Two new flags will be flying high at the Olympic Games in Rio.
For the first time, South Sudan and Kosovo have been recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Kosovo, which was a province of the former Yugoslavia, will have 8 athletes competing; and a good shot for a medal in women's judo: Majlinda Kelmendi is considered a favorite. She's ranked first in the world in her weight class.
(PHOTO: Workers set up camp at Santiago's Rio Mapocho/Mason Bryan, The Santiago Times)Chile nears 1 month without mail service as postal worker protests continue. This week local branches of the 5 unions representing Correos de Chile voted on whether to continue their strike into a 2nd month, rejecting the union's offer. For a week the workers have set up camp on the banks of Santiago's Río Mapocho displaying banners outlining their demands; framing the issue as a division of the rich & the poor. The strike’s main slogan? “Si tocan a uno, nos tocan a todos,” it reads - if it affects 1 of us, it affects all of us. (Read more at The Santiago Times)
WHO convenes emergency talks on MERS virus
(PHOTO: Saudi men walk to the King Fahad hospital in the city of Hofuf, east of the capital Riyadh on June 16, 2013/Fayez Nureldine)The World Health Organization announced Friday it had convened emergency talks on the enigmatic, deadly MERS virus, which is striking hardest in Saudi Arabia. The move comes amid concern about the potential impact of October's Islamic hajj pilgrimage, when millions of people from around the globe will head to & from Saudi Arabia. WHO health security chief Keiji Fukuda said the MERS meeting would take place Tuesday as a telephone conference & he told reporters it was a "proactive move". The meeting could decide whether to label MERS an international health emergency, he added. The first recorded MERS death was in June 2012 in Saudi Arabia & the number of infections has ticked up, with almost 20 per month in April, May & June taking it to 79. (Read more at Xinhua)
LINKS TO OTHER STORIES
Dreams and nightmares - Chinese leaders have come to realize the country should become a great paladin of the free market & democracy & embrace them strongly, just as the West is rejecting them because it's realizing they're backfiring. This is the "Chinese Dream" - working better than the American dream. Or is it just too fanciful? By Francesco Sisci
The South: Busy at the polls - South Korea's parliamentary polls will indicate how potent a national backlash is against President Lee Myung-bak's conservatism, perceived cronyism & pro-conglomerate policies, while offering insight into December's presidential vote. Desire for change in the macho milieu of politics in Seoul can be seen in a proliferation of female candidates. By Aidan Foster-Carter
Pakistan climbs 'wind' league - Pakistan is turning to wind power to help ease its desperate shortage of energy,& the country could soon be among the world's top 20 producers. Workers & farmers, their land taken for the turbine towers, may be the last to benefit. By Zofeen Ebrahim
Turkey cuts Iran oil imports -Turkey is to slash its Iranian oil imports as it seeks exemptions from United States penalties linked to sanctions against Tehran. Less noticed, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the Iranian capital last week, signed deals aimed at doubling trade between the two countries. By Robert M. Cutler
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CARTOON: Peter Broelman, Australia/BROELMAN.com.au)
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The World Bank cut its global growth forecast in both developed and poorer nations by the most in three years, in its twice-yearly report issued late on Tuesday, saying that a recession in the euro region threatens to exacerbate a slowdown particularly in several major developing countries.
“Europe appears to have entered a recession, and grown in several major developing countries (Brazil, India and to a lesser extent Russia, South Africa and Turkey) has slowed,” the bank said as it updated forecasts made last June.
The world economy will grow 2.5 percent this year, down from a June estimate of 3.6 percent, the Washington-based institution said. The euro area may contract 0.3 percent, compared with a previous estimate of a 1.8 percent gain. The U.S. growth outlook was cut to 2.2 percent from 2.9 percent.
“The world is different than it was six months ago”, said Andrew Burns, head of the bank’s global economics team and lead author of the report. “This is going to be a very difficult year.”
Two major reasons for the projected global slowdown are noted in the report: Europe’s debt crisis has worsened and several big developing countries have taken steps to prevent growth from fueling inflation.
Economies in developing countries will continue to out-pace those of wealthier, developed countries, according to the World Bank, but the Bank also lowered its forecasts for growth in these countries to 5.4 per cent in 2012 and 6 per cent in 2013 – this is down from previous estimates of 6.2 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively.
School Girls in Oecusse, Timor-Leste. Photo: Barbara Ratusznik/World BankThe report also noted that “the downturn in Europe and weaker growth in developing countries raises the risk that the two developments reinforce one another, resulting in an even weaker outcome”. – It also said that while Europe is moving toward long-term solutions to its debt problems, the markets remain skittish.
It also noted the failure so far to resolve high debts and deficits in Japan and the United States and slow growth in other high-income countries, and cautioned those facts could trigger sudden shocks in the global economy.
The 2012 forecast for Japan was cut to 1.9 per cent growth from 2.6 percent in June. China’s growth will slow to 8.4 percent this year, the same as an interim revised projection released in November.
In addition, political tensions in the Middle East and North Africa could disrupt oil supplies and add another blow to global prospects, the World Bank noted of the challenges facing the economy.
“Although contained for the moment, the risk of a broader freezing up of capital markets and a global crisis similar in magnitude to the Lehman crisis in 2008 remains,” the World Bank said.
Should that happen, it said developing countries are more vulnerable than they were in 2008 because they could find themselves facing reduced capital flows and softer trade.
Slower global expansion is already showing through softer trade figures and lower commodity prices, according to the World Bank.
“No country or region will escape the consequences of a serious downturn”, said the World Bank, adding that developing countries must now plan how to soften the impact of a potential crisis.
(PHOTO: Ricky Gervais, JUST JARED) Tonight in Hollywood, the 69th annual Golden Globe awards put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) will take place. Hosted, as it has been for the past three years, British comedian Ricky Gervais will be back even though in his past appearances he has caused controversy by taking aim at Mel Gibson and Sir Paul McCartney in 2010; and again in 2011 when he openly questioned the sexuality of "some famous Scientologists" before revisiting the troubled past of actor Robert Downey Jr.
Gervais has tweeted about his Globes game plan in the days leading up to the show: "I keep having to write new jokes as I pick my victims, I mean targets, I mean presenters to introduce. Some great people have confirmed." He even told Twitter followers that he'll be drinking lager, ad-libbing and speaking his mind.
The HFPA origins stem from a group of journalists' desire “to efficiently and accurately cover all aspects of the world of entertainment”. According to the group’s website, “today's organization has its roots in the early 1940s when Pearl Harbor had drawn America into World War II. Audiences, hungry for diversion, were seeking out films offering escape, inspiration and entertainment. Amid the turmoil of war and the difficulties with communications, a handful of Los Angeles-based overseas journalists banded together to share contacts, information and material.”
(Ricky Gervais 2011 Golden Globe Opening Monologue, Courtesy Golden Globe Awards)
In 1943 the journalists, led by the correspondent for Britain's Daily Mail, formed the HFPA and conceived the motto “Unity Without Discrimination of Religion or Race.” The group’s first special event was a luncheon in December 1947, at which a plaque was awarded to Harry M. Warner, president of Warner Bros., in recognition of his humanitarian work as the principal sponsor of the “Friendship Train,” which left Hollywood with food, clothing and medical supplies for the needy of Europe.
(THE FLOWER OF WAR, CHINA)
During its early years the HFPA established itself with the studios by innovations such as its World Favorites awards, which it came up with by polling more than 900 newspapers, magazines and radio stations around the world. The group also came up with the idea of "bon voyage" interview lunches with actors and actresses who were leaving to make films in countries represented by the members.
At first awards were only given for films, but in 1955 the Golden Globes began honoring achievements in television too. Today, the Golden Globes recognize achievements in 25 categories; 14 in motion pictures and 11 in television. Dick Clark Productions has produced the Golden Globes ceremony since 1983.
(THE KID WITH A BIKE, BELGIUM)
Today the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association represent some 55 countries with a combined readership of more than 250 million. Their publications include leading newspapers and magazines in Europe, Asia, Australasia and Latin America, ranging from the Daily Telegraph in England to Le Figaro in France, L'Espresso in Italy and Vogue in Germany as well as the China Times and the pan-Arabic magazine Kul Al Osra.
However, despite the group’s international beginnings, only one of the twenty six categories for awards features `International Films”. This year from China, Belgium, Iran, Spain and the United States.
The Flowers Of War (China) features Christian Bale and Ni Ni tells the story of a Westerner who finds refuge with a group of women in a church during Japan's rape of Nanking in 1937. Posing as a priest, he attempts to lead the women to safety.
A Separation (Iran) tells the story of a married couple who are faced with a difficult decision, to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimers. The film stars Peyman Moadi, Leila Hatami and Sareh Bayat.
(THE SKIN I LIVE IN, SPAIN)
The Skin I Live In (Spain) features the story of a brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, who creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession. The film stars Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya and Jan Cornet.
And Angelina Jolie’s recently released film In The Land Of Blood And Honey (United States) which tells a story which took place during the Bosnian War, in which Danijel, a soldier fighting for the Serbs, re-encounters Ajla, a Bosnian who's now a captive in his camp he oversees. Their once promising connection has become ambiguous as their motives have changed. Directed and written by Jolie the film stars Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic and Rade Serbedzija.
The 68th Golden Globes will be seen LIVE around the world on local broadcasters from Brazil to Botswana to Bahrain and beyond.
---HUMNEWS
Update on Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 9:41PM by
HUMNEWS
Madonna announces Best Foreign Film Award at the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood. "A Separation" from Iran wins. The Golden Globe Awards are seen in 188 countries worldwide.
-- Since 2009 the world’s community of nations has celebrated World Humanitarian Day on August 19, as a day dedicated to recognizing humanitarian personnel and those who have lost their lives working in service for humanitarian causes.
This year, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is focusing its attention on the devastating famine crisis in the Horn of Africa; but is also asking the global public for their ideas on how to change the world.
The day is celebrated in honor of the tireless efforts of former UN diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello, who died August 19, 2003 along with 21 other colleagues in a bombing of the UN compound in Baghdad, Iraq. A national of Brazil, Sérgio Vieira de Mello died at age 55 after dedicating 34 years to the United Nations, international cause issues and bringing peace and comfort to the world’s citizens. He served fearlessly in some of the most challenging humanitarian situations, and died at age 55 leaving a legacy of peaceful co-existence and awareness of the need for people to help people.
The Sérgio Vieira de Mello Foundation works to remind the world every day that the sacrifice and tragic loss of Vieira de Mello, and all humanitarian personnel who have made the ultimate effort to relieve the suffering of victims of war and inequity, have not been in vain.
Since 2006 the Vieira de Mello family and a group of close friends have dedicated their lives to continue his unfinished mission by supporting initiatives to promote dialogue for peaceful reconciliation of communities divided by conflict through an annual Sergio Vieira Mello Award, an Annual Sergio Vieira Mello Memorial Lecture, a Sergio Vieira de Mello Fellowship and advocating for the security and independence of humanitarians worldwide.
People helping people, Sergio Vieira de Mello would be proud.
On this day, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon offers this message:
“There is never a year without humanitarian crises. And wherever there are people in need, there are people who help them – men and women coming together to ease suffering and bring hope. From Japan to Sudan, from Pakistan to the Horn of Africa, aid workers help people who have lost their homes, loved ones and sources of income. These humanitarians often brave great danger, far from home. They work long hours, in the most difficult conditions. Their efforts save lives in conflict and natural disaster. They also draw the world closer together by reminding us that we are one family, sharing the same dreams for a peaceful planet, where all people can live in safety, and with dignity.
On World Humanitarian Day, we honour these aid workers and thank them for their dedication. And we pay tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice – in Afghanistan, Haiti and beyond. Too many have died, or suffered their own loss, in the course of duty. We pledge to do all we can to ensure the world’s humanitarians are kept safe to do their essential work. This is also a day to examine our own lives and consider what more we can do to help -- to reach out to people enduring conflict, disaster and hardship. Let those we honour today inspire us to start our own journey to make the world a better place and bring our human family more closely together.”
According to workers at the Brazilian government-run national Indian foundation, FUNAI, late last week a group of men from a paramilitary faction from Peru, armed with rifles and machine guns, entered Brazilian territory and encircled a remote jungle guard post used by FUNAI researchers to study and protect isolated indigenous tribes near the border with Peru.
The incident happened at a FUNAI post known as Xinane, a very remote monitoring location in Brazil's Acre state that serves as a small, five-person research base for the study and protection of isolated indigenous tribes in the region.
FUNAI officials say the armed men were most certainly trying to kill Indians in the area to make way for illegal logging, or new cocaine trafficking routes through the forest from Peru.
Either way, it represents a new escalation of threats of violence against Indians and those serving to protect them in a region along the Brazil-Peru border that has some of the highest concentration of isolated and uncontacted tribes anywhere in the world. (More here from Survial International about the uncontacted Indians of Brazil).
The armed men apparently hid in the forest surrounding the FUNAI outpost. The five workers on site saw it as an obvious threat and reported feeling vulnerable in the jungle area with little protection; the nearest Brazilian town being more than 200km away.
The FUNAI workers on site - which included Jose Carlos Meirelles, an indigenous peoples researcher with decades of experience in the region, as well as Carlos Travassos, the chief of the isolated Indians division of FUNAI – sent urgent emails from a satellite internet hookup to journalists, friends, and family alerting them to the situation.
In one email, according to Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, Travassos reportedly said: “We are totally surrounded. They (the gunmen) are divided into three flanks. We have nowhere to run.”
Altino Machado, a local journalist in the city of Rio Branco, Brazil and one of the first to report on the incident on his blog and another blog he contributes to Terra Amazon Blog, also posted an email from Meirelles which said, in part: “Time in front of our computer is short. It’s not easy keeping one eye on the (computer) and the other on the Peruvian (gunmen)… (The gunmen) are still here…they are monitoring us and we are them.”
Late last week, Brazil’s federal police with the help of a military helicopter reportedly swooped in to evacuate the workers temporarily. But fearing the indigenous tribes would be massacred without their presence, the researchers flew back a short time later in a helicopter with police escorts only to find their base camp looted, signs that violence against Indians might have occurred.
Tiao Viana, the governor of Acre state, has reportedly deemed the situation so critical that he has asked federal authorities for more security to protect the FUNAI workers tasked with monitoring the welfare of the Indians.
Below: My report from 2008 with Jose Carlos Meirelles, now one of the indian researchers under threat:
The rising tensions come just weeks after Brazil announced a new, nationwide plan, to be led by the military, to beef up security along the16,000 kilometers of border Brazil shares with 10 other countries. The plan calls for 5,000 soldiers from the Army, backed by unmanned surveillance aircraft, to be placed at five strategic points to choke off drug trafficking.
But it's a monumental task. The Brazilian state of Acre, where the most recent incident took place and where the high concentration of uncontacted tribes is located, shares almost 900km of thick jungle border with Peru, a country quickly becoming a world leader in export of drugs, much of which comes through the Brazilian Amazon before being exported abroad.
But there is even more to this story.
Meirelles, one of the men encircled by the gunmen, was the man who led the expedition in 2008 thatcaptured dramatic photos of uncontacted tribes that gained worldwide media attention.
The incident with the gunmen late last week occurred near the same general regional of the Amazon where those photos in 2008 were taken.
Travassos, of FUNAI, has said it's well known that Peruvian 'mercenaries' work for loggers and drug traffickers in the area. He said he thinks the gunmen were conducting "raids" to kill the Indians, which they view as obstacles to logging and lucrative drug trafficking routes. The gunmen likely threatend the FUNAI workers in the post as a way to intimidate the Brazilian authorities to abandon their work.
And the news in June of this year of the photos of other isolated Amazon tribes also was in the same general region (see my video report about this discovery here).
Travassos and Meirelles said they are planning to fly over the areas to get a better sense if the isolated tribes were harmed; but there is real concern some of the Indians might have been harmed.
In 2008, just days after the now famous photos were released, I flew to Feijo, Brazil and interviewed Meirelles in his modest wooden home he lives in while not in the jungle. At the time he told me he was very worried about illegal loggers from Peru encroaching into Brazilian territory, and the extreme risk that put on native peoples.
“There is massive logging on the Peru side of the border and unfortunately the Peruvian Amazon is a ‘no man’s land’ and everything is permitted,” he told me. “So the Indians are being displaced into Brazil.”
Ironically, back in 2008, Meirelles told me something urgently needed to be done before gangs of armed men from Peru started coming into Brazil to kill the Indians that "got in the way" of logging or drug trafficking.
Based on the worrisome developments of the past few days, Meirelles premonition could, sadly, be coming true.
But despite the apparent dangers, the team from FUNAI seems determined to stay at the outpost. In another email reported by the journalist Machado, Meirelles typed:
"We will remain here…until the Brazilian government decides to resolve this absurd (situation)….Not for our protection. For the protection of the Indians!”
Protestors hold signs and chant while marching to Georgia's state capitol Saturday. (CREDIT: J DiBenedetto, HUMNEWS 2011) (Atlanta, Georgia, USA-HN, 7/2/11) – Today, thousands marched on the US state of Georgia’s Capitol in protest of House Bill 87 – an anti immigration bill which passed and was signed earlier this year - chanting cries of “Humans are not for sale” and “Justice for all”. Protestors called upon US President Barack Obama to step in and do something to halt the stringent requirements.
In March of this year, after a moderate amount of debate in the state House of Georgia, the legislature passed a strict immigration bill that has sparked ire among 11 Latin American countries and various civil and human rights groups.
Following a similarly controversial step in the US states of Arizona, Utah and South Carolina, Georgia passed the law, known as House Bill 87, targeting illegal immigrants and those who harbor them in the state. It carried by a largely Republican party-line vote of 113-56 in the House; with a 37-19 vote in the Georgia State Senate. HB 87 is also called the `Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011'.
Georgia Governor Nathan Deal went on to sign the bill, one of the nation’s toughest immigration enforcement measures in May, and both the Georgia law and the South Carolina law took effect July 1. All of these laws have challenged the thorny debate over illegal immigration in the United States and triggered immediate court appeals.
Under Georgia’s sweeping HB 87, police will be empowered to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and Georgia employers will be required to check the status of potential workers by using the US Federal `E-Verify’ system before hiring. The measure also sets new regulations and penalizes people who transport or harbor illegal immigrants in the state.
State lawmakers have cited passage of these bills as being necessary because they say “efforts to get comprehensive immigration legislation through the US Congress have failed”, complaining the federal government has not secured the nation's borders.
Immigration protestors want Justice for All on Saturday in Georgia (CREDIT: J DiBenedetto, HUMNEWS 2011) But federal judges in both Utah and Arizona have halted both of those states' laws amid complaints that they are unconstitutional. In Georgia last week, two of the more controversial provisions of the state’s new immigration enforcement law were blocked by US federal judge Thomas Thrash; but other provisions that were not overturned go into effect July 1. It is now a criminal offense to apply for a job with a false I.D. in Georgia, punishable by up to $250,000 in fines and 15 years in jail.
Aside from the 11 Latin American countries, the US Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center and several other civil and immigrant rights groups are party to the legal cases hoping to stop Georgia HB 87 from going forward.
The governments of Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru filed court papers stating that HB 87 is unconstitutional because there is already a federal immigration law on the books.
“HB 87 substantially and inappropriately burdens the consistent country to country relations between Mexico and the United States of America,” Mexico says in its brief in support of halting the law. It also claims the bill is “interfering with the strategic diplomatic interests of the two countries and encouraging an imminent threat of state-sanctioned bias or discrimination.”
In its defense, the state of Georgia has also filed court papers against the challenge to dismiss the lawsuits.
Even before the law in Georgia took effect yesterday, there were reports of immigrants, Hispanics and others who may be affected by the new law leaving the state to avoid detection or prosecution.
In a state – and indeed region where agriculture is one of the biggest industries for the South – the consequences include serious labor shortages with crops rotting in fields, and forcing farmers to raise prices to pay for new workers.
"When this all started in May there was big concern whether we would have enough labor to harvest the crops," Executive Director of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, Charles Hall, said.
Immigrant workers have been leaving the state since Georgia's bill passed. (CREDIT: J DiBenedetto HUMNEWS 2011) Judge Thrash’s ruling last week has stemmed the flow of people leaving for the time being. But many remain worried, and in recent days have taken to Georgia’s streets and called for a `Human Rights Summer’ in the state to stop the bill from fully coming into practice. Organizers plan to visit Latino communities throughout the state to educate people and organize mobilizations.
The two provisions halted by the judge would have resulted in police checking the immigrant status of anyone detained for traffic violations or some other crime and would have criminalized the harboring and transporting of undocumented immigrants.
Still in play and set to go into effect on January 1, 2012 are parts of the bill which will require employers with 500 or more employees to use the federal E-Verify system to determine job applicants’ legal status before hiring them. Federal law says that E-Verify can only be used for new employees; so many undocumented workers will be unaffected unless they lose their jobs. That requirement will be phased in for all businesses with more than 10 employees by July 2013. Also starting January 1, applicants for public benefits must provide at least one state or federally issued “secure and verifiable” document.
In South Carolina, a new illegal immigration enforcement unit has been established by that state’s law and the unit will coordinate between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials.
Critics of the bill cite both the need for migrant workers for food harvesting but also other economic issues as being impacted with the state’s decision. Metro Atlanta school officials plan to closely monitor their enrollment figures over the summer. The reason: many illegal immigrants could leave the state and pull their children out of public schools if opponents are unable to block the law in federal court. In Arizona, which passed a similar immigration law last year, hundreds of children left some of its schools after the bill passed. The state’s tourism business is also taking a hit too.
On Saturday immigrants and US citizens alike took to the streets of Atlanta (CREDIT J DiBenedetto HUMNEWS 2011) On Friday in Georgia, the day HB 87 took effect, a Latino community group called The Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights organized a “day without immigrants” to protest the measure. It called for a day of non-compliance, asking businesses to close and community members to stay home and not work or shop. Accounts suggest that at least 125 Atlanta-area businesses closed to show their support Friday.
“We will mark our presence with our absence so that the state of Georgia takes note of the important role and contributions of Latinos in the state,” the group’s president, Teodoro Maus, said.
At Plaza Fiesta, a mall in Atlanta that caters to the growing immigrant population, many stores were closed, with signs in the windows expressing opposition to the law and saying they would be closed Friday in solidarity with the immigrant community. Many restaurants in the food court, however, were open.
The group is also trying to create shopping zones that are friendly to the immigrant community. After a business owner signs a “pledge of non-compliance” with the new law, they get a sign to put in their window that says “Immigrants Welcome Here, Georgia Buy Spot.”
Georgia’s Hispanic population has nearly doubled since 2000, to 865,689, or nearly 10 percent of the state’s population, according to 2010 US Census figures.
But the legal fight nationally is far from over. It could drag on for months and reach the chambers of the US Supreme Court before long.
The full page spread in Rio daily O Globo on Wednesday was headlined with the screamer: “More Blood in the Forest.”
It was in relation to the latest revelation that another Amazon activist was killed this week, brining the number to six killed in a little over a month.
The latest murder made big news not only inside Brazil, but also sparked a new round of coverage of the Amazon kilings in the global press like here, here, and here.
But what exactly is going on? New revelations seem to indicate that perhaps the latest activist killed was, well, not as much of an activist as first thought. Maybe all these killings are getting a little complicated, and not as simple to deconstruct in one headline.
Now is a good time to take a step back and look at the facts, and answer some questions still lingering.
First, a recap of the killings and what we know on each:
Date: May 24
Names: Jose Claudio Ribeiro and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo.
Location: Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state.
Sumamry: The husband and wife were gunned down, execution style, while on a motorbike on a dirt road while leaving the remote Amazon reserve where they lived. (My impressions from his funeral here, videohere). Both were outspoken anti-logging activists who made well-documented calls about the death threats against them. Of all the recent killings, Jose Claudio Ribeiro was the most high profile and well-known person. Local police have put out sketches of two men they think were the gunmen. No arrests have been made.
Date: May 27
Name: Adelino Ramos
Location: Vista Alegre do Abunã, in Rondonia state.
Sumamry: Ramos, a longtime activist in the landless workers movement, was ambushed, shot several times and died - all in front of his wife and young kids, who were not injured.
At the time of his killing it was 10 am and he was taking produce to the local farmers market to sell. In 1996 Ramos survived one of the Amazon’s most famous and deadly incidents when police killed 10 land rights activists in an encampment they occupied.
At the time of his killing last month, he was leader of a small farmers movement that would occasionally denounce illegal logging activities. He had received death threats, and had filed reports with police. Two days after the killing, local police arrested a 38-year-old man they suspect had killed Ramos. The motives are still not public.
Date: May 28
Name: Eremilton dos Santos
Location: Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state
Summary: The 25 -ear-old subsistence farmer lived on the same Amazon protected reserve as Jose Claudio Ribeiro and his wife Maria, and was killed less than 10km from where they were shot. Dos Santos reportedly was on his motorbike going to buy fish when he was apparently ambushed and killed on a dirt road.
One theory is that he was a witness to people on motorbikes who killed Ribeiro and his wife, and was killed to be silenced. Dos Santos was likely going to give testimony to police on what he knew of the Ribeiro killing. But local police say, while they are investigating all hypothesis, it would be slightly odd Santos would be singled out when many other people were going to give testimony as well in the Ribeiro case.
They are also looking at other angles to see if dos Santos was involved in criminality unrelated to illegal logging that would have made him a target. There are no known indications he received death threats and he did not appear to be a vocal anti-logging activist. Nobody has been arrested for his killing.
Date: June 1
Name: Joao Vieira dos Santos
Location: Eldorado do Carajás in Pará state
Summary: The small-scale farmer lived on an Amazon settlement in a highly deforested area and apparently was shot execution style, initially leading many to the instant conclusion he was another killed for his anti-logging activism work. But later police said dos Santos was a fugitive from a neighbouring state and using a false name.
The local investigator says it’s unlikely he was killed because of land conflict or activism work. Nobody has been arrested for his killing.
Date: June 9 (death confirmed on June 14)
Name: Obede Loyola Souza
Location: Pacajá in Pará state
Summary: The 31-year-old was killed with a bullet though the head less than a kilometre away from his home in the Amazon reserve where he lived and cultivated a small plot of land. Initially his killing was reported as another environmentalist killed, but late Wednesday a representative from a local NGO said Souza was not an "environmental activist" and his name was not on a list of those receiving death threats. There are conflicting reports. Police are still investigating. No arrests have been made.
Some of the recent Brazilian press coverage of the Amazon murders. Photo: Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera.
Four questions
Are all the people being killed ‘environmental activists’? Depends how you define "environmental activist". A person sitting in an office in London or Los Angeles might view an environmental activist as one who discreetly goes on a bridge to unfurl a huge banner protesting against jungle deforestation before getting forcefully arrested by police. Brazil has those types. But the people being killed recently here are generally not those types of activists, if they’re even "activists" at all.
Even in Brazil there are no easy definitions, as words used to describe those killed range from trabalhador rural (rural worker), lavrador (farmhand) to ambientalista (environmentalist). Jose Claudio Ribeiro was a clear environmentalist/activist. But some of the others killed, such as Souza, might have simply been seen as an environmentalists by the very nature of living on a protected reserve.
Based on my experience, most of the people who live on Amazon reserves or are squatters on Amazon land do so not out of pure activism, in the traditional sense of the word, but out of their own self interest, well being, and survival.
Why are all these killings happening now? No clear answer to this, but I’ll start with another [cynical] question: Maybe it’s been going on all along, but nobody was paying attention until now? Para state is one of the most violent in all of Brazil, with 40 murders per 100,000 residents, almost four times more than Sao Paulo state, and almost 25% more than famously violent Rio de Janeiro state. In the vast and remote area that makes up Para, killings are not uncommon in rural areas.
Rarely are they covered in Brazil’s mainstream press; it would be impossible to do so, just like anywhere else. But after the death of Jose Claudio and his wife Maria, there has been more urgency and willingness to cover subsequent killings as part of a broader storyline of risks 'activists' face. So maybe in between high profile Amazon killings like that of Dorothy Stang and Jose Claudio Ribeiro, there are a bunch more nobody ever hears about - making it all the more disturbing.
But aside from this, in Para state, there is another factor as well on perhaps why there seem to be more killings: Diminishing Amazon resources. Para is - by far - the most heavily deforested of Brazil’s Amazon states. Fly over the eastern half of the state at low altitude - like I have over a dozen times - and look out the window and you would never know you're in the Amazon because there are few thick swaths of forest can be seen.
Why? Because it was all cut years ago. Therefore, the little Amazon left in Para has more value both to those who want to protect it, and those who don’t. Bottom line: More conflict.
A map from Greenpeace; In this photo showing part of Para state in Brazilian Amazon. The parts in red indicates areas that have been deforested. The finger pointing to the general area where the most recent Amazon killings took place. Photo: Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera.
Why can’t police stop it? Three words: It’s not easy. The Amazon state of Para alone - where most of these murders have taken place - is almost exactly 5 times larger than all of England. Para is made up of basically the capital city of Belem [1.3 million people], a few cities in the 100,000-400,000 population range, and then a whole lot of nothing. Most residents of the state are poor and 25% are ‘functionally illiterate,’ according to the government’s own statistics.
The state has vast areas, and few police, usually poorly paid. Cell service is almost non-existent in many of the rural areas where land conflict is the most deadly. So, frankly, it’s easy to get away with murder. The federal government knows this. It’s no state secret that the local cops can’t handle it alone, and that is why Pres. Dilma Rousseff is sending in federal agents, and not the first time - click here for 2008 video report from Para.
Here's one more example: In the most recent murder, the name of the victim was first reported as Obede Loyla Souza and repeated in most of the press coverage. But his name actually is Obede Loyola Souza. Minor point, I know. But it shows how in these remote areas, where information is often passed word-of-mouth, even basic things can be misconstrued. How can we expect the police to solve the murder of a man whose name we can't even get right?
Is it only about forest? Hardly, because there is hardly any forest left in some of Para state. It’s a conflict over land. Wood only makes up 4% of the state exports, and cattle (another cause of deforestation) only 5% of state exports.
The combination of iron ore, aluminums, and minerals made up 78% of Para’s $8.3 billion in exports in 2009. This is an industrial state, where huge mining and mineral companies with headquarters in places like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing, make their profits.
Underneath the multinationals are literally thousands of medium sized farmers, ranchers, loggers, mining interests, fighting for what’s left: That 9% of the $8.3 billion dollar annual pie still is a lot of money in a place with low public security and diminishing Amazon resources.
Nominated Chief-of-Staff Gleisi Hoffman and Fmr. Chief-of-Staff Antonio Palocci PHOTO CREDIT: Fabio Rodriquez, Agencia Brazil by Luciana Lima and Daniela Jinkings
Brasília – President Dilma Rousseff has nominated senator Gleisi Hoffman (PT-PR) to be the new presidential Chief of Staff (“ministra-chefe da Casa Civil”), replacing Antonio Palocci.
Hoffman has been a member of the PT since 1989. In 2002, she was a member of the transition team as the Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva prepared to take office.
She ran for the senate from Paraná in 2006 and lost. She ran for mayor of Curitiba in 2008 and lost. Shortly after that election, she became the state president of the PT. Last year, she ran for the senate again and was elected with almost 3.2 million votes (two senators were elected and she was the one with the most votes).
Gleisi Hoffman has been a state secretary in Mato Grosso do Sul (Administrative Restructuring), a city official in Londrina (Public Management) and the Director of Finances at the Bi-National Itaipu hydroelectric power plant.
The new minister is a 45-year-old lawyer and is married to Dilma’s minister of Communications, Paulo Bernardo (he was Lula’s minister of Planning). They have two children.
Earlier News Brief
by by Luciana Lima
Brasília - Shortly after 6:00 pm last night, minister Antonio Palocci, the presidential Chief of Staff (“ministro-chefe da Casa Civil”), submitted a letter of resignation to president Dilma Rousseff. The president accepted his resignation.
According to a note from the Casa Civil, Palocci believes that the decision by the head of the Office of Federal Prosecutors (“procurador-geral da República”), Roberto Gurgel, not to begin a criminal investigation “confirms that his activities were legal and his behavior correct.”
On May 16, the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported that Palocci, during the period he was a representative (PT-SP) (“deputado federal”) and the Dilma Rousseff presidential campaign manager (“coordenou a campanha eleitoral de Dilma Rousseff à Presidência”), that is, between 2006 and 2010, worked as a consultant and made an amount of money that increased his worth some 20 times (“patrimônio do ministro teria aumentado 20 vezes”).
After the campaign, Palocci became a member of the transition team that prepared for the new government to take office in January. He was appointed Chief of Staff at that time.
Palocci is the first member of president Dilma Rousseff’s cabinet to resign, 158 days after the new administration took office.
This is the second time Antonio Palocci has been forced to resign from a prominent and powerful position in the federal government. In March 2006 he resigned as minister of Finance in what became known as the scandal of the violation of the gardener’s bank account. A whistleblower gardener had revealed that Palocci lied about his relations with lobbyists.
Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English (ABr)
Photo: Jose Claudio Ribeiro's hands. Maria Elena Romero/Al Jazeera.The family home of Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva is a simple, modest 3 bedroom brick building on a dusty side road in Maraba Brazil.
It is fitting for a humble man who told anybody who asked that he preferred to be called simply ‘Ze.’ If you wanted to be formal, ‘Ze Claudio,’ would due.
The house has a small kitchen and a cozy and peaceful backyard with green shrubs providing shade from the sauna-like heat common in this region of Brazil.
Ribeiro did not live here much. He preferred his even simpler home in the Amazon sustainable reserve he ran with his wife, Maria. It is about 40 kilometers from here.
But it’s at his family house, here in Maraba on Wednesday, where I first met Ze and Maria in the cramped living room. Unfortunately, both were in coffins - dead, after being gunned down this week in what police are calling a cold blooded murder likely ordered by Ze's enemies. And Ze had many.
But this was a day of his friends and family.
I was at the house for almost 10 hours on Wednesday. (My video report here)
A steady stream of friends, family, neighbors and other people associated with Ze came by to pass their respects. Many stayed a while. Some all day, sitting on plastic chairs in front of the house. Some stare off to nowhere. What was going through their mind only they know.
It was mostly quiet. There was some crying at times. Lots of hugging. Some just stared at the bodies in the caskets in apparent disbelief. There was no hysterical screaming. These people are Ze’s friends, and they are not a naïve bunch. Most had sunken eyes, weathered skin from years under the sun, and calloused hands from hard work. None wore suit and ties. These we Ze’s people.
Ze loved the forest, so much he used to call the trees his brothers and sisters. He was sickened, he told friends, when 80% of the native forest near his reserve was cut down to 20% in recent years as illegal loggers moved in. Lots of people here feel this way. But few dare do what Ze did. He took pictures on an old digital camera. He filed reports at police stations. He named names.
A relative told me usually nothing came of his denouncements. But it still infuriated powerful people in a region known in Brazil as terra sem lei (land without laws).
So Ze was threatened. He once woke up to spray paint on his house. Another time he came home to find his dog mysteriously dead.
Ze would get anonymous phone calls; “You better shut up, or else.” Then the person hung up.
But Ze didn’t. And wouldn’t. Because, he told friends, he couldn’t. He was the ‘voice of the forest.’
And for that, he famously told an audience at an environmental conference just six months ago, he could get a bullet in his head any day.
On Wednesday, a middle aged man walked up to me outside Ze’s house and without me asking told me: “Ze always said a bullet would get him someday. I never thought that day would actually arrive. Sad.” He then sort of shuffled off, without saying anything more.
Photo: People pay their last respect to Jose Claudio Ribeiro and his wife, Maria. Maria Elena Romero/Al Jazeera.Back inside the living room, the two coffins are pushed together. A sign reads: Injustice in the Amazon.
A net is placed over each of their covered bodies, to keep flies off their face.
Only the smallest portions of their faces are exposed. Both Ze and Maria had one of their ears cut off by the gunmen, a sign, police tell me, it was a murder for hire and the gunmen needed proof they killed the intended targets.
One young kid outside told me this: “Five thousand reals. That is the going rate here for killing two environmentalists like Ze and Maria. This was a big one, because both were killed.” Five thousand reals is about $3,000, more or less.
Ze’s 73 year old mother is devastated over his death; too upset to speak.
The Amazon reserve where Ze lived has mostly been abandoned since his death. Many people too scared to go back.
Ze’s sister, Claudelice da Silva, was one of the first to arrive at the remote dirt road where they were gunned down.
“To see my brother thrown on the dirt, full of bullet holes – it was the worst thing you could see in your life. Me and my family are deeply upset. But now we have more thirst for justice.”
I ask her: “Is the fact Ze is dead mean the bad guys have won?”
“No,” she says flatly without hesitation. “This fight continues.”
Photo: Jose Claudio Ribeiro sister, pictured, was one of the first to arrive on scene of his killing. Maria Elena Romero/Al JazeeraAt just about this moment, a little girl not too far from me hunches over, covers her face with her hands and starts weeping uncontrollably. “Who is that?” I ask. “That is my daughter,” Claudelice says. “Her father is not around anymore, so she considered my brother to be her dad. She is taking it hard.”
About a dozen local environmental activists (‘Ze’s students’ a woman tells me) gather in a circle in the backyard and talk where to go from here. One woman says something to the effect of “fight” and “struggle” and “continue.” But there are no easy answers.
As the late afternoon turned to evening on Wednesday, at one point well over 200 people are crowding the block in front of Ze’s house. Someone from the church brings the pews out to the street so people have a place to sit.
Many are watching a projection screen set up in the street playing videos and showing a slideshow of pictures of Ze and Maria.
At one point, someone sets up a radio on the front porch area to play an audio recording of one of Ze’s talks. There is no video. No matter, they gather around, hanging on every word. Lost on many of them is that Ze’s body is literally only a few feet away.
Photo: Outside the Jose Claudio Ribeiro family home the sign says 'the forest is crying.' Maria Elena Romero/Al Jazeera.Many people on Wednesday worried aloud that Ze and Maria’s death would go unpunished. On the phone, the state federal prosecutor told me there are over 200 unsolved murders in Para state alone involving ‘rural workers’ (usually code word for environmentalists, in these parts).
I heard 5 words a lot on Wednesday: Chico. Mendes. Dorothy. Stang. Impunity. If you don’t know, Google it. You can draw your own conclusions.
I didn’t hear one person – not one – utter the words Codigal Florestal.
It is dark now. A couple busloads of MST land rights activists arrive to pay their respects. They, along with about 100 people still remaining, light candles on crosses and place them in the neighborhood. It’s almost 11 pm.
A hand made banner has been sitting out in front of the house all day.
It reads: The forest is crying.
Ze won’t be around anymore to wipe away the tears.
A food market in the Burundian capital of Bujumbura, where prices have skyrocketed in recent months. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWSBy Saliem Fakir
Land reform in South Africa is back as a lead item on the government’s agenda. It is a tacit admission that the process over the last seventeen years was a failure. The issue must also be seen in the light of growing food insecurity, as food prices seem to only go up rather than down.
South Africa’s land reform policy is not only a way to redress past loss but also an attempt to diversify farming as mainly white farmers dominate farming. However, in opening up the space for new entrants, the policy has inadvertently favoured larger farmers.
This too has not been entirely successful.
For a set of different reasons, the balance between small and large farming is quite important. Something we still have to get right. And, how we deal with it going forward will also determine how we deal with food insecurity.
In the meantime, food insecurity grows the world over, especially in Africa, where agriculture has not quite performed the way it should have despite the huge potential for both rain fed and irrigated farming.
Just as an illustration of the global challenge: about 925 million people are undernourished. Developing countries account for 98% of this number, while a significant number live in sub-Saharan Africa. Feeding an additional 1.4 billion people by 2030 or a global population of 9.1 billion people by 2050 would require food production to increase by 50%.
The race to feed the world adequately is on. The question is, who can best help meet this projected demand: small or large farmers?
In classic supply and demand economics, food inflation tends to improve food production as high prices incentivise more planting. But the beneficiaries tend to be large farmers and commercialised agribusiness because of access to finance, well-established logistics and connections with the market. They tend to respond more quickly to incentives from increased food price shifts.
However, there is considerable scope to look again at the role of smallholders in developing countries, especially Africa, where opportunity is ripe and also given that the success of large-holding ventures have not been as promising as initially thought.
There has also been a traditional bias against smallholding. In South Africa, smallholders have received little policy support, subsidies or preferential funding. The bias continues despite changes to land policy since 1994. Smallholdings are still thought of as being uneconomical and inefficient.
However, a report by Oxfam titled, Who Will Feed the World? The Production Challenge, seeks to dispel some of the myths around family run smallholding and small farming in general. The paper shows that in Vietnam and Thailand, family farming is highly productive and provides sufficient sources of income and food security for large rural populations.
Smallholding income can also be far more productive for rural areas than export orientated or foreign-owned large farms because any income earned, is spent in the rural area. This tends to stimulate other forms of rural economic activity besides simply just holding down the growth of unemployment.
However, the bias in favour of large-scale farming in Africa is being bolstered by a combination of factors acting in concert with each other.
Countries, such as China and Saudi Arabia, with significant sovereign funds are taking liberties by purchasing large chunks of land, most of which is in Africa, as they seek to feed their own growing populations and solve their own food insecurity. They tend to favour staple food or even cash crops that are capital intensive and largely labour saving operations.
Currently, Africa registers the lowest level of agricultural productivity in the world and this combined with the lack of infrastructure, large geographic spread and conflict, reinforces policy bias in favour of large-scale farming operations.
Large-farms tend to be associated with more productivity. They get favoured above investment in small-scale farming because foreign investors also inject significant investment in roads, irrigation schemes, power supply and making new market connections.
There is also that dazzle effect as big is seen as beautiful with the usual promise of lots of jobs and cash.
Some African children, like this young girl in Nigeria, consume just one meal-a-day due to high food prices. CREDIT: M Bociurkiw/HUMNEWSIncreased migration from rural cities to urban areas in the next decade or so is expected to double. The demand for food will grow while the supply of labour in rural areas to plough land and harvest fields is going to diminish.
Proponents for the revival of agriculture in Africa take these as cues for the defence of large-scale farming.
They argue that modern agriculture – in terms of technology, markets and finance – favour larger holdings as they give better economies of scale, they are more productive, efficient and it is the only way to meet growing demand for food quickly.
Opponents argue that this model tends to favour corporate agribusiness. That agriculture becomes too commercialised and less attuned to a pro-poor agenda.
Large-scale farming can also displace smallholdings through consolidation or African governments desperate for foreign investment who will grant concessions that involve the removal of people -- raising questions about land rights and other entitlements that are eroded as a result.
Overseas sovereign funds that own these large tracts of land can also undermine national development objectives. They are not necessarily pro-poor even if they create jobs.
While Brazil has shown that large-farming, that is export orientated (cash crops such as soya), can boost foreign earnings and the country’s reserves. This is not often the case with farms owned by foreign sovereign wealth funds – depending on how governments set capital repatriation terms on earnings – as access to land does not translate into localising benefits in a substantive manner.
Sometimes, developing countries would be better off with a lesser evil. Large retail businesses, like supermarkets, that have strong supply chain ties and favour small holder production can do more for smallholders as they are more likely to create beneficiation than foreign holding of land that is unconditional.
A retail food market that is decidedly pushed in a pro-poor direction can ensure that contract arrangements retain the smallholding character of African agriculture and help diversify crop production from staple to high value crops. They could bring financial stability through long-term contracts.
Sometimes large-scale farming makes sense for crops that have short shelf lives and require good storage and transport infrastructure so they can be dispatched quickly to overseas markets. In areas where a large in-migration of labour is required mechanised large-scale farming is probably better suited because labour intensity is not an option.
In the meantime, about five hundred million smallholders currently support two billion people. They are an important part of the agricultural system. However, most smallholders (close to 60%) either produce sufficiently for themselves or have to still purchase food to meet all their requirements.
The Oxfam paper argues for complementarity, while overwhelmingly suggesting that smallholdings can vastly improve the productivity and value for African rural economies provided the right types of policies and forms of support are put in place. The paper though, intriguingly, says little about co-operatives and nationally owned farms.
A pragmatic approach may be warranted in this debate. It is not, as numerous studies have also shown, an either/or situation. Smallholders can bring far more than just economic activity in rural areas as they also can act as safeguards over social capital. Large-holders whose aim is to see agriculture as an investment opportunity will always see it that way rather than protecting a way of life.
(HN, May 19, 2011) - With the resignation yesterday of the disgraced chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, smaller member nations are lobbing to get their candidates short-listed for leader of the Washington-based multilateral agency.
Turkey is leading the pack of emerging economies, putting forth former finance minister Kamal Davis. He is a former World Bank employee and is widely credited with rescuing the Turkish economy from the devastating financial crisis of 2001.
In a post-World War II pact, leading powers decided that the IMF Managing Director post would normally be held by a European and the World Bank by an American. This is why the charismatic, high-profile French finance minister Christine Lagarde is most frequently mentioned as a front-runner for the 187-member body.
However powerful member nations such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (the so-called BRIC economies) and Japan are signalling that the selection process for the new IMF chief should be based on merit and conducting with transparency. Moreover, the IMF is said to be working to improve its governance by giving a greater voice to fast-growing developing economies such as Brazil and Turkey.
Brazil’s former Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim said that the next IMF Managing Director must come from an emerging economy, according to the MercoPress South Atlantic News Agency.
“I don’t think the IMF or the World Bank can continue to be monopolies of United States and Europe”, said Amorim. “If the next IMF Managing Director were to be chosen from an emerging country it would be much better since it would show the organization is more representative and sensitive to world changes, and that is very important."
The sentiment was echoed by Brazil's current finance minister, Guido Mantega.
Japan's finance minister Yoshihiko Noda urged IMF members Thursday to pick a new leader in a way that's "open, transparent and based on abilities."
He added: "I am expecting an appropriate person will be selected through such a process."
For the BRIC countries to marshal enough support to achieve a crucial 15 percent blocking minority on the IMF board, significant diplomatic effort would need to be expended, analysts say.
Elias looking out the window, thinking back about how Oxi almost killed him. Photo: Gabriel Elizondo/Al Jazeera
He does not want his full name used, and he asked me to protect his identity, so I’ll just call him ‘Elias'.
He lives in Rio Branco, the capital of Acre - the tiny Brazilian state that borders Bolivia and Peru in the Amazon region.
Elias once had a good job as a technician, a loving wife, and two kids aged three and seven. He almost lost it all when he got hooked on a new drug sweeping Brazil called Oxi - a deadly cocaine bi-product twice as powerful and addictive as crack.
Elias has been in drug rehabilitation three times in the past couple years.
Below is his first-hand testimony about his experience with Oxi and the great lengths he went to get his next hit.
The interview, which has been slightly condensed and edited for clarity, was conducted in-person in Rio Branco.
Gabriel Elizondo: Do you remember the first time you used Oxi?
Elias: I was living in Bolivia at the time. I was studying and working there. One weekend I was drinking, and I said I was going to go to Brazil. I went to the city of Epitaciolandia in Brazil.
I crossed the border from Bolivia, just to have a beer, and I met some people. They offered me a can and said, ‘try this.’ It was Oxi. I tried it and I fell in love with it. And I could never leave it.
That was 2005. From there it started to go downhill for me.
GE: You told me that before you used Oxi you used some marijuana and cocaine. How is Oxi different from those drugs?
Elias: Oxi is a drug that is a prime material to make crack cocaine. But Oxi is more pure. The effect of Oxi is very strong. When I used it, I could not go without it. The desire to use it was very big. It is so powerful, that in a matter of weeks I was totally addicted. I didn’t eat. I didn’t feel hungry. You lose hunger, and you’re desire for sleep.
But above all, it is very cheap. One rock can get you four inhales and it’s only five reais (about $3). Compare that to cocaine, which is about 100 reais a dose (about $61).
Oxi is cheap, you have easy access to it, and it is more devastating than other drugs and does more damage to your body faster.
Elias remembers how his addcition effected his kids. Photo: Maria Elena Romero/Al Jazeera
GE: Oxi was first noticed in Brazil 2005, here in Acre state. You live here, in the capital, Rio Branco. Has the drug had an effect on the people here in this city?
Elias: Oxi is a very popular drug now here in Rio Branco. It’s a drug that is devastating and getting everyone addicted. Before, when I lived in Rio Branco 20 years ago, there didn’t exist as many addicts because at that time Oxi didn’t exist. And then after that Oxi appeared on the streets, many people got addicted to it.
On the streets today I see people I used to use the drug with and they are like zombies walking around, going crazy.”
GE: How did your use of Oxi effect your family?
Elias: I would leave my house to use Oxi, and left all my family at home. My kids would start crying saying ‘dad, dad!’ I don’t like to remember this.
My kids suffered a lot. When I left to use the drug they stayed at home crying ... When I speak about my kids I get very emotional, it’s very hard. One time I even sold my kids new clothes to buy Oxi.
GE: Did your kids understand your drug addiction? And what about your wife?
Elias: My kids are very innocent, they are very young. They don’t understand a lot of things.
But the older one, when I used Oxi at home, he told me, ‘father why do you smoke, you get weird when you smoke that?’
When I smoked in the house my kids could smell it; the smell stays inside the house. All of this still weights heavily on me. I can’t believe I made my kids smell that.
GE: And your wife?
Elias: “My wife is a woman who never quit on me. But one day she old me, ‘OK, you have to choose between me and your kids, or Oxi.’ I chose Oxi. You can see how strong that drug is. And since I picked the drug she then said, ‘OK, I won’t quit on you, because I have faith in you.’
And until today she is still here with me. We have been together 16 years.”
An Oxi user in a dark park in Rio Branco. Photo: Maria Elena Romero/Al Jazeera
GE: Your worst moment using Oxi was when?
Elias: One time when I was smoking Oxi, my heart was beating so fast I fell on the ground and passed out. And then I woke up and saw the drug, and I used it again. I smoked it again.
At that point, I knew I was going to die. I got to a point that I could not live any longer with the drug or without the drug.
GE: You are in the final stages of your third attempt at drug rehabilitation. Do you think you will ever relapse to use Oxi again?
Elias: No, I will never return to that because I look at myself in the past and I don’t want that anymore in my life.
Today I can sit at the table with my family to have lunch. I can enjoy a birthday party with my kids. I realized that I don’t want to go back – there was too much suffering. But I admit, occasionally the desire for the drug is still there.”
(Bolsa Familia represented on RT.com) By Saliem Fakir
The social grant is a wager with time. Its aim is to catch the indigent - those who have no chance of ever finding a job - within a social welfare net to soften the blow of poverty.
For others, it’s a respite during hard times. It lifts the spirits of those waiting for their fortunes to change. Well planned and executed social grants should also help break inter-generational cycles of poverty.
The thought that social grants create “dependency” is largely dictated by what happens in an economy.
As the Brazilian example shows, the urge for social upliftment is far greater than the desire to be dependent. However, conditions for entry into the mainstream economy as well as general economic growth are key factors that drive rates of employment both formally and informally.
Social grants have a redistributive role. Their place in a highly unequal society like South Africa cannot be disputed.
South Africa already has a complex web of social grants. The collective presence and weight of which is not easily discernable unless you are close to the budgeting and delivery of these programmes. What we don’t have is a basic income grant, which has long been debated but never concluded. However, the debate on the merits of an unconditional basic income grant should also not be ignored.
The impact of the Brazilian programme offers useful lessons.
(Patrius Anania is the Brazil Minister of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation)
The Brazilian programme, Bolsa Familia, is dubbed the ‘new generation of social programmes’ because of its focus on human development imperatives in return for social assistance. Bolsa Familia is also viewed as a stepping-stone to a Citizens’ Basic Income Grant, which Brazil passed into law in 2005.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former President of Brazil, introduced Bolsa Familia, a conditional cash grant for poor families in 2003. Bolsa Familia involved an integration of a number of social grant programmes that existed before under a newly constituted programme that is driven by a central system.
Bolsa Familia is the largest social grant scheme in the world. The relative cost of the scheme is about 0.4% of the Brazilian GDP. The programme is credited for lifting 20 million people out of poverty in a relatively short period of time, which has caused it to attract worldwide attention.
Bolsa Familia has spread to 16 other Latin American countries. The idea has even touched the ‘free world’. New York City has a similar scheme to deal with urban poverty in some parts of its city districts.
The application of a Brazilian type programme in the US is ironic given that the conception of a minimum income grant was actually pioneered by US economists and initially introduced in a partial manner before conservatives killed it the late 1960s.
Bolsa Familia turns conventional economic theory on its head. It challenges the predisposition that the trickle-down approach is the best mechanism for redistribution of income instead of active state intervention.
Bolsa Familia is a cash grant in exchange for families sending their kids to school and participating in other associated development support measures such as vaccinations, nutritional monitoring, prenatal and post-natal tests.
Bolsa Familia supports close to 12 million households or 50 million people and costs the state about US$4.5 billion per year. The programme targets families with monthly per capita income below US$52.
Preference is given to mothers or pregnant women within a family unit -- about 93% of beneficiaries are females. The family unit as a whole is made accountable for ensuring that the development obligations, which the scheme requires are being met in exchange for the cash transfers.
In 2007, the scheme was partially funded through a financial transfer levy on financial transactions - Brazil’s own “Tobin Tax” - and some support from the World Bank.
However, since the state was reluctant to increase the financial transaction levy, funds had to be sourced from elsewhere. Some funds were also generated through a tax on agriculture.
The distribution of grants is managed by central government and the disbursement mechanism is via the poor gaining access to a bank account (mainly through the state bank), which has also improved access to other financial services. The process for beneficiary eligibility, registration and verification takes place at the municipal level.
In March 2009, an International Labour Organisation study showed that Bolsa Familia had a better impact than other social transfer schemes because of the manner in which it was targeted. The scheme, in addition, avoided increased vulnerability of families to economic shocks by ensuring financial stability.
The income grant, which is supplementary to existing income, has had other benefits. For one, it stimulates local economic activity, especially in a counter-cyclical way, as it supports consumptive driven production as poor people continue to spend on food and other necessities.
However, Bolsa Familia does not work in isolation. The Brazilian government is also working to support labour inclusion programmes by seeking ways to break barriers that prevent poor people from entering the mainstream labour market. Some of the support comes in the form of special vocational training.
Vocational training programmes are mainly in construction and tourism where job growth is most likely to be created rapidly.
For a similar scheme to work in South Africa a number of conditions need to be satisfied.
Firstly, the overall impact and costs of existing social grant schemes need to be assessed both for the fiscus as well as for desired outcomes. Given that our net gini-coefficient has shown little improvement, a lot of questions need to be asked about whether the current social grants system is working or not.
Secondly, a centralised system of transfer will still depend on local level administration for registration and verification of beneficiaries. This assumes an effective local government system.
Question marks will be raised about South Africa’s local authorities and their state of readiness to support such a scheme. The scheme will also have to have an accessible disbursement system. The South African Post Office can serve as a bank for the poor given that the Post Office is also registered to operate as a public bank of late.
Thirdly, one assumption prevails only if the other holds. In this case, the link between cash transfers for development and education. The desired impact will only hold if teaching and educational facilities exist. More importantly, as the Brazilian example shows, school attendance does not assure the receipt of quality education.
Fourthly, the financing of the programme will also depend on competing demands for funds from the fiscus. Brazil’s Bolsa Familia was designed to ensure that the scheme did not crowd out funds for other programmes, but also went a step further by identifying other innovative sources of finance to support the scheme.
Finally, the effectiveness of social grant schemes will also have to be monitored, as the Brazilian programme shows that leakage can occur in cases where grants go to non-eligible beneficiaries. The rate at which this happens can compromise the entire basis of the scheme and exclude the intended target group.
The Brazilian model is flourishing and the model is being adopted widely in Latin America. There are also lots of similarities between South and Brazil. We have a lot to learn from them.
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 8:46AM 
The World Bank cut its global growth forecast in both developed and poorer nations by the most in three years, in its twice-yearly report issued late on Tuesday, saying that a recession in the euro region threatens to exacerbate a slowdown particularly in several major developing countries.
School Girls in Oecusse, Timor-Leste. Photo: Barbara Ratusznik/World BankThe report also noted that “the downturn in Europe and weaker growth in developing countries raises the risk that the two developments reinforce one another, resulting in an even weaker outcome”. – It also said that while Europe is moving toward long-term solutions to its debt problems, the markets remain skittish.
