Lula and Obama

Esse “journal” eh do dia 15/03, mas acho que ainda vale postar. ;)

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By Yohana de Andrade

Thanks to Soledad and Dallia, I could go to the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s 19^th Annual Legislative Conference, on Tuesday. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see president Obama, however all the workshops were very good. Between Immigration, Health Care and Environment, the immigration was my favorite issue. I could realize how much the Latin people in US face huge problems to survive.

Finally I went to the Politics & Prose bookstore, at Connecticut Avenue. Beyond the books and café, this bookstore invites authors to discuss their books. Wednesday, Peter Singer was there. He wrote “The Life You Can Save”, where he shows “that our current response to world poverty is not only insufficient but ethically indefensible”.

Lula, the president of Brazil, came to Washington yesterday to meet president Obama. Because of this meeting, I made a great report in Voice of America about the US and Brazil relation. I could talk to Paulo Sotero, director of Brazil Institute, and Eliana Cardoso, Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. Both of them agreed that Brazil and United States have, nowadays, different perspective related to agriculture issues. However, these countries always had good economic and politic relations. So, the report was broadcast to some countries in Africa, and I truly believe it’s an important issue to African people: Obama, the first African-American president, and Lula, president of the second largest country in African population.

Saturday I went to The Kennedy Center, and could see the collection Brides of the Arab World, with examples from all 22 countries in the League of Arab States, with more than 40 wedding. I also went to Georgetown. At night, at Joe’s apartment, we made dolls to draw the attention for homeless in Colombia. It was an interesting night, because everyone there was from different countries, so we could exchange ideas. And today, at Constitution Avenue, I went to Washington DC St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and saw a little bit of the Irish influence in the Washingtonian people.