Message-ID: <19970405012220260.AAA169@smtp.persocom.com.br> Date: Sat, 5 Apr 1997 01:22:21 +0000 From: Joaquim Moura <mailto:joaquim.moura@PERSOCOM.COM.BR> Subject: Cultural issues to face together To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
There are many years that I (and some friends) discuss the dramatic problems we face, in Brazil and elsewhere, and their possible solutions. More than just discussing, there are 20 years that I am deeply dedicated to practical and concrete initiatives, always related to community development, organic agriculture, youth development, sustainable income generation, appropriate technologies, natural health etc.The results are quite relative... There was some progress, but smaller than the retrocession we witness everyday... Today Brazil is a big and very rich country running fast and directly to disaster, environmentally and socially... And if this happens, all the world will feel, since Brazil holds the hugest forests, the greatest concentration of fresh water and the largest year-round tillable lands of the planet...
An example of the social problems we face today, but which have very old roots: Did you notice any news about the 10 criminal policemen, who were recorded by a hidden cameraman while they were menacing, beating, torturing, stealing and killing the poor people in a slum in Sao Paulo? The entire country became chocked by the images (they include the moment when one of the policemen shots to death a humble man inside an old car which was passing by, just by sadism...) The media broadcasted it as if this fact was exceptional, when we know they happen every night in the forsaken fringes of the huge megalopolis...
All this violence has cultural roots, which come from our society deeply rooted in slavery and violence against the poorest, usually the black people... The most astonishing is the fact that nobody discusses the cultural issue behind the facts, and so they cannot deal with them in an effective way. And along with the historical roots, our violence rising weed is also fertilized by the modern mass media culture, ads, music, etc...
At the same time, also internationally the scene is not too different... We see the world leaders discussing endlessly the branches of the problems while they systematically neglect their true and insidious roots... Of course we have all the technology we need to recover planetary nature and human populations, but this fact is hidden, to prevent population of becoming aware that life could be very different...
Any strategy aiming to collaborate to the world's progress shall consider the pivotal importance of Brazil and USA in this process. And I hope we will be accomplishing together many initiatives to foster and fast it. Please, tell me something we could do together... For instance: do you know any institution or agency that is working in Brazil and could wish do an upgrade in its results? Or do you know and academic group or political think-tank that would like to deepen their knowledge about Brazil? From this we could build some concrete collaboration in the next few months. For example, recently I was requested by two important Brazilian finance institutions (Banco do Brasil and Caixa Economica Federal), to collaborate with them to design their microcredit systems. Who would like to help us? This is an important opportunity to use Internet to improve poverty alleviation and cultural recovering programs, and it is already a result of my researchs through the Net and your patiency.
Yours, Joaquim
_____________________________________________________________ Joaquim Moura
Companheiros das Americas / Partners of the Americas Comite Brasilia - Washington D.C. / Committee Comissao de Desenvolvimento da Juventude e da Cidadania / Youth and Citizenship Development Commission ** todas as opinioes controversas sao apenas pessoais ** ** all the controversial opinions are just personal **
WWW site: http://www.partners-bsbdc.org