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Brazilian trio visits the O-R

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Ricardo Antonio Ayub speaks about Brazilian journalism to Tom Northtrop; publisher of the Observer-Reporter; as well as his fellow Rotary Club Group Study Exchange team members Leonardo Grisotto and Critiane Lebelem Wednesday.

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From right, Brad Hundt and Tom Northrop of the Observer-Reporter speak with Cristiane Lebelem, Leonardo Grisotto and Ricardo Antonio Ayub, members of the Brazilian Rotary Group Study Exchange, Wednesday. At left, Hundt speaks with Lebelem.

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Cristiane Lebelem, a Brazilian journalist and team member of the Brazil Rotary Group Study Exchange, speaks with Observer-Reporter staff writer Brad Hundt during the Rotary Club exchange group’s visit to Washington Wednesday.

Many visitors have passed through the doors of the Observer Publishing Co. throughout its long history, but rarely any from Brazil and probably never three at the same time.

But a trio of professionals from the South American nation visited the newspaper’s Washington offices Wednesday afternoon as part of an exchange program sponsored by Rotary International. The threesome are members of a group of Brazilians that will be visiting the region in the next month and also journeying to Washington, D.C.

“We can look at a different way of life,” said Ricardo Antonio Ayub. The 48-year-old added that they can “do a great service to our society and make good friends.”

Ayub, who has a background in agronomy and cellular and molecular biology, hails from the Ponta Grossa South Rotary Club, where he has twice been president, and he was joined by Leonardo Grisotto, a 29-year-old financial consultant, and Cristiane Lebelem, a 34-year-old marketing manager and television journalist, both of whom hail from the city of Curitiba, the eighth-largest in the country.

The visit comes at a moment when Brazil’s international standing has been raised considerably, with the World Cup soccer tournament set to happen in the country’s stadiums in June and July 2014, followed relatively quickly by the Summer Olympics in August 2016 in the Brazilian capital Rio de Janeiro. Some analysts have suggested that Brazil is on its way to becoming a potential 21st century superpower.

The two high-profile events are “a big opportunity, both for Latin America and Brazil,” said Lebelem, and could bring “good jobs and more investment.”

They are not too long off the plane, having arrived in this part of the world only on Tuesday. However, they’ve quickly formed some general impressions – they are struck by the sheer abundance of stuff available in our society, and they say America is much better organized than their homeland.

As for Brazil, Lebelem described it as being a Facebook-crazy nation, with many residents using the social media site to keep up with family, friends and neighbors, and a place where television and radio stations are the preeminent news sources because they are free, unlike most print publications.

In the long run, Ayub explained, “What we really need is education.”

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