|
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva affirmed today that Brazil is engaged in fulfilling the Development Goals of the Millennium "with enthusiasm and political determination."
In a speech before the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, Lula adduced examples of what the country has done to achieve the Goals of the Millennium.
He emphasized four spheres of activity: the struggles against hunger, against unemployment, against racial and gender inequalities, and on behalf of environmental preservation.
"We adopted the Goals of the Millennium as a mandatory guideline for our governmental policies," he asserted.
With respect to the struggle against hunger, Lula presented the results of the Family Grant program, which, he said, currently assists around 30 million people.
"By the end of my mandate, all families that live below the poverty line will be included in the program," the President remarked.
Lula also recalled that, under his administration, 3.2 million jobs have been generated since January, 2003, departments with ministerial status were created for the promotion of gender and racial equality, and racial quota programs were introduced into higher education.
In the environmental sphere, the president highlighted the reduction of deforestation in the Amazon and the Sustainable Amazon Plan, which is aimed at promoting economic and social development, ensuring environmental preservation at the same time. According to Lula, this plan should unveil new perspectives for the 22 million people who inhabit the region.
In his speech, Lula once again urged that the UN Security Council be enlarged. He said that altering the structure of the Council is a matter of urgency. Without the reform, he affirmed, "the UN will not fulfill the historic role for which it is destined."
The Security Council is the UN body that discusses and decides on questions involving armed conflicts and international security. At present, only the five permanent members - China, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Russia - have voting and veto rights in the Council.
The speech was the president's final commitment at the 60th session of the UN General Assembly. He is expected to arrive back in Brasília tonight.
Agência Brasil
 |
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.
3.2 millions jobs created is nothing to be proud of...when he promised 10 millions.
3.2 millions jobs was created not because of Lula as he says....but because the US decided, 2 years ago, to lower the interest rates to a 50 years low and accepted a huge trade deficit. That help ALL developing countries to have a much better growth rate.
Eeven your growth rate of the last 3 years was not that big. Just have a look at most other developing countries growth rates....that were much higher than yours....for reasons explained above !!!!!!
As to your ratio of foreign debt to total debt, here too it was not really decreased, it did because your currency strengthened...because ir collapsed just earlier...., and you still pay very high interest rates....that are also reasons why you did not grow as much as other developing countries.
By doing so.....you just put an auto goal....to yourselves.
Truly nothing to be so proud of !!!!!!!!
Just wait now when the US will have an economic slowdown, and byyye byyye to your growth, new jobs, export growths, etc etc !
You had a small boom and will have a big BUST...very shortly....end of 2006 or early 2007 !!!!
So just continue to critize and hate Americans as you do now. They say nothing...but at their game....developing countries will definitely loose ! Because most countries to whom you really export...will themselves suffer too...from the expected US slowdown...which means you will export less to them too.....by definition !!!
But Lula was/is/will not be...the magician he pretends to be !!!!
Cheers