|
Brazilian Foreign minister, Celso Amorim, says that Brazil is regarded by both Palestine and Israel as a trustworthy interlocutor to help the peace process in the Middle East. This is one of the reasons why the Rio de Janeiro, in the Brazilian Southeast, is hosting the 17th International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East.
Speaking to approximately 100 people, Amorim stated that he has traveled many times to Palestine and Israel and was able to sense that both governments are interested in having Brazil take part in the peace process in the region.
"The arbiters to these peace processes are always the same. Something new is lacking," said Amorim, who added that apart from Brazil, other South American countries may contribute to the peace process as well.
According to him, there are many reasons for Brazil to become involved. One of them is the fact that the country houses a huge Arab community and also a significant Jewish one, and that both have contributed to the country's social development.
Another aspect mentioned by the minister was the fact that the Brazilian culture itself leads other countries to call on Brazil for help. "Brazil is one of a few countries in the world that touches borders with 10 different nations and has not had a war in 30, 40 years," he said. "Here we have more than peaceful coexistence, we have actual integration," he added.
As an example of closer ties between Brazil and the two peoples, Amorim mentioned the promotion of the Summit of South American-Arab Countries (Aspa), which, in addition to discussions on economic, investment-related and cultural aspects, also enabled a broader dialogue.
On the other hand, Israel, for instance, was the first country outside the Mercosur with which Brazil and its partnering member countries signed a free trade agreement.
On Monday, July 27, the main topic discussed was the challenge of the reconstruction of Gaza after the conflict. The Gaza Strip, which now houses 1.4 million people across 360 kilometers, has one of the region's highest birth rates and a per capita income of US$ 700, whereas in the neighboring country, the per capita income is US$ 16,000.
"The living conditions in the region are unsustainable," said the undersecretary general for Cooperation and Promotion of Brazilian Trade, Ruy Nogueira. According to him, the Palestinians in the region depend on humanitarian aid for food and medication, and there are no perspectives of employment.
"Brazil cannot remain indifferent to this situation," said he, who mentioned the many occasions in which the country has donated cash to fund projects and tons of medication.
The Israeli deputy minister of Foreign Relations, Eli Dayan, told the audience that the conference in Rio de Janeiro should give birth to new ideas for establishing a dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israeli.
The opening address of the United Nations undersecretary general for Communications and Public Information, Kiyotaka Akasaka, followed similar lines. "Our goal is not only to address the Palestinian issues, but rather to establish a dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis," he stated.
Anba
 |
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.
Really?? (typo)