Blondes, brunettes, mulattos …. Ahh, Muses, What's Carnival Without Them?

São Paulo as the industrial and economic centre of Brazil starts its carnival parades on Friday night with the highlight on Saturday night. Then it is over in São Paulo, the Paulista can not spend valuable working hours with something as frivolous as carnival. Monday is simply back to work.
Rio de Janeiro is different. Cariocas are partying all the time and working a bit in between. Rio is the glamour city, São Paulo is for serious business.
Although in Rio carnival in the streets starts on Friday, the big carnival parades in de Sambódromo are Saturday night with the top on Monday night. The Carioca is slowly cutting-back on his festivities on Tuesday to enable him to quietly sleep on Wednesday, as officially his working day starts at noon. But don’t contact a company in Rio before Thursday morning, better still wait till next Monday.

Anyway, let’s start with:


The Muses of 1st day of carnival parades in São Paulo:

For a full reportage with all the pictures of the carnival queens and beauties visit: “Blondes, brunettes, mulattos …. Ahh, Muses, without them carnival would not be fun” at Anton Steeman Homepage

Seven Federal States and the Federal District Concentrate 80% of the GDP

And nevertheless Pará is the champion of economic activity.

About 80% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Brazil is generated by only eight of the 27 states of the Federation, concentrated in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Bahia, Santa Catarina and the Federal District.

The concentration of the GDP in eight regions reduced by 1% (from 79.7% to 78.7%, equivalent to R$ 23.7 billion (USD 10.8 billion) between 2002 and 2006, while the Northern Region increased by 0.4%.. São Paulo alone realizes some 34% of the Brazilian GDP.

The survey of the IBGE also shows the per capita GDP in the regions. At this moment, the Federal District still has the highest GDP per capita (USD 17,090), almost three times the national average (USD 5,767) and well ahead of São Paulo with USD 8,885 and Rio de Janeiro with USD 8,043.

Pará, with all its minerals (iron ore, gold, diamonds, bauxite and whatever you want) letting his soil be robbed for a pittance, Pará with its obviously inexhaustible stock of hardwood illegally cut down and disappearing, Pará with its abundance of fish in its inner waters but ransacked scot-free, Pará does not belong to the above mentioned list of Prime Producers, Pará has just officially an insignificant share in Brazil’s GDP.

Nevertheless Pará is the undisputable leader. A sad leadership. Ranking No. 1 at the list of slave labour.

Pará remains at the top of the list of slave labour in Brazil. According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MTE), just this year, the Special Group for Mobile Labour Inspection held 28 operations throughout the state, during which 592 workers who were in conditions similar to slavery were “freed”. Above that a 1.000 bookings for misconduct were issued and for more than R$ 1.6 million (USD 730,000) payments for compensation and arrears of wages cashed.

The MTE calls attention to the growing rates of slave labour in states that until then, did not appear on that list. Among them, Goiás and Alagoas.

According MTE, this scenario is directly linked to the expansion of the sugar cane industry, a major protagonist in the international market for bio-fuels. And in the southern region of the country, an increase in the number of enslaved labourers is detected in fazendas which grow pine, a species widely used for reforestation. In both cases, the indecency is that slave labour is being used to support activities theoretically sustainable, for which the basic principles as respect for the environment and concern for the social aspect should be fundamental.

'Methanol is a 'clean' energy in regard to the environment. But we need it also to be clean in the sense of respect for those who work in the production of it", said the president of the Sindicato Nacional dos Auditores do Trabalho (National Association of Labour Prosecutors), Rosa Campos Jorge.

To prosecutor Jonas Moreno, the increase in the number of ‘freed’ labourers reflects the intention of the Brazilian government to step up the enforcement actions to repress this rank injustice.



In other words there are still a lot of slaves out there to be ‘freed’.

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Brazil and its ‘green’ bio-diesel

We all know that Brazil champions bio-fuels and as I wrote in a previous post, President Lula promotes worldwide the use (and thus Brazilian export) of ethanol from sugar-cane. You should think puffing out his chest Brazil is the prime example of clean air.

But as Míriam Leitão writes in her column “Economic Panorama” in O Globo, inhaling Brazilian air causes a frontal attack on your nose and your health.
People have to breathe to survive, but when you breathe in Brazil’s large cities, you are bound to inhale the sulphur rich fuel exhausts, mainly diesel. In the United States, Europe, Taiwan and Mexico, the sulphur content in diesel has already fallen. Seven years ago, a resolution determined clean fuel in Brazil. Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned petroleum giant said that it will commit to this resolution in 2009. Not meeting these requirements will cost more human lives.

The resolution 315 from 2002 published by Conama, the National Environment Institute, established that Brazilian diesel should have 50 parts of sulphur per million (i.e. a maximum of 0,005% of sulphur). Diesel is a composition basically consisted of carbon, hydrogen, and concentrations of sulphur, nitrogen and oxygen. There is a worldwide movement to reduce the share of sulphur as it is responsible for the existence of acid rain. Compared to the product in other countries, diesel in Brazil, a country that champions bio-diesel, is just a shame. For years ago the United States reached the level of 50 parts per million (ppm). At this moment the USA target for 15 parts per million. In Europe, the goal today is 10 ppm. In Brazil, diesel has 500 parts of sulphur per million in the large cities and 2.000 in the rural areas. Petrol (gasoline) has 1.000 ppm. But diesel raises more concern as it is a heavier compound with emitted particles more harmful to human health.

If the regulation of Conama, finally, comes into force in the coming year, the level of sulphur will fall to 50 ppm for diesel in both large cities and rural areas. Even when we get there, we are still far behind countries like Mexico, which today has 50 ppm and will go to 15 ppm next year. Taiwan reached 50 ppm 4 years ago. Canada, which has a heavy oil, had 340 ppm, but moved to 30 ppm. There are several large and medium-sized countries which are already reaching levels causing less pollution and less harm.

Why is this country with its abundance of ‘green’ bio-diesel one of the worst polluters in the world? Because it is typical Brazil, it contains all the signs of the various and many defects in Brazil: the excessive power of Petrobras (the Kingdom within a Republic), the inefficiency of the regulatory bodies, particularly the Agência Nacional do Petróleo (National Agency for Petroleum), the neglect of and the disinterest in the health of the citizens, and last but not least the lobby of the auto industry. Conama submitted to a long term period in which its resolution should be met, but the National Agency for Petroleum (ANP), which had to detail the technical specifications of fuels, let the time running out. Finally in October last year and after much pressure from entities such as the movement “Our São Paulo”, the OAB, the Department of Environment of São Paulo, among others, the ANP reported the specifications.
And then a lobby started to delay the enforcement of the resolution, whose implementation was scheduled for January 2009. The authorities reacted. The Ministry of Environment announced not to be inclined to accept postponements. Minister Carlos Minc of the Ministry of Environment reiterated this, saying that he shall require compensation from Petrobras and Anfavea (the Association of Brazilian Car Manufacturers) if they do not meet the deadline. Petrobras divulged in a bulletin that "the Company shall provide the 50 ppm diesel to be used by vehicles with technology P-6. This product is also available for tests by the auto industry."

Heavy sulphur loaded diesel is the main culprit for the pollution generated by traffic. The pollution causes various respiratory diseases and even lung cancer, 5% of the cases are caused by pollution. Two million people die each year worldwide from diseases caused by air pollution.

Professor Paulo Saldiva of the Laboratory for Atmospheric Pollution of the University of São Paulo, made a calculation regarding the effects on the economically active population, between 20 and 60 years in the metropolitan region of São Paulo; he arrived at a cost of 1,5 billion USD per year because of problems caused by pollution. While only 10% of the fleet is diesel, the fuel is responsible for 50% of the emissions of fine particles, which forms the black smoke, responsible for deaths and respiratory diseases. According to Paulo Saldiva, pollution causes some 400 deaths per year in the city of São Paulo only.

Petrobras, in its memo, said it is gradually removing the sulphur content of diesel and gasoline since the early 90’s and states that it invested 1,6 billion USD from 2000 to 2007 to improve the quality of fuels.
There is no reason for further postponements, the technology to reduce sulphur content is readily available and public health should be at the top of the list of priorities of the socialistic administration of President Lula.

But there is hope, although we have to wait a long time. Yesterday the Ministry of Environment proposed a plan to reduce the share of sulphur to 10 ppm in 2012. Nice, but various sources are reporting that the proposed resolution will not be imposed before 2017. Nine years from now, just to go from 50 ppm to 10 ppm, a level many a country has reached already nowadays. Nine years more to see Brazil change from a lavish green to a dry savannah.

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Polemic promotion campaign against drugs

A controversial campaign against drug use and abuse of alcohol in the corridors and recreation areas of the Mackenzie Presbyterian University in São Paulo implemented immediately at the beginning of the new school year raised many a reaction from the students. From morbid, gross till good and gives you stuff to think and discuss about.
Beneath other publication objects, most of the attention is concentrated on the waste bins which are decorated with faces of youngsters, while a card at the top of the bin states: “This is what is inside the head of somebody using drugs.” and “This is how it looks inside the head of a drug user.”

The design of the campaign is from the hand of Publicis, a company which takes care of all the public relations activities of the university. According to the vice-president of the bureau, Guilherme Jahara, it was intentional to be controversial. “As drugs have a strong impact, the propaganda about this issue should have a similar impact. I used this argument to sell the campaign.”

By the way the photographed faces are not students, but professional models hired by the promotion bureau. Publicis has plans to implement more of these attention requiring controversial objects on the university grounds.