BRAZIL – Governors and representatives of more than 15 states began a movement to vote on the bill by collecting royalties from oil. This has been approved by the senate, which benefits the non-producing states. They also want to modify the calculation of the base salary of teachers and advocate renegotiation of the debts of the states with the Union.

The governors decided to make a movement of pressure and met with the presidents of the Chamber, Marco Maia (PT-SP), and the Senate, José Sarney (PMDB-AP). At the meeting, Marco Maia said that governors should mobilize their benches and a window can vote in the second half of March. But there are states such as Rio and Espirito Santo who refused to vote. The governors of these states were not present at the meeting.

The project is awaiting the assessment of members, authored by Senator Vital do Rego (PMDB-PB) and approved by the senate. This can cause loss of $48.8 billion by 2020 in Rio de Janeiro.

Earlier, the governors gathered at the house of the governor of Maranhão, Roseana Sarney (PMDB), and outlined a plan of action to press for a vote of royalties and other points. These were only attended by the governors interested in the royalty rate. In this first meeting, without the presence of Maia and Sarney, governors rose tone and charges made for greater involvement by the federal government.

Senator Marcelo Crivella (PRB-RJ) attended the meeting and heard in the senate to vote on the request of the royalties. “What Rio will lose is not true. They want the board to approve that excrescence”, Crivella said.. They had six priority issues: debt renegotiation, not voting the PEC 300, establishing a mandatory national floor for firefighters and police officers, approval of the project royalties, project commerce on the Internet, and change in the law and the Fund State Participation (FPE).

The governors advocate change in the calculation of the base salary of teachers. The Ministry of Education announced on Monday the new national floor of $1,451 for 40 hours, which means an adjustment of 22.22% compared to 2011. The value is retroactive to January 1.

All the government closed 2011 with a deficit of 91.344 million. The Minister of Finance and Public Administration,Cristobal Montoro, announced that the GDP is 8.51%, compared to the 6% forecast.

At a press conference, Montoro has reported that the deficit recorded last year for the state is 5.10% of GDP (against 4.8% expected), the regions, 2.94% (compared with 1, 3% predicted) and local authorities, the 0.38% (compared to 0.30% predicted). Meanwhile, Social Security ended the year with a deficit of 995 million euros, 0.09% of GDP, while the target predicted a surplus of 0.4% of GDP.

In his view, this diversion of Social Security is “disturbing” because it is speaking of “the public pension system” and emphasized that we have to clean it up more. Montoro has indicated that these data, confirm the imbalance of public accounts that has been 2.51 percentage points higher than the fiscal consolidation target of 6% last year, committed by the Spanish Government to the European Commission. Montoro has refused to blame the deficit diversion to the regions and said it has been a lack of central government “derogation” from the financing system. “We should not blame anyone.  We are all autonomous communities”, he stressed.

In this regard, Montoro reiterated that there is a need to devise a system, to see how public services are financed independently by the administration that manages them. Montoro also stressed the importance of budgetary stability law to control the institutions and avoid a deficit and breach of targets. 

Money drives everything, including public relations. With content creation getting to be a major part of PR exercises, money driven propaganda is in. More and more entities are now relying on PR agencies like never before to create communication material that would elaborate on what message they need to tell the people. PR is indeed taking a route it hasn’t tread earlier.

It is being said Europe has started seeing many organizations taking advantage of this money motivated public relations exercises. The fact that content has gone on to play a significant role in propaganda, it may be seen as investigative reporters and news anchors at the center stage of IT public relations. It often doesn’t matter if the propaganda banks on reliability or accuracy of facts told.

Such PR activities have assumed the role of various organizations’ natural propaganda conveners and have started influencing the target audience too.

It is only natural that trade magazine PR Week recently elaborated this on one of their articles that this is the “perfect environment for PR, the organization’s natural conveners, to influence outcomes”. PR, indeed, can play the convener so as to bring diverse functions together and maximize value and assess the risk of new content campaigns.

A look at the changing scenario would bring to the fore the way PR activity is being realigned. Statistics let out by media research firm IBIS World have revealed that PR spending in 2010 stood at $9.73 billion, and is set to go up to $12.82 billion by 2015. Yes, money of course matters. With content creation for propaganda getting on to the PR fast track a growth stage is also in the anvil. Flexible new ways of pointed content would make this possible in the short-term.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, is often held up as good example of how democracy can get along with moderate Islam.

But the freedom that has given the country its reputation, has also allowed the vigilante group, the Islamic Defenders Front, to raid bars and nightclubs over the last decade.

The group’s violent tactics have bothered many citizens since its founding in 1998.  The Indonesians have rarely taken a public stand against the group.

In more recent times, the FPI has expanded to target religious minorities. The group has forced the closure of churches in West Java and was allegedly at the center of a brutal mob attack on a minority Islamic sect,  that ended in the fatal beating of three of its members in February 2011.

The shift in tactics and increased focus on religious minorities has spurred a smattering of citizens to finally speak their mind. Last Tuesday, activists and celebrities rallied in central Jakarta, shouting “Indonesia is more peaceful without the FPI”.

European stocks opened down Thursday as investor confidence is affected by repeated postponements of the agreement to save Greece and the possibility of relegation credit ratings of several financial institutions in the Euro area by Moody’s, says Reuters.

FTSEurofirst 300 index of the most important European shares fell 0.9% in the early trading session, after reaching peak Wednesday last six months, a trend which has led some investors to sell to make profits increase 18% index recorded at the end of November.

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Profit for the French group Renault, owner of car maker Dacia, has stalled last year because of lower sales in Europe for the fourth consecutive year and increasingly severe competition impact on prices.

Profit before interest, tax and exceptional items has stagnated at around 1.1 billion euros, according to a release issued Thursday by Renault.

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The Management Board of the U.S. central bank (Fed) has officially announced, after two days of debate, its new goal: to devalue the dollar by 33% over the next 20 years. The decline will be greater if the Fed’s own inflation target of 2% per year won’t be met, reports Business Insider.

A price increase of 2% a year won’t be felt in your pockets. Back in the day, during the gold standard (when the dollar was tied to the value of gold), such an increase was unusual. When the dollar was tied to gold, the years with modest inflation were followed by years of price declines. As a result, on along term, prices remained stable. And an American dollar was worth a dollar, 20 years later.

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MANILA, Philippines – Some P25 million worth of smuggled items, including motorcycles and bicycle tires and parts, were seized by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) recently.

Ruffy Biazon, BOC Commissioner,  said importer Royal Halo Enterprises tried to pass its shipment of 36,000 bicycle tires and tire flaps from China. This has an estimated value of P22 million.

Another company, Cimberly Enterprises, brought into the country a completely knocked down Suzuki station wagon, three Honda motorcycles and a Yamaha scooter, which were declared as mini-tractors, grass cutters, motorbike parts, compressors, and gasoline engines.

Both of the shipments arrived in October last year and were discovered during scanning by officials of the BOC’s so-called X-Ray Project.

BOC X-Ray Project head Lourdes Mangaoang warned those trying to slip illegal goods into the country through misdeclaration. “Our scanners are three times more powerful than the ones being used in the United States.”

An order has been filed for appropriate charges against the people involved in the illegal importations.

Manila, Philippines – President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino budgets 680 million pesos for flood control campaigns and beautification of Metro Manila. The funds will be entrusted to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority or MMDA. Besides the use of these funds for flood control campaigns, it will also be used for solid waste management and other urban renewal projects, according to Philippine Budget Secretary, Florencio Abad.

295.6 million pesos will be used for the construction of the pumping station at Salapan Creek in San Juan City, in order for floods to be prevented on the nearby areas. In Quezon City, the relocation of the informal settlers will be handled by the National Housing Authority and other local government units. Meanwhile, 154.4 million pesos will be used for the urban renewal, flood control, and traffic management projects in the entire Metro Manila.

The people are in good faith in trusting MMDA that they will use the funds for their cleaning projects—particularly in waterways and establish safe places for the residents in Metro Manila, especially during the rainy season.

MANILA, Philippines – The call centers or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines is in danger to be stopped.

This was when the United States Congress passed a bill forbidding U.S. companies to outsource their operations in the Philippines.

According to Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, the head of the U.S. Congress has to lobby and block the House bill 3596 or Call Center and Consumers Protection Bill that was served by representatives Tim Bishop (New York), David Mckinly (West Virginia), Mike Michaud (Maine) and Gene Green (Texas).

The aim is to discourage U.S. companies to outsource their operations. Failure to comply will result a $10,000  fine per day, if reported to the U.S. Department of Labor for not abiding to the said law. They will also be prohibited to get their federal grants and loans within five years.

Evardone added that if this bill would be passed, there would be a big and negative impact to the BPO industry in the Philippines, because a lot of Filipinos will be left unemployed.

The BPO is the second industry that opened a great opportunity for many Filipino people, wherein around 400,000 are working in different BPO companies all over the country. This is followed by the Overseas Filipino Workers.

During the past year, the BPO industry gained around $9 billion dollars which is equivalent to 4-5% of the Philippines’ GDP.