|
 Brazil is poised to reach the millennium goals established by the United Nations with regard to access to drinking water. The evaluation is by Antônio Miranda, a member of the Advisory Board of the Secretariat General of the UN, who participated this Friday, December 5, in the seminar Brazil in the International Year of Sanitation.
In case Miranda's forecast comes true, up to 2015 the number of people without access to drinking water should be considerably reduced.
"The UN target is to reduce by half the number of people without access to drinking water and sanitation. From what I have seen, Brazil should manage, without greater difficulties, to reach targets with regard to water," he said.
According to him, the country should have difficulties to reach targets related to sewage. "I have not yet had access to studies that take into consideration the Growth Acceleration Plan (PAC), but I believe that, in the case of sewage, the situation should be more complicated," he said.
"I believe that in the next evaluation, to include the PAC, Brazil should come closer to the targets. I am optimistic with regard to the Plan, but I am not yet certain that there are mechanisms for adequate control of costs," he concluded
According to a study conducted by the World Health Organization in 192 countries, Brazil, in 2002, had 28.7 deaths for every 1,000 people due to bad water and lack of basic sanitation, that is, 2.3% of all the deaths in the country, that year.
On Target
The president of state-controlled oil multinational Petrobras, José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo, in September, participated in a debate promoted by the UN in order to ensure that the "United Nations Millennium Development Goals" are met by 2015. The event was attended by approximately 100 heads of state and government, as well as non-government organizations.
The meeting featured discussions about the progress that has been done since the "Eight Millennium Development Goals" were approved, in the year 2000, in New York, by 124 heads of state and government, including Brazil. Gabrielli talked about poverty and hunger.
The Eight Millennium Development Goals approved in 2000 are: 1. Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education 3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women 4. Reduce Child Mortality 5. Improve Maternal Health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases 7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability 8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development
A recent survey between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows, however, that the price hike has reverted progress made towards achievement of the first Millennium Goal, of reducing by half the number of hungry people worldwide.
According to the FAO, the total of famished people in the world in 2007 rose to 923 million, the equivalent to 17% of the global population. By the new calculations of the FAO, achievement of the goal by 2015 is becoming increasingly unlikely.
According to analysts, the high prices of foods, fuels and fertilizers have made the problem even worse. In 2007 and 2008, food prices increased 52% and those of fertilizers nearly doubled.
In December, the FAO launched the FAO Initiative on Soaring Food Prices, so as to help more vulnerable countries to create emergency measures for enabling easier access to food. The program is being conducted in at least 78 countries, most of them African.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Even if due to GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES !
Simple as that ! High Food & fuels prices economic Models are curiously made by EMERGING NATIONS.....NOT DEVELOPED COUNTRIES !
Who banned some grains exports at the height of the grains prices ?
Funnily........Egypt, Russia, India, Thailand, Brazil. And Argentina who wanted to increase their EXPORTS TAXES !!!!!
All these countries have proven time and again that they dont care about the World Poors.... and not even their own poors !
They even accused developed nations for their farm subsisidies which in fact make it possible to LOWER FOOD PRICES NOT ONLY FOR THEMSELVES BUT ALSO FOR OTHERS since the EU and the USA are prime grains exporters !
Shame to all nations that despite a grain production surplus...BANNED their exports...in fact to corner the market ON THE UPSIDE !!!!
ALL these government leaders should go to the Hague Court of Justice for crimes against humanity and voluntary genocides !
And a life sentence is what they deserve.