Participants in a panel on “Pedagogy, territories and resistance” at the World Education Forum in the Brazilian city of Canoas. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

By Clarinha Glock
CANOAS, Brazil, Jan 24 2014 (IPS)

The challenges of the digital age call for schools to develop an alternative model of education, with teachers who incorporate new technology and employ a more critical pedagogy, participants said at the Fórum Mundial de Educaçao (World Education Forum) in this southern Brazilian city.

Guadalupe Jover, a Spanish education expert, told IPS that information and communication technologies (ICT) must be used as a tool for building collective knowledge through pedagogical renewal, and not to perpetuate the worst aspects of the prevailing educational system.

“We are talking here about the offensive strategies of the markets aimed at those who want to be involved in education, that is, sales through ICT,” said Jover, the coordinator of Spain’s Platform of Citizens for Public Schools in Spain, at the forum held Jan. 21-23 in Canoas, 19 km from Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul.

In suffocatingly hot weather, more than 4,000 participants from 13 countries debated the forum’s central theme: “Pedagogy, Metropolitan Regions and Peripheries,” holding three plenary meetings and working groups on six sub-themes.

Porto Alegre was the cradle of the World Social Forum, an alternative movement which first met in 2001 under the slogan “Another World Is Possible.” Thousands of social organisations and movements from all over the world participate in its meetings, which are held in different regions of the developing South.

Jover was a panellist at the meeting on “Pedagogy, Territories and Resistance,” which discussed the problems posed by present-day curricula and the prevailing neoliberal concept that students should be trained to satisfy the needs of the market.

Jaume Martínez Bonafé of the University of Valencia, Spain, told IPS that “pedagogy continues to be autistic, obsolete, because previously the whole world was explained in classrooms, whereas now the focus is on the major commercial hubs.”

His concern, he said, is that ICT “will only change the tools without altering educational content.”

According to educators from different regions, ideally curricula should contribute to the growth of persons and their emancipation, as proposed by Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire (1921-1997), one of the most innovative educational theorists of the 20th century, who did for education what Liberation Theology did for the Catholic Church.

His influential ideas heralded alternative education, through unorthodox formulas of learning based on freedom, and through his concern for promoting equality through education and increasing access to schooling for the oppressed.

Two Argentine educators inspired by Freire, Carla Azul Cassineiro and Laura Mombelli, travelled a long distance from their country to participate in the forum. Cassineiro teaches physical education and and Mombelli accounting. They are both popular educators in La Cava, Argentina’s second largest shanty town, in Buenos Aires.

Their students have access to the digital world, but many of their families see their devices and want them to buy food and get jobs, creating conflict and violence, they told IPS.

Cassineiro said the government Universal Child Allowance programme, which over the past five years has paid Argentine families with incomes of less than the minimum wage 31 dollars a month for each child, on condition that they attend school, has “helped integration and social containment.”

While Latin America is the second most urbanised world region, in Africa the school population is 60 percent rural, Aidil de Carvalho Borges, project manager for educational reform in Cape Verde, told IPS.

“This accentuates every kind of inequality, especially in relation to technology, which is only available in the cities,” she said. This hinders what ought to be a priority in education, that is, “for all children to have the same rights, no matter where they live.”

“Needs and demands are growing constantly,” said the Cape Verde education ministry official. “In some countries there may be one or two politicians who want to change the situation, but I think only radical social movements can bring about changes, or at least concessions, in education.”

Moacir Gadotti, the head of the Paulo Freire Institute, said that “schools need to discuss the kind of country they want, the kind of neighbourhood they want; there must be no fear of being free.”

He talked about the new Brazilian phenomenon of “rolezinhos”, in which large groups of young people from disadvantaged or peripheral areas occupy leisure spaces, especially shopping malls, after some of them, mostly Afro-Brazilian and poor, were expelled from one of these malls in São Paulo in late 2013.

“These young people have aspirations, they want to participate in the new Brazil,” Gadotti said. “Young people are connected to the social networks and this is something that politicians often do not understand or pay attention to.”

Popular educator Alberto Croce, the founder and president of Fundación SES in Argentina which promotes social inclusion of young people with limited resources, believes that the “rolezinhos” are a way of defying the system, connecting the movement with protests against educational and social exclusion in countries like Chile or Colombia.

Croce said that it is true that poor people are now better off in Latin America, but it is also true that inequality has increased in this region, the most unequal in the world.

The differences between educational models in big city schools and those in the poor suburbs is, in a way, a reflection of the contradictions of that inequality, he said.

The general run of schools prioritise the neoliberal model of preparing students for the labour market, but in the shanty towns and poorer districts there is resistance to this model because it discriminates against them and makes them invisible.

“One of the keys to education is respect for diversity. When education values cultural differences, integrates and incorporates them, then we can talk of quality education,” Croce said.

“Digital inclusion is a phenomenon that is present” in society, he said. Previously, young people wanted fashionable shoes, “but now they want to buy cell phones; there has definitely been a change, because access to technology is valued.”

In his view, young people have chosen mobile phones, the most personal device, to access ICT. “Inclusion is limited, but it has without doubt created a transformation,” Croce said.

It is a transformation that education cannot turn its back on, said participants at the Canoas forum, in debates on topics such as “Education as a human right,” “Education, environment and sustainability,” “Education in the emerging paradigm,” and “Education, diversity and inclusion.”

Meeting on health and food security in the Caingangue Guarita Reserve in southern Brazil. Credit: Courtesy of Marcos Antonio Ribeiro

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil , Jun 1 2013 (IPS)

Healthcare for Brazil’s indigenous minority is in poor health, according to U.N. experts, missionaries, social workers and native people themselves.

Ida Pietricovsky, an adviser to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the northern city of Belem do Pará, stressed the lack of systematic information on the health of indigenous people.

Speaking to IPS, officials at the Health Ministry’s communication office blamed the shortcomings on the incomplete transition in healthcare for indigenous communities, which in 2010 began to be transferred from the National Health Foundation (FUNASA) to the Special Secretariat on Indigenous Health (SESAI).

Whatever the case, the situation is hindering the implementation of public policies catering to the specific needs of each indigenous group.

“It’s a very serious problem, and we are trying to discuss it with SESAI,” Pietricovsky told IPS. The way information is gathered differs from region to region, she said, which makes it difficult to compare data.

UNICEF and other U.N. agencies have set up offices with multidisciplinary teams to serve the Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring System and thus improve nutrition in every Special Indigenous Health District, in conjunction with SESAI.

The initiative first began to work with children from the Xavante indigenous community in the western state of Mato Grosso, a region with high levels of mortality related to malnutrition and diarrhea.

“The idea is to train the teams to prevent further deaths,” Pietricovsky said. “Child mortality in indigenous areas is double the national average, and improvements in the indicators have been very slow.”

The latest report on violence against indigenous people by the Catholic Indigenous Missionary Council, based on 2011 figures, includes a chapter on healthcare neglect.

The report describes 53 cases of negligence in healthcare in 16 states, which affected a total of 53,000 people. The northern state of Amazonas accounts for the largest number of cases.

The study is based on newspaper and magazine articles from the different regions and missionary reports. It says the general complaint in indigenous communities is that there is a shortage of health professionals, medication, equipment, transportation and assistance – in short, that they have been abandoned by the health system.

From north to south, the needs are similar in this immense country of 198 million people. Of the total population, 900,000 people self-identified as indigenous in the 2010 census, belonging to 305 different ethnic communities who speak 274 languages.

In Dourados, a city in the southwestern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, the native reserve’s proximity to the city has driven up levels of alcoholism, diabetes and hypertension among the indigenous people.

The demarcation of the land of the Yanomami, who live in the north of the country, forced members of that group to abandon their nomadic lifestyle and has left them confined in areas that are near army garrisons.

As a result, they began to eat processed foods, because fish are scarce in the rivers and streams in their settlements. And when they seek medical assistance at the municipal health posts, they run up against discrimination and rejection.

“We are fighting for every community to regain its autonomy and a central role in feeding itself,” Sandro Luckmann, a member of the Council of Missions among Indigenous people (COMIN), run by evangelical churches, told IPS.

COMIN has been working for 30 years with the Caingangue people in the Guarita Reserve in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, whose capital is Porto Alegre.

The Caingangue people are the third-largest native group in Brazil, and Guarita is their biggest settlement, according to the 2010 census.

Luckmann pointed out that ensuring healthcare and food security form part of a broad process, which includes finding new means of production.

“The demarcation of indigenous lands does not create the conditions to guarantee food security for the community,” he said. “There are programmes run by one government or another, but no stable public policy,” he complained.

In Guarita, Caingangue men and women must find work in meat-packing plants in nearby cities, or as temporary workers harvesting apples, onions or grapes on plantations where they sleep in precarious barracks.

“There are stories that in the meat-packing industry, the indigenous workers are given the worst jobs, the ones no one wants to do,” Luckmann said. “They commute up to four hours by bus, to work an eight-hour day, and then ride back again to be able to sleep in their homes.”

He pointed out that article 231 of the Brazilian constitution establishes that the demarcation of ancestral indigenous territories must guarantee the groups’ physical and cultural survival and the subsistence of their communities. But that does not happen, he said.

“When we talk about food security and sovereignty, we have to think about the territory that indigenous people occupy, and understand that the changes in their living conditions give rise to nutritional deficiencies and health problems,” he said.

Marcos Antonio Ribeiro of the Caingangue community, who coordinates SESAI in the Guarita Reserve, confirmed that the change from the traditional eating habits of his people to a less diversified diet based on processed foods had led to a rise in undernutrition, anemia and vitamin deficiencies.

In the past, the Caingangue people’s diet was based on the cultivation of corn, squash and beans, the harvesting of wild fruits and nuts, and fishing.

But the community’s diet changed because of the ease of acquiring commercially processed foods, the lack of land to farm, and the indiscriminate use of pesticides, which has killed off several native plant species.

Ribeiro explained to IPS that the dietary changes not only cause health problems, but are also harmful to the Caingangue culture, because there is a series of rituals associated with eating and food.

For example, “when a youngster is going to eat crumbs from a cornmeal cake, the oldest person in the house rubs his body all over and makes him previously drink an infusion, because the Caingangue believe that without this ritual, youngsters will be weakened and will suffer cramps as adults,” he said.

The Caingangue, who in the past depended on medicinal herbs, now want to see health professionals. And when they do, they are found to have high levels of diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol and triglycerides.

“And in recent years, there have been cases of cancer of all kinds in indigenous people of all ages, even children,” he said.

Ribeiro, who has an educational background in nutrition, is promoting a return to traditional knowledge in indigenous institutions and communities. His own mother died of complications from diabetes, becoming part of statistics that are still invisible to the health authorities.

Indigenous students learning to operate equipment at a communications workshop. Credit: Courtesy of PCSAN/Daniela Silva

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, May 21 2013 (IPS)

Indigenous communities in remote areas of Brazil have begun to recognise that they have the right to not be hungry, and are learning that food security means much more than simply having food on the table.

Rosiléia Cruz, 19, dreams of studying journalism. She chooses her words carefully during her interview with Tierramérica* by mobile phone from Tabatinga, in northwest Brazil, which can only be reached by plane or river travel.

Cruz is a member of the Ticuna indigenous ethnic group, one of the most numerous in the country. The Ticuna live in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, in the Alto Solimões region around the river of the same name, near the borders of Peru and Colombia.

The lands of their ancestors were invaded for decades by “seringueiros” (rubber tappers), fishermen and loggers, who left poverty and destruction in their wake.

Up until three years ago, young people like Cruz had few prospects, and many sought relief in alcohol and even suicide.

But in January 2010, the Joint Programme on Food and Nutrition Security for Indigenous Women and Children opened a window of hope, with activities aimed at creating agricultural and other nutritional solutions, but with particular emphasis on training and awareness raising.

Cruz forms part of a group of 50 young people from Ticuna and Kokama indigenous communities participating in communications workshops held in local schools. At the Umariaçu II community school in Tabatinga, she learned how to conduct interviews, take photographs, and produce daily news billboards and radio programmes.

She was thrilled by the opportunity to handle a microphone or camera in order to question the village chief about community problems, explain the importance of breastfeeding to mothers-to-be, or inform children about healthy habits, soft drinks, processed foods and the fruits of the region.

“There are a lot of young people that we can rescue from alcoholism,” she said. “We just prepared a news report on ‘Indian Day’ (a Brazilian holiday celebrated every Apr. 19) and I’m going to participate in Indigenous Babies Week.”

The aim of the workshops is to motivate young people to promote and defend their rights. An agreement with a local television station made it possible for the youngsters to be trained in the use of the equipment donated by the joint programme. The radio station in Tabatinga provided them with space in its Saturday programming schedule so that they could broadcast their own radio show.

The group also uses loudspeakers mounted on posts in their villages to get their message across. The daily news billboards are displayed on the walls of medical clinics and schools, and internet workshops have provided them with the skills to run their own website, which will be launched on May 21.

Once all the workshops are completed, the participants will share what they have learned with other students. Partnerships with local governments, universities and indigenous organisations will ensure continuity, and the internet will serve as a platform to disseminate the results, expand communication and inspire other young people.

These experiences form part of a wider project to help Ticuna and Kokama communities to organise in order to demand health care, education and economic and political participation.

The joint programme is an initiative of the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Achievement Fund, set up with a financial contribution from the government of Spain and administered by various United Nations agencies, including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in partnership with the Brazilian government.

Now in the stage of collecting data and evaluating results, since it will conclude in June, the programme focused on the municipalities of Tabatinga, Benjamin Constant and São Paulo de Olivença in the northwestern state of Amazonas, and the municipality of Dourados in the southwestern state of Mato Grosso do Sul, which are home to a combined total of 53,000 indigenous people.

These areas were chosen because of their high rates of malnutrition, substance abuse and violence, as well as their remote and difficult-to-reach locations. It is hoped that the positive results expected can be extended to other regions of the country, Fernando Moretti, the national coordinator of the joint programme, told Tierramérica.

In the three and half years since the programme was launched, International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples has been translated into the Guaraní, Terena and Ticuna languages. Brazil ratified the convention in 2002, but its implementation remains a challenge.

Another concrete outcome was the publication of a book that shares the perceptions of 25 children and adolescents in villages in Mato Grosso do Sol and neighbouring Paraguay on food and nutrition security. The book, which includes photographs, letters and artworks, will be distributed in a Portuguese-Guaraní bilingual edition to schools, libraries and cultural centres.

“When we talk about food security, it is not simply a matter of food production, but also of training in health and self-esteem,” said Moretti.

The activities are aimed at motivating people to use the region’s biological and agricultural diversity sustainably.

Communities were provided with rural technical assistance and guidance for the establishment of agro-forestry systems, which combine farming with sustainable use and recovery of local forests, and of school gardens. In Dourados, indigenous farmers reintroduced yerba mate – used to prepare a hot beverage widely consumed in southern Brazil and neighbouring countries – and other native plant species with significant commercial potential.

In the village of Panambizinho, two plant nurseries were constructed, and the local residents learned how to make eco-friendly stoves that use less firewood, thus preserving the forest, and reduce harmful smoke emissions.

There were also discussions of concepts and practices related to healthy eating and disease prevention. Awareness raising and the creation of opportunities allowed the project to grow naturally, said Moretti.

Some families created gardens in their homes. Indigenous community members were trained to measure and weigh babies and children in order to provide data on these populations to the Food and Nutrition Security System.

In Alto Solimões, the ILO is supporting an association of craftspeople with a market study to help their products reach buyers.

For Moretti, what was most important was strengthening institutions and expanding interaction with the indigenous population. From now on, there will be two indigenous representatives on the National Council for Food and Nutrition Security, the agency responsible for implementation of the Zero Hunger policy launched by the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration (2003-2011). Indigenous community members are also organising to participate in municipal councils.

In Dourados, the National Indigenous Fund and UNICEF organised a colloquium in order to create a network for the protection of indigenous children and adolescents and to define the measures to be adopted in cases of abuse, abandonment and alcoholism. A similar event will be held with communities in Alto Solimões on Jun. 17-19.

An ethnic mapping exercise was also conducted, which included the identification of what is produced in each region. “These are tools that the indigenous people themselves will be able to use,” stressed Moretti.

* This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Excerpt:

Schools must teach students to learn how to learn, says Divina Frau-Meigs. Credit: Courtesy Mila Petrillo/ANDI

By Clarinha Glock
BRASILIA, Apr 30 2013 (IPS)

A new social contract is needed in education, that would fully incorporate informatics and the 21st century conception of human rights, French professor Divina Frau-Meigs says in this interview with IPS.

The professor of American studies and media sociology at the University of Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle says teachers and students must assume the challenge of transliteracy.

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media, from handwriting and print to TV, radio, film and digital social networks. A transliterate person is one who is literate across multiple media.

On a visit to attend a seminar in Brazil, Frau-Meigs, who is an adviser to the Council of Europe and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), was interviewed extensively by Clarinha Glock.

Excerpts of the interview follow:

Q: What is transliteracy?

A: It is knowing how to read, write, calculate and compute. But “compute” includes understanding these three categories of information: code, document and current events/press. Students and teachers must be trained. The role of school is to clarify and help people understand all kinds of contents, modify them, and comment on them.

Q: What is the main obstacle?

A: Students think they know everything, from their perspective of dealing with computers and tablets. And professors say that if students have good knowledge to read and write, it is enough.

It is necessary to break down this resistance to awareness-raising, in hands-on practical classrooms. For example: I ask students to look for the information they need for their projects. They respond: “There are millions of pieces of information, I don’t know where to start.”

Teaching students to eliminate, evaluate, assess, change – that is the role of schools. It’s a way of learning to learn, which is what we must put again at the centre of the curriculum.

Q: How can these proposals be applied in countries where educators are still poorly paid?

A: I’m not sure that salaries should be put in first place. That’s why I talk about the need for a new social contract.

We have to decide once again that school matters, that literacy matters, and that today digital literacy is indispensable.

Once we agree on what is our mission, then we can discuss salaries and conditions inside and outside the classroom.

Transliteracy doesn’t only occur in schools. School rhythms are changing, because students can now connect at night, outside the school premises. The role of teachers will also be different. Their salaries must be enhanced, but knowing what they need in terms of training, and the new conditions of schedules, rhythms and resources.

The decision must be assumed by teaching staff, government ministries, trade unions, companies and students – as a new social contract.

Q: And what would that new social contract consist of?

A: Since the 19th century, the social contract has been free, public – even though many schools are private – and secular education.

And another characteristic has to be incorporated: “open” – through informatics, which gives access to many contents from other countries and cultures. With informatics, ideas can be developed to the maximum. And if we use it well, it can empower everyone.

The contract also has to be amplified with the concept of human rights, which did not exist in the 19th century. Universal human rights emerged in 1948 and the Internet started to emerge after World War II. The two tools – moral and technical – were born around the same time.

Young people must become participants in a positive future. That is done by spreading values. We want to be creative, expressive, decent, participative, educated people. That is what will motivate people to go to school, and also to change it. Once a consensus is built, the discussion of salaries and resources will happen.

Q: And how is this new social contract being implemented in France?

A: The problem in France, as in other countries, is the change of scale. There are small-scale experiences already functioning in schools. But a secular, public, open and free system has to be accessible to all.

In May, we’ll have a meeting in Lyon (France) with officials from the ministries. We have to convince decision-makers, because if they aren’t with us on this, we won’t bring about this change.

Q: It’s not just about providing schools with computers…

A: Absolutely not. Even in poor countries, many people have a laptop. Prices have been coming down, there are more and more free and open applications, everything can be downloaded, and the more, the better.

But people need to be trained in transliteracy to understand the design of platforms, how to edit the contents and how to use, evaluate, save and inform about what already exists.

To that end we have people who have been trained, who are invisible to the system: librarians. They have had computer skills for a long time. In France, they are being trained so they can also be educators/trainers.

The official expression is “teacher librarian”: they are not only assistants, but they can show children information as code, as document, and as current events, something that teachers don’t generally do.

Their role is to know how to search, have a critical eye, and ask good questions, and afterwards, when results are found, it is to select, save and add all of the ideas to make the student’s own document. We’re not starting from scratch. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), based in the Netherlands, is strong and has branches in each country.

Q: What directives does the European Union use to regulate the media?

A: The Television Without Frontiers directive was revised and transformed into the Audiovisual Media Services directive. European companies couldn’t, for example, advertise products in films. They protested because they were losing the battle against (businesses from) the U.S., which were able to do that.

They were granted that right, and they were also given more space for advertising. In return, we decided to encourage countries to carry out education on the media. The European Parliament made a recommendation, and the directives have been in force since 2010.

The idea is moving ahead, but more resources were not earmarked for it, so we have to stretch existing funds to cover the new task. The risk is that education on the media could end up being privatised, because schools can’t do it.

Q: And what does Hollyweb do?

A: Hollyweb is an association between the biggest classic media and broadcasting producers and the main digital media, like Google, Disney, General Electric, Microsoft, Apple.

Some of them are becoming editors of content, they have schools and are making headway in others. They were already doing it before, but with the opportunities for self-publication and low-cost production of contents, they are taking advantage of the situation to sell their services.

It’s a system that is becoming semi-privatised. The problem isn’t whether the contents are good or bad, it’s the principle, the way their distribution is being organised in schools. It isn’t free, it has a price that we have to evaluate in terms of values.

Excerpt:

Native people protesting against the Belo Monte dam, a project that created a rift between Brazil and the IACHR. Credit: Atossa Soltani

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil , Mar 1 2013 (IPS)

March will be a key month for defining the future of the Inter-American human rights system, which has come under fire from a number of countries in the region.

Mar. 22 is the deadline for members of the Organisation of American States (OAS) to present proposals for reforming the regional justice system created in 1948 with the purpose of promoting and protecting the basic rights enshrined in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The system is made up of two autonomous bodies: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), based in Washington, D.C., and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San José, Costa Rica.

Its main function is to oversee compliance with the American Convention on Human Rights, adopted in 1969.

The government of Ecuador made the first reform proposal, and is also leading an effort to create a parallel system of justice in the framework of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), which has, however, not yet materialised.

Venezuela, for its part, denounced the American Convention in September 2012, and is set to withdraw from the inter-American justice system in September 2013.

The debate on reforms was launched in June 2011 with the creation of a working group within the OAS. Since then forums, public hearings and on-line consultations have been held to study different recommendations.

The chief proposals would restrict the IACHR’s power to impose precautionary measures (the adoption of urgent measures to protect individuals or groups from irreparable harm), curtail detailed analysis of countries with mass human rights abuses and limit the powers of the special rapporteurs, such as the rapporteur for freedom of expression.

The Commission has political functions – carrying out specific visits and issuing recommendations and reports – and quasi judicial ones: receiving complaints from organisations or private individuals, determining whether they are admissible, requesting precautionary measures by the relevant states and taking cases to the Inter-American Court.

The Court’s functions are litigation, consultation and the adoption of precautionary measures. Its rulings are final and are not subject to appeal.

Brazil’s relations with the Commission soured in April 2011, when the IACHR called, as a precautionary measure, for the immediate suspension of the permit for the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingú river in the Amazon rainforest, to protect the health of native communities affected by the works.

The Brazilian government rejected the request. But the Brazilian position was misinterpreted, according to the Foreign Ministry’s human rights division, which instructed a representative to reply to IPS’s enquiries on condition of anonymity.

Brazil was already in the process of meeting the Commission’s demands, in response to requests from national oversight agencies, and the country’s support for reform of the IACHR was not triggered by the ruling, the diplomatic source said.

In any event, the Brazilian government withdrew its ambassador from the OAS, as well as its candidate to sit on the IAHCR board of officers. March is the deadline for countries to nominate candidates and, according to the Foreign Ministry’s human rights division, by mid-February no decision had been taken by Brazil in this respect.

“Proposals for reform are being presented just when the Commission and the Court are complying with their obligations under the Convention,” said activist Jair Krischke, the head of the Movement for Justice and Human Rights (MJDH), based in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.

According to Krischke, the stance taken by Brazil was not only prompted by the ruling on Belo Monte, but also by a 2010 Inter-American Court verdict ordering the handing over of the remains of people who were forcibly disappeared in the 1972-1975 military action against the Araguaia guerrillas and the payment of reparations to the victims’ families.

The government maintains it has already paid compensation, but it has not done so for moral damages, as the Court ordered, Krischke told IPS.

When a similar verdict was issued against Uruguay, “the government held a ceremony in parliament, attended by the president, and apologised for the forced disappearances (committed during the 1973-1985 dictatorship). Brazil did not even publish the Court sentence,” he said.

Government discontent with the Inter-American human rights system is incomprehensible, said associate professor Deisy de Freitas Lima Ventura, of the University of São Paulo’s Institute of International Relations.

“When a sovereign state forms part of a regional system, it is precisely in order to hear criticism and receive recommendations or condemnations,” she told IPS.

The governments of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela are active in this campaign because the inter-American justice system has touched on crucial aspects of their presidents’ agendas, de Freitas said.

“When the Inter-American system accepts an opposition politician in Venezuela as a candidate, or when it asks for respect for the rights of journalists of a newspaper in conflict with the president of Ecuador, it touches on issues that are personal for the presidents. That is also what happened with Belo Monte and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff,” she said.

The stance taken by Ecuador coincides with uncomfortable decisions about domestic questions, said Mario Melo, a professor of human rights at the Simón Bolívar Andean University and the lawyer representing the Sarayaku people versus the Ecuadorean state in their case before the Court.

In June 2012, the Court ruled that the government of Ecuador had violated the rights of this native community by failing to consult them about the encroachment of an oil company on their lands in the early 2000s.

“It’s a delicate issue for the government because of its policy of expanding the oil frontier in indigenous territories,” Melo said.

Since the 1970s and 1980s, the Commission has been a forum for victims of abuses who have exhausted domestic legal remedies, or who find themselves facing unjustified delays in the national judicial system.

Camila Asano, the foreign policy coordinator for Conectas Direitos Humanos, an NGO with consultative status at the United Nations, recalled that crucial issues in Brazil, like slave labour and gender-based violence, had to be addressed by the IACHR before they became visible.

But the legal process is slow – one of the criticisms levelled at the inter-American justice system. Sometimes there is no time to wait for a decision, and that is why the precautionary measures are needed, Asano said.

Ecuador wants to eliminate the Commission’s power to impose precautionary measures, leaving that authority to the Court.

Brazil – where the Commission has repeatedly ordered precautionary measures to protect activists, journalists, landless rural workers and prison inmates – recognises the competence of the Commission, but has suggested changes that would make the procedures more rigorous and complicated.

The Brazilian proposal, according to the Foreign Ministry’s representative, is that the Commission should sharpen up the arguments justifying its decisions in cases like Belo Monte, and put more emphasis on the promotion of human rights.

“They should not only judge and punish violations, but rather develop measures that prevent them from being committed again,” the source said.

Other criticism is more worrisome, such as questions about whether the Commission is competent to produce annual reports on countries that merit special attention. Country delegates allege that these reports should not single out specific states, but should focus on all the members of the OAS system.

The fact that the United States and Canada have not ratified the American Convention, yet contribute to funding the special rapporteur on freedom of expression, has also annoyed a number of countries.

One of the proposals is that donations should not be earmarked for a particular rapporteurship.

Brazil is calling for more transparent management, and for resources to be distributed from the OAS ordinary fund, without excluding the possibility of receiving donations from international foundations and development banks.

“A large proportion of the proposed improvements have not been implemented because of a lack of resources,” said Asano. Her human rights group considers that, as an economic powerhouse, Brazil should set an example and increase its contributions.

According to the diplomatic source, this country made its last contribution in 2008. “In 2010, management of funds was redirected from Itamaraty (the Foreign Ministry) to the Planning Ministry. This year we asked for 800,000 dollars, but the request was not approved due to a budgetary shortfall,” the source said.

“In the last few years we have tightened our belts when it comes to expenditure, and no contributions were made. I wouldn’t say it was for political reasons; perhaps there really was no money,” the source added.

Professor Melo believes that after the discussions are over, the most radical reforms will not be approved. “Everyone knows that weakening the Inter-American system would only strengthen the authoritarian use of power,” he said.

In de Freitas’s view, “to renounce this dimension of control, as Venezuela did, is to mortgage future generations. Obviously, a regional rights protection system does not solve the problems, but in many cases it can shed light on the abuses.”

Participants at a debate during the Thematic Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Feb 5 2013 (IPS)

The tragedy at the Kiss nightclub cast a dark shadow on proceedings at the Thematic Social Forum held in Porto Alegre, the southern Brazilian city renowned for hosting the first World Social Forum in 2001.

People around the world were deeply shaken by the deaths of hundreds of young people who perished in a fire at the Kiss nightclub, located in the university city of Santa Maria, 292 kilometres from Porto Alegre, early on Jan. 27.

By Friday Feb. 1, 236 fatalities had been confirmed, while dozens of young people remained in critical condition. The fire was apparently caused by negligence and a series of errors on the part of the club’s management and the band.

The organising committeee of the Thematic Social Forum (TSF), held Jan. 26-31, immediately cancelled the cultural events that had been planned, but decided to go ahead with the debates on this year’s overall themes: democracy, cities, sustainable development and decent work.

The World Social Forum (WSF) is the largest global meeting for open debate for thousands of civil society groups and organisations, whose common denominator is criticism of the ethos and effects of capitalist globalisation.

A few days before the TSF, Brazil’s foremost trade union confederation, the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT), and the World March of Women announced they would not be participating in the debates, in protest of what they called the “institutionalisation” of the forum by the Porto Alegre local government, which passed a law providing for the WSF to be held annually.

Another criticism was aimed at the participation of “right-wing” organisations, such as representatives of the business community and religious groups.

Perhaps because of the criticisms, the cancellation of the entertainment or the sobering effects of the tragedy in Santa Maria, expectations that 40,000 people would come to Porto Alegre were not fulfilled.

According to Cícero Pereira da Silva, a delegate from the União Geral de Trabalhadores (UGT) and one of the coordinators of the group debating the world of work, 15,000 people registered as participants, including visitors from Latin American countries, Europe and the United States.

The “Carta de Porto Alegre“, which documents the conclusions and proposals of the TSF, will be presented in March to the International Council of the WSF, which will be held in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.

With regards to the world of work, “We decided on uncompromising struggle for human rights and quality of life in big cities,” Pereira da Silva told IPS. “We had a major debate on decent work, which was always one of the overarching issues at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and we focused a great deal on the tragedy in Santa Maria. We blame the authorities for lack of regulation and oversight,” he said.

Regarding health issues, the Movimento Saúde +10 — a movement of professional medical organisations, university bodies, trade unions and religious groups — proposed collecting 1.5 million signatures in support of a bill that would allocate 10 percent of the federal budget for healthcare.

The Carta de Porto Alegre also emphasises the need for a new ethic, for education and for preservation of traditional farming techniques.

The group that participated in discussions about racial equality condemned religious intolerance, violence against women and the absence of local government plans to increase participation by the Afro-descendant population.

José Antônio dos Santos da Silva, coordinator of the Fórum Permanente de Educação e Diversidade Etnicorracial (Permanent Forum on Ethno-Racial Education and Diversity) for the state of Rio Grande do Sul, mourned the nightclub deaths and, simultaneously, recalled that many young black people are murdered every day in this country of nearly 200 million people. However, the press does not publicise these facts, he said.

“The lack of employment opportunities for young black people and their co-option into drug trafficking (schemes) are alarming,” Silva told IPS. “This strengthens our demand for a quota policy in public education. Violence indices show that seven out of 10 young people who are killed are black, and 90 percent of them live in the shanty towns” surrounding cities.

At the same time as the TSF was being held, social activists were meeting in the southern city of São Paulo for the “Dialogue toward the World Social Forum” organised by the Group of Reflection and Support for the WSF Process.

Messaoud Romdhani, one of the organisers of the Tunis WSF, was optimistic about the gathering — in spite of the uncertainties and tensions currently plaguing his country, the cradle of the popular movements that shook the Middle East and North Africa two years ago, which the press dubbed the “Arab Spring”.

Romdhani, a 56-year-old English teacher and human rights activist, hopes the WSF will boost positive exchanges between the Tunisian population and representatives of international civil society organisations.

“We want them to see the situation in Tunisia and we hope they can help us get over the transition that has been very difficult, because the government has so far not shown any interest in (fostering) democracy and guaranteeing human rights,” Romdhani told IPS.

After the uprising that overthrew dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, there was a series of reforms in Tunisia including the election of a constituent assembly to write the constitution, and the formation of a provisional government, in which the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party holds a majority.

But Romdhani maintained that “the practices of the old regime persist, and there are threats from the religious party that dominates the government.”

The activist fears a lurch towards Islamist extremism, hence the importance of maintaining the struggles for gender equality and freedom of expression. “The WSF will help us to attract attention towards Tunisia and it will supply fuel and solidarity for these struggles,” he said.

According to Romdhani, the Tunisian authorities have not put any restrictions in the way of the WSF, “perhaps because they want to show the international media that the government is behaving properly.”

The Arab Spring — mass protests in which people demonstrated for freedom, dignity and equality — sparked a dream, he said. “We who had fought for all this for such a long time became aware that overthrowing a dictator is much easier than (instituting) a democracy.

“Democracy takes time to overcome years of oppression, vested oil interests and intolerance,” he concluded.

At 8 a.m. on Oct. 25, 1975, Brazilian journalist Vladimir Herzog voluntarily reported to the São Paulo headquarters of the government’s intelligence agency and was never seen alive again.

The facilities he had been summoned to were just one of the detention and torture centres that were active during Brazil’s last dictatorship.

Herzog was editor-in-chief of the news department at the São Paulo-based television network TV Cultura, and had been called in for questioning by the Information Operations Department of the Centre for Internal Defence Operations (DOI-CODI) for his alleged connections to the then-illegal Brazilian Communist Party (PCB).

He died under torture, but his death was made to look like a suicide by the military in an attempt to cover up the murder. A photograph released later showed Herzog hanging in his cell, but in a position that clearly revealed that the military’s suicide version was a farce.

The picture quickly became a symbol of the lies of the military regime.

Denounced by the Union of Professional Journalists of São Paulo, the death of “Vlado” – as he was called by friends and family – had profound repercussions, triggering a wave of protests and setting off a mass movement that played an instrumental role in bringing down the dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985.

More than 37 years later, Herzog’s murder could be the case that finally sets Brazil on the path of investigating the crimes and abuses committed throughout its long dictatorship.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organisation of American States (OAS) accepted a petition to open an inquiry to determine the responsibility of the Brazilian government in Herzog’s death, understanding that the state has not fulfilled its duty to investigate, prosecute and punish the perpetrators.

The IACHR will submit a report with its findings to the central-left administration of President Dilma Rousseff and, if the government fails to implement its recommendations, it will bring the case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

In 2010, the court issued a ruling condemning Brazil for its failure to open up criminal inquiries and prosecute the perpetrators of the “arbitrary detention, torture and forced disappearance of 70 individuals during the dictatorship, including members of the Communist Party and peasants from the region,” who were part of the Araguaia guerrillas, a group that operated from1972 to 1974 in Marabá, state of Pará.

Attempts to bring the perpetrators of human rights abuses committed during the past dictatorship have been thwarted by a 1979 amnesty law (No. 6,683) passed by the military regime that pardoned anyone involved in political crimes or human rights violations in the period between Sep. 2, 1961 and Aug. 15, 1979.

Despite this obstacle, the Rousseff administration made great progress in this sense with the establishment of a National Truth Commission (created by Law No. 12,528) in 2011, mandated with investigating cases of forced disappearances of political opponents during the dictatorship.

This law was enacted in 2012 and sets a term of two years for the commission to complete its mandate. According to the document “Direito à Memória e à Verdade” (The Right to Memory and Truth), prepared by the government, at least 150 dissidents arrested or kidnapped by repressive forces during that period are still missing today.

Their relatives continue to search for their remains or for any information on the fate of their loved ones.

The truth commission is not the only effort to reveal the truth of the dictatorship’s abuses, as an increasing number of committees are being formed by state representatives, students and workers.

“Every action seeking truth and justice organised by the younger generations, to learn about and fight for human rights in Brazil is a new blow dealt against the dictatorship and the state of emergency,” Maria do Rosário Nunes, the presidency’s human rights secretary, said on Jan. 19 at the launching of the Journalists’ Truth Commission.

“Brazil has been slow to join the debate on truth commissions, which is aimed at recovering (collective) memory and obtaining justice for the deaths and disappearances committed during the dictatorship, and it’s far behind other countries, such as Uruguay and Argentina,” Beth Costa, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), told IPS.

“But the IFJ and the National and Latin American Federation of Journalists welcome this firm decision by the government of Brazil,” she added.

Costa acknowledged the government’s difficulty in countering historical resistances, which date back to the period of national re-democratisation.

“For years there was resistance from the military, which still has an impact through the seats held in parliament by the country’s conservative parties, many of which backed the military regime,” she said.

The members of the National Truth Commission face the challenge of filling in the information gaps that exist in the cases of disappearances and assassinations, and in the files that were put at their disposal for the investigation, which may not be complete despite the Data Access Act that Rousseff passed along with this specialised body.

“Some 25 journalists were killed during the dictatorship,” journalist Audálio Dantas told IPS. A former president of the Union of Professional Journalists of São Paulo, Dantas headed the protests to expose Herzog’s staged suicide.

Dantas, who currently heads the National Commission of Brazilian Journalists for Memory, Justice and Truth, detected major gaps in the government’s files, which he consulted as part of the research for his book “As duas guerras de Vlado Herzog” (The Two Wars of Vlado Herzog), published in 2012 by Editora Civilização Brasileira.

When he tried to access the case files, he was asked to furnish a copy of Herzog’s death certificate.

“This demand was not only absurd, it was disrespectful to Vlado’s memory. Meeting this request would have entailed accepting as true the cause of death recorded by the certifying doctor, Harry Shibata, a DOI-CODI collaborator, who signed the certificate without ever seeing the body, ruling it a suicide,” Dantas wrote in his book.

“The Truth Commission finally succeeded in having the certificate amended,” he told IPS. Now it states that Herzog’s died as a result of “injuries and abuses suffered while in the São Paulo second army facilities (DOI-CODI).”

Beth Costa believes that reconstructing the history of the journalists who were forcefully disappeared by the dictatorship will be a key step in rebuilding the country’s collective memory and in the process of re-democratisation of its institutions, especially at a time in which Brazil is listed among the countries with the greatest number of journalists murdered in the line of duty.

Freedoms such as the right to report freely and safely and the right to be informed are once again at risk. This was made patently clear when newspaper reporters André Caramante, of Folha de São Paulo, and Mauri Konig, of Paraná’s Gazeta do Povo, were forced to leave the country after receiving death threats for exposing police misconduct.

Dantas recalled that, in addition to guaranteeing the safety of all media professionals, the government must weed out certain elements from police forces, which were left over from the dictatorship and form extermination squads.

“It’s shameful that after successfully fighting off political repression we are now incapable of battling the repression that is a daily reality in the peripheries of our large cities and inside our police stations,” he said.

“The government is afraid to tackle this problem, perhaps because most middle and upper class people believe that seizing and executing without trial is an acceptable practice. It’s the country’s biggest shame today,” he charged.

Today, in the 21st century, there are still tens of thousands of Brazilians subjected to slave-like working conditions. Last year alone, 2,501 workers were freed from this situation by Ministry of Labour inspectors.

Sugar cane plantation in the interior of the state of São Paulo. Credit: Nico Esteves/IPS

This is why the approval of Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) 438/2001 by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies on May 22, after a ten-year wait, was cause for celebration throughout the country.

PEC 438 would allow the government to confiscate the property of owners caught using slave labour. The property confiscated would be turned over to the government’s agrarian reform programme, in the case of rural land, or to social initiatives in cities, since the amendment also provides for the seizure of urban real estate.

At press time, in the midst of the whirlwind of activity around the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the draft amendment was still awaiting study by the Senate Committee on the Constitution and Justice.

“This is an important victory. There was a clear demonstration of support from various sectors of society, including 120 Catholic bishops, artists and intellectuals, on an issue and in a struggle that is symbolic in many ways,” said Xavier Plassat, coordinator of the National Campaign Against Slave Labour of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).

“The confiscation of the property that was the instrument used to commit the crime, and the fact that it will be turned over to agrarian reform, offer both a punishment and a solution at the same time, breaking the vicious circle of slavery,” Plassat told Tierramérica*.

“It is also symbolic because of the values it promotes, in line with the Constitution: dignity is worth more than land ownership, which will now be conditioned on respect for the land’s social function,” he added.

Plassat highlighted the fierce resistance to the amendment on the part of “sectors of the Congress who represent agricultural interests, and who maintain that slave labour does not exist, since no one is working in chains, or that it is poorly defined in Brazilian legislation, despite the fact that this country is an international reference on this subject.”
Article 149 of the Penal Code states that the use of slave labour is a crime punishable with a sentence of between two and eight years of prison, in addition to the payment of fines and of compensation to the victims. In 2003, its definition was expanded to also include any actions aimed at obstructing workers from leaving their place of work.

It is quite likely that the number of cases recorded is less than the true number. Prosecutors depend on reports that provide exact locations, usually in places that are difficult to reach, in order to catch the guilty parties in the act, so that they can be charged with the crime.

Between 1995 and 2011, some 42,000 workers were freed from slave-like conditions, according to figures from the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Most were working in rural areas, in sectors such as livestock ranching, charcoal production, plantations of sugar cane, coffee, cotton and other crops, industrial tree plantations, mining, logging and rubber tapping.

But cases of slave labour have also been discovered and prosecuted in cities, in textile sweatshops, hotels and brothels, as well as in domestic work and construction.

Nevertheless, freeing workers from these conditions does not guarantee that their rights will be respected. Modern slavery is tied to extreme poverty, and monitoring it is not enough to eradicate it, as demonstrated by the “Atlas of Slave Labour in Brazil”, compiled by researchers from São Paulo State University and the University of São Paulo and released on Apr. 16 by Friends of the Earth Brazil.

In order to bring an end to this crime, workers must be guaranteed a means of livelihood so that they do not fall victim to slavery again, the Atlas maintains.

In Vacaria, a municipality in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, an employer convicted of enslaving adolescents on his pine tree plantation was ordered to pay the youths compensation. As soon as the prosecutors who had freed them were gone, the adolescents were forced to repay him part of the compensation.

When he was reported a second time, the plantation owner claimed that he could not afford to pay the compensation ordered because of the small size of his business and his limited resources, but promised to comply.

“The confiscation of land without the right to compensation represents an important instrument to combat this labour and criminal offence,” Ministry of Labour prosecutor Rodrigo Maffei, who worked on the case in Vacaria, told Tierramérica.

“The financial penalties imposed by the Public Ministry of Labour do not have the desired effect in terms of eliminating the incidence of slave labour. That is why the amendment is so important,” he added.

PEC 438/2001 expands Article 243 of the Constitution, which provides for the confiscation of land used to grow plants for the production of illegal drugs.

The first version of the amendment was presented in 1995. In 2003, it was incorporated into a similar proposal that was sent to the Senate.

On Jan. 28, 2004, the murder of three prosecutors and a driver from the Ministry of Labour during an operation in Unaí, in the northwest of the state of Minas Gerais, helped the PEC pass a first vote in the Chamber of Deputies.

But the instigators of those killings remain unpunished. And the pressure exerted by deputies and senators from the Agricultural Parliamentary Front, the bloc that represents the interests of rural landowners, succeeded in delaying the second vote until May 22 of this year.

This “ruralist” bloc is now attempting to have the definition of slave labour revised when the regulations are drawn up for the enforcement of PEC 438.

The Penal Code defines slave labour as reducing someone to a slave-like condition, whether by subjecting them to degrading working conditions that violate their dignity, or to exhausting work hours that prevent them from physically recovering and having a social life. It also includes the curtailment of freedom of movement and forced labour – when the victims are geographically isolated, their identity documents are withheld from them, and they are subjected to physical and psychological threats – as well as debt bondage.

Deputy Rubens Moreira Mendes, of the Social Democratic Party of Rondônia, in the northwest Amazon region, proposed the removal of “exhausting work hours” and “degrading working conditions” from the definition.

Plassat believes that the ruralist backlash will now concentrate on creating a legal void in the definition of slave labour in order to reduce the threat of confiscation.

In this way, when prosecutors determine the commission of the crime, “it would lead to legal action for the expropriation of the property, but subject to appeal,” he said.

For Plassat, it is crucial to eliminate all ambiguities and overcome all short- and medium-term obstacles. In the short term, for example, it is important to ensure that there is no backsliding in the definition of the crime during the drafting of the legislation to enforce the amendment. He also called for better organisation of the fight against slavery with instruments like the “dirty list” of employers who use slave labour that is currently compiled by the Ministry of Labour.

In the medium term, he said, the judicial branch must ensure that perpetrators are sentenced as soon as the crimes are committed, in order to proceed with the confiscation of their properties.

*The writer is an IPS correspondent. This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.

Announced as an innovative way to encourage the participation of Internet users and the public in general in the debates at Rio+20, the proposal for Sustainable Development Dialogues also raised doubts about the impact its recommendations would have.

“There are always repercussions,” Professor Elimar Pinheiro do Nascimento of the Sustainable Development Centre at the University of Brasilia, who attended the second day of the Dialogues, told TerraViva.

Klaus Töpfer and Bertha Becker at Sustainable Development Dialogues. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

“What can be questioned is the nature of the discussions,” he said, adding that even if all of the measures arising from the Jul. 16-19 Dialogues were implemented, they would still fall far short of what was needed.

Nascimento said there have been improvements since the Earth Summit held 20 years ago in Rio de Janeiro, which is now hosting the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development or Rio+20, which runs through Friday Jun. 22.

He said, for example, that production requires less energy now. But he added that since much larger quantities are produced, more raw materials are used, which means destruction to the environment is greater.

If things continue to go as they are now, “our lives will tend to grow worse and worse,” he said. “At least a significant part of the population will face more wars, emigration, and food shortages. Much more has to be done in order for people to have a better life.”

“The countries of the (industrialised) North cannot grow any more, their economies have to plateau. And the countries of the (developing) South also have to change their development paths,” he said.

Nascimento stressed that it was important for people to find new forms of consumption, and for the rate of obsolescence of products to slow down. Although the worst scenario will be seen in perhaps 50 years, stronger measures and attitudes should be adopted today, rather than mild band-aid measures, he insisted.

Rosa Alegria, coordinator of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo Núcleo de Estudos do Futuro, was even less optimistic about the results of the Dialogues proposed by the Brazilian government as part of the official Rio+20 agenda.

On the summit website, the Dialogues were described as an attempt “to engage in an open and action-oriented debate on key topics related to sustainable development. There will be no participation of Governments or U.N. agencies. Three recommendations emanating from each of the Dialogues will be conveyed directly to the Heads of State and Government present at the Summit.”

Alegria took part in the construction of the Dialogues process since the idea first emerged.

Once it was accepted by the government, the proposal was at the centre of a heated debate on what format should be adopted. “What was going to be a civil society thing became something designed by the government,” she said.

“What I see here is a traditional, conservative format that does not encourage participation but instead intimidates because it is very formal and bureaucratic,” she said.

She recognised, however, that those present at the Dialogues held in Pavilion 5 of the Riocentro – the conference venue – raised questions that have been useful in the debate.

“But reducing the dialogue to 10 questions limits thinking. It hurts the creative process. It wasn’t like a dialogue, it was more like a forum. Besides, integrating society in the process should be more spontaneous, and the People’s Summit should not have been held as a separate event,” Alegria said.

Her doubts are now focused on the final fate of the recommendations to come out of the Dialogues. “If the final document isn’t even ready, how will they get this included?” she wondered.

Alegria suggested that the results of the Dialogues be addressed as a parallel path, in a sort of follow-up or post-treaty process of a new economic model and an opportunity to clarify what the green economy should be.

In her view, society does not yet understand what green economy means, because the concept has never been clearly and objectively discussed and defined.

Rio+20 “could be the opportunity to define this concept,” she said. In a collective interview on Sunday Jun. 17, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, under secretary at Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, announced that a group would meet to try to define the green economy.

From the point of view of the panellists invited to the Dialogues, the process was a success.

The Dialogues are a reflection of what is morally and scientifically necessary, said Manish Bapna, acting president of the World Resources Institute, who took part in the Dialogues’ debate on sustainable development to fight poverty. He added that the documents show what the world believes it is necessary to do.

His panel reached agreement with regard to the urgent need to foster education and raise awareness on a shared sense of responsibility for sustainable consumption and production.

The plenary session of the Dialogues suggested educating the public to promote sustainability, with the state guaranteeing basic services. And the panellists agreed on the need to emphasise empowerment of local communities, promoting participation and access to information.

Maria Cecilia Wey de Brito, secretary general of WWF-Brazil, also voiced criticism. But she said that, independently of the process, it was important to be present at the Dialogue on Forests to suggest the inclusion of the “zero net deforestation by 2020” goal on the list of priorities.

Her insistence brought results.

The recommendation was immediately included, along with the emphasis on recovery and reforestation of 150 million hectares – which earned the most votes from web surfers – and the recognition of the importance of science, technology and traditional knowledge for sustainable development.

Professor Bertha Becker of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro stressed the need to generate sources of income for the local population in the rainforest.

“The western Amazon is becoming a frontier for immigration of poverty,” because the land reform process has given rise to settlements in that part of the country, “and Haitians, Africans and Indians are heading there,” she said.

That raises the need to create new forms of sustainable production and equip cities for offering basic services to the local population, Becker said.

Klaus Töpfer, founder and executive director of the Institute for Advanced. Sustainability Studies (IASS), said the conclusions of the Dialogues panels were important not only for Brazil, but for the whole world, because of the debates they generated.

He said that although there was no guarantee that they would be incorporated in the main Rio+20 outcome, they would at least be put down on paper.

Decent work is an essential requirement for sustainable development, the central theme of the Rio+20 summit, taking place in a country where slave labor has yet to be eradicated.

Sugar cane plantation in the interior of the state of São Paulo. - Nico Esteves/IPS

This is why the approval of Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) 438/2001 by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies on May 22, after a ten-year wait, was cause for celebration throughout the country.

PEC 438 would allow the government to confiscate the property of owners caught using slave labor. The property confiscated would be turned over to the government’s agrarian reform program, in the case of rural land, or to social initiatives in cities, since the amendment also provides for the seizure of urban real estate.

At press time, in the midst of the whirlwind of activity around the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the draft amendment was still awaiting study by the Senate Committee on the Constitution and Justice.

“This is an important victory. There was a clear demonstration of support from various sectors of society, including 120 Catholic bishops, artists and intellectuals, on an issue and in a struggle that is symbolic in many ways,” said Xavier Plassat, coordinator of the National Campaign Against Slave Labor of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).

“The confiscation of the property that was the instrument used to commit the crime, and the fact that it will be turned over to agrarian reform, offer both a punishment and a solution at the same time, breaking the vicious circle of slavery,” Plassat told Tierramérica.

“It is also symbolic because of the values it promotes, in line with the Constitution: dignity is worth more than land ownership, which will now be conditioned on respect for the land’s social function,” he added.

Plassat highlighted the fierce resistance to the amendment on the part of “sectors of the Congress who represent agricultural interests, and who maintain that slave labor does not exist, since no one is working in chains, or that it is poorly defined in Brazilian legislation, despite the fact that this country is an international reference on this subject.” Article 149 of the Penal Code states that the use of slave labor is a crime punishable with a sentence of between two and eight years of prison, in addition to the payment of fines and of compensation to the victims. In 2003, its definition was expanded to also include any actions aimed at obstructing workers from leaving their place of work.

It is quite likely that the number of cases recorded is less than the true number. Prosecutors depend on reports that provide exact locations, usually in places that are difficult to reach, in order to catch the guilty parties in the act, so that they can be charged with the crime.

Between 1995 and 2011, some 42,000 workers were freed from slave-like conditions, according to figures from the Ministry of Labor and Employment. Most were working in rural areas, in sectors such as livestock ranching, charcoal production, plantations of sugar cane, coffee, cotton and other crops, industrial tree plantations, mining, logging and rubber tapping.

But cases of slave labor have also been discovered and prosecuted in cities, in textile sweatshops, hotels and brothels, as well as in domestic work and construction.

Nevertheless, freeing workers from these conditions does not guarantee that their rights will be respected. Modern slavery is tied to extreme poverty, and monitoring it is not enough to eradicate it, as demonstrated by the “Atlas of Slave Labor in Brazil”, compiled by researchers from São Paulo State University and the University of São Paulo and released on Apr. 16 by Friends of the Earth Brazil.

In order to bring an end to this crime, workers must be guaranteed a means of livelihood so that they do not fall victim to slavery again, the Atlas maintains.

In Vacaria, a municipality in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, an employer convicted of enslaving adolescents on his pine tree plantation was ordered to pay the youths compensation. As soon as the prosecutors who had freed them were gone, the adolescents were forced to repay him part of the compensation.

When he was reported a second time, the plantation owner claimed that he could not afford to pay the compensation ordered because of the small size of his business and his limited resources, but promised to comply.

“The confiscation of land without the right to compensation represents an important instrument to combat this labor and criminal offence,” Ministry of Labor prosecutor Rodrigo Maffei, who worked on the case in Vacaria, told Tierramérica.

“The financial penalties imposed by the Public Ministry of Labor do not have the desired effect in terms of eliminating the incidence of slave labor. That is why the amendment is so important,” he added.

PEC 438/2001 expands Article 243 of the Constitution, which provides for the confiscation of land used to grow plants for the production of illegal drugs. The first version of the amendment was presented in 1995. In 2003, it was incorporated into a similar proposal that was sent to the Senate.

On Jan. 28, 2004, the murder of three prosecutors and a driver from the Ministry of Labor during an operation in Unaí, in the northwest of the state of Minas Gerais, helped the PEC pass a first vote in the Chamber of Deputies.

But the instigators of those killings remain unpunished. And the pressure exerted by deputies and senators from the Agricultural Parliamentary Front, the bloc that represents the interests of rural landowners, succeeded in delaying the second vote until May 22 of this year.

This “ruralist” bloc is now attempting to have the definition of slave labor revised when the regulations are drawn up for the enforcement of PEC 438.

The Penal Code defines slave labor as reducing someone to a slave-like condition, whether by subjecting them to degrading working conditions that violate their dignity, or to exhausting work hours that prevent them from physically recovering and having a social life. It also includes the curtailment of freedom of movement and forced labor – when the victims are geographically isolated, their identity documents are withheld from them, and they are subjected to physical and psychological threats – as well as debt bondage.

Deputy Rubens Moreira Mendes, of the Social Democratic Party of Rondônia, in the northwest Amazon region, proposed the removal of “exhausting work hours” and “degrading working conditions” from the definition.

Plassat believes that the ruralist backlash will now concentrate on creating a legal void in the definition of slave labor in order to reduce the threat of confiscation.

In this way, when prosecutors determine the commission of the crime, “it would lead to legal action for the expropriation of the property, but subject to appeal,” he said.

For Plassat, it is crucial to eliminate all ambiguities and overcome all short- and medium-term obstacles. In the short term, for example, it is important to ensure that there is no backsliding in the definition of the crime during the drafting of the legislation to enforce the amendment. He also called for better organization of the fight against slavery with instruments like the “dirty list” of employers who use slave labor that is currently compiled by the Ministry of Labor.

In the medium term, he said, the judicial branch must ensure that perpetrators are sentenced as soon as the crimes are committed, in order to proceed with the confiscation of their properties.

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Mar 20 2012 (IPS)

In this southern Brazilian city that has an international reputation as a pioneer in environmental policies and citizen participation, the city government has set an eviction date for the small protest movement that is occupying the central square.

But the protesters say they are not leaving.

The Occupy Porto Alegre group has occupied the central Praça da Matriz square for three months, as of Tuesday.

But municipal environment secretary Luiz Fernando Záchia says they had asked him to be able to complete a three-month stay and then leave on their own on Wednesday Mar. 21.

However, if that doesn’t happen, and “if the office of the public prosecutor decides they should leave and a legal order to that effect is issued, the park guard service can act,” Záchia said.

But on their blog, the movement said that no agreement had been reached with the city government and they did not plan to pack up their camp and pull out, because the protest action is protected by the Brazilian constitution.

Occupy Porto Alegre, inspired by the 2011 Arab Spring and Spain’s “Indignados” movement, met in January with the representatives of several other Occupy and Indignados movements during the Thematic Social Forum, an outgrowth of the World Social Forum.

The demonstrators set up their tents on Dec. 20 in the central Praça da Matriz, which is surrounded by the Palace of Justice, the seat of the government of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the state legislature and the metropolitan cathedral.

This square has traditionally been the site for rallies and demonstrations, with groups ranging from landless peasants to the teachers’ union frequently gathering here to protest.

But now, some 30 people have been taking turns staying in the group’s tents, which draw visitors and the curious and have become a hub of debate on clean energy, organic food and human rights.

Students, professionals, craftspeople, street artists, the unemployed – everyone here leads by example, preparing nutritious, natural meals with food provided by market stallholders in exchange for help loading and unloading trucks.

Like the rest of the Occupy movements around the world, also inspired by Spain’s Indignados movement, which emerged in May 2011, the Porto Alegre movement prefers not to have formal leaders. The participants all speak for the group, and decisions are adopted in assembly.

Mauricio, a 19-year-old student of social sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, came to the square as soon as he heard about the camp. “This is a form of protest against unbridled competition; we’re demonstrating for peace,” he told IPS.

The schedule of activities has included meetings with environmentalists to discuss the controversial reform to Brazil’s forestry code, which is making its way through Congress, and the impacts caused by the huge hydroelectric dams under construction in the Amazon jungle and other parts of the country.

Members of the group will take part on Friday Mar. 23 in a public hearing on the Paiquerê hydroelectric dam to be built on the Pelotas river between the cities of Bom Jesús in Rio Grande do Sul and Lages in the neighbouring state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil.

“The hydropower plant is close to being approved,” said Luís, a 22-year-old biologist. “We’re going to argue that it is unconstitutional, because it threatens endangered species and the Mata Atlântica (Atlantic rainforest),” an ecosystem that once stretched over much of the eastern edge of Brazil but now survives only in small degraded patches and protected areas.

“They’re going to flood 4,000 hectares and destroy araucaria (Brazilian pine) trees that are hundreds of years old. The area is an ecological corridor,” he told IPS.

Municipal environment secretariat staff visited the camp twice, on Mar. 9 and 12, with the intention of evicting the Occupy movement. On both occasions the demonstrators told them that all decisions were reached by consensus in assembly, and that there was a lengthy schedule of activities to celebrate the camp’s three-month anniversary.

Secretary Záchia has been trying to avoid a confrontational tone. “You have to understand that this is a democratic city that has room for all movements, large or small. It’s not up to me to say who has the privilege of staying,” he told IPS.

Porto Alegre was a pioneer of environmental policies in the 1970s; in 1989 it developed the world’s first full participatory budgeting process; and in 2001 it became a global reference point as the site of the World Social Forum (WSF).

But the occupy movement “is also petering out in other cities,” Záchia said. “And I repeat: they were the ones who set the Mar. 21 departure date. All I am supposed to do is organise my park maintenance team, to go in on the 22nd and do the necessary work, because conditions in the square have deteriorated.”

The secretariat’s staff have found damages to the vegetation in the square, as well as destruction of some portions of the mosaic-style Portuguese pavement or calçada portugesa.

There have also been complaints from “dozens” of local residents because the tents have been set up in the shadiest places, which is a problem during the heat of the southern hemisphere summer, the official said.

The demonstrators respond that they have talked to the people who use the park. “Their requests that we clear some parts have been addressed,” said another protester, Analise. “We cleared paths so they can walk through without any problems.”

The group’s web site provides links to related movements in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, as well as Spain, Britain and the United States, which are preparing for a major global day of action on May 1, International Workers Day.

But until then, and before joining forces to tackle broader fights, the Occupy Porto Alegre activists will have to battle for the very survival of their movement. “Our strategy was to ask to be allowed to stay until Mar. 21,” Alfeu, 21, told IPS. “But the idea is to not leave,” said another demonstrator.

Excerpt:

Traditional social movements of homeless and landless people have for years been organising occupations as a pressure tactic. Now “occupying” is a key element for fighting the capitalist system in its hour of crisis, and also in the realm of virtual reality.

Global Connections meeting, part of the Thematic Social Forum. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

With a shout of “Let’s occupy Flamengo Park!” in Rio de Janeiro, representatives of trade unions, landless rural workers, women, indigenous people, Afro-Brazilians and “quiombolas” (descendants of former slaves) wound up the Thematic Social Forum (FST) last weekend in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.

The FST was held Jan. 24-29 as a preparatory meeting for the June People’s Summit that will take place in Rio in June, in parallel with the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20).

Meanwhile, at the Global Connections meeting in Porto Alegre, held within the framework of the FST, internet activists called for a campaign to block corporate web sites, as a form of virtual occupation.

The FST, an outgrowth of the World Social Forum, prompted discussion of modern forms of protest. Representatives of popular movements like the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street and the “Indignados” (Indignant) from Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom took part in the debate, in person or via the internet.

Two issues captured the most attention: What to do after the occupations? And how to get the new information technology tools into the hands of traditional social movements that do not yet have access to them?

In a video conference from the U.K., communicator and researcher Matheus Lock would not hazard a prediction on the future of the occupations. “At Occupy London, people were waiting around for political directions over Twitter,” he said.

“There is no leadership. There are discussion groups, and some real representatives. Even homeless people participate,” he added.

In the same discussion panel, Wilhelmina Trout of the World March of Women spoke of the difficulties of making the world aware of what goes on in sub-Saharan Africa, where most people do not have electricity, let alone access to internet.

Journalist Emiliano Bos, who has covered several conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East, recalled how one million people fled Libya last year and entered bordering countries like Egypt and Tunisia.

“We could follow the movement in city squares in Egypt, but we could not see the millions of people who were mobilising, off the radar of the news broadcasts, in refugee camps,” he said.

“These people are not represented, they do not protest, they do not occupy. The only means of expression they have is flight. All they hope for is a piece of paper that will let them out of there,” he said.

For his part, Moroccan national Hamouda Soubhi of the Maghreb Social Forum said, “Our struggles are the same, although we speak different languages.

“When the media announced that a revolution was happening in the Arab world, we were taken by surprise, because for many years we have been denouncing human rights violations and going to prison for it, but the West wanted to preserve the regime, for the sake of oil exports and exploiting raw materials,” he said.

“As far as we were concerned, this was not a revolution. It was only the right to have democracy, justice and freedom. We are at a historic crossroads with a great number of opportunities: Rio+20, the Maghreb Social Forum, The World Social Forum Free Palestine and young people’s movements in Europe and different parts of the world which are making change possible, not tomorrow, but today,” he added.

In the view of sociologist Sérgio Amadeu da Silveira, a professor at the Federal University of ABC in São Paulo who took part in the Global Connections discussions, change requires the construction of “interactive democracy”, not only participative democracy.

“Traditional social movements need to unite more closely with activists in the hacker culture and online,” he told IPS.

“That way it would be possible to construct a new public sphere that is interactive and interconnected and would act as another platform for formulating policy,” he added.

According to Silveira, “it is necessary to open up the ‘source code’ of power,” alluding to the lines of text instructing a computer to execute a given programme – access and understanding of which is synonymous with control.

Civil society has the capacity to force powerful corporations whose decisions can cause environmental, social and economic devastation to face up to their social responsibility, he said.

For instance, “Occupy Wall Street can make these large corporations pay the cost of the crisis. Political parties in general cannot do this, because they are financed by the very same companies,” said Silveira.

Meanwhile, French economist Gustave Massiah, speaking in the great hall of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, said the crisis is social, geopolitical, ideological and ecological, and the challenge is to connect the new popular movements with the groups that are already fighting for global justice.

Occupy London activist Sam Halvorsen concurred, recognising that environmental issues had not so far been a central concern. “We’re thinking about how to link the problems arising from the crisis with climate change. It’s time we thought about forging those links.”

The more than 30 local and international organisations working at the FST meeting to formulate demands to be presented to the People’s Summit have already used the internet to disseminate their manifesto, although they know that more effort is needed in order to make a real difference.

The People’s Summit activities will start Jun. 5, World Environment Day, followed by workshops on “struggles, denunciations and connections” until Jun. 10; Jun. 15-16 are days reserved for discussion; then on Jun. 17 there will be a march to mark the opening of the Permanent People’s Assembly, which will be in session until Jun. 21.

A big march is being planned in Rio de Janeiro for Jun. 20, which the organisers hope will be replicated all over the country and in several world cities, in order to visibly occupy the streets.

Critical voices raised against what was dubbed “the gospel of green capitalism” resonated in every discussion and street march held during the Thematic Social Forum, which brought thousands of activists to the capital city of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil.

Labour and other activists flood the streets of Porto Alegre in environmental protest. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

Spurred by the global economic and financial crisis, participants at this year’s thematic edition of the World Social Forum, which ran from Jan. 24th through the 29th, called on governments to implement changes in production and consumption, even as they were sceptical that a commitment along those lines could be secured at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), scheduled for June in Rio de Janeiro.

Professor Edgardo Lander, of the Central University of Venezuela and a member of that country’s Social Forum, said there was “an attempt to rebuild capitalism with a new, green face.”

“Rio+20 comes at a time when capitalism faces a profound crisis and when the severe problems arising from the limitations of growth and the destruction of the conditions that make life on the planet possible are more evident,” he told Tierramérica.

In this context, “green capitalism” offers a solution to the severe crisis, primarily of the financial sector, through the increasing commodification of everything from education and healthcare to the traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples, he said.

Lander appealed to participants to act to shatter this model.

A roundtable in the auditorium of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul brought together a representative of the Occupy London movement, a member of the Social Forum of Northern Africa, a rural leader of La Vía Campesina, and Brazilian, French, Thai, and Venezuelan activists, symbolising this new period in history that is marked by popular uprisings, like the Arab Spring, and by one of the most acute crisis of the capitalist system ever.

According to João Pedro Stédile, one of the founders of Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and a member of the social organisation Vía Campesina, the situation faced by the industrialised world today is similar to the 1929 crash.

“But the difference is that for the first time the crisis touches every country,” he said.

For Stédile, global capital no longer heeds the decisions of national governments. “The U.N.’s (United Nations) resolutions are not taken seriously, which is why Rio+20 is going to be a cruel joke,” he said.

Part of the problem lies in “the eagerness of big global capital to protect itself until the next period of accumulation,” Stédile added. There is a huge offensive by capital to snatch up raw materials, lands, water, oil and other resources, he said.

“They know that resources have an extraordinary potential for profit,” he continued.

For his part, economist Marcos Arruda understands that short, medium and long-term solutions need to be devised. In this sense he hopes to expand networks such as Brazil’s solidarity economy network, which currently involves 24,000 ventures and at least 1.5 million people, according to an initial assessment.

“Solidarity economy brings about change here and now, in the lives of families and communities, and also at the government level, creating new legislation that facilitates and promotes cooperatives and associations”, Arruda told Tierramérica.

“The right to property is derived from work, not from capital,” said Arruda, who coordinates the Institute of Alternative Policies for the Southern Cone, is a member of the Brazilian Civil Society Facilitating Committee for Rio+20 and one of the founders of the Solidarity Social-Economy Global Network.

But this expert fears that great environmental disasters are advancing at a faster rate than the population’s organizational capacity. His experience tells him that the necessary changes will not come from governments at Rio+20.

“Our impression is that they (the governments) are coming to this meeting once again without any political will to commit to carbon emission, greenhouse gas, and deforestation targets, as these would entail undertaking the obligation to achieve concrete results,” he said.

Arruda used data from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to show how, in general, global capitalism tends to concentrate wealth.

He illustrated this with an example from Rio 1992 (the Earth Summit held in that city in 1992), where global wealth distribution was depicted as a “champagne coupe,” with the broad, shallow bowl representing the richest 20 percent of the world’s population who have 82.7 percent of the world’s income, and the long thin stem representing the poorest 20 percent who receive only 1.4 percent.

Twenty years of neoliberalism have increased the share of the wealthiest 20 percent to 91.5 percent of the world’s income. Meanwhile, the share of the poorest 20 percent plunged down to 0.07 percent of all income, he said.

The concentration of more and more wealth in the hands of an increasingly smaller minority is one of two major consequences of globalised capitalism. The second is the relentless destruction of the environment to achieve infinite economic growth, acting as if nature and land were also infinite and that all the resources they offer can be exploited, Arruda said.

“That is where a solidarity economy comes in and says ‘No! We can’t allow that! It’s suicidal. We need to curb growth, plan according to our needs, and create decent living conditions and guarantee happiness for all, taking into account future generations and the importance of continuing to act according to our needs,” he concluded.

*The writer is an IPS correspondent. This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.

Activists gathered in Brazil from around the world doubt the political will of governments to attack the root causes of the environmental crisis, and demand drastic changes in the system of production and consumption.

Trade unionists and other activists filled the streets of Porto Alegre to demand more effective protection of the environment. - Clarinha Glock/IPS

In the face of the current global economic and financial crisis, the participants in this World Social Forum thematic event, held Jan. 24-29, called on governments to promote changes in the current system of production and consumption – although they do not expect commitments of this kind from the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) taking place this June in Rio de Janeiro.

Edgardo Lander, a professor at the Central University of Venezuela and member of the Venezuelan Social Forum, referred to the so-called green economy – a central theme of Rio+20 – as "an attempt to recompose capitalism with a new façade: that of green capitalism."

"The Rio+20 summit will take place at a time of a profound crisis for capitalism, when the severe problems resulting from reaching the limits of growth and the destruction of the conditions for life on the planet are more evident than ever," Lander told Tierramérica.

In this context, "green capitalism" seeks a solution to the current critical situation, primarily for the financial sector, through the path of the growing "mercantilization" of everything, including education, health, and the knowledge of traditional peoples, he added.

What is really needed is greater effort to break with this model, stressed Lander.

Gathered at the same roundtable discussion in the auditorium of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, a member of the Occupy London movement, another from the North African Social Forum, a leader of La Via Campesina and activists from Brazil, France, Thailand and Venezuela symbolized this new historical era marked by popular uprisings, such as those of the so-called Arab Spring, and by one of the most acute crises ever for the capitalism system.

The situation currently facing the industrialized world could be compared to the crash of 1929, declared João Pedro Stédile, founder of the Brazilian Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) and member of the international civil society organization La Via Campesina. "But the difference is that for the first time it actually involves all of the world’s countries," he said.

Stédile argued that international capital has no respect for the decisions made by governments. "Nobody places any importance on resolutions adopted by the UN (United Nations), which makes Rio+20 nothing more than a bad joke," he maintained.

One part of the problem lies in “the eagerness of big international capital to protect itself for the next period of accumulation," leading to a stampede to gain control over the world’s raw materials, land, water, oil and other resources, he said.

"They know that natural resources have the potential to be extraordinarily lucrative," he added.

For his part, economist Marcos Arruda stressed the need to look for solutions in the short, medium and long term. One of these, he believes, is the expansion of networks like the one made up of 24,000 solidarity economy enterprises in Brazil, which currently encompasses at least 1.5 million people, according to a preliminary mapping.

"The solidarity economy is bringing about changes here and now, in the vital space of families and communities, and also at the level of governments, through the creation of new legislation to facilitate and promote cooperatives and similar associations," he told Tierramérica.

"Ownership rights are determined by work, not by capital," said Arruda, coordinator of the Institute of Policy Alternatives for the Southern Cone, member of the Brazilian Civil Society Facilitating Committee for Rio+20, and one of the founders of the Global Network of the Solidarity Socioeconomy.

But Arruda fears that major environmental disasters will outstrip the population’s capacity for organization. And experience tells him that the changes needed will not come from the governments gathered at Rio+20.

"Our impression is that they (the governments) will come to this meeting once again without any real political will to take on commitments to meet targets for carbon emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, anything that implies the obligation to produce concrete results," he said.

Arruda used statistics from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to demonstrate, in general terms, how the global capitalist system leads to the concentration of wealth.

He cited as an example that at the original Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, statistics on income were graphically represented as a "champagne glass", one which has grown wider and wider in the intervening years.

At that time, the wealthiest 20 percent of the world population controlled 82.7 percent of total global income. Today, 20 years of neoliberalism later, their share has grown to 91.5 percent. In the meantime, while the poorest 20 percent accounted for 1.4 percent of income in 1992, this figure has shrunk to a mere 0.07 percent, he stressed.

The increased wealth of an ever smaller minority is one of the two consequences of globalized capitalism. The second is growing destruction of the environment to pursue unlimited economic growth, pretending that there are no limits to nature and the planet, and that everything they offer us can be exploited forever, Arruda declared.

"Then the solidarity economy comes along and says, this is not possible! This is a suicidal world. We have to put a break on growth, and plan in such a way that our needs can be met and a decent life can be lived by everyone, taking into account the future generations and the importance of continuing to meet these needs," he concluded.

By Clarinha Glock
SÃO PAULO, Jul 14 2011 (IPS)

Even before he was hired as spokesman for the Wikileaks whistleblower web site in July 2010, 49-year-old investigative journalist Kristinn Hrafnsson realised that the new initiative would have the power to bring about transformations simply by informing society, starting in his own country, Iceland.

Kristinn Hrafnsson with Natalia Viana, of Pública. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange from Australia, provided a list of all those involved in the Iceland banking scandal. Hrafnsson said that jolted journalists in Iceland awake, and showed them the importance of what Wikileaks was doing.

Today he is the public face of the “Wikileaks phenomenon” in the numerous countries where the organisation is forging alliances, while Assange remains under house arrest in Britain, awaiting the results of his appeal not to be extradited to Sweden, where prosecutors want to question him about sexual assault allegations.

In Hrafnsson’s view, above and beyond the initial shock caused by some of the revelations in the thousands of secret documents it published, a full assessment of the impact of Wikileaks’ work will only be possible a few years down the road.

IPS caught up with the journalist in Brazil, where he took part in the 6th International Congress for Investigative Journalism, held Jun. 30-Jul. 2 in the southern city of São Paulo by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism.

At the Congress, Hrafnsson announced the release of nearly 3,000 U.S. government documents relating to Brazil, including 63 State Department cables to U.S. diplomats in Brazil, and 2,919 cables sent to Washington between 2002 and 2010 from the U.S. embassy in Brasilia and the U.S. consulates in São Paulo, Río de Janeiro in the southeast, and Recife in the northeast.

Published Jul. 11 on the Wikileaks web site and in June on the web site of its associate in Brazil, the Pública investigative journalism agency, the documents are just a few of the 251,287 U.S. cables leaked by Wikileaks starting on Nov. 28, 2010.

Wikileaks challenged the mainstream media and emboldened reporters, who started asking tough questions again, Hrafnsson said at the Congress. For the first time in years, different media outlets worked together in a collaborative fashion, sharing and republishing information, he said, pointing out that there are now more than 70 outlets analysing the leaked documents.

After his presentation, Hrafnsson responded to several questions from IPS:

Q: How can you measure the impact of Wikileaks’ release of confidential documents around the world? A: There was always the knowledge that the impact would be great when we knew the material was in hand. It was hard to say what kind of impact it would have, how it would materialise, but it was extremely important to see that the information that we released had a dramatic impact on what is happening in the Middle East, in the Arab Spring.

When the material came out in cables in Tunisia, in early December, the president (Zine El Abidine Ben Ali) was leading a very corrupt regime (since 1987). It wasn’t a surprise to anybody in Tunisia, they were already outraged by the situation there with lack of freedom and economic deprivation, while this corrupt government was living in ridiculous luxury.

But the extent of the corruption and nepotism shown in the cables infuriated the public even further and encouraged them to go out on the streets. It also had an impact, in my opinion, that they were seen from a foreign perspective, in a detailed report that was sent to the State Department. So they understood: “Well, they fully knew what kind of dictator we have, but they still support him!”

And the same thing applied in the case of Hosni Mubarak (1981-2011) in Egypt, and (the regime’s) torture chambers. It was not a Wikileaks revolution in Tunisia, it was far from that – it was the tragic fact that a university student set himself on fire in a protest, and died in January, and 10 days later the government of Tunisia fell.

But here was the thing: that people, when they unite, are not afraid anymore. They were organising through social networking channels on the Internet, and it was the first Internet revolution. And it spread to Egypt, to Yemen, to Syria. So we see the impact all over. And it is often underestimated. I sometimes say that this is as important as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

We are now seeing a fundamental change in the Arab world, and it is not the Islamic fundamentalists, and it is not the communists, it has nothing to do with the ideologies everybody was afraid of: it is about basic fundamental freedoms and human rights that people are fighting for. They want to have economic well-being and they want freedom of speech, they want freedom of assembly, they want democracy.

Q: Do you think that Wikileaks gives them support to continue their fight? A: Absolutely. And we saw that in Egypt as well, even when the United States tried to meddle further in the internal politics. Hosni Mubarak was in a very fragile situation – there was a situation where the U.S. was trying to push forward his replacement. We then released a cable showing that (the proposed replacement candidate) was basically a part of the control of the country.

Q: So how does Wikileaks contribute to all these changes? A: Overall, the general concept of giving people the information they have the right to, the historical records, is quite essential. We have been demystifying the diplomatic procedure. We have been giving the detailed picture of the war that was being carried out in secrecy.

It is a different thing now. We are encouraging a new ideal. Hopefully it will benefit people in this region as well as elsewhere. I cannot go into individual examples. It is hard to determine the causal relation and say for sure that “a” caused “b”. I won’t go that far. But overall you can see the effects.

Excerpt:

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Jul 5 2011 (IPS)

José Luiz Ferreira, 60, was born poor and is still poor, but was able to get an education. Known as Seu Luiz (Mr. Luiz) in Vila Nova Chocolatão, the Porto Alegre neighborhood where he lives, he earns a meager living by giving English classes. And he sees eagles where everyone else sees chickens.

José Luiz Ferreira at his former home in the old Vila Chocolatão. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

His tale is a loose retelling of a story from the book “The Eagle and the Chicken” by Brazilian theologian and writer Leonardo Boff, one of the leading figures of Liberation Theology, a progressive current in the Latin American Catholic Church.

“Here (in the neighborhood), everyone has been an eagle for many years, but they treat them like chickens. And if nobody says anything to them, they will continue acting like chickens,” he said.

The eviction of the 732 residents of Vila Chocolatão, a favela or shantytown in the centre of Porto Alegre, became a landmark event in the city: for the first time ever, lawyers and geographers intervened in a forced relocation in order to ensure that potential problems were prevented or solved, based on the right to housing.

The result was the suspension of the resettlement until an agreement was signed with the federal public prosecutor’s office, which plans to construct a building for its own use on the site formerly occupied by Vila Chocolatão. The land in question is the property of the Federal Regional Court.

“Just because they live in decent housing doesn’t mean that they will have access to work, health care and education. A basic principle is that it is prohibited to set people back, and where they lived before they were able to earn a living,” Alexandre Gavronski, the regional prosecutor for Citizens’ Rights at the prosecutor’s office told Tierramérica.

Vila Nova Chocolatão – literally, the new Vila Chocolatão – is far from the city centre, and unlike its precursor, it is not surrounded by garbage. It has solidly built houses, sewers, electricity and running water. Employment is guaranteed for 60 people per shift at a waste separation facility donated by a private company; the inhabitants of the former favela made a living by collecting recyclable waste.

It would all be perfect if it didn’t violate the law, which not only requires that evictees be given a roof over their heads, but also the possibility of rebuilding their lives with work, health care, education and a minimum level of comfort.

The original Vila Chocolatão sat on the property of the Federal Regional Court for 25 years. It was overcrowded and living conditions were precarious and unhygienic; it was also struck by fire on several occasions. But two thirds of its inhabitants earned incomes equivalent to a minimum salary of around 342 dollars.

“The new neighborhood is infinitely better,” Humberto Goulart, director of the Porto Alegre Municipal Department of Housing, told Tierramérica a week before the relocation.

“The daycare centre (not completed at the time) is modern, there is enrollment space for all the children in the local schools, the health care facilities can respond to the new demand, and the waste separation facility is the most modern in Brazil,” he maintained. “Some people have complained just to make trouble.”

The criticisms, spearheaded by the Association of Brazilian Geographers and the University Legal Aid Service of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, had stressed the limited participation of the inhabitants in the relocation plan, a violation of the city bylaws.

They also pointed out that the number of new homes was not sufficient to house all of the families, obliging the city government to guarantee that it would pay rent in another area for a portion of the inhabitants.

Criticisms were also leveled at the recycling facility, which is not large enough to provide employment for all of the people who used to earn a living collecting and recycling waste, and at the inadequate census conducted of the neighborhood’s families, which led to the construction of houses only suitable for small households.

“It wasn’t what I expected,” said Teresinha Margarete do Rosário, who spoke with Tierramérica in May, a week after the relocation, at the waste separation facility. She had only managed to find enrollment space for one of her six children at the nearest school.

But Antônio Lázaro da Silva de Oliveira, a construction worker, was happy with the move. “Life is totally different here. My three daughters are in school. But there is one thing: after nine o’clock at night, nobody leaves the house. I’m going to talk with the people to do something about making the neighborhood safer,” he commented to Tierramérica.

It took Marta Suzana Pinheiro Siqueira and her husband an entire year to build their home in the old neighborhood, but they had no choice but to accept their eviction. A month after the move, they are still waiting for the authorities to remedy the lack of space in their new home for their four children, aged 11 to 17, by moving them to a third location.

Although the Vila Chocolatão eviction is not linked to the preparations for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, all resettlements and urban reforms in Brazil today are ultimately connected to this purpose.

“Everything is connected to the World Cup, because it’s a way of making resources available,” Raquel Rolnik, an architect, urban planner and United Nations special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, told Tierramérica.

Rolnik has received reports of forced evictions and relocations in different parts of the country in which people’s rights have been allegedly been trampled. One of these complaints was about Vila Chocolatão.

In December, Rolnik approached the Brazilian government to alert them to the allegations related to the construction of infrastructure for the World Cup. The lack of response led her to make the matter public through a press release.

In May, the head of the Special Secretariat for Human Rights of the Office of the President, Maria do Rosário Nunes, told Tierramérica in a telephone interview that the government had created a working group with members from the secretariat and a number of ministries to assess the resettlement plans of the local governments implicated in the allegations.

These plans are currently being evaluated, and federal authorities will continue to visit each place involved, said a source at the secretariat.

The mayor of Porto Alegre, José Fortunatti, claimed to be surprised by the complaints, and insisted that all rights were respected in the case of Vila Nova Chocolatão.

“If violations are repeated, there could be penalties,” Rolnik told Tierramérica.

At the time of publication, the Municipal Chamber of Río de Janeiro had just approved the creation of an inquiry commission to investigate reports of human rights violations related to construction works for the World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games.

These works are one of three major national projects that are currently affecting the residents of favelas in this country of 190 million people. The other two are the Growth Acceleration Programme and a plan known as Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life), explained geographer Lucimar Siqueira.

The solutions offered provide shelter and assistance for evictees, she noted. But they do not guarantee that eagles will be able to fly.

* Clarinha Glock is an IPS contributor. This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.

Excerpt:

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, May 16 2011 (IPS)

The adoption of a new Forest Code in Brazil could threaten efforts to curb Amazon deforestation, which was reduced 70 percent between 2004 and 2010.

A solitary cow in a slash-and-burn clearing where there was once Amazon rainforest. Credit: Mario Osava/IPS

“The proposal opens up a lot of gaps,” Tasso Azevedo, a forestry engineer and Ministry of Environment consultant on forests and climate, told Tierramérica.

In addition to reducing the so-called permanent preservation areas that must be reforested if cleared, it establishes an amnesty for landholders who have illegally cleared forests on their properties. Under the current legislation, they are subject to fines. “This makes it seem as if the law wasn’t made to be obeyed,” said Azevedo.

If this part of the proposal is approved, reforestation would no longer be required on up to 15 million hectares of land, according to the Ministry of Environment.

Under the current Brazilian Forest Code (Law 4771 of 1965), permanent preservation areas are areas that “play a role in preserving water resources, landscape, geological stability, biodiversity, the gene flow of flora and fauna, protecting the soil and ensuring the well-being of human populations.”

These areas include the banks and sources of rivers and the tops and slopes of hills, where logging is strictly prohibited.

Legal reserves are areas within private landholdings deemed by the law to be “vital for the sustainable use of natural resources, conservation and rehabilitation of ecological processes and biodiversity, and the protection of native flora and fauna.”

In the Amazon rainforest region, 80 percent of the forested area on privately owned farmland must be set aside as a legal reserve, and therefore cannot be cleared.

For landholdings located in the Cerrado tropical savanna region within what is known as the “Amazônia Legal” (which covers nine of Brazil’s 26 states), 35 percent of forested land must be preserved, while 20 percent must be set aside as legal reserves in the rest of the country.

But there is no special protection for the rest of the Cerrado, an ecoregion spanning two million kilometers in central Brazil, where the rate of deforestation is twice that of the Amazon.

The Forest Code currently prohibits the clearing of forests on a strip of between 30 and 500 meters along the banks of rivers. Under the proposed changes, that requirement would be reduced to a 15-meter-wide strip. The amendments also open up the possibility of forgiving deforestation fines for landowners who register with the Environmental Regularisation Program, essentially an amnesty program, as well as owners of landholdings of 400 hectares or less, who would not be required to reforest cleared areas.

“The new Forest Code is an umbrella full of holes,” said Azevedo, adding that the bill tabled by Rebelo “is a different bill from the one that had been agreed upon. With a few small changes in wording, for example, mangroves were removed from the protected areas.”

The head of the ruling Workers Party bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, Cândido Vaccarezza, maintained that there would be no flexibility with regard to planting crops in permanent protection areas, and that any exceptions, under the criteria of public utility, social need and reduced environmental impact, would be regulated by decree.

In the meantime, the voluntary targets established by Brazil to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions are also at stake, since deforestation is the country’s main source of these emissions.

A national emissions inventory published in late 2010, but based on data from 2005, states that the country produced 2.2 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually. If the prevailing trends continued, annual emissions would reach 3.2 billion tons by 2020. However, the government pledged that it would reduce its emissions to two billion tons annually by that year.

“The Amazon rainforest is a reservoir of about 100 billion tons of carbon, sequestering more than 10 times the amount of carbon emitted globally each year,” notes the Brazil Low-Carbon Country Case Study, produced in 2010 by the World Bank after two years of research and consultation with scientists and representatives of 10 ministries dealing with sectors like energy, transportation and waste management.

The report proposes strategies to reduce the emission and increase the absorption of carbon, one of the main greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, as well as recommendations on financing mechanisms and public policy.

While the study does not address possible changes to the Forest Code, it does consider the effects of full compliance with the reforestation requirements under the current law.

“When trees are replanted, carbon is sequestered and there are benefits,” the lead author of the study, Christophe de Gouvello, told Tierramérica.

“But when the requirement to reforest is imposed, the area available for farming is reduced, and this leads to the risk that farmers will clear another part of the forest in order to continue planting,” he added. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as “leakage”.

The World Bank study recommends improving the agricultural yields on smaller areas of land, providing low-interest loans and incentives for intensive production systems, and adopting public policies to promote direct planting or zero-tillage cultivation and better training and monitoring for farmers.

It also proposes that better land use management can be achieved by raising productivity through the promotion of mixed crop and livestock systems and feedlot systems.

Azevedo noted that Brazil went beyond these recommendations with its National Climate Change Policy, adopted in 2009, which foresees a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of between 36 and 38.9 percent by 2020, depending on whether GDP growth during the interim averages four or six percent a year, respectively.

To achieve this goal, priority has been placed on reducing deforestation by 80 percent in the Amazon and 40 percent in the Cerrado region, among other measures.

Some 700,000 hectares were deforested in 2010, the lowest figure since measurement began in 1988, said Azevedo.

Geologist Lúcia Ortiz, coordinator of the energy working group of the Brazilian Forum of Non-Governmental Organisations and Social Movements for the Environment and Development, believes the problem of climate change should not be addressed from a business opportunity perspective without challenging structural issues.

The low-carbon agricultural model proposed by the World Bank study “is a strategy for economic growth at the cost of the export of basic agricultural commodities,” she told Tierramérica. In her opinion, what is needed is an agro-ecological approach that encompasses aspects of development and mitigation of the effects of climate change, such as droughts, floods and plagues, rather than solely the control of carbon emissions.

For Azevedo, what is important to understand is that “if Brazil does not become an example and push the rest of the world to reduce their emissions, it will be significantly affected, in addition to not being able to benefit from the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.

Excerpt:

Proposed amendments to the Brazilian Forest Code raise new alarm over Amazon deforestation.

A solitary cow in a slash-and-burn clearing where there was once Amazon rainforest. - Mario Osava/IPS

The proposal to amend the current Forest Code, presented in the Chamber of Deputies by Communist Party of Brazil representative Aldo Rebelo, was to be put to a vote on May 11. After hours of heated debate, the vote was postponed until Monday May 16. But on Monday the entire process was once again put off.

"The proposal opens up a lot of gaps," Tasso Azevedo, a forestry engineer and Ministry of Environment consultant on forests and climate, told Tierramérica.

In addition to reducing the so-called permanent preservation areas that must be reforested if cleared, it establishes an amnesty for landholders who have illegally cleared forests on their properties. Under the current legislation, they are subject to fines. "This makes it seem as if the law wasn’t made to be obeyed," said Azevedo.

If this part of the proposal is approved, reforestation would no longer be required on up to 15 million hectares of land, according to the Ministry of Environment.

Under the current Brazilian Forest Code (Law 4771 of 1965), permanent preservation areas are areas that "play a role in preserving water resources, landscape, geological stability, biodiversity, the gene flow of flora and fauna, protecting the soil and ensuring the well-being of human populations."

These areas include the banks and sources of rivers and the tops and slopes of hills, where logging is strictly prohibited.

Legal reserves are areas within private landholdings deemed by the law to be "vital for the sustainable use of natural resources, conservation and rehabilitation of ecological processes and biodiversity, and the protection of native flora and fauna."

In the Amazon rainforest region, 80 percent of the forested area on privately owned farmland must be set aside as a legal reserve, and therefore cannot be cleared.

For landholdings located in the Cerrado tropical savanna region within what is known as the "Amazônia Legal" (which covers nine of Brazil's 26 states), 35 percent of forested land must be preserved, while 20 percent must be set aside as legal reserves in the rest of the country.

But there is no special protection for the rest of the Cerrado, an ecoregion spanning two million kilometers in central Brazil, where the rate of deforestation is twice that of the Amazon.

The Forest Code currently prohibits the clearing of forests on a strip of between 30 and 500 meters along the banks of rivers. Under the proposed changes, that requirement would be reduced to a 15-meter-wide strip. The amendments also open up the possibility of forgiving deforestation fines for landowners who register with the Environmental Regularisation Program, essentially an amnesty program, as well as owners of landholdings of 400 hectares or less, who would not be required to reforest cleared areas.

"The new Forest Code is an umbrella full of holes," said Azevedo, adding that the bill tabled by Rebelo "is a different bill from the one that had been agreed upon. With a few small changes in wording, for example, mangroves were removed from the protected areas."

The head of the ruling Workers Party bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, Cândido Vaccarezza, maintained that there would be no flexibility with regard to planting crops in permanent protection areas, and that any exceptions, under the criteria of public utility, social need and reduced environmental impact, would be regulated by decree.

In the meantime, the voluntary targets established by Brazil to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions are also at stake, since deforestation is the country’s main source of these emissions.

A national emissions inventory published in late 2010, but based on data from 2005, states that the country produced 2.2 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually. If the prevailing trends continued, annual emissions would reach 3.2 billion tons by 2020. However, the government pledged that it would reduce its emissions to two billion tons annually by that year.

"The Amazon rainforest is a reservoir of about 100 billion tons of carbon, sequestering more than 10 times the amount of carbon emitted globally each year," notes the Brazil Low-Carbon Country Case Study, produced in 2010 by the World Bank after two years of research and consultation with scientists and representatives of 10 ministries dealing with sectors like energy, transportation and waste management.

The report proposes strategies to reduce the emission and increase the absorption of carbon, one of the main greenhouse gases contributing to global warming, as well as recommendations on financing mechanisms and public policy.

While the study does not address possible changes to the Forest Code, it does consider the effects of full compliance with the reforestation requirements under the current law.

"When trees are replanted, carbon is sequestered and there are benefits," the lead author of the study, Christophe de Gouvello, told Tierramérica.

"But when the requirement to reforest is imposed, the area available for farming is reduced, and this leads to the risk that farmers will clear another part of the forest in order to continue planting," he added. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as "leakage".

The World Bank study recommends improving the agricultural yields on smaller areas of land, providing low-interest loans and incentives for intensive production systems, and adopting public policies to promote direct planting or zero-tillage cultivation and better training and monitoring for farmers.

It also proposes that better land use management can be achieved by raising productivity through the promotion of mixed crop and livestock systems and feedlot systems.

Azevedo noted that Brazil went beyond these recommendations with its National Climate Change Policy, adopted in 2009, which foresees a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of between 36 and 38.9 percent by 2020, depending on whether GDP growth during the interim averages four or six percent a year, respectively.

To achieve this goal, priority has been placed on reducing deforestation by 80 percent in the Amazon and 40 percent in the Cerrado region, among other measures.

Some 700,000 hectares were deforested in 2010, the lowest figure since measurement began in 1988, said Azevedo.

Geologist Lúcia Ortiz, coordinator of the energy working group of the Brazilian Forum of Non-Governmental Organisations and Social Movements for the Environment and Development, believes the problem of climate change should not be addressed from a business opportunity perspective without challenging structural issues.

The low-carbon agricultural model proposed by the World Bank study "is a strategy for economic growth at the cost of the export of basic agricultural commodities," she told Tierramérica. In her opinion, what is needed is an agro-ecological approach that encompasses aspects of development and mitigation of the effects of climate change, such as droughts, floods and plagues, rather than solely the control of carbon emissions.

For Azevedo, what is important to understand is that "if Brazil does not become an example and push the rest of the world to reduce their emissions, it will be significantly affected, in addition to not being able to benefit from the transition to a low-carbon economy."

By Clarinha Glock
PANAMA CITY, May 12 2011 (IPS)

In Panama’s largest cities, minors under 18 not under supervision of an adult must be off the streets after 9:00 p.m. The juvenile curfew law means some spend several days behind bars until someone shows up to pay the fine.

The project nurtures the leadership potential in Panamanian teenagers. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

When the Panamanian Red Cross launched a youth violence prevention programme in urban and semi-urban areas in 2008, adolescents in those neighbourhoods began to share plans and activities, and learn to confront preconceptions and create opportunities to realise their dreams.

The programme offers a way to recover the ability to dream. “I like the project because it’s fun,” says 15-year-old José Meneses, who lives in Santa Ana. “I want to do lots of things in the future. Maybe leave the country and visit Costa Rica or Nicaragua.”

The project forms part of the Regional Strategy for Violence Prevention – Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, designed by the Spanish Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Between 2008 and 2012, the team members involved in the project aim to work with just under 3,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 21 in eight countries of Central America and the Caribbean: Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

Of that group, 304 will be selected to receive personalised educational support with the aim of nurturing their leadership skills and their ability to influence public policies that affect young people.

The requisites for eligibility for the educational opportunity are: no weapons, no drug use and no criminal record. The focus is on young people who live in violence-stricken areas but have not been recruited by youth gangs, known as “maras” in Central America.

The team members go to the young people’s communities and help them fill their free time with educational but fun activities, taking back the streets as public spaces where people can relax, gather and participate in the community.

In the meetings, rights and duties – like going back to school – are discussed, and the young participants feel listened to and cared about.

The effort has the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

The problems facing young people in poor neighbourhoods on the outskirts of big cities are similar throughout Central America: family breakdown, poverty, unemployment, limited activities to occupy their free time, and discrimination.

Sensationalist news coverage that plays up fears of youth gangs stigmatises all poor young people as juvenile delinquents.

That image is so entrenched that when the members of the Red Cross started the project in Panama, they had to change its name from “violence prevention” to “promoting positive youth leadership”. And for security reasons, they called it “promotion of values” in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, three of the most violent countries in the world.

In Panama the homicide rate is 21 per 100,000 population, far below the murder rates of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, which make up the so-called “Northern Triangle” of Central America.

The 2010 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says the average homicide rates for the 2003-2008 period were 61 per 100,000 population in Honduras, 52 per 100,000 in El Salvador and 49 per 100,000 in Guatemala.

According to the World Health Organisation, any country with a murder rate above 10 per 100,000 population is suffering an epidemic of violence.

In 2010, 709 murders were reported in Panama – a country of 3.5 million people – nearly 15 percent fewer than in 2009, when the total was 818, the police reported early this month. Armed robbery was down 37 percent, and larceny was reduced 16 percent.

Panamanian Red Cross project coordinator Yasmín Ortiz told IPS that at the beginning of the programme, 24 young people signed up. Today there are more than 100 participants in the capital, and a similar number in Colón. The waiting list is long: if all of the interested young people were accepted, the number of participants would be twice that.

“The good thing is that there are young people who understand that, in order to be accepted in the project, they have to behave. A culture of ‘if I want to get something, I have to act appropriately’ is starting to be built,” Ortiz said.

“But we are worried about when the project ends, in 2012,” she added. The Red Cross is seeking funds to extend the programme, and the biggest challenge is to train the participants so they can continue on their own.

Besides taking part in discussion meetings and festive and sports activities, the participating young people keep in daily contact with the team through social networking tools like Skype or Facebook.

The virtual contact serves as an escape valve, since youngsters under 18 are not allowed to be out on the street on their own after 9:00 p.m. in Panama City, in San Miguelito, to the north of the capital, and in Colón.

Those who break the curfew, especially in violent neighbourhoods, are taken into custody, and their parents must pay a fine ranging from 10 to 25 dollars to release them. “Sometimes they’re held for several days because no one shows up to rescue them,” Ortiz said.

Youngsters in Central America’s vast shantytowns suffer double neglect: at home because they often live with only one parent or with an aunt or a grandmother, and outside of the home due to the lack of opportunities. They often work selling trinkets at stoplights, after dropping out of school at a young age to help support their families.

In Santa Ana, the Red Cross offices are across the street from the Panamanian Sports Institute stadium, which locks its gate at 4:00 p.m., just when students are getting out of school and have free time for games and sports.

But local young people have found a way to get in. A house next to the stadium was demolished, and they enter the grounds through the empty lot. Every afternoon the sports field fills up with adolescents playing football and baseball.

To get in, they risk being scratched or cut by the twisted steel rebar at the demolition site, or plummeting behind the stands. But the authorities have apparently failed to notice what is going on.

Among the teenagers are 18-year-old Eric Rodríguez, 19-year-old Richard Loaiza, and 15-year-old Francisco Kassil – all potential leaders. Breathless and sweating after the game, they talk about the raffle they are holding to finance a camping trip. It’s the first time they have ever organised anything like this, and they’re excited.

Edwin González, 17, says he changed after joining the group. “I was rude and didn’t socialise,” he says. Now he likes to give his opinions in the meetings.

Charlie Linares, 28, who is in charge of organising the football teams, says the changes have not only been seen in the youngsters themselves – the community also looks at them differently now. He watched them grow up with the stigma of being seen as rebellious delinquents up to no good on street corners, and now he notices the difference in their behaviour.

In their neighbourhoods, the youngsters are hemmed in by drug dealing and gun sales. Domestic violence is frequently a normal aspect of their lives. But in the group meetings, they are welcomed with hugs and smiles.

Daniel González, one of the project team members, stresses how important it is for the participants that no one shouts at them or puts them down in the project.

“In this work, the team member has to be convinced that change is possible. And the kids can tell if you really want them to change,” Ortiz said.

Excerpt:

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Apr 5 2011 (IPS)

In the weeks since a motorist mowed down dozens of cyclists in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, the incident has becoming a rallying flag in the fight to create a more bike-friendly city.

Cyclists demonstrating in Porto Alegre: "Respect cyclists. More love, fewer motors." Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

But local cyclists are even more upset by the city government’s broken promises regarding the implementation of a Bike Lanes Master Plan, drafted in 2009 to promote this cheaper, cleaner and healthier means of transportation.

Cycling activists are now gearing up to voice their views at a public hearing scheduled for Apr. 7.

The city of Porto Alegre has played a vanguard role in environmental policies dating back to the 1970s, and will be one of the 12 host cities for the FIFA football World Cup in 2014.

Proponents of bicycle use stress that the city government could draw on the successful experiences of countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, where large-scale public bike systems have been implemented and welcomed by the public.

Official figures reveal that in all of Brazil, the largest country in South America with a population of over 190 million, there are a mere 4,000 kilometres of lanes designated specifically for bicycles on the country’s roads.

Río de Janeiro, with a population of 6.3 million, has 160 kilometres of bike lanes, while Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and home to almost 1.5 million people, has a mere eight kilometres of bike paths for recreational riding, despite its potential for up to 410 kilometres of lanes that would allow bicycles to be used as an alternative means of transportation around the city.

Nearby towns that are much smaller in size offer far better conditions for cyclists. Campo Bom, located 58 kilometres from Porto Alegre, has 30 kilometres of bike lanes and 28,000 bicycles in a population of 65,000 people. In Sapiranga, 52 kilometres away, local industries promote the use of bicycles and have set up special bike parking lots.

“Bike lanes and paths can be created in any city,” says architect Ricardo Corrêa, the founder of TC Urbes Mobilidade e Projetos Urbanos, a specialised consulting firm aimed at “democratising the circulation of all means of transportation.”

Corrêa is getting ready to launch a pilot project involving 30 kilometres of bike lanes in the Santo Amaro district of the southern Brazilian city of São Paulo, an area with 450,000 inhabitants and a floating population of 700,000. If the project is successful, it could be expanded.

“People talk a lot about the bike lanes and public bikes in Europe, but they forget that these things didn’t happen overnight,” Corrêa commented to Tierramérica.

The bike lane network in Berlin is a legacy of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but even before then, there was already a bike lane plan, he noted.

Meanwhile, according to Shirley Agudo, a U.S. photojournalist and author of the book “Bicycle Mania Holland”, there is nowhere else in the world where bicycling is so ingrained in the culture as it is in the Netherlands.

This country of 16.5 million inhabitants, where bicycles outnumber people, boasts 29,000 kilometres of bike lanes and paths. There are 550,000 bikes in Amsterdam alone, compared to 250,000 cars.

Authorities in other cities have tried to replicate this experience, with mixed success.

English teacher Amélie Dumoulin, 32, lives in Saint-Ouen, a commune located five minutes by bike from Paris, and is a member of Vélorution Île de France, an organisation that promotes non-motorised means of transportation.

For Dumoulin, biking represents an independent means of transportation, which she uses despite the fact that the bike paths in the city of Paris are not adequately connected to those on the city’s outskirts, she told Tierramérica.

According to data gathered by Vélorution, if bicycles were used instead of cars for just 30 percent of trips of less than six kilometres in the European Union, the 27-country bloc could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automotive transport by four percent.

But bicycles currently account for only three percent of personal transportation in France. “The biggest challenge is to change people’s thinking. Campaigns only talk about safety, which scares cyclists,” said Pierre Fabre, 50, also from France, who has been involved in promoting solidarity with the cyclists run down in Brazil.

Messages of support have also come from Quito, the capital of Ecuador. In this city of two million, the first bike lanes were set up in 2007, and now total 49 kilometres. While bicycles were once only used for tourism, a lot of Quito residents are now actually using them as a means of transportation.

“Quito is laid out in a straight line, which makes it easy to build bike paths,” said Mario Muñoz Carrillo, president of the organisation Biciacción. The only complication would be connecting them with areas south of the capital and the historic central quarter of Quito, designated as a heritage site.

However, he told Tierramérica, the city “has other priorities, like the subway (underground) or the airport. It’s not the same here as it was in Colombia, where mayors were convinced and ordered the construction of bike paths.”

Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of the Colombian capital, Bogotá (1998-2000), incorporated bicycles into the city’s daily routine, initiating work on a network of 350 kilometres of special bike paths, while also establishing the Transmilenio express bus system – inspired by a similar system developed in the Brazilian city of Curitiba – and reducing the areas set aside for car parking.

Compared to Bogotá, Porto Alegre has a long way to go. The bike lanes master plan was formulated in 2009, although the matter has been under discussion since the 1970s.

Efforts were stepped up in 1996, when the city authorities began negotiating with the Inter-American Development Bank for the construction of the III Perimetral, a beltway that would connect the north and south of Porto Alegre and help alleviate traffic on the city’s main streets.

Environmentalists and cyclists joined forces and submitted a petition to include special bike lanes in the proposed highway project.

The mayor of Porto Alegre, José Fortunatti, claims that a lack of funds and other priorities have prevented the implementation of the master plan. But city council member Beto Moesch, a former municipal environment secretary, pointed out that in 2010, less than half of the annual budget funds earmarked for sustainable transportation were spent, and an even smaller expenditure in this area is planned for this year.

Some blame this failure to take action on prejudices. “We spurned the use of trains and ferries, and this has led to a monumental number of accidents and deaths on the roads, traffic jams and greenhouse gas emissions,” said city councillor Carlos Todeschini, vice president of the committee responsible for monitoring World Cup-related investments. He believes the international sporting event could be an opportunity for greater progress in the establishment of bike lanes.

On Apr. 7, the city government will be discussing the matter at a public hearing.

In the meantime, Ricardo José Neis, the man who drove into the group of cyclists, is currently in custody and facing 17 charges of attempted murder. One of the cyclists hit by Neis is Renato Soprana Pecoits, a 49-year-old businessman who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident when he was 27. He is able to pedal a bike thanks to a prosthetic leg, and continues riding today.

For him, cycling means an opportunity for contact with other people and with nature in an era when people live so distanced from each other, “locked up inside their cars.”

*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.

Excerpt:

A motorist’s attack on a group of cyclists in Porto Alegre has drawn local and international attention to the cause of bicycles as a mainstream means of transportation.

Cyclists demonstrating in Porto Alegre: “Respect cyclists. More love, fewer motors.” - Clarinha Glock/IPS

Photos and video footage of the car ploughing through a group of cyclists from the Critical Mass movement on Feb. 25 were seen around the world, sparking demonstrations in numerous countries and a wave of international solidarity.

But local cyclists are even more upset by the city government’s broken promises regarding the implementation of a Bike Lanes Master Plan, drafted in 2009 to promote this cheaper, cleaner and healthier means of transportation.

Cycling activists are now gearing up to voice their views at a public hearing scheduled for Apr. 7.

The city of Porto Alegre has played a vanguard role in environmental policies dating back to the 1970s, and will be one of the 12 host cities for the FIFA football World Cup in 2014.

Proponents of bicycle use stress that the city government could draw on the successful experiences of countries like the Netherlands and Denmark, where large-scale public bike systems have been implemented and welcomed by the public.

Official figures reveal that in all of Brazil, the largest country in South America with a population of over 190 million, there are a mere 4,000 kilometres of lanes designated specifically for bicycles on the country’s roads.

Río de Janeiro, with a population of 6.3 million, has 160 kilometres of bike lanes, while Porto Alegre, the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and home to almost 1.5 million people, has a mere eight kilometres of bike paths for recreational riding, despite its potential for up to 410 kilometres of lanes that would allow bicycles to be used as an alternative means of transportation around the city.

Nearby towns that are much smaller in size offer far better conditions for cyclists. Campo Bom, located 58 kilometres from Porto Alegre, has 30 kilometres of bike lanes and 28,000 bicycles in a population of 65,000 people. In Sapiranga, 52 kilometres away, local industries promote the use of bicycles and have set up special bike parking lots.

“Bike lanes and paths can be created in any city,” says architect Ricardo Corrêa, the founder of TC Urbes Mobilidade e Projetos Urbanos, a specialised consulting firm aimed at “democratising the circulation of all means of transportation.”

Corrêa is getting ready to launch a pilot project involving 30 kilometres of bike lanes in the Santo Amaro district of the southern Brazilian city of São Paulo, an area with 450,000 inhabitants and a floating population of 700,000. If the project is successful, it could be expanded.

“People talk a lot about the bike lanes and public bikes in Europe, but they forget that these things didn’t happen overnight,” Corrêa commented to Tierramérica.

The bike lane network in Berlin is a legacy of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but even before then, there was already a bike lane plan, he noted.

Meanwhile, according to Shirley Agudo, a U.S. photojournalist and author of the book “Bicycle Mania Holland”, there is nowhere else in the world where bicycling is so ingrained in the culture as it is in the Netherlands.

This country of 16.5 million inhabitants, where bicycles outnumber people, boasts 29,000 kilometres of bike lanes and paths. There are 550,000 bikes in Amsterdam alone, compared to 250,000 cars.

Authorities in other cities have tried to replicate this experience, with mixed success.

English teacher Amélie Dumoulin, 32, lives in Saint-Ouen, a commune located five minutes by bike from Paris, and is a member of Vélorution Île de France, an organisation that promotes non-motorised means of transportation.

For Dumoulin, biking represents an independent means of transportation, which she uses despite the fact that the bike paths in the city of Paris are not adequately connected to those on the city’s outskirts, she told Tierramérica.

According to data gathered by Vélorution, if bicycles were used instead of cars for just 30 percent of trips of less than six kilometres in the European Union, the 27-country bloc could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from automotive transport by four percent.

But bicycles currently account for only three percent of personal transportation in France. “The biggest challenge is to change people’s thinking. Campaigns only talk about safety, which scares cyclists,” said Pierre Fabre, 50, also from France, who has been involved in promoting solidarity with the cyclists run down in Brazil.

Messages of support have also come from Quito, the capital of Ecuador. In this city of two million, the first bike lanes were set up in 2007, and now total 49 kilometres. While bicycles were once only used for tourism, a lot of Quito residents are now actually using them as a means of transportation.

“Quito is laid out in a straight line, which makes it easy to build bike paths,” said Mario Muñoz Carrillo, president of the organisation Biciacción. The only complication would be connecting them with areas south of the capital and the historic central quarter of Quito, designated as a heritage site.

However, he told Tierramérica, the city “has other priorities, like the subway (underground) or the airport. It’s not the same here as it was in Colombia, where mayors were convinced and ordered the construction of bike paths.”

Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of the Colombian capital, Bogotá (1998-2000), incorporated bicycles into the city’s daily routine, initiating work on a network of 350 kilometres of special bike paths, while also establishing the Transmilenio express bus system – inspired by a similar system developed in the Brazilian city of Curitiba – and reducing the areas set aside for car parking.

Compared to Bogotá, Porto Alegre has a long way to go. The bike lanes master plan was formulated in 2009, although the matter has been under discussion since the 1970s.

Efforts were stepped up in 1996, when the city authorities began negotiating with the Inter-American Development Bank for the construction of the III Perimetral, a beltway that would connect the north and south of Porto Alegre and help alleviate traffic on the city’s main streets.

Environmentalists and cyclists joined forces and submitted a petition to include special bike lanes in the proposed highway project.

The mayor of Porto Alegre, José Fortunatti, claims that a lack of funds and other priorities have prevented the implementation of the master plan. But city council member Beto Moesch, a former municipal environment secretary, pointed out that in 2010, less than half of the annual budget funds earmarked for sustainable transportation were spent, and an even smaller expenditure in this area is planned for this year.

Some blame this failure to take action on prejudices. “We spurned the use of trains and ferries, and this has led to a monumental number of accidents and deaths on the roads, traffic jams and greenhouse gas emissions,” said city councillor Carlos Todeschini, vice president of the committee responsible for monitoring World Cup-related investments. He believes the international sporting event could be an opportunity for greater progress in the establishment of bike lanes.

On Apr. 7, the city government will be discussing the matter at a public hearing.

In the meantime, Ricardo José Neis, the man who drove into the group of cyclists, is currently in custody and facing 17 charges of attempted murder. One of the cyclists hit by Neis is Renato Soprana Pecoits, a 49-year-old businessman who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident when he was 27. He is able to pedal a bike thanks to a prosthetic leg, and continues riding today.

For him, cycling means an opportunity for contact with other people and with nature in an era when people live so distanced from each other, “locked up inside their cars.”

By Clarinha Glock
MADRID, Jan 26 2011 (IPS)

Latin America could see more Spanish investment in renewable energy if this otherwise strong sector in Spain is hurt in the war being waged by fossil fuel interests, according to expert Sergio de Otto.

Sergio de Otto Credit: Courtesy of Sergio de Otto

De Otto, also a member of Spain’s Wind Energy Association, explained to Tierramérica that the Foundation was created to raise awareness in his country and to press for change in the energy model, to challenge the iron grip on privileges held by the fossil fuel sector.

Q: Is there a risk that Spain won’t meet its emissions goals, and that it could cause problems for the EU objectives? A: No, Spain is going to meet those goals. What’s more, with the measures currently in place, we will surely achieve the proposed rates because we are already close.

But what we are seeing is that the results, which could have been more ambitious, have been undermined by other interests. Spain has the conditions for its energy matrix to achieve 30 percent production from renewable sources in 2020, and not just 20 percent as is set in the European bloc’s agreements.

Q: What is Spain’s participation in renewable energy production? A: We could be more ambitious because the EU objectives are not simply a goal, but rather an intermediate step. We still have to make a great effort, but we have an advantage.

In 2010, renewable sources were responsible for 37 percent of Spain’s electricity production. But in general energy terms, the renewables are about eight or nine percent.

Between 2004 and 2008, when the global economic-financial crisis erupted, the renewable energy sector saw fast growth in this country. In 2008 there was about 3,000 megawatts of installed capacity for photovoltaic energy, as well as 16,000 megawatts for wind energy and 3,000 megawatts for thermosolar energy.

The sector continued growing, and by the end of last year was projected to reach 20,000 megawatts from wind energy and 4,000 from photovoltaic. As a result, Spain has stood out among its European partners and began exporting technology to the United States, France, Italy and even China.

Q: So why hasn’t there been greater growth in this sector? Is it a consequence of the economic crisis? A: The global crisis accentuated the problem, but it isn’t the main factor. Spain is the scene of the first serious confrontation between the interests of conventional energy (fossil fuel) production technologies and those seeking to develop renewables. We are the most advanced in the latter, but the decline in electricity consumption accelerated the dispute that was expected to come some years in the future.

At this time, the companies that continue to invest in conventional technologies are seeing that renewable energy has part of the electrical generation market and that is why they are pressuring the government to halt that development.

Q: What other factors are interfering in this process? A: There are other problems internally, like the delay in updating the government-regulated utility rates. In order to make up for the deficit between electricity production costs and the income received by the companies — a deficit that grew in the last 10 years — this month a nearly 10-percent increase was decreed.

The Fundación Renovables is working to clear this up for the population, unmasking those who insist on blaming renewable energy for that increase in their electrical bills.

Q: What is the Foundation doing to ensure it has a role in renewable energy changes? A: We haven’t existed for long. The Foundation was created in the middle of last year and concluded its constitution in December. It is made up of a board with 12 founders and more than 150 members, and what we do is make public demands for change.

We are a citizen movement of professionals who work in various institutions and companies in the energy sector. Our goal is not to make a new law, but to raise society’s awareness about energy issues.

We believe it is essential to change the energy model and necessary for this process to occur as quickly as possible in order to dispense with fossil fuels as soon as possible and to develop renewable energies to the maximum possible. All of this should be accompanied by policies to promote development of this sector.

Q: If the situation doesn’t change, what will be the next move by the Spanish companies working in renewable energy? A: The current difficulties could lead many companies to take their experience and knowledge to other markets. Among the countries with great possibilities are Chile and Argentina. Also Mexico, where many Spanish companies already have investments, and little by little interest is growing in the other Latin American countries.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)

Excerpt:

The global dispute between fossil fuel interests and those developing alternative technologies has spilled onto the Spanish battlefield.

Sergio de Otto - Personal files of De Otto

One of the founders of Fundación Renovables (Renewables Foundation), De Otto points out that Spain could be more advanced in reaching the goals set out by the European Union to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020 through switching to renewable energy sources like wind, solar and biofuels.

De Otto, also a member of the Wind Energy Business Association of Spain, explained to Tierramérica that the Foundation was created to raise awareness in his country and to press for change in the energy model, to challenge the iron grip on privileges held by the fossil fuel sector.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Is there a risk that Spain won't meet its emissions goals, and that it could cause problems for the EU objectives?

SERGIO DE OTTO: No, Spain is going to meet the objectives. What's more, with the measures currently in place, we will surely achieve the proposed rates because we are already close.

But what we are seeing is that the results, which could have been more ambitious, were undermined by other interests. Spain has the conditions for its energy matrix to achieve 30 percent production from renewable sources in 2020, and not just 20 percent as is set in the European bloc's agreements.

TIERRAMÉRICA: What is Spain's participation in renewable energy production?

SDO: We could be more ambitious because the EU objectives are not simply a goal, but rather an intermediate step. We still have to make a great effort, but we have an advantage.

In 2010, renewable sources were responsible for 37 percent of Spain's electricity production. But in terms of general energy, the renewables are about eight or nine percent.

Between 2004 and 2008, when the global economic-financial crisis erupted, the renewable energy sector saw fast growth in this country.

In 2008 there was about 3,000 megawatts of installed capacity for photovoltaic energy, as well as 16,000 megawatts for wind energy and 3,000 megawatts for thermosolar energy.

The sector continued growing, and by the end of last year was projected to reach 20,000 megawatts from wind energy and 4,000 from photovoltaic. As a result, Spain has stood out among its European partners and began exporting technology to the United States, France, Italy and even China.

TIERRAMÉRICA: So why hasn't there been greater growth in this sector? Is it a consequence of the economic crisis?

SDO: The global crisis accentuated the problem, but it isn't the main factor. Spain is the scene of the first serious confrontation between the interests of conventional energy production technologies and those seeking to develop renewables. We are the most advanced in the latter, but the decline in electricity consumption accelerated the dispute that was expected to come some years in the future.

At this time, the companies that continue to invest in conventional technologies are seeing that renewable energy has part of the electrical generation market and that is why they are pressuring the government to halt that development.

TIERRAMÉRICA: What other factors are interfering in this process?

SDO: There are other problems internally, like the delay in updating the prices regulated by the government. In order to make up for the deficit between electricity production costs and the income received by the companies — a deficit that grew in the last 10 years — this month a nearly 10-percent increase was decreed.

The Fundación Renovables is working to clear this up for the population, unmasking those who insist on blaming renewable energy for that increase in the electrical bill.

TIERRAMÉRICA: What is the Foundation doing to ensure it has a role in the changes?

SDO: We haven't existed for long. The Foundation was created in the middle of last year and concluded its constitution in December. It is made up of a board with 12 founders and more than 150 members, and what we do is make demands for change.

We are a citizen movement of professionals who work in various institutions and companies in the energy sector. Our goal is not to make a new law, but to raise society's awareness about energy issues.

We believe it is essential to change the energy model and necessary for this process to occur as quickly as possible in order to dispense with fossil fuels as soon as possible and to develop renewable energies to the maximum possible. All of this should be accompanied by policies for developing the sector.

TIERRAMÉRICA: If the situation doesn't change, what will be the next move by the Spanish companies working in renewable energy?

SDO: The current difficulties could lead many companies to take their experience and knowledge to other markets. Among the countries with great possibilities are Chile and Argentina. Also Mexico, where many Spanish companies already have investments, and little by little interest is growing in the other Latin American countries.

By Clarinha Glock
PUERTO IGUAZÚ, Argentina, Jan 24 2011 (IPS)

Since recovering part of their territory in 2005, an indigenous Guaraní community in the northeastern Argentine province of Misiones is working to maintain and expand a cultural tourism initiative.

Francisco Medina at the entrance to the 'School of the Jungle'. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

The 75 families that live in the middle of a dense jungle coveted by tourism companies have the support of the MATE Project (Argentine Model for Tourism and Employment of Native Peoples), financed by the provincial Misiones government and the Canada International Development Agency.

The idea emerged in 2005 when representatives from Canada’s Niagara College contacted the Iguazú Technological Institute, a tourism and hospitality school that forms part of MATE, and proposed to work together on indigenous cultural tourism.

The Guaraní Mbyá in the area only recently officially recovered part of their territory. Like other indigenous populations, they felt forced to abandon their traditional way of life, which in the modern world could not ensure their survival, and they were tempted to assimilate western customs and lifestyles.

The project for building appreciation of their own identity and culture reached a high point in 2008, when MATE began the process towards autonomy, which allowed it to build financial support from national and international sources.

That year the Canadian non-governmental organisation Friends of Yryapú was created, and contributes financially to helping the indigenous landowners the tools needed to move away from reliance on government and private aid.

Young people study ways to maintain their culture while adapting to the new realities, which includes using computers. “Today we don’t live like we did in the past,” Ricardo Fernández, 40, told Tierramérica. He works as a bilingual instructor in a local school and teaches students about their ancestral customs.

“This is the only way that we are going to have the resources to work and to maintain our family,” he said.

Meanwhile, most get by with sales of traditional crafts: necklaces, bracelets, rings, baskets and carved wooden figures. Others work informally in nearby towns and cities. And many rely on government aid.

The Guaraní Mbyá are also subsistence farmers, growing millet, sweet potato, cassava and pumpkin. They raise pigs and chickens, while hunting is limited to the occasional bird or small mammal.

The traditional style of housing, with a log structure, bamboo and mud walls, and palm-leaf roofs — also used in building religious structures — has been replaced by wood houses with metal or straw roofing.

Few in this community have attended secondary school. The city’s schools offer basic classes only through the seventh grade. The MATE Project aims to resolve this educational deficit.

Francisco Medina has been studying computer science for four years, has two children, and understands four languages: Guaraní (his native language), Spanish, English and French. His goal is to work as a tour guide.

“I have two hours of computing per day,” he told Tierramérica.

Elvio Barreto, 32, is studying English, which has helped him understand some of the foreign tourists to guide them along the paths through the jungle.

At the Mbyá Guaraní Clemência González Intercultural Bilingual School, or “School of the Jungle,” the indigenous peoples live their education by sharing experiences with the instructors. They study ideas of natural and cultural heritage and learn from conferences and videos about the customs and traditions of their people.

The school already has 70 students, ages 13 to 38. Along with the students from Yryapú, there are young people from other Mbyá communities in Misiones, as well as from Paraguay and Brazil.

In addition to guided tours, visitors can buy handicrafts, as well as learn to make them. They can also take in the sounds of a children’s choir and listen to stories about the past of this once-powerful indigenous nation.

The revenues from these activities go to a community fund that will help sustain future enterprise as well as fund health and social services and education.

“If it is not oriented to the indigenous peoples running their own business, it is not the time to evaluate the project’s economic results. The number of visitors is uncertain and a commercial organisation does not yet exist,” MATE coordinator Claudio Salvador, a professor and writer, told Tierramérica.

That is a long-term effort. “Our job is to educate for employment through the intercultural method that we create, whose impact we most hope for is to improve quality of life,” he said.

The journey through the Yryapú community begins at the fourth kilometre of Highway 12, in Puerto Iguazú. But it persists in the memory, leaving a sensation of having seen a part of history that is not written in textbooks.

In Misiones, there are 100 Guaraní communities of the Mbyá and Ava katú eté groups. Of those, just 25 hold title to their land. Many indigenous peoples live in poverty and rely on government assistance.

The situation is not much different in other South American countries. An estimated 300,000 Guaraní are distributed across the territories of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia.

Of that total, the branch of Mbyá peoples totals 11,000 to 13,000 people in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The largest group is concentrated in the region of Chaco, according to Egon Dionísio Heck, coordinator of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Alongside other entities working with the Guaraní, CIMI is drawing up a map of the communities and the extension of their territories, updating demographic and environmental data, to be ready by the end of 2011.

“Despite the efforts of some (South American) presidents committed to regularise land titles, the force of agri-business prevails,” Heck told Tierramérica.

There is strong growth of the paper industry in Misiones, with the expansion of pine and eucalyptus plantations into the jungle areas home to indigenous peoples, said Heck.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)

Excerpt:

In a jungle enclave in northeastern Argentina, a handful of indigenous peoples have set out to study their own Guaraní culture to test its tourism potential. After recovering part of their territory in 2005, an indigenous Guaraní community in the northeastern Argentine province of Misiones is working to maintain and expand a cultural tourism initiative.

On about 265 hectares located a 20-minute drive from Iguazú Falls and 10 kilometers from the Argentine city of Puerto Iguazú, people in the Yrypaú community are learning computer skills and foreign languages, even as they delve deeper into their own culture.

The 75 families that live in the middle of a dense jungle coveted by tourism companies have the support of the MATE Project (Argentine Model for Tourism and Employment of Native Peoples), financed by the provincial Misiones government and the Canada International Development Agency.

The idea emerged in 2005 when representatives from Canada's Niagara College contacted the Iguazú Technological Institute, a tourism and hospitality school that forms part of MATE, and proposed to work together on indigenous cultural tourism.

The Guaraní Mbyá in the area only recently officially recovered part of their territory. Like other indigenous populations, they had felt forced to abandon their traditional way of life, which in the modern world could not ensure their survival, and they were tempted to assimilate western customs and lifestyles.

The project for building appreciation of their own identity and culture reached a high point in 2008, when MATE began the process towards autonomy, which allowed it to build financial support from national and international sources.

That year the Canadian non-governmental organization Friends of Yryapú was created, and contributes financially to helping the indigenous landowners the tools needed to move away from reliance on government and private aid.

Young people study ways to maintain their culture while adapting to the new realities, which includes using computers. “Today we don't live like we did in the past,” Ricardo Fernández, 40, told Tierramérica. He works as a bilingual instructor in a local school and teaches students about their ancestral customs. “This is the only way that we are going to have the resources to work and to maintain our family,” he said.

Meanwhile, most get by with sales of traditional crafts: necklaces, bracelets, rings, baskets and carved wooden figures. Others work informally in nearby towns and cities. And many rely on government aid.

The Guaraní Mbyá are also subsistence farmers, growing millet, sweet potato, cassava and pumpkin. They raise pigs and chickens, while hunting is limited to the occasional bird or small mammal.

The traditional style of housing, with a log structure, bamboo and mud walls, and palm-leaf roofs — also used in building religious structures — has been replaced by wood houses with metal or straw roofing.

Few in this community have attended secondary school. The city's schools offer basic classes only through the seventh grade. The MATE Project aims to resolve this educational deficit.

Francisco Medina has been studying computer science for four years, has two children, and understands four languages: Guaraní (his native language), Spanish, English and French. His goal is to work as a tour guide.

“I have two hours of computing per day,” he told Tierramérica.

Elvio Barreto, 32, is studying English, which has helped him understand some of the foreign tourists to guide them along the paths through the jungle.

At the Mbyá Guaraní Clemência González Intercultural Bilingual School, or “School of the Jungle,” the indigenous peoples live their education by sharing experiences with the instructors. They study ideas of natural and cultural heritage and learn from conferences and videos about the customs and traditions of their people.

The school already has 70 students, ages 13 to 38. Along with the students from Yryapú, there are young people from other Mbyá communities in Misiones, as well as from Paraguay and Brazil.

In addition to guided tours, visitors can buy handicrafts, as well as learn to make them. They can also take in the sounds of a children's choir and listen to stories about the past of this once-powerful indigenous nation.

The revenues from these activities go to a community fund that will help sustain future enterprise as well as fund health and social services and education.

“If it is not oriented to the indigenous peoples running their own business, it is not the time to evaluate the project's economic results. The number of visitors is uncertain and a commercial organization does not yet exist,” MATE coordinator Claudio Salvador, a professor and writer, told Tierramérica.

That is a long-term effort. “Our job is to educate for employment through the intercultural method that we create, whose impact we most hope for is to improve quality of life,” he said.

The journey through the Yryapú community begins at the fourth kilometer of Highway 12, in Puerto Iguazú. But it persists in the memory, leaving a sensation of having seen a part of history that is not written in textbooks.

In Misiones, there are 100 Guaraní communities of the Mbyá and Ava katú eté groups. Of those, just 25 hold title to their land. Many indigenous peoples live in poverty and rely on government assistance.

The situation is not much different in other South American countries. An estimated 300,000 Guaraní are distributed across the territories of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia.

Of that total, the branch of Mbyá peoples totals 11,000 to 13,000 people in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. The largest group is concentrated in the region of Chaco, according to Egon Dionísio Heck, coordinator of the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Alongside other entities working with the Guaraní, CIMI is drawing up a map of the communities and the extension of their territories, updating demographic and environmental data, to be ready by the end of 2011.

“Despite the efforts of some (South American) presidents committed to regularize land titles, the force of agri-business prevails,” Heck told Tierramérica.

There is strong growth of the paper industry in Misiones, with the expansion of pine and eucalyptus plantations into the jungle areas home to indigenous peoples, said Heck.

By Clarinha Glock
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 23 2010 (IPS)

Living sustainably can be learned. That is the idea championed by two schools in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, where students are learning to become environmental citizens of the new millennium.

Gabriela Borges holds up the bottle that helped replace disposable cups at her school. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

But some of the students began to play with the plastic cups instead of using them for drinking. “It was a waste,” Gabriela Borges, 15, president of the João XXIII Student Union, told Tierramérica.

So the students suggested replacing the disposable cups, and now each student and staff member has his or her own plastic bottle — to be reused indefinitely.

Those 1,500 bottles, distributed free of charge, reduced plastic cup use from 3,500 to 250 per day.

Founded in 1964, with 915 students and run by a foundation established by parents, João XXIII intends to invest more in the project “O Mundo Passado a Limpo” (The Past World Made Clean).

“We want our students to be concerned about people and about the environment in which they live. That is, what is happening here where they are, not just in the forests,” assistant principal Maria Tereza Coelho explained to Tierramérica.

The school already had a vegetable garden and systems to process compost (organic materials) and to separate recyclable materials from trash.

In 2009, a study at the school, “Biodiversity: Know It to Preserve It,” about identifying the native and exotic species found in the school’s green area, won the attention of biologist Camila Rezendo Carneiro and agricultural engineer Sérgio Luiz de Carvalho Leite, professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

The school and the university joined efforts, and through an extension course Carneiro and Leite are guiding the students in their analysis of species. They will put together a bio-map and establish a nature path on the school grounds.

In 2011 they will construct a model of a city, which will be assessed based on environmental sustainability, ethics and cooperation, said geography teacher Arturo Bergelt.

The children will elect their “mini-mayors,” and will have to make decisions about such things as budget priorities.

The city is being planned with the help of an architect (the mother of a student), and will be built using recycled materials. In parallel, a science teacher will teach the students to build water heaters from plastic barrels. They will also have an “ecological” classroom that will function using sustainable practices.

The school administration did not give details about how much money is going into the project, but said the school has received donations in funds and materials from many people, as well as support from the university.

Another school-cum-city is operating in Porto Alegre. It uses real places, where students are elected mayor, city councillors and members of the Council of Justice. It has operated since September 2009 at the Israeli Brazilian College (CIB).

With 88 years of history and 750 students, the CIB made a leap when director Mônica Timm de Carvalho brought her experience in the northeastern Israeli city of Tzfat to Porto Alegre: a city-laboratory on 500 square metres located in an underused area of the school.

“Ir Ktaná” (small city, in Hebrew) is the result of a year and a half of debates about a broad educational project.

Construction is based on sustainability, with “green” roofs, windows and doors that optimise natural light, and productive use of rainwater.

At one end sits the Chamber of Councillors and the Mayor’s Office, with a pulpit that looks out over Citizens Plaza, where there is an assembly site, or market. On the Street of Peace is a synagogue where students can also pursue their interest in philosophy.

Along the Culture Path there is a library and a space for theatre and exhibits. Following the Path of the Future, one arrives at the Science and Technology Centre. The products grown in the city’s garden are sold at the EcoFair.

The bank operates using “irk” currency and finances businesses like the non-governmental Eco-Responsible Patrol, made up of children and adolescents.

The students learn mathematics, physics and other disciplines through practical means, creating initiatives in the Project Incubator or in the supermarket.

“It’s great,” enthuses first-grader Eduardo Soares Sussermann about the project.

According to the principal, “the school is a space for discovering and fostering talents.”

The CIB administration also created the first continuing education programme within the school, in which teachers and professors keep apace with various topics, such as integrated project management and applied technology in education.

Equipment alone required an investment of about 34,000 dollars, and it costs approximately 2,800 dollars a month to keep the Ir Ktaná project running.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)

Excerpt:

By Clarinha Glock
BARCELONA, Spain, Aug 4 2010 (IPS)

“We have to start thinking about a new social contract on a planetary scale, but also within each country,” says Argentine activist and scholar Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

To that end, the movement for the new court proposes modifying the 1998 Rome Statute, the founding treaty that established the International Criminal Court, which came into being in 2002.

On one of his frequent trips to this city in northeastern Spain, Pérez Esquivel sat down with IPS to discuss the situation in Latin America and the progress made towards bringing about a culture of peace in the world.

Q: Since the end of the military dictatorships in Latin America, how has the region evolved? A: After the dictatorships imposed by U.S. policy, there were major developments that led to a transition to “conditioned” or restricted democracies in Latin America.

It was a fast-moving process, linked to the (1982) war (between Argentina and Britain) over the Malvinas (also known as the Falkland Islands).

In the past, the confrontation was East-West, between the United States and the former Soviet Union. With the Malvinas war, the problem became North-South. The United States soon realised it was necessary to promote democracies. But neoliberal policies, privatisation and the appropriation of natural and other resources continued.

Q: Is Latin America still important to Washington? A: Even though it has had to focus on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has never stopped keeping an eye on Latin America. As soon as any country starts getting out from under the United States’ thumb, it finds itself at loggerheads with the U.S., like what has happened in the case of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador or Argentina.

When (deposed President) Manuel Zelaya of Honduras began to have a different vision of the situation in his country, they toppled him in a coup legalised by parliament and the judiciary. It was a pilot experiment, to be applied in other countries, like Paraguay, for example, which is going through something similar.

Q: So is the U.S. again jockeying for position in the region? A: They are creating a military “pincher” in the continent: the Puebla-Panama Plan (a major development initiative stretching from Puebla in southern Mexico to Panama in the south) for Central America and the Caribbean; Plan Colombia (the multi-billion-dollar U.S.-financed counterinsurgency and anti-drug strategy), including seven bases (to be loaned to the U.S. military) under the pretext of fighting the drug trade and terrorism; the Tri-Border region (where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay converge); and, the Malvinas Islands, where a (British) military base operates.

In addition, transnational corporations are seeking the resources needed in the wealthy countries.

Nevertheless, strong social, cultural and political forces are emerging. The Bolivian government, for example, is recuperating national enterprises and natural resources (like natural gas) that had been privatised.

It has taken a number of important steps, such as formally recognising Bolivia as a “plurinational” state containing indigenous peoples, or adopting measures to overcome illiteracy and health problems. The same thing is happening in Venezuela.

Q: But these governments have been widely criticised. What is your take on them? A: There are no perfect democracies, only “perfectible” democracies with room for improvement. For example, democracy in Venezuela is different from the apparent democracy in Colombia, where there is repression, control by (far-right) paramilitary groups, intervention by the armed forces, four million internally displaced people and five million people in exile.

Colombians vote, but it is not simply voting that guarantees democracy: it is participation by the people. With all of their difficulties and errors, countries of Latin America have taken qualitative steps towards the construction of participative democracies, which are a work in progress.

Q: Have things changed since U.S. President Barack Obama took office? A: No. Obama reached the government, but he doesn’t actually have the power. He pledged to put an end to the war in Iraq, but intensified it instead, and the same thing happened in the case of Afghanistan.

He does not have the conditions of governance that the presidents of Bolivia, Venezuela and Ecuador enjoy. Their governments are united through Mercosur (the Southern Common Market trade bloc), Unasur (Union of South American Nations) and the Banco del Sur (Bank of the South, a South American multilateral lender). This unity is the only way to stand up to the major global powers.

Q: Can that unity block a coup d’état in Paraguay, as you referred to earlier? A: Of course. Argentine President Cristina Fernández did something interesting. On May 25, Revolution Day in her country, when the bicentennial of the revolution that led to independence was celebrated, she received (toppled Honduran president) Manuel Zelaya with the honours befitting a sitting president.

This is awkward for the United States, whose hegemony is thus undermined. Latin America has to strengthen its unity, because it has enormous natural resources, and the next war will be over water, energy resources and food. The only way to strengthen this region is through economic, cultural and political alliances.

Q: You mentioned emerging Latin American social forces. What were you referring to, more specifically? A: The women’s movement, for example. Women are leading actors throughout the region, from indigenous peoples to the spheres of science, technology and intellectual thinking.

Another important force is the indigenous movement. Native peoples have begun to organise and to recover their identity, their culture and their spirituality.

In third place are social movements, which are generating a new way of doing politics and are building participative democracy.

This leads us to something that I often insist on: we have to start thinking about a new social contract on a planetary scale, but also within each country. When the Real Academia Española (Royal Academy of the Spanish Language) held a meeting, we organised a parallel Congress on Languages, because we are not a monolingual country, and we have to respect that diversity.

When I talk about a new social contract, I am also referring to this, because domination does not begin with the economy, but with culture.

Q: Has progress been made in the campaign to establish an International Court of the Environment? A: One of the things I do is preside over the International Academy of Environmental Sciences (IAES) in Venice, Italy, which is made up of 120 scientists, where we work on the world’s pressing environmental problems.

The area of human rights focuses more on damages to “persons” than to “peoples” as a whole. In 1976, the International League for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples proclaimed the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples. I believe that efforts must be focused on addressing the damages to indigenous peoples, to entire populations, caused by water and air pollution.

In 2001, the FAO (U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation) published a report that stated that more than 35,000 children a day were dying of hunger worldwide. That’s what I call economic terrorism.

We are calling for a reform of the Rome Statute. At the same time, an international campaign must be launched, for people all over the world to exert pressure. Resistance aimed at getting governments to make changes must come from the grassroots level.

Excerpt:

By Clarinha Glock
BARCELONA, Spain, Jul 27 2010 (IPS)

Unlike so many immigrants who have come to Spain in search of jobs and a better standard of living, 39-year-old Flávio José Carvalho da Silva moved to this northeastern Spanish city from his home country of Brazil because he fell in love with a local woman.

Silva, who has a degree in sociology and anthropology and a master’s in politics from the Federal University of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, met the woman who is now his wife at the World Social Forum, the annual global civil society meet usually hosted by that South American country.

He has lived in Barcelona, the capital of the province of Catalonia, for five years. But in April, he joined the ranks of the unemployed, in the midst of the second wave of the global financial crisis, which is sweeping Europe and has led to the loss of thousands of jobs in Spain.

In this southern European country of 47 million people, nearly four million people were out of work in late June — a full 20 percent of the economically active population. The Ministry of Labour and Immigration reported that the total number of unemployed was 11.7 percent higher than in June 2009.

But in the case of foreigners, the increase was 20.4 percent.

When he came to Spain, Silva at first took on odd jobs, such as picking grapes in a small farming town outside of Barcelona. But then he began to find work more in line with his academic training. However, he was always hired under temporary contracts.

He worked in neighbourhood and immigrant organisations, and later in Barcelona’s Association for International Cooperation, where he helped organise a database of its members, until he was laid off.

His unemployment insurance is about to run out, and because he sees no prospects for the future, he and his wife have started thinking of moving to Brazil with their two children, he told IPS.

But he doesn’t believe that many Brazilians are thinking of returning. What he is sure of, based on the number of queries he receives about how to find a place to live and a job in Barcelona, is that many of his fellow Brazilians are packing up to move to Spain.

Silva says that many Brazilians still want to leave the country because the local currency, the real, is stable, which has made it possible for people to save up and take the risk of trying their luck in other countries. And with respect to economic crises, he says Brazilians long ago learned to deal with the impact of troubled times.

Barcelona is attractive to people from Brazil because it has a warm climate, beaches, a vibrant cultural scene and a lively nightlife, like Rio de Janeiro, and a culture of hard work, like Sao Paulo. The city “is like a miniature Brazil, with Brazilians of all social classes and all kinds of jobs,” he said.

Silva still holds out hope that the crisis might actually open up job opportunities for him. “I see how much need there is for support and ideas for projects,” he said, pointing out that organising groups and helping people get through tough times is part of the expertise he acquired both in his country and in Spain.

He forms part of a network that is working to organise Brazilian immigrants, to demand better services in his country’s consulates and greater assistance for Brazilians living abroad. He plans to seek election as a member of the Council of Brazilians in the World, to be created late this year.

“The Brazilian government has no idea of how its citizens abroad are living; it doesn’t even imagine that there are hungry people lined up outside Caritas,” the Catholic relief agency, he said.

Immigration in numbers

Miguel Pajares, a researcher at the University of Barcelona, told IPS that a study on immigration and labour, whose results will be released in August, found that in 2009, the inflow of immigrants remained steady from 2008, when the international financial crisis broke out in the United States.

But there was one major change, says the study in which Pajares took part, which was conducted by the Labour Ministry’s Permanent Observatory on Immigration (OPI).

The researcher said the country has started to approach a balance between the number of immigrants arriving and those returning to their home countries.

During the immigration boom in the first seven years of this century, between 600,000 and 700,000 foreign nationals arrived in Spain yearly.

But in 2009, according to a survey by the National Statistics Institute, some 400,000 migrants left Spain. Of the Latin Americans, the largest numbers heading back were apparently from Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia, although there are no hard statistics, Pajares said.

He believes the flow of immigrants to the European Union will rise again when the crisis has been overcome. But in Spain, he adds, the process will occur later, because the unemployment rate is twice the bloc’s average. Moreover, jobs are fast disappearing in Spain, while the creation of new ones is slow.

Brazil, a case apart

Between 2008 and 2009, the OPI commissioned a study titled “Los inmigrantes brasileños en la estructura socioeconómica española” (Brazilian Immigrants in the Spanish Socioeconomic Structure), with two objectives: to draw up a socio-demographic map of Brazilians in the country and to support their insertion.

One of the researchers, Leonardo Cavalcanti, a social science professor who specialises in migration and lectures at several universities, told IPS that Brazilians have traditionally preferred to emigrate to the United States and Portugal.

But from 2004 to 2008, they became latecomers to the Spanish economic boom, and the community of Brazilians in Spain mushroomed from 40,000 to 120,000. However, it was not until 2007 that the immigration authorities began to notice the influx and started to bar the entry of Brazilians.

The situation came to a peak in February 2008, when a Brazilian student with a graduate degree in physics and four others flying on to Lisbon to take part in a scientific conference were refused entry to the Madrid airport.

Brazil’s threat to give Spanish citizens the same treatment in its airports, and an outcry by the media, helped bring a halt to such incidents.

Women represent 60 percent of the Brazilian community in Spain, which is comprised of the largest proportion of undocumented migrants of any foreign community. Most Brazilians come to this country to find work and a better life, says the study by Cavalcanti et al.

All immigrants in Spain are now facing the impact of the government’s cuts in social services and welcome programmes. Nevertheless, “for many it is preferable to stay in Spain rather than return to their countries,” Cavalcanti said.

The expert believes it is important to study how second-generation immigrants are fitting into Spain and the rest of Europe. “No one knows what the future of these children will be like, whether they will be second-class citizens or will have the same access to work as the sons and daughters of Spaniards,” he said.

Excerpt:

By Clarinha Glock
BARCELONA, Jul 22 2010 (IPS)

Plagued by Spain’s economic recession and subsidy cuts, renewable energy businesses are following the sun and wind to Latin America in search of profits.

Photovoltaic energy field in La Rioja, Spain. Credit: Courtesy of T-Solar

The plan is to expand to Argentina (700 MW), Peru (110 MW) and Venezuela (100 MW), with additional investments in Mexico and Brazil.

“A recent study shows that by 2025 the investments could reach 46,000 installed MW” in Latin America, the Association’s energy policy director Heikki Willstedt Mesa told Tierramérica.

The firms are betting on the long term, hoping for hikes in the prices of carbon credits granted under the Kyoto Protocol to fight climate change, in force since 2005. That accord is expected to form part of a new international treaty on global warming.

Those carbon credits serve as a market mechanism for promoting clean energy — sources that do not generate greenhouse-effect gases like carbon dioxide produced from the combustion of fossil fuels.

The cost of wind energy is determined by the yearly hours of wind strong enough to produce the turbine’s nominal potential, or its “load factor,” explained Willstedt Mesa.

If the load factor is more than 30 percent, the cost of energy production would be between 60 and 70 dollars per megawatt/hour (MWh).

“With those costs, nearly all countries would be able to compete with conventional sources like petroleum,” he said.

To make wind parks more profitable, incentives have been established, paying more for “clean” megawatts than the market price.

In Spain, the renewable energy sector receives those incentives because its production generates almost no carbon dioxide (the leading greenhouse- effect gas) and few other contaminants.

This subsidy has been in place since 1994, and is paid through a fund that collects directly from the Spaniards’ utility bills and transferred to the energy- generating companies.

“Even with the adjustments for the economic crisis, those investments should be maintained, because Spain is one of the world leaders in renewable energy, not just for installed capacity, but also for its established industry,” said Willstedt Mesa.

Spain’s wind energy industry is well rooted: the 240 companies affiliated with the Association are turbine factories, parts providers and park builders throughout the country.

The installed wind energy capacity in Spain is 19,000 MW, and last year it supplied 13.5 percent of national demand. The European Union as a whole totals 74,000 MW installed, equivalent to investments of 113 to 126 billion dollars.

The EU’s goal for renewable energy sources to generate 230,000 MW within the decade.

But the Spanish authorities are studying a new regulatory framework for the energy sector that would include cuts both to subsidies for clean technologies and to polluting sources, like coal.

With that possibility on the horizon, Spain’s solar energy sector is also looking towards Latin America.

This year, the Spanish firms T-Solar and Solarpack won contracts for the production and sale of 173 gigawatts/hour (GWh) annually of photovoltaic energy in bidding opened by the government of Peru.

The plan encompasses four solar fields with a capacity of 20 MW each, to be up and running before Jun. 30, 2012, with a total investment of 250 million dollars.

T-Solar will promote and run two of them, and the rest will be under a consortium of T-Solar and Solarpack together.

The contract, signed in March with Peru’s energy and mining supervisory body, OSINERGIM, establishes that the solar energy fields will be located in the regions of Tacna, Arequipa and Moquegua, in the country’s far south.

The exceptional sunshine in that region, with an annual average of 2,300 kilowatts/hour per square metre, was a deciding factor in choosing Peru, T- Solar’s international business director, Enrique Barbudo, told Tierramérica.

Another attractive element is the conditions of the 20-year contract: the national electrical system will purchase all the electricity generated at a guaranteed price, with annual reviews.

Peru is one of the countries in the region enjoying greatest economic growth. Energy production doubled in the last 14 years, according to the National Mining, Petroleum and Energy Society, and this year alone is expected to see a six-percent increase in demand for electricity.

The authorities want renewable sources to provide 1,314 GWh annually by 2012. Of that total, 181 GWh would come from solar technology, 813 GWh from biomass and 320 GWh from wind.

Solarpack has a presence in Chile, France and the United States. T-Solar has expanded to France, Italy and India, and is exploring new projects in Chile, Brazil and Mexico.

Meanwhile, there is a great deal of uncertainty in Spain. “We are developing what we already had under way, and we’re waiting to clarify the future regulatory framework in order to make decisions,” said Barbudo.

Spain’s clean energy subsidies were adopted with the idea that by 2020, renewable sources would provide 20 percent of the electricity — a goal of the EU.

But that will depend on a variety of factors, says businessman Willstedt Mesa. For example, the size of the subsidies, compliance with the EU’s aim to cut carbon emissions 20 percent by 2020, or even by 30 percent, and the behaviour of petroleum, natural gas and coal prices, he said.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)

Excerpt:

By Clarinha Glock
GAROPABA, Brazil, Aug 13 2009 (IPS)

In 1975, Brazilian nutritionist and paediatrician Clara Brandão introduced “multimixture” in the diet of 13 preschools in Santarém, in the northern state of Pará, and noted how the malnourished children gained weight and completed their schooling. Some even went on to university.

Clara Brandão in action. Credit: Courtesy of Gaia Village

The mix includes bran, seeds, vegetables and crushed eggshell. It is based on the principle that quality is linked to variety and not just to beef, chicken or fish on the dinner plate, Brandão explained to Tierramérica in a recent interview.

“There are no strong or weak foods, only complementary foods,” is the slogan of Clara Terko Takaki Brandão, born 67 years ago in the southern state of São Paulo to a family of Japanese immigrants.

Daily dishes can be enriched with natural products that are abundant according to the season, which reinforces local agriculture, and improves human health and the economy of each community, she says.

Brandão has taken her ideas to towns across Brazil. Her plan to fight malnutrition, which has won her several awards, has been extended to all Brazilian states and to more than 15 countries. This month, she visited Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, to share these lessons with schools and restaurants in Garopaba, a beach town on the Atlantic coast.

TIERRAMÉRICA: How are the concepts of food sovereignty and security and health connected? CLARA BRANDÃO: I began to work on food security with indigenous health agents in Mato Grosso (west central Brazil). When you consider this matter it’s interesting to include the question of food sovereignty, the right of each community to use their traditional foods, carried out through public policies.

That was where I began the work with the seasons of the year. For example, in Rio Grande do Sul there are in fact four distinct seasons. We used all of the foods that exist in that region in each season, based on local culture, medicinal plants and traditional meals, and analysing the diseases specific to each climate.

In the winter, there are enormous quantities of citrus fruits in Brazil, and they are rich in vitamins and minerals. And what illnesses do we have at that time of year? Mainly respiratory problems. So we require great quantities of vitamins and minerals, which are available in the seasonal produce.

That makes it easier to make food security work: you find that if you use the foods particular to the season and the region, as well as using fewer chemical additives, they are cheaper, and more abundant, and meet the biological needs of promoting health in that specific period of the year.

TIERRAMÉRICA: How is food sovereignty to be applied in education? CB: Today we distribute 37 million school lunches. If there were truly a healthy, regional diet, in five years we could have a much more active population.

When designing a policy like this, they don’t take into account food allergies, especially to lactose and gluten. And meanwhile, manioc root (also known as cassava or yucca) today sells for 87 dollars a ton, which means that the grower is paying for us to consume it.

That tuber is the only organic food to which the poor in all parts of Brazil have access, but it is unlikely to become part of the school diet. One of the reasons is its storage and preparation.

If you have a school with 600 students and two lunch shifts, it is impossible to include manioc. Between the time it is harvested to the moment it reaches the student’s plate, it loses up to 80 percent of its nutritional value. That is where the chain of production comes in, and the need for a policy that allows a farmer to deliver the manioc already peeled, and when possible vacuum packed, so nothing is lost. Then we could serve a top-quality food and ensure that the farmer can keep working.

TIERRAMÉRICA: We eat the root of the manioc. What nutrients do its leaves have? CB: A study by the University of São Paulo showed that manioc leaves have half the selenium found in the Brazil nut. Selenium is a powerful antioxidant, slows aging, boosts immunity and maintains fertility.

If we could use all of these products that otherwise go to waste, can you imagine the nutrients we’d have? With four or five kilos of fresh manioc leaves you get one kilo of powder, which can be stored for months or even years, depending on how it is preserved.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Has Brazil embraced the idea of food security? CB: The only state that has created a Food and Nutrition Secretariat is Tocantins. In the last 15 years, food councils have been set up in all districts. But they are focused on filling people’s stomachs, while what we seek is quality.

If the food were healthful and balanced, we would eat, on average, 30 percent less. Micronutrients are fundamental in the problem of violence. You could have a deficiency of micronutrients in your body and an excess of heavy metals, like lead, mercury or aluminium.

Lead tends to cause hypertension and is linked to selfish and aggressive behaviour. A diet rich in minerals, vitamins and fibre helps neutralise some of the toxic effects of heavy metals, and therefore reduces violence.

TIERRAMÉRICA: And diet can prevent diseases… CB: Yes. Now, for example, there is panic about the H1N1 flu. It’s important to avoid crowds of people. But we must also say: eat five kinds of fruit and five kinds of vegetables every day, increase fibre intake, exercise, and take in some sun. Squeeze lemon juice on food, because just like dark green raw leafy vegetables, it is high in vitamin C, which helps absorb iron and bolsters immunity.

TIERRAMÉRICA: How can restaurant owners be convinced of the benefits of including these foods on their menus? CB: A restaurant should define its purpose. Is it to just earn money or also to be part of an effort to improve people’s diets? If they prepare quality foods, they can advertise their organic products, include a graph about the difference between lighter and darker coloured vegetable leaves, offer sesame and bran and show that the customer is going to ingest fewer calories.

They can provide information that with two or three spoonfuls of rice oil, which contains a substance that improves memory, one can reduce cholesterol up to 40 percent. If you have the opportunity to taste a high-quality food and you eat less, pay less and are less likely to become overweight, everyone wins.

(*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.)

Excerpt:

There are no strong or weak foods, only complementary foods, proclaims Brazilian expert Clara Brandão, promoter of a unique approach to nourishment.

Clara Brandão in action. - Courtesy of Gaia Village

A drought multiplied the ranks of Santarém's malnourished, prompting Brandão to study the local culinary customs and found the Society for Research and Use of the Amazon. With support from other entities, she set up the kindergartens, for which she created a unique and varied diet, enriched with her special multimixture.

The mix includes grain bran, seeds, vegetables and crushed eggshell. It is based on the principle that quality is linked to variety and not just to beef, chicken or fish on the dinner plate, Brandão explained to Tierramérica in an interview.

“There are no strong or week foods, only complementary foods,” is the slogan of Clara Terko Takaki Brandão, born 67 years ago in the southern state of São Paulo to a family of Japanese immigrants.

Daily dishes can be enriched with natural products that are abundant in each season, which reinforces local agriculture, and improves human health and the economy of each community, she says.

Brandão has taken her ideas to towns across Brazil. Her plan to fight malnutrition, which has won her several awards, has been extended to all Brazilian states and to more than 15 countries. This month, she visited Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, to share these lessons with schools and restaurants in Garopaba, a beach town on the Atlantic coast.

TIERRAMÉRICA: How are the concepts of sovereignty, food security and health connected?

CLARA BRANDÃO: I began to work on food security with indigenous health agents in Mato Grosso (west central Brazil). When you consider this matter it's interesting to include the question of food sovereignty, the right of each community to use their traditional foods, carried out through public policies.

There I began the work with the seasons of the year. For example, in Rio Grande do Sul there are in fact four distinct seasons. So we could use all of the foods that exist in that region in each season, recuperating the local culture, medicinal plants, typical preparations, and analyzing the diseases specific to each climate.

In the winter, the quantity of citrus fruits in Brazil is immense, and they are rich in vitamins and minerals. And what illnesses do we have at that time of year? Overall, they are respiratory. So we require great quantities of vitamins and minerals, which are available in the produce of the season.

That makes it easier to make food security work: you find that if you use the foods particular to the season and the region, as well as using fewer chemical additives, they are cheaper, and more abundant, and meet the biological need of promoting health in that period of the year.

TIERRAMÉRICA: How is food sovereignty to be applied in education?

CB: Today we distribute 37 million school lunches. If there were truly a healthy, regional diet, in five years we could have a much more active population.

When designing a policy like this, they don't take into account food allergies, especially to lactose and gluten. And meanwhile, manioc root (also known as cassava or yucca) today sells for 87 dollars a ton, which means that the grower is paying for us to consume it.

That tuber is the only organic food to which the poor in all parts of Brazil have access, but it is unlikely it will be part of the school diet. One of the reasons is its preparation.

If you have a school with 600 students and two lunch shifts, it is impossible to include manioc. Between the time it is harvested to the moment it reaches the student's plate, it loses up to 80 percent of its nutritional value. That is where the chain of production comes in, and the need for a policy that allows a farmer to deliver the manioc already peeled, and when possible vacuum packed, so nothing is lost. Then we could serve a top-quality food and ensure that the farmer can keep working.

TIERRAMÉRICA: We eat the root of the manioc. What nutrients do its leaves have?

CB: A study by the University of São Paulo showed that manioc leaves have half the selenium found in the Brazil nut. Selenium is a powerful antioxidant, slows aging, boosts immunity and maintains fertility.

If we could use all of these products that otherwise go to waste, can you imagine the nutrients we'd have? With four or five kilos of fresh manioc leaves you get one kilo of powder, which can be stored for months or even years, depending on how its preserved.

TIERRAMÉRICA: Has Brazil embraced the idea of food security?

CB: The only state that has created a Food and Nutrition Secretariat (ministry) is Tocantins. In the last 15 years, food councils have been set up in all districts. But they are focused on filling people's stomachs, and what we seek is quality.

If the food were healthful and balanced, we would eat, on average, 30 percent less. Micronutrients are fundamental in the problem of violence. You could have a deficiency of micronutrients in your body and an excess of heavy metals, like lead, mercury or aluminum.

Lead tends to cause hypertension and is linked to selfish and aggressive behavior. A diet rich in minerals, vitamins and fiber helps neutralize some of the toxic effects of heavy metals, and therefore reduces violence.

TIERRAMÉRICA: And diet can prevent diseases…

CB: Yes. Now, for example, there is panic about H1N1 flu. It's important to avoid crowds of people. But also we must say: eat five types of fruit and five types of vegetables every day, increase fiber intake, exercise, and take in some sun. Squeeze lemon juice on food, because just like dark green raw leafy vegetables, it is high in vitamin C, which helps absorb iron and improves immunity.

TIERRAMÉRICA: How can restaurant owners be convinced of the benefits of including these foods on their menus?

CB: A restaurant should define its purpose. Is it to just earn money or also to be part of an effort to improve people's diet? If they prepare quality foods, they can advertise their organic products, include a graph about the difference between lighter and darker colored vegetable leaves, offer sesame and bran and show that the customer is going to ingest fewer calories.

They can provide information that with two or three spoonfuls of rice oil, which contains a substance that improves memory, one can reduce cholesterol up to 40 percent. If you have the opportunity to taste a high-quality food and you eat less, pay less and are less likely to gain weight, everyone wins.

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Jul 18 2009 (IPS)

The southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, a pioneer in participatory budgets and environmental policies, and habitual host of the enormous World Social Forum, has returned to the international stage.

View of Porto Alegre from the Guaíba River. Ponta do Melo could end up like this. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

In August, local residents will vote on whether to allow the construction of apartment buildings in the Ponta do Melo zone on the banks of the Guaíba River. The referendum will take place in a context of major plans, including sports stadium expansion and road construction, to better receive fans for the football championship.

But some of the projects are facing legal challenges because of their potential for harming the environment. The Porto Alegre Fundamental Law establishes that the areas along the Guaíba River – actually an estuary and also referred to as a lake – are permanent protected zones.

Ponta do Melo, situated between the central and southern parts of Porto Alegre, was at one time a shipping port of national security interest. From 1952 to the early 1990s the shipbuilder Estaleiro Só operated there. In 1976, the city exempted the company from paying for the land it occupied: 60,000 square metres.

Once Estaleiro Só went out of business, the court ordered an auction to pay off its labour debts. In 2005, the land was auctioned by the SVB Participações Empreendimentos company, which transferred it to BMPar Empreendimentos.

At the time, Municipal Statute 470/2002 authorised only construction of commercial buildings, with several urban development restrictions.

In 2008, BMPar interested a group of city councillors in the idea of a major economic project, saying that a mixed commercial and residential site would improve security in the area.

The city council reformed Statute 470 to allow construction of residential buildings at the site, which then took the name Pontal do Estaleiro.

That’s when the protests began. “The project did not respect the participation of society,” argued city councillor Beto Moesch, who had voted against Statute 470 in 2002 and opposed its reform last year.

At several public hearings, company representatives were seen embracing city council members, while residents shouted “sellouts!” The attorney general opened an investigation into charges that councillors were bribed to vote in favour of the reform, but the case was shelved.

The reform of Law 470 was approved in a tense session in February of this year.

Given the public reaction, Mayor José Fogaça vetoed the project and submitted a different one to the city council, which included an amendment stating that citizens should have a say. Meanwhile, another amendment was approved, which expanded the construction-free strip of land between the Guaíba and the buildings from 30 to 60 metres wide.

As a result, BMPar declared that it would not build anything at the Pontal site. Even so, the city council voted to amend Statute 470 and set a 120-day period to convene a referendum.

According to the Movement in Defence of the Guaíba Waterfront, a “yes” at the ballot box for the residential buildings would set a dangerous precedent for the city’s areas along the river.

Ricardo Gothe, head of the Porto Alegre city government’s special office for the 2014 World Cup, responded for this article that “it is already a privately-owned area, and will have appeal, special qualifications and protection.” According to Gothe, if the land is not occupied it will end up destroyed.

Environmentalists point out that originally the Pontal was granted by the city to the shipbuilding company for a specific purpose. Once that ended, it was to return to public use.

Architect and urban planner Nestor Ibrahim Nadruz said in an interview that the project would cause traffic problems in the area and damage the shoreline.

The other lots in the area will lose the breezes and natural light from the waterway, there will be an increase in sewage and garbage, and the population will be deprived of the famous sunset over the Guaíba.

While the future of Ponta do Melo is being decided, there is a citizen effort under way to prevent potential harm to other areas designated for permanent protection.

A petition filed by environmentalists asks for an immediate suspension of the January permits to expand the stadiums of two football clubs, the Sport Club Internacional and the Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense.

The petition states that the project calls for construction that is higher than allowed under the city’s codes, as well as a greater concentration of buildings per square metre, which would negatively affect the urban landscape, the environment and air safety.

The Beira-Rio complex of the Internacional club, in addition to a roof for the stadium, includes apartment towers, parking ramps and roads through a park, which are not among the requests of FIFA, the global football governing body, admitted the club’s directors before the Municipal Environment Council.

Gothe said he had not yet received from FIFA the list of city obligations for sports installations, infrastructure and services. But the special office has released some initiatives, presented as essential, for receiving the crowds in 2014.

“They are projects that have been on paper for 30 years and, taking advantage of an event with the magnitude of the World Cup, will obtain the financing they need,” argued Gothe. The waterfront will be revitalised, and will attract tourism and bring progress, he said.

That perspective puts Porto Alegre in the sights of major real estate companies. “It’s possible that Goldsztein Cyrela is going to operate” in Ponta do Melo, stated a lawyer for the construction company that is part of the Cyrela Brazil Realty firm, the largest dedicated to residential real estate.

At the base of the discussions is the Guaíba itself, although it has not been determined if it is to be treated as a river or a lake.

Federal Law 4771/65 establishes that buildings may not be less than 500 metres from riverbanks, to ensure preservation of water resources. But if the Guaíba is declared a lake, the area of protection is reduced to 30 metres.

According to city statute, changes like those planned for the World Cup can only be decided with participation and approval of the citizens.

Local environmentalists have learned from previous experiences. In 2007, at a public hearing to study changes to the city’s codes, the Municipal Environment Council denounced that residents from other towns had been bussed in to fill the hall and prevent participation by local residents and activists.

If not for pressure from the Municipal Environment Council and the non-governmental Fórum de Entidades, say the environmentalists, the changes would have been approved, attending only to the interests of the construction companies.

*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by Inter Press Service (IPS) and the International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) for the Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development (www.complusalliance.org).

Excerpt:

The 2014 soccer World Cup has created a dilemma for the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre: real estate and tourism development or environmental preservation?

View of Brazil's Porto Alegre from the Guaíba River. Ponta do Melo could end up like this. - Clarinha Glock/IPS

Chosen as one of the 12 sites for the 2014 World Cup in soccer, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul state, with a population of 1.4 million, faces a dilemma.

In August, the citizens will vote on whether to allow the construction of apartment buildings in the Ponta do Melo zone on the banks of the Guaíba River. The referendum takes place in a context of major plans, including the expansion of sports stadiums and road construction, to better receive fans for the soccer championship.

But some of these projects are facing legal challenges because of their potential for harming the environment. The Porto Alegre Fundamental Law establishes that the areas along the river are permanent preservation zones.

Ponta do Melo, situated between the central and southern parts of Porto Alegre, was at one time a shipping port and of national security interest. From 1952 to the early 1990s the shipbuilder Estaleiro Só operated there. In 1976, the city exempted the company from paying for the land it occupied: 60,000 square meters.

Once Estaleiro Só went out of business, the court ordered an auction to pay off its labor debts. In 2005, the land was auctioned by the SVB Participações Empreendimentos company, which transferred it to BMPar Empreendimentos.

At the time, municipal law 470/2002 authorized only construction of commercial buildings, with several urban restrictions.

In 2008, BMPar interested a group of city councilors in the idea of a major economic project, saying that a mixed commercial and residential site would improve security in the area.

The city council reformed the law 470 to allow construction of residential buildings at the site, which was then named Pontal do Estaleiro.

That's when the protests began. “The project did not respect the participation of society,” argued councilor Beto Moesch, who voted against law 470 in 2002 and opposed its reform last year.

At several public hearings, company representatives were seen embracing council members, while citizens shouted “sellouts!” at them. The attorney general opened an investigation into charges that municipal lawmakers were bribed to favor the reform, but the case was shelved.

The reform of law 470 was approved in a tense session in February of this year.

Given the public reaction, Mayor José Fogaça vetoed the project and submitted a different one to the council, which included an amendment that the citizens should be consulted. Meanwhile, another amendment was approved, which expanded the construction-free strip of land between the river and the buildings from 30 to 60 meters wide.

As a result, BMPar declared that it would not build anything at the Pontal site. Even so, the Council voted on the reform of law 470 and set a 120-day period to convene a referendum.

According to the Movement in Defense of the Guaíba Waterfront, a “yes” at the ballot box for the residential buildings would set a dangerous precedent for the city's areas along the waterfront.

Ricardo Gothe, head of the Porto Alegre city government's special office for the 2014 World Cup, responded for this article that “it is already a privately-owned area, and will have appeal, qualifications and protection.” According to Gothe, if land is not occupied will end up destroyed.

Environmentalists point out that originally the Pontal was granted by the city to the shipbuilding company for a specific purpose. Once that ended, it was to return to public use.

Architect and urban planner Nestor Ibrahim Nadruz said in an interview that the project will cause traffic problems in the area and damage the riverbank.

The other lots in the area will lose the breezes and natural light from the waterway, there will be an increase in sewage and garbage, and the population will be deprived of the famous sunset over the Guaíba.

While the future of Ponta do Melo is being decided, there is a citizen effort under way to prevent potential harm to other areas designated for permanent protection.

A petition for injunction, presented by ecologists, asks for immediate suspension of the January authorizations to expand the stadiums of two soccer clubs, the Sport Club Internacional and the Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense.

The petition states that the project calls for construction that is higher than allowed under the city's codes and a greater concentration of buildings per square meter, which would negatively affect the urban landscape, the environment and aerial safety.

The Beira-Rio complex of the Internacional club, in addition to a roof for the stadium, includes apartment towers, parking ramps and roads through a park, which are not among the requests of FIFA, the international soccer governing body, admitted the club's directors before the Municipal Environment Council.

Gothe said he had not yet received from FIFA the list of city obligations for sports installations, infrastructure and services. But the special office has released some initiatives, presented as essential, for receiving the crowds in 2014.

“They are projects that have been on paper for 30 years and, taking advantage of an event with the magnitude of the World Cup, will obtain the financing they need,” argued Gothe. The riverside zone will be revitalized, and will attract tourism and progress, he said.

That perspective puts Porto Alegre in the sights of major real estate companies. “It's possible that Goldsztein Cyrela is going to operate” in Ponta do Melo, stated a lawyer for the construction company that is part of the Cyrela Brazil Realty firm, the largest dedicated to residential real estate.

At the base of the discussions is the Guaíba itself, although it has not been determined if it is to be treated as a river or a lake.

Federal law 4771/65 establishes that buildings may not be less than 500 meters from riverbanks, to ensure preservation of water resources. But if the Guaíba is declared a lake, the area of protection is reduced to 30 meters.

According to city statute, changes like those planned for the soccer World Cup can only be decided with participation and approval of the citizens.

The environmentalists have learned from previous experiences. In 2007, at a public hearing to study changes to the city's codes, the Municipal Environment Council denounced that residents from other towns had been bused in to fill the hall and prevent participation of local residents and activists.

If not for pressure from the Municipal Environment Council and the non-governmental Fórum de Entidades, say the environmentalists, the changes would have been approved, attending only to the interests of the construction companies.

By Clarinha Glock
PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil, Apr 25 2009 (IPS)

Using pieces from all sorts of useless equipment, students at the Computer Recovery Centre in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre have put 1,700 computers into operation in three years.

Student Keith Garcia Reges in action. Credit: Clarinha Glock/IPS

CRC’s raw material is electronic waste from the federal government, banks, private companies and individuals, who get rid of outdated computers to make way for newer ones, or because they aren’t able to repair the ones they have.

Before, these computers, printers and tech accessories would have been dumped in landfills, but now they are seeing an extension of their useful life, or are even recycled as part of works of art.

The project is part of the Brazilian Programme for Digital Inclusion and emerged from a partnership between the Ministry of Planning and the Marist Network for Education and Solidarity, part of the Roman Catholic order of Marist Brothers.

Centres like the one in Porto Alegre have also opened in the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, and in the federal district of Brasilia, the capital.

As in the others, CRC of Porto Alegre is located in a poor suburb. There, 88 young people from low-income families receive a scholarship that allows them to learn to dismantle, recondition, adapt and rebuild equipment, install free software, and programme and configure computers.

But, most important, they discover the value of each part in the process, not just of the computers, but also of themselves as citizens. “The course is important for its professional side and the personal side, because here people interact,” says Keith Garcia Reges, 16.

In the “disposable era,” these students are an exception. “We stop throwing away many things and we learn to use more of what we have at home,” says the youth. There are few people who can poke around inside a computer without fear of breaking something, but at CRC they have learned that anything can be fixed.

Reges repairs computers, mobile phone rechargers, speakers and fans. And the knowledge multiplies. Reges invited two classmates to present their work on electronic waste in a demonstration at the local school.

In the pavilion at the Marist Social Centre (Cesmar) in the city, Rafael de Vasconcelos, a 17-year-old who is passionate about robotics, went even further. He began as a volunteer when he was 15, working as a class monitor, then was hired as an apprentice and is now a teacher. With the scholarship money he is paying for his studies in electrical engineering at the university.

“When I’m in class, I’m happy to see that I’m learning to mix these things that help improve the world,” he said.

Vasconcelos, who fixes old computers, is aware that manufacturing a new computer has more costs for the environment than consumers imagine.

Everything that arrives at CRC is put to use. Many pieces that cannot be repaired are dismantled and are studied in the robotics classes – the world of Vasconcelos.

Anyone who sees the mountain of junked electronic slot machines on the Cesmar patio is unlikely to realise the number of products created from the illegal gambling machines, seized by the federal tax authorities and donated under one condition: re-use the materials.

Vasconcelos proudly tells how he transformed an old computer screen into an illuminated sign. “It took us two months to map out the electronic part, and then we plugged in the computer’s parallel port and made a programme to post words and letters,” he explained, mixing English technical jargon with his native Portuguese.

The knowledge acquired is passed on to the new students. The wooden parts of the slot machines will also be used to make stools, decorations and tables, in a new project this year to create new jobs and income.

In the back of CRC, electronic waste that cannot be returned to technological use is turned into art. The cover of an enormous, outdated IBM computer becomes a graffiti-covered work of art with an Easter theme, which decorated Cesmar during Holy Week.

When it was new, 12 years ago, the computer cost 27,000 dollars, noted Tarcísio Postingher, the centre’s technical coordinator. “The technology evolved so much that it can no longer operate with the current models,” he explained.

Dismantled, it became a series of works that express the youths’ creativity and talent. From its metallic parts emerged small figures of soccer players, painted and set in bases, which are used as trophies for this popular sport.

When there are materials that CRC cannot re-use, the centre itself makes sure they are properly disposed of. Still in its early stages, a market is developing in Brazil in which companies collect electronic waste – “e-lixo”, in Portuguese – that comes from computers, electronics and cell phones.

One of the companies is Lorene. “We process some 200 tons of e-waste per month,” says production manager Eduardo Manuel Ribeiro de Almeida.

From that processing come precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, palladium and copper, which are put back into the productive chain, reducing the demand for mining, according to Almeida.

CRC coordinator Postingher, who holds graduate degrees in information technology and theology, pointed out future challenges. “In 2008, there were 12 million computers sold in this country. That means that in two or three years they will need to be disposed of.”

In addition to adapting to new technologies, he said, it is essential to train professionals with a global vision.

Attuned to the debates about green computer technologies, Postingher noted that one of the main problems of technology centres is how to save electricity.

One possibility, he said, is to use one virtual computer server that administers 10 services at the same time, reducing the number of computers needed – and thus reducing the energy consumed.

“This change in mentality is difficult, because everyone wants to consume. We must prepare people for the future, and that requires education,” Postingher said.

*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by IPS – Inter Press Service and IFEJ – International Federation of Environmental Journalists, for the Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development (www.complusalliance.org).

Excerpt:

While learning to recycle electronic waste, young Brazilians are acquiring skills and greater awareness about the impacts of material consumption.

Student Keith Garcia Reges in action - : Clarinha Glock/IPS

By the end of 2009 they should reach 2,500 computers, which will be distributed to schools, child daycare centers, non-governmental organizations and computer centers, bringing technology to people who otherwise are excluded from it in this city of 1.5 million people, capital of Rio Grande do Sul state.

CRC's raw material is electronic waste from the federal government, banks, private companies and individuals, who get rid of outdated computers to make way for newer ones, or because they aren't able to repair the ones they have.

Before, these computers, printers and tech accessories would have been dumped in landfills, but now they are seeing a renewed life of usefulness, or even recycled as part of works of art.

The project is part of the Brazilian Program for Digital Inclusion and emerged from a partnership between the Ministry of Planning and the Marist Network for Education and Solidarity, part of the Roman Catholic order of Marist Brothers.

Centers like the one in Porto Alegre have also opened in the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo, and in the federal district of Brasilia, the capital.

As in the others, CRC of Porto Alegre is located in an outlying neighborhood. There, 88 young people from poor families receive a scholarship that allows them to learn to dismantle, recondition, adapt and rebuild equipment, install free software, program and configure computers.

But, most important, they discover the value of each part in the process, not just of the computers, but also of themselves as citizens. “The course is important for its professional side and the personal side, because here people interact,” says Keith Garcia Reges, 16.

In the “disposable era”, these students are an exception. “We stop throwing away many things and we learn to use more of what we have at home,” says the youth. There are few people who can poke around inside a computer without fear of breaking something, but at CRC they have learned that anything can be fixed.

Reges repairs computers, mobile phone rechargers, speakers and fans. And the knowledge multiplies. Reges invited two classmates to present their work on electronic waste in a demonstration at the local school.

In the pavilion at the Marist Social Center (Cesmar) in the city, Rafael de Vasconcelos, 17 and passionate about robotics, went even further. He began as a volunteer when he was 15, working as a class monitor, then hired as an apprentice and is now a teacher. With the scholarship money he is paying for his studies in electrical engineering at the university.

“When I'm in class, I'm happy to see that I'm learning to mix these things that help improve the world,” he said.

Vasconcelos is only partially aware of the advantages of the speed and efficiency of the computers he makes operational. But he does know that manufacturing a new computer has more costs for the environment than consumers imagine.

Everything that arrives at CRC is put to use. Many pieces that cannot be repaired are dismantled and are studied in the robotics classes – the world of Vasconcelos.

Anyone who sees the mountain of junked electronic slot machines on the Cesmar patio is unlikely to realize the number of products created from the illegal gambling machines, seized by the federal tax authorities and donated under one condition: re-use the materials.

Vasconcelos proudly tells how he transformed an old computer screen into an illuminated sign. “It took us two months to map out the electronic part, and then we plugged in the computer's parallel port and made a program to post words and letters,” he explained, mixing English technical jargon with his own Portuguese.

The knowledge acquired is passed on to the new students. The wooden parts of the slot machines will also be used to make stools, decorations and tables, in a new project this year to create new jobs and income.

In the back of CRC, electronic waste that cannot be returned to technological used is turned into art. The cover of an enormous, outdated IBM computer becomes a graffiti-covered work of art with an Easter theme, which decorated Cesmar during Holy Week.

When it was new, 12 years ago, the computer cost 27,000 dollars, noted Tarcísio Postingher, the center's technical coordinator. “The technology evolved so much that it can no longer operate with the current models,” he explained.

Dismantled, it became a series of works that express the youths' creativity and talent. From its metallic parts emerged small figures of soccer players, painted and set in bases, which are used as trophies for this popular sport.

When there are materials that CRC cannot re-use, the center itself makes sure they are properly disposed of. Still in its early stages, a market is developing in Brazil in which companies collect electronic waste – in Portuguese: “e-lixo” – that comes from computers, electronics and cell phones.

One of the companies is Lorene. “We process some 200 tons of e-waste per month,” says production manager Eduardo Manuel Ribeiro de Almeida.

From that processing come precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, palladium and copper, which are put back into the productive chain, reducing the demand for mining, according to Almeida.

CRC coordinator Postingher, who holds a graduate degree in information technology and studies in theology, pointed out future challenges. “In 2008, there were 12 million computers sold in this country. That means that in two or three years they will need to be disposed of.”

In addition to adapting to new technologies, he said, it is essential to train professionals with a global vision.

Attuned to the debates about green computer technologies, Postingher noted that one of the main problems of technology centers is how to save electricity.

One possibility, he said, is to use one virtual computer server that administers 10 services at the same time, reducing the number of computers needed – and thus reducing the energy consumed.

“This change in mentality is difficult, because everyone wants to consume. We must prepare people for the future, and that requires education,” Postingher said.