Banco Fator, the investment bank advising the government on the sale, insists that adequate provision has been made for any remaining bad debts, plus any liabilities for staff pensions, tax arrears and other hidden horrors that often come to light when a Brazilian company is sold.

ECONOMIST: Brazilian banks

His work has shed important, and I would say fascinating, light on the ties that link Brazilian, lusophone society with the Arab world.

UNESCO: Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture