Exploitation of Brazilians

The following video discusses the issue of the exploitation of Brazilians and their environment by the government and international corporations in respect to logging and Amazon deforestation and the pollution that is caused due to the area of the Amazon Rain Forest decreasing.  Many people don’t realize how large of an issue deforestation and logging are and the impact that they have on the Brazilian people living in regions around the Amazon rainforest.  People must make an attempt to help stop the exploitation and help to keep the Amazon strong and thriving.  Visit my “Helping’ page after you watch the video to see ways that you can make an impact.

Last week, on April 11, there was excitement in Brazil with the “recent launch of the new UNICEF and British Telecom youth participation programme focusing on education and communication in low-income communities in Brazil.”  In past years there have been many issues with keeping children enrolled in school since many girls get pregnant at young ages to produce children in order to have more people for labor to make an income for families.  The program hopes to increase the number of students who complete multiple levels of education since only 4 out of every 10 students who start primary school actually complete secondary education.  “The UNICEF-BT programme will support and train Brazilian adolescents to use a range of communication tools to improve the quality of education in their schools and communities – and to teach them to make better life choices.”  Partners from the Brazilian Communication and Participation Network of NGOs will be responsible for implementing the program in Brazil’s five largest cities; São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Salvador and Fortaleza.

The youth participation program will provide resources that many people in the United States already have and know how to use on an everyday basis.  Through peer to peer communication the initiative will train young people in Brazil to use the Internet, radio, blogs, photography and video.  “The programme will also provide PCs, digital cameras and other equipment in schools, as well as creating a dedicated website enabling teenagers to publish and share stories and photographs.”  Due to the increase in access to all of these resources there is the possibility for more issues to arise that younger generation consider to be problems.  This is extremely important, as a vast amount of movements today have a following of younger generations with different opinions and ideas of ways to make a difference.  The new youth participation program will allow youths “access to information and communications technology [that] can help to foster new skills, in turn enabling them to pass exams, get a job, play an active role in their communities and achieve their goals in life.”  In the long run this will hopefully help to decrease the social issues of injustice and exploitation currently happening in Brazil.

To learn more about the new program visit the UNICEF website or the following article:

BT And UNICEF Join Forces To Work With Young People In Brazil

I have not been able to find a lot of recent information on replanting the Amazon.  In 2003 the Brazilian government signed an agreement with the World Bank and created the Amazon Region Protected Areas program with an objective of setting up “a core system to anchor bio-diversity protection for the Amazon.  Also, in 2004 Brazil had plans to be replanting the same quantity of forest as it destroys by the year 2007.  At that time millions of dollars were allocated to help combat deforestation.  The government was supposed to have help provided by private enterprises and multiple programs that had been established to prevent deforestation.  Also, in 2006 Brazil proposed a new way of providing incentives to prevent the deforestation of native forests which included an international loan fund.  Finally, up until a decade ago, private landowners were allowed to deforest 50% of their land. Legislation recently amended the figure to 20% but many ranchers have not replanted at all and I have not found any information on programs that have been established to enforce the new legislation.  This is because Brazil views management of the Amazon as a domestic matter and therefore remains suspicious of foreign involvement.  “Brazil sees itself as an emerging agricultural and industrial power, and global warming could have a disastrous impact on those aspirations.” Due to international climate changes that are beginning to affect them, Brazil is now willing to discuss issues such market-based programs to curb the carbon emissions that result from massive deforestation in the Amazon.  In June of 2007, the first climate change law in Brazil was announced.  It allowed compensation for “environmental services,” including payments to farmers and river dwellers for avoiding deforestation.

Brazil, Alarmed, Reconsiders Policy on Climate Change : In the Amazon: Conservation or Colonialism? : Brazil to Replant Forests as Fast as It Cuts Them : New trees to reclaim Amazon lands

The Brazilian government is not holding its police force responsible for prison murders.  In 1992, Brazil’s worst prison massacre occurred in the Carandiru Detention Center when riot police from the Brazilian police force forcibly put down a riot after a fight broke out between two prisoners from rival gangs over exercise space.  103 prisoners were killed when police fired over 500 rounds, and 8 prisoners later died from stab wounds, bringing the total dead prisoners to 111 and the total police officers killed to zero.  At the time, the Commander of the Metropolitan Sao Paulo Police was Ubiratan Guimaraes.  When informed of the situation, Guimaraes called for reinforcements from the Brazilian police force, who arrived 30 minutes after being sent.  At this time, many prisoners “displayed their willingness to negotiate by throwing their weapons from windows and hanging truce flags from the prison walls” but the order was still given by Guimaraes to invade the area.

Guimaraes was tried for the murder of 102 of the inmates and was convicted.  The issue arises when the case was appealed.  The court overturned the ruling because Guimaraes claimed his forces were acting in self defense and the police force he sent also claimed the same.  This overruling was ludicrous; the “same defense was declared illegitimate almost 50 years earlier during the Nuremberg Trials examining the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany.”  During the Brazilian prison massacre 111 prisoners were killed and no one was charged for any of their deaths.  The Brazilian government trusts the statements of government officials even if their actions are illegal and wrong.  The government is looking to protect its own and is following a part of history that has been declared illegitimate and that so many people look down upon.  With so many prisoners willing to negotiate or surrender when the police force first arrived, what right did Guimaraes have to give the order to invade?  I believe the massacre wouldn’t have occurred if Guimaraes had been willing to work with the inmates and if the police force hadn’t gone into the area looking to kill any inmates in site.  The few rights that Brazilians in prison have are being ignored and due to this exploitation of rights, massacres, such as the one in the Carandiru Detention Center, will continue to happen as government officials receive no punishment for their actions.

Today in History: The Carandiru Prison Massacre

I recently found an article published in the New York Times about a year ago.  The article, titled “Brazil Gambles on Monitoring of Amazon Loggers” by Larry Rohter, discusses the governments plan to monitor Amazon Loggers and how the plan has no chance of success.  “In an attempt to create Brazil’s first coherent, effective forest policy, timber rights to large tracts of the rain forest are being auctioned off.  The winning bidders will not have title to the land or the right to exploit resources other than timber, and the government says they will be closely monitored and will pay a royalty on their activities.  The architects of the plan say it will also help reduce tensions over land ownership in the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical forest, which loses an area the size of New Jersey every year to clear-cutting and timbering.”  In reality, the rights of the Brazilian people are what are being exploited.  Although Brazilians still have right to the land, what good is the land if the timber resources are being legally exploited?  By changing the functionality of the environment due to logging, the rest of the land will also change.  The trees are part of a functioning ecosystem upon which the Brazilian people depend and thrive.  By allowing international companies to exploit the land, the government is just exploiting the Brazilians and the land upon which they live.

One case that was addressed was the residents of the settlement of Realidade, along Highway BR-319.  They are expected to monitor forests, but they do not have a phone and the government refuses to provide one.  Without any way of communicating the serious problems related to logging which are destroying the Amazon, how does the Brazilian government expect the laws to be enforced?  And how does the government expect the problems to be passed along to them?  Without a phone, the only way of communication is in person or by letter.  By the time either occurs, it will be too late to stop the Amazon loggers that were seen destroying other parts of environment illegally.  The Brazilian government’s plan to bring large-scale logging deep into the heart of the Amazon rain forest is exploiting the Brazilian people and the environment and the loose and unreliable monitoring efforts cannot stop the new danger of increased devastation.

Brazilian Dams & Belo Monte Dam

In 1989 the Workers Party led to the reclaiming of public water in a region of South Brazil.  They established what is now a “far-reaching degree of public participation and democratic control over” the operations and investments of the Departamento Municipal do Agua e Estogo (DMAE).  DMAE is a participatory water management program running in Porto Alegre, South Brazil that “is a not-for-profit company that re-invests and surplus into improving the water supply” (9) and is now an example to nations with privatized water, and even other parts of Brazil, that citizens reclaiming public water management can be successful.  This process may also be a great example to citizens of the United States in the future since in the last seven years global water Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) began buying US water companies, including United Water and US Filter Corporation.  This may lead to water privatization in the United States in the future which leads to skyrocketing prices and unhappy citizens.  But in order to fight against water privatization, people must unite for one cause and all be willing to participate in all aspects of a public program.  

DMAE has citizens participating and trusting the running of public water.  “Due to this democratic system of checks and balances and participatory budgeting, “the poor communities of Porto Alegre have gained dramatically improved access to clean water.  Some 99.5% of the residents of Porto Alegre today have access to clean water, far more than anywhere else in Brazil.” (8)   Since the population participates directly in the decision making process their needs are prioritized and there are also few arguments over price increases because everyone understands where the money is going to since they are all involved in the investment process.  When people understand and are involved in the process almost everyone is usually happy with the outcomes.  The opposite is unhappiness, which leads to the possibility of revolts and rebellions.  If the prices of water skyrocket in the US due to privatization will this also lead to a change in how the government functions?  In the past, such as at the Seattle protests, we have seen that the government changes its actions and revokes the rights of citizens when there are riots and protests against the workings of democracy.  People in the US must begin to ban together and participate in our current democratic government and follow the steps of those in South Brazil in order to stay away from water privatization.

When you look at a globe or a map of South America the region encompassed by the Amazon Rainforest is difficult to miss.  What is not realized is that the region shown on maps is shrinking at an alarming rate.  “The solid block of green [on the map] is being destroyed at a rate of 5,000 football fields a day, as conservative figures estimate[d]” in 1999.  Today, the Amazon continues to diminish as a growing and developing population continues “to cut down the country’s forests to make way for agriculture. The State of Rio de Janeiro used to be 97 percent covered in natural forest.” At the end of the past decade “less than 20 percent remain[ed].”  There has been a vast amount of “pressure put on Brazil by environmentalists and politicians in the developed world to curb these trends”.  However, with a lack of incentives from the Brazilian government, deforestation continues.  As the Amazon continues to disappear due to the desire for more agricultural land to meet demands of international companies, the world is slowly being affected.  Some catastrophic forecasts made by researchers include “enormous decreases in air quality and resulting increases in lung diseases and cancer; the melting of polar ice caps and the submergence of many of the Earth’s inhabited coastlands.” (Brazil)  One crop that is harvested on agricultural land that used to be the Amazon Rainforest is the soya bean.  These beans are used by many international corporations to feed herds of animals that are used for beef production.  Taking a stance against Amazon deforestation is McDonald’s.  “McDonald’s has agreed to stop Amazon deforestation for soya farming.” (No More)  However, there are still multiple companies that continue to destroy the Amazon by harvesting soya beans.  “Greenpeace released Eating up the Amazon, a report that pinpoints McDonald’s, as well as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), as two of the biggest culprits in rain forest destruction (KFC continues to refuse to discuss their role in Amazon destruction, says Greenpeace).” (No More)  People need to take a stance against international companies, such as KFC, who refuse to admit their role in the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest; a rainforest that must strive and survive in order for the world to do the same.

Brazil’s problems = Earth’s problems

No More Amazon Deforestation for Soya, Says McDonald’s

Browsing the Spokesman-Review this week I found a science matters section discussing “growing motor fuels on sugar plantations”, specifically discussing the origins in Brazil.  By producing motor fuel, Brazil is allowing multi-national corporations to come into their country and help to export the commodity.  However, by doing so, Brazil is making its self susceptible to vast change and is allowing Brazilian citizens to be exploited as sugar cane harvesters.  Harvesting sugar cane can be very dangerous, and Brazilians are willing to do so for minimal wages in order to survive.  Many harvesters loose limbs due to dangerous harvesting equipment and many accidents.  “Brazil is the world’s most efficient producer of fuel ethanol from sugar cane – and No. 2 in total output.  It uses nearly half of its vast sugar cane to make ethanol.”  The decision to use sugar cane for ethanol production was influenced by foreign companies and the Brazilian companies.  Without this influence, Brazilians would be using their land for normal agricultural production, instead of destroying it to produce more sugar cane.  In the Cerrado region, beginning just south of the Amazon, “55 percent of the land is used for agriculture” and there is “severe deforestation as forests are cleared for farming.”  The “San Paulo State produces more than half of Brazil’s sugar cane and about 90 percent of its ethanol.”  There is no doubt that this production is benefiting the San Paulo region, however, this is disproportionate with the rest of the country.  The San Paulo region has too much capital and too many technological advances for the rest of the country to keep up with which will eventually harm Brazil as a whole.  This potential harm is being ignored since the demand for ethanol continues to increase, especially in the United States.  As the world and the United States continue to change and develop, Brazil will continue to produce ethanol from sugar cane but will eventually fall apart as they are left to find a different technology to compete in the ever changing world.

“Growing motor fuel on sugar plantations.” The Spokesman-Review 11 Feb. 2008: B3.

Police brutality seems like an issue that should be so well supervised and a problem that could be challenged by those harmed.  In urban Brazil this is not the case as the Human Rights Watch discovered in the past decade.  Brutality, as defined by dictionary.com, is “The state or quality of being ruthless, cruel, harsh, or unrelenting.”  This is definitely an action that police should avoid at all possible costs unless fighting to protect themselves or the vast majority of the public.  Why is it that police brutality has become a publicized issue in Brazil and appears to not be addressed properly?  The Human Rights Watch found that although there is the opportunity to challenge the issue of police brutality and violence in Brazil, the governmental authorities, including police, prosecutors, and judges, are corrupt.  Police sometimes have the opportunity to investigate their own case, if the case if even given a very high priority.  Most cases are also very poorly investigated and evidence is inadequately documented, leaving courts with the inability to prosecute or fulfill their obligations as higher authorities in the Brazilian government.  In the United States, it seems as if the issue of police brutality is controlled and that the public have the opportunity to challenge the problem if one arises.  However, recently, a similar issue has arisen with the military and many government officials being charged with brutality and cruel and unusual punishment of many people during the War on Terror.  Similar to practices in Brazil, many of these governmental figures are usually released or the crime passed off as a needed measure or control.  By the illegal and inhuman practices of United States being exposed are they dropping to the level of the Brazilian government?  If the United States did not have all of its money and international influences, would they have more internal issues exposed and begin to be questioned by the world?  I believe so.  Although Brazil seems to have many police brutality problems, the United States seems to slowly be dropping and following Brazil’s corrupt policies.

If you would like to know more about the research done by the Human Rights Watch in Urban Brazil and the recommendations that were made in order to improve the situation, feel free to visit the article “Police Brutality in Urban Brazil“ that was published and is available online.