SEJUP May 7, 2004 News from Brazil #510
Violence in Brazil
40,000 Annual Gunfire Deaths
Even though Brazil represents 2.8% of the global population, the country
registers 11% of the homicides in the world. And the numbers continue to
increase , declared Carlos Lopes during the opening session of the International
Seminar on Weapons in Rio de Janeiro. Lopes is a representatives of the United
Nations Development Program.
In Brazil, 40,000 people are killed annually by gunfire. This number is greater
than all the victims of the Iraq war. It is difficult to imagine a country at
peace that has so many deaths resulting from the indiscriminate use of weapons,
asserted Lopes.
United Nations statistics reveal that the Brazilian private sector spends more
than R$70 billion annually in the so-called industry of fear , resulting in the
fact that many investments in the social areas of health and education do not
occur.
Violence in Public Schools
The vast majority of public school students affirm that violence is a part of
their study environment. According to a United Nations study, 83.4% of students
say that violence exists in their schools. The study was completed last year in
the state and municipal schools in Belim, Salvador, Porto Alegre, Rio de
Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and Brasilia (Federal District). Researchers interviewed
12,312 students in 143 public schools.
The study states that fights, theft, verbal assaults, destruction, and even the
presence of arms is a daily fact in many public schools. At least 21% of the
students have seen knives at school, and 12.1% have seen guns. The majority,
69.4%, affirms that theft occurs at their school. 37% of the students claim to
have been robbed at least once in the last year and 4.7% have been physically
assaulted.
Source Correio da Paramba April 29, 2004
1/3 of Brazilians Considered Extremely Poor
One in three Brazilians (56 million) is considered miseravel (extremely poor)
according to the second edition of the study End of Hunger Map by the Getzlio
Vargas Foundation (FGV)
In the study based on 2000 Census statistics, Brazilians with a monthly income
of less than R$79 are considered miseravel . According to the FGV, this amount
of monthly income is necessary to consume the minimum calorie intake established
by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The eradication of poverty, according to the study, would be possible with a
monthly contribution of R$ 14 by every Brazilian earning over the poverty line.
This would raise R$2 billion per month for investments in social programs.
The End of Hunger Map showed that the number of miseraveis in both the Sco Paulo
and Rio de Janeiro peripheries increased at an alarming rate. Between 2000 and
2002, the increase was 18.25% in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro and 10.43% in
the periphery of Sco Paulo.
Folha de Sco Paulo, April 15, 2004
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Conflicts in 20% of Indigenous Lands
A National Indigenous Foundation (Funai) study reveals that 124 of the 620
Indigenous territories in Brazil are in a state of conflict. The greatest
concentration is in the Amazon region with 82 (66%) cases of conflict followed
by the Northeast with 15%.
In the Funai study, the number one source of conflict with 44 cases (36%) is
tension with large landowners, farmers, and squatters.
In Brazil, 390,000 Indigenous people speak 170 different languages. They occupy
99.5 million hectares of land (approximately the size of the southeastern region
which includes the states of Rio de Janeiro, Sco Paulo, and Minas Gerais)
Source Folha de Sco Paulo, April 22, 2004
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