Maria Hayes
Current Events in Brazil
2/23/01
Brazil’s Current Events
Brazil has encountered many serious and humorous events in the past two weeks. From an outbreak of prison officials, to the recognition of a dominant party in the Chamber of Deputies, an array of events has influenced the country.
In order for the people of Brazil to use a telephone service, they must get a license. This process can take up to four years. With wireless service popular throughout the world, the new trend has been naturally, to provide wireless service for people that don’t want to wait for a license. In the Sao Paulo State, cell phones have been a lucrative business. The Telecom Italia Spa, a wireless company, has targeted Sao Paulo for advertisement, and has proven to be very popular amongst the people. Although Brazil requires people to get a license before they install a telephone in their house, there have been no attempts by the government to stop the selling of the wireless service. The people have placed an immense amount of money in this new way of communicating. And has proven to be effective for the Brazilian economy: the people of Sao Paulo have spent over 3.4 billion dollars in the service. Everyone seems to own a cell phone in Sao Paulo and we will see that perhaps everyone shouldn’t have a right to this new way of communication.
In Sao Paulo a prison uprising has left Brazil in terror. This happened two weeks after the release of the wireless communication. The prisoners used cell phones to communicate and plan the riot throughout the prison. During the routine lunch hour, where the majority of the prisoners are release from their cells, a revolt occurred in which the prisoners held the guards and visiting families’ hostage for nearly 27 hours. The prisoners manage to capture approximately 7,000 people for their hostage. This uprising is the largest recorded uprising in Brazilian history, and people claim the cell phones are to blame. The federal government had to take action. 16 people died in the process. After this tragic happening, the Brazilian government concluded that a serious prison reform was necessary.
On a different note, the Brazilian Democratic Movement has been elected to represent the more dominant part in the senate. This group was elected with a winning of 41 out of 81 total votes. It was a close run with the Liberal Front Party, however they were battling with other votes which were scattered among the many political parties that had been campaigning to win the election. The President of the Chamber of Deputies is from the Social Democracy Party and he also won by hair with 283 of 513 votes. The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies seems split among the 15 significant political parties in power. However many political parties have formed coalitions with other parties that share political beliefs. Elio Gaspari a political analyzer said “Ferando Henrique won because he has kept the PMDB in the coalition…” Many other political parties are catching on to the trend of forming coalitions, and political analyzers are predicting there will be two general parties for the upcoming presidential political campaign and election in 2002: A conservative party and a liberal party.
With the AIDS breakout nearly everywhere, the Brazilian government has been producing a generic drug to help slow the process of the spreading of the virus within the body. The United States does not believe this drug will solve anything-long term and the real remedy lies within using safety precautions to prevent the virus all together. The people of the U.S. believe that the use of condoms, not sharing needles and the like is the solution to the AIDS virus; not providing a slowing agent at a low cost. And that’s just what is happening as Brazil continues to lower the price on the making of the generic drug. Other countries are also beginning to make the drug. This troubles people of the United States because they came up with the original patent. The making of this drug was good for the U.S. economy, but Brazilians agree that it’s too expensive for people to afford, and the best solution is simply to make more of it. Nearly 580,000 people in Brazil have the HIV virus, and as the drugs, efavienz and nelfinarvir, have been release the death rate has gone down. The death rate for an AIDS patient is usually 5-10 years, but the drug has lengthened the life span by an average of 2 more years. Not only do the United States health officials want to own the patent and sell the drug expensively, but they justify policies banning generic drugs because “People should use other methods to PREVENT,” says U.S. health official. The argument Brazilian health officials state is a logical one, “Once you’ve got the disease you need the drug to survive longer; you cant prevent it from happening to you. We just want to make it affordable for our people.”
Brazil’s beef is being inspected by Canadian health officials. Canadians are taking a precautionary ban on Brazilian beef because they are worried it might be effected with the Mad Cow Disease. Brazilians say it’s a hoax and the Canadians are more concerned with a conflict in the making of aircraft carriers.
One of the world’s most rare birds has escaped a Brazilian zoo. The 20 year old bird has been seen flying in the Curaca region and has been missing for over 5 months. Although there are still 66 birds in captivity, a concern for the bird has sent the Brazilian Environmental industry out on a wild goose chase looking for it; or shall we say a captivated Blue Macaw chase.
Source:
www.CNN.com