Carnival 2009

We welcome the beginning of this year's Carnival in Brazil and other parts of Latin America and Mardi Gras in New Oreleans. Certainly, carnival in a year of economic and social turmoil should tell some interesting stories. But it is also an opportunity to acknowledge the freedom of the human spirit and the capacity for humans to create and express beauty.

Of course Brazil, and especially Rio de Janeiro, is the superpower of Carnival (Carnaval in Portuguese). It demonstrates the Brazilian capacity for massive organization and almost unlimited possibilities.