The port of Santos
There is sugar everywhere at one of the terminals in Santos, Brazil‘s biggest port.
It drips from the high conveyor belts that carry loads from the warehouses to the ships, making piles that resemble week-old snow.
The ground is coated with a dark syrup while the air is full of the sweet and slightly sickly smell of a bakery in the morning.
The rhythm of work is frantic with ships being loaded 24 hours a day amid record exports of sugar.
The long queues of vessels waiting off the coast of Santos for a berth in Brazil’s biggest port are a visible sign of the country’s booming economy but also highlight the strains economic growth has placed on its infrastructure.
“This is a country that exported $100bn (£63bn) in 2005 and $200bn in 2008. We need very quick and large investment in infrastructure,” says Weber Bahal from Brazil’s development ministry.
Under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, investing in infrastructure has been at the heart of what is known as the growth acceleration programme (PAC) launched in 2007. A further $500bn is earmarked for investment over the next five years, says Mr Behal.
Lula has described his preferred successor, Dilma Rousseff, as the “mother of the PAC”. She is well ahead of her main rival, Jose Serra, in the 3 October presidential election, according to opinion polls. (more…)
AFP/File – A mother of four shows her "Bolsa Familia" social plan card
If, as expected, Brazil‘s ruling party’s presidential candidate Dilma Rousseff sweeps the October 3 election, it will be in no small part due to the “Bolsa Familia” welfare handouts to her country’s poor. The initiative, launched by outgoing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is seen as the leading wealth redistribution program in the world — going some way to redressing Brazil’s massive income disparity.
Because the Bolsa Familia helps 46 million people out of a national population of 193 million — nearly one person in four — it also serves as a formidable vote-winner. Adalgiza da Silva, 50, has always lived in Rio de Janeiro’s biggest shantytown of Rocinha. Under Lula, she has seen her quality of life improve greatly. And, like the majority of her neighbors, she will vote for “continuity” — which means Rousseff. “We are poor, and they have given us dignity, a chance to stand eye-to-eye with the rich,” she said.
“That is why I’ll vote for the continuity with Lula, for his candidate Dilma (Rousseff). Even better that she’s a woman.” Between 2003 and 2009, under Lula’s watch, 29 million Brazilians have been lifted out of poverty into the middle class, which now accounts for more than half the national population. Much of the credit goes to the Bolsa Familia, though other government programs and subsidies have also been created, including a children’s sporting stadium in Rocinha and scholarships allowing slum residents to get into university.
“Fewer children and youths loiter in the streets. Now they have a different choice in life than wearing gold chain necklaces, carrying a gun or dying early,” Adalgiza da Silva said, making allusion to the drug-gang careers rife in the slums. A neighbor, Luiz Alberto, has 10 children, five of whom still live with him. In exchange for the Bolsa Familia hand-out he receives, he has to ensure they are vaccinated and go to school. He, too, will vote for Rousseff. (more…)
