麻豆社

A panorama of stories from a global giant: an edition devoted entirely to Brazil as it prepares to host the World Cup. Pascale Harter introduces dispatches from all around this vast country, looking at some of its greatest dilemmas and its most cherished national myths. Candace Piette warns that behind the verve and energy of Brazilian culture there lies a public who're growing tired of the disrespect and disregard they feel from the elite; Miles Warde wonders about lasting racial pride and racial prejudices in the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery; and Linda Pressly meets people suffering, and benefiting, from modern-day slavery in rural Acailandia. Sue Branford visits the Munduruku (indigenous) communities protesting against plans to flood their part of the Amazon with a new network of hydroelectric power plants, while Justin Rowlatt sees an entirely different dynamic at play in Awa territory, where the Brazilian state is moving ranchers and loggers OFF indigenous lands to protect the Awa. And Kirsty Lang meets the "snake man of Bahia": devoted naturalist Rodrigo Souza, fierce defender of all things fanged and scaly.

Producer: Polly Hope
PHOTO: A saleswoman arranges T-shirts designed for Brazilian fans of the FIFA World Cup 2014 at a store in Rio de Janeiro (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)