Number 197, September 21, 1995

SOCIAL ISSUES

-Inequality between rich and poor is greatest cause of crime

Brazil's medium per capita income is equal to US$3,000.- per year, and its GNP is almost equal to Canada's ($456 billion - Canada's is $493.6 billion). However, Brazil has, in proportion to the size of its population, ten times more homicides per year than Ghana, which is considered an extremely poor country. The main cause of crime is not poverty as such, but the disparity between the rich and the poor who co-exist together. This is what explains, according to public security experts in various countries, why Brazilian society has the largest percentage of homicides in the world amongst countries which are not at war or are not dealing with guerrilla movements.

Brazil is the world champion in social inequality, according to a survey published by the World Bank last month, where they state that 20% of the richest members of society earn 32 times more than the poorest 20%. As inequality increases, so does violence. In the Greater Sao Paulo area for example, the yearly rate of homicides per 100,000 inhabitants increased 83% between 1984 and the beginning of 1995. Other factors, such as racism, alcoholism, drugs, availability of fire arms and the lack of proper schooling make the problem worse. But the fact is that, worldwide, the cities with the most violence all have a common element - glaring inequality between rich and poor. According to statistics, in poor countries where there are no great social differences, the crime rate is low. The example of Ghana, with 2.1 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, is a case in point. In Brazil, according to the Ministry of Health, the number of homicides per year per 100,000 inhabitants today is 21.

According to Dr. Marcos Akerman from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, "it is not absolute poverty which causes violence, but relative poverty, when one person has more than another". Sociologist Ana Maria Bianchi from the University of Sao Paulo says: "when there is wealth and opulence existing side by side with poverty, the feeling of deprivation of the individual will make him or her revert to violence. Society demands success and the rise in the social status of people, but it does not offer opportunities, and this makes people seek success and status by illegal means." Akerman, along these lines, states that "crime increases because it is the 'only institution' in which blacks and mulatos can see hope for social change in their lives. When a person asks which is the best way to resolve the problem of status in society, the only possible answer for many is crime"

For Jean-Claude Chesnais, author of "History of Violence" and professor at the National Institute of Demographic Studies, Paris, France, the main causes of crime in Brazil are the incompetence of the state and social inequality. Chesnais is doing research on crime in Sao Paulo for the Fernand Braudel Institute of World Economy. "What are needed here are schools, police, health and leisure. The rich are very rich and the poor are very poor. This only generates violence. A state that is strong and well organized impedes violence. The best example is Japan, where crime is very low" he says. "Dialogue between the police and the poor is fundamental, without that there is always the threat of violence which is dangerous for both sides."

- 38% of street dwellers in Sao Paulo are "post-Real"

Almost four out of every ten people living in the streets of Sao Paulo have been in that situation for less than a year. The "Real street dwellers" (Real is the new currency in Brazil as from July 1994) represent exactly 38% of all the street dwellers in the largest city in Brazil, according to a survey made by Datafolha at the end of August. There are 4,549 people living in the streets, according to the municipality's latest count, and they are mostly white men, from the South East of the country, and with some level of education. They mainly live in the centre of the city, where most of the municipal shelters which aid street people, are located.

Of the 200 interviewed, 45% are white, 35% are mulato and 20% are black. The great majority, ie: 86%, are male. 46% were born in the South East and 40% come from the North East. 29% are from the state of Sao Paulo. 67% are single and, curiously, 53% say that they have one or more children. The term "beggar" has been abolished from the vocabulary of persons and groups who assist those who live under bridges. The politically correct term today is "street dweller".

25% survive by begging in the street and at traffic lights. Collecting cardboard, minding cars and collecting aluminum cans are the activities which supply an income for, respectively, 21%, 19% and 9% of street dwellers.

25% of the people who live in the streets in Sao Paulo have not lived in a house for at least six years. According to the specialists, these people, who are different to the "Real street dwellers" (who have only recently come to live in the streets), are people who have adapted to this way of life and are unable to live any other way. They have learned to survive, they earn a little, but not enough to pay for a room.

Unemployment is the main reason that people live in the street according to the Datafolha. 38% confirm this. Another reason is the loss (through theft or otherwise) of documents - 24% say they cannot get work because they have no documents. Another reason is not being able to get along with the family - 23%.

Only 11% declare themselves illiterate; 46% say they reached 4th grade; 33% left school between the 5th and 8th grade and 11% of street people say they reached high school.

Father Arlindo Pereira Dias SVD, who works with street dwellers, says there are at least five different kinds of people living in the streets. First, there are those who have been in the streets for years, vagabonds, with no desire to leave. Second, those who found in the street a certain amount of freedom such as, for instance, those who do not get along with their families. Third, the mentally ill, people who usually live alone and are helped by people in the neighbourhood. Fourth, temporary dwellers, whole families sometimes, who were evicted from a tenement because of the loss of a job by the breadwinner, for instance. Lastly, there is a group made up of people who collect cardboard, paper, scrap metal, etc. and who have formed cooperatives.

Town councillor Aldaiza Sposati of the Workers' Party (PT) is one of the people most involved with the problem of street dwellers in the City Council. She says that the municipality of Sao Paulo does not have a policy regarding this problem. The "shelters" that exist have a few mattresses on the floor, a bowl of soup at night and a cup of coffee and a piece of bread in the morning. She had proposed a bill which was approved in the Council but vetoed by Paulo Maluf the mayor, which established a policy for assisting street people - providing emergency shelters, services, community restaurants, recreation, workshops, and even definite solutions for the housing problem. The project was vetoed for being "inconstitutional".

The second National Seminar on Street Dwellers is taking place in Belo Horizonte this week, from Sept. 13 to 15.

HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

- Priest in Acre threatened by lumber companies

Seven years after the assassination of Chico Mendes, union leaders, religious and rural workers continue to be threatened with death. Abrahim Farhat Neto, who belongs to the the Chico Mendes Committee, says that Father Paolino Baldassan, a 70-year old Italian missionary who for 40 years has been working in the state of Acre in the Amazon region, has received death threats. "He will be another Chico Mendes, cruelly assassinated, unless we do something, because he is constantly being threatened with death". Abrahim states that the priest is persecuted for his dedication to the struggle for the human rights of those who live in the Amazon forest. Father Paolino struggles against the cutting down of mahogany, which is monopolized by lumber companies. He is constantly under pressure because of his critical and prophetic position. A document signed by the Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly of Acre, CIMI (Indianist Missionary Council), Land Pastoral Commission (CPT), Central Workers' Union (CUT), and the Workers' Centre of Amazonia have denounced the existence of gunmen in Sena Madureira who are intent on killing Father Paolino. The document says that "in his letters to and articles in the Rio Branco newspapers, the missionary always defends the survival of rubber workers and indigenous peoples in the forest as a way of preserving the environment and guaranteeing the life of these peoples who are threatened by the devastation caused by the cutting down of trees". The entities who signed the document add: "We want to attract the attention of the authorities so that they can help us avoid further violence in Acre. Surely the deaths of Chico Mendes and all the others who died defending life should be enough in order to raise consciousness and create serious government policies in defense of Amazonia and of the peoples who live there. Every citizen should denounce what is happening in Acre, speak out against violence and in support of life in the forest, of the peoples who live there, and of the prophets who defend them".

INDIGENOUS ISSUES

Newsletter n. 176

FERNANDO HENRIQUE CARDOSO TRIES TO NEUTRALIZE REACTIONS AGAINST

AMENDMENTS TO DECREE 22/91

Even before announcing his indianist policy to the civil society

and Indian peoples, president Fernando Henrique Cardoso has signaled

the kind of policy he will adopt by appointing Indianist Marcio

Santilli to be the new president of Funai as of this Saturday. The new

president of Funai has a degree in philosophy and was the executive

secretary of the Socioenvironmental Institute (IBA). He was a federal

deputy between 1982 and 1986 and is a member of the political group

that supports the inclusion of the adversary system in Decree 22/91.

By appointing Santilli to that post, the government expects to

neutralize reactions against amendments to the Decree, with

institutional repercussions, or isolate positions of groups that do

not agree with the amendments.

The Forum in Defense of Indian Rights, one of the most important

initiatives in favor of Indian rights, was rearticulated last week as

an attempt to defeat the plans of the government. This week, the Forum

issued a statement to the domestic and international public opinion

strongly opposing the amendments to the Decree and denouncing several

cases of violence against Indian peoples.

At the end of the document, the Forum asks the domestic and

international civil society to pressure the Brazilian government to

give up the idea of issuing Decree 22/91 and to speed up the

demarcation of all Indian lands. The entities making up the Forum

decided to support the proposal from the Indian Council of Roraima -

CIR, who wants the Campaign for the Demarcation of the Raposa Serra do

Sol Indian Area to end, on November 28, with a large demonstration in

support of the demarcation of all Indian lands in Brazil.

GROUP OF ISOLATED INDIANS IS FOUND IN RORAIMA

After a four-day journey in the jungle, representatives of Funai,

of the Office of the State Attorney, and of the Federal Police found,

on September 4, a group of isolated Indians in the state of Roraima.

The group, made up of an uncertain number of persons, was found in the

region of Corumbiara, near the location where on August 9 there was a

massacre of rural workers.

Since 1985 Cimi was being informed on the presence of Indian

peoples in that region based on several signs, such as crops, personal

objects, and even accounts of people who claimed to have seen some of

the Indians.

The discovery of the new Indian group is beginning to give rise to

conflicts. Farmers are accusing Funai of promoting a farce and said

that they will do everything within their power to prevent the area

from being set apart for demarcation purposes. The region of

Corumbiara is marked by conflicts and the massacre of rural workers

and Indians. In 1985, Cimi-Rondonia denounced a massacre in the Omere

Indian area, which led to the extinction of the Indian group. The

entity will demand measures from Funai to protect the group against

any physical or cultural violence.

Brasilia, September 14, 1995

Indianist Missionary Council

SOCIAL ISSUES

Inequality between Rich and Poor is the cause of Crime and Violence

(translated from article by Luis Henrique Amaral in the Folha de

S. Paulo 9/3/95)

Logical: a country where average per capita income is $3,000 and

GNP is near that of Canada should have crime rates much lower

than another country that generates 65 times less wealth and has

a per capita income of $500?

The answer is no. Brazil, the first country in the above

example has 10 times more violence, in proportion to the

population, than Ghana, the second much poorer country in the

example. The principle cause of crime is not poverty in and of

itself, but rather the disparity between rich and poor.

This explains, according to specialists, why Brazil has the

highest homicide rate in the world among countries not in war.

Brazil has the title of world champion of social inequality,

according to the World Bank, that released a study last month

informing that in Brazil the richest 20% possess 32 times more

wealth than the poorest 20%.

As inequality grows, so does violence. In the greater Sao

Paulo area, the annual homicide rate per 100,000 increased 83%

between 1984 and the beginning of 1995.

Social inequality is one of the few causes of crime that can

be quantified. The most violent cities in the world including

Johannesburg, New Orleans, Washington DC, Rio, and Sao Paulo all

are characterized by high inequality between rich and poor.

Statistics also prove that countries where large social

inequalities don't exist have a much lower crime rate. Ghana is

an eloquent example with a homicide rate of 2.1 per 100,000.

Brazil's same rate is 21.

HEALTH ISSUES

- AIDS in Sao Paulo prisons

The Prison Pastoral of the Catholic Church of Sao

Paulo has

reported that in the prisons within the state of Sao

Paulo, where there are 51 thousand prisoners (40% of the

prison population of Brazil) - 1260 prisoners have died

due to the HIV virus during the last three years, which

means an average of approximately 35 deaths a month.

Professionals who are involved in this area are of the

opinion that this number explains the 290 riots,

attempted rebellions and escapes registered in the

prisons of the state of Sao Paulo during the first six

months of 1995. The average of 35 deaths is likely to

grow even more until the end of the year, according to

Father Bill Sheehan OMI, who belongs to the Prison

Pastoral.

The reproduction of this material is permitted as long as the source is cited.