

• “In Hell, The Engineers Are Brazilian and the Musicians Are German”

“The Kenya National Human Rights Commission Is Enaged in Moral Panic”: Officer Kiraithe

Kenya Police Spokesman Eric Kiraithe Responds to KNHRC Preliminary Report on 454 Killings (Google Video):

News of executed corpses being dumped in wooded areas to be eaten by hyenas is a case of moral panic, Kenyan police spokesman tells KTN TV.

The Kenyan police are “highly professional civil servants” forming “value-added partnerships” to “improve the quality of life of Kenyans,” but are constrained from discussing national security matters.

Strikes me as sinister doublespeak. You?

See also

• “Still Behaving Badly” (KNHRC, December 2007)
• “For the past six months, corpses have been bobbing up in Kenya’s rivers and rotting in forests; they have been dumped unceremoniously beside roads and in morgues — hundreds of young men, most dispatched with a single bullet to the head.”
• Kenya: “Militia, Police, World Bank Contribute to Post-Election Turmoil”
• “Did The Kenya Police Influence The Outcome Of The Kenya General Elections 2007?”
• Kenyan Political Violence: Checking Back With the Morgue

“Who Stopped the Heart of Jango Goulart?”

Goulart foi morto a pedido do Brasil, diz ex-agente uruguaio: A former Uruguayan spy imprisoned in Brazil tells the Folha de S. Paulo that deposed former João Goulart, who died of a heart attack in 1976, was poisoned “at the request of the Brazilian government.”

In an operation financed by your tax dollars.

We saw quite a bit of dismissive commentary on the claim last evening, including a verdict of “sensationalist and implausible” from the commentator on TV Gazeta’s evening news program.

“Why would Gen. Geisel, who drove the process of democratization, consider Goulart a threat who needed eliminating in 1976?” the fellow asked, “rather than during the late 1960s, when he formed the Frente Ampla with Lacerda and Kubitschek to push for redemocratization?”

Which seems like a fair question — as long as we are speculating rather than fact-checking. But then again, as Mrs. NMMist pointed out, under AI-5, the chain of command came to be regarded as optional, and a lot of the hardline officer corps simply opted for the “if it feels good, do it” approach to military order and discipline. See also

• Carnage and Carnival: The Curious Career of Captain Guimarães

Jango morreu envenenado, afirma Mario Neira Barreiro

Jango died of poisoning, says Mario Neira Barreiro.  

Sérgio Fleury teria dado a ordem para o assassinato

Sérgio Fleury supposedly gave the order for the assassination.

Presidente deposto teria dito aos agentes que sabia da espionagem: “Sei que estão me vigiando, mas não sou inimigo de vocês”

Former president said to have told agent he knew he was being spied on. “I know you are watching me, but I am not your enemy.”

Preso desde 2003 na Penitenciária de Alta Segurança de Charqueadas (RS), o ex-agente do serviço de inteligência do governo uruguaio Mario Neira Barreiro, 54, disse em entrevista exclusiva à Folha que espionou durante quatro anos o presidente João Goulart (1918-1976), o Jango, e que ele foi morto por envenenamento a pedido do governo brasileiro.

Imprisoned since 2003 in the maximum security penitentiary in Charqueadas, Rio Grande do Sul, the former Uruguayan intelligence again Mario Neira Barreiro, 54, said in an exclusive interview with the Folha that he spied for four years on former president Goulart, and that Jango was poisoned at the request of the Brazilian government. 

A Working Note on Words Slurred, Preferred and Absurd

Dinking around with Glossword, a simple Web-based terminology database organized according to pretty good multilingual terminology and thesaurus-authoring practices, such as those employed by IATE.

As far as translators are concerned, terminology is primarily an ad hoc affair, more a matter of filling in the blanks in their knowledge than systematically studying a constellation of terms in a given universe of discourse. –Robert Bonnono, “Terminology for Translators—an Implementation of ISO 12620″

That, in a nutshell, is the problem that consumes my time these days.

A client has asked me to review a fairly huge collection of glossaries related to business reporting.

I have to find a an effective (and diplomatic) way of communicating to this client that the ad hoc method of constructing and compiling these glossaries means that using them in practice is likely to produce an unacceptable level of failures to communicate.

It is, to use one of my favorite New World Lusophone words, a gambiarra — a kludge.

Kludge: patched solution; a makeshift combination of hardware and software put together to solve a computing problem that is effective but not suitable for manufacture.

Mexico: “Convergence Insurgencies Emerge in Cable Wars”

La guerra del cable (Proceso No. 1630): Mexico’s “cable wars” pit Carlos Slim’s Telmex against Televisa in a battle to shape “digital convergence” policy proposals that threaten (promise) to alter the (non)competitive landscape.

Having been reading recently about the battle for control of Russia’s NTV — I had not been aware of the role Spain’s Telefónica had played in that complex and bloody affair — and as someone who tries to pay attention to similar developments in Brazil (though at the moment I am behind on my reading), I file this under the provisional heading of “armed media monopolies, the Hobbesian state of nature and.”

El consorcio televisivo que preside Emilio Azcárraga Jean vuelve a mover sus piezas para impedir que la Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes dé el aval para que Telmex se convierta en proveedor de contenidos vía televisión por cable y de servicios convergentes de telefonía e internet –el llamado triple play. Ante el temor de que el dueño del Grupo Carso les coma el mandado, Televisa le echó encima a las empresas de televisión por cable… La batalla por el control del mercado de las telecomunicaciones comienza a cobrar fuerza.

The broadcasting consortium presided by Emilio Azcárraga Jean is once again moving its pieces in order to prevent the Secretary of Communications and Transportation from backing a plan to let Telmex become a provider of cable TV content and convergent telephone and Internet services — the so-called “triple play.” Fearing that the top man at the Corso Group will eat them alive, Televisa has launched an assault on the cable TV companies. The battle for control of the telecommunications market is starting to heat up.

Sâo Paulo: “El coronel sí tiene quien le escriba”

Col. Rodrigues gets shot down like a dog.

Polícia prende três PMs suspeitos de assassinar coronel: The Estado de S. Paulo devotes its top Web story to developments in the assassination of the top military police commander in the northern zone of the city.

As it should. It would be nice if it dedicated the top of the print edition to the story as well. Instead of leading with a hoisted camel.

Primary emphasis on “oddly enough” infotainment: What do angry airborne camels have to do with the price of arroz, feijão and aipim?

I cannot tell you how demoralizing it is to live in an urban environment full of fear, uncertainty and doubt about which cops are really cops and which cops are really criminals. Not to even mention the criminals who dress up like cops — getting their cop uniforms from cops.

What is this, a New World Lusophone version of Weegee’s New York?

See also

• The Assassination of Col. Rodrigues: The Animated Version
• São Paulo: Who Gunned Down Col. Rodrigues And Shot Up the Bad Boy Bar?
• São Paulo Police Blotter: “The Colonel’s Killer Wore Combat Boots”

General Panic at Société Générale: Of Loopholes, FUD Machines and Gambiarras

Rogue trader: “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look …”

LOOPHOLE: A way of escape, an evasion; a corruption of “louvre holes.” (See LOUVRE.)

Louvre boards in churches. Before chimneys were used, holes were left in the roof, called loovers or leuver holes. From the French l’ouvert (the open boards). –E. Cobham Brewer, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (189

Kludge: patched solution; a makeshift combination of hardware and software put together to solve a computing problem that is effective but not suitable for manufacture.

Rogue trader costs Société Générale EUR5bn; back office controls skirted:

French banking group Société Générale SocGen is reporting a massive EUR4.9 billion in losses perpetrated by a rogue trader who used to work in its middle office division and who used loopholes in controls and risk management procedures to conceal fictitious transactions.

There will be a lot more interesting comments to read on this case than mine.

I personally plan to consult Financial Engineering News on the incident, because I think the “how” angle on this story is likely to be the most interesting: Why the loopholes existed, and how the “rogue trader” gamed them.

(Oops. FEN has ceased publication. Which is a shame. One of the best specialty business publications in any sector, I always thought. )

Everyone immmediately thinks of (Ewan “Ben Kenobi” MacGregor as) Nick “The Rogue Trader” Leeson, but it actually might be more interesting to compare the case to Enron’s “Fat Boy” and “Death Star” elecricity trading gambits, or Citigroup’s “Dr. Evil” German bond trading strategy.

The (shocking!) news immediately made me think of a technology audit project I once worked on for a flagship client of one of those Big X global consultancies, as a humble project editor.

The challenge, to put it bluntly, was to find a very diplomatic way of saying that the automation of internal controls — the global financial institution’s “policy server,” as the jargon goes — was deeply afflicted by the GIGO principle and, consequently, shot through with business logic that was likely to produce the workflow-automation and transaction-processing equivalent of that crayon Homer Simpson shoved up his nose into his brain as a child.

The bank says the junior trader - who hasn’t been named, but who earned less than EUR100,000 a year - had “in-depth knowledge” of risk control procedures from his previous position in the bank’s middle office, which enabled him to “conceal these positions through a scheme of elaborate ficticious transactions”.

Bumbá Meu Moto-Boi: Crosstown Traffic in Old São Paulo (Vote Quimby)

“City gives up on exclusive motorcyle lane” (G1/Globo). After one day, if I am understanding this correctly.

O guarda ele quis me autuar
O guarda ele quis me autuar
Me disse que até ia ajudar
O prefeito a se candidatar
E o outro candidato eliminar
O guarda ele quis me autuar
–Zebu Cavaco and his Cur-Deus Homos

I had a very long day yesterday, and the CPTM commuter train, plagued by delays because of upstream track repairs, presented a queue that reminded me of the line for the Magic Mountain roller coaster at Disneyland when it first opened, years and years ago.

So I decided to take a cab from an unfamiliar ponto.

This is a risky procedure, as I should have known, but I was extremely, extremely tired.

As a result, my cheerful cabbie got us incredibly, incredibly lost — I said Sumarezinho, not Sumaré — and I wound up paying R$50 for a guided tour of the entire city that got me nowhere nearer my final destination.

Which was: a plate of medium-rare miolo de alcatra, a lovely salad with olives, an impressively gooey heartland-produced cheese of some unidentifiable variety, balsamic vinegar and field greens, and a bottle of Mendoza cabernet, consumed on our big, fat sofa beside my good wife, watching a subtitled version of Scorcese’s After Hours.

Appropriately enough, given that my day was also all about misadventures in urban transportation.

At one point, I handed the cell phone to the driver, with my wife on the other end.

When the driver returned the phone to me, my wife said, forcefully, “Your driver is deeply disturbed, and possibly dangerously insane. Get out of that cab ASAP and get on the subway.” My wife is always right, of course, so I did just that.

On the bright side, during my whirlwind tour of rush-hour traffic, I was able to observe a couple of civic improvement projects that have earned a lot of attention — and derision — recently.

One was the sidewalk improvement project on the Avenida Paulista, the other a sudden mayoral decree banning the practice motorcyclists have of zipping along between cars in the endemic (pandemic) stop-and-go traffic.

See also

• The Sidewalks of São Paulo: The Paulista Gets a Botox Injection

The incumbent São Paulo version of “Diamond Joe” Quimby of Simpsons fame is running for reelection. He has now reportedly embarked on a whirlwind, pre-nomination campaign of “one public improvement per day” to go along with a notable prime-time advertising blitz — including “back to back to back” TV spots during the Jornal Nacional and the prime-time soap opera on Globo.

Where is all the money coming from for those spots, anyway? We understood that p