|
In his first weekly radio broadcast of the new year (Café com o Presidente), Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared that one of the highlights of his administration's performance in 2005 was in the area of education where three action plans for higher education were put into place.
They are the university reform project, decentralizing of federal universities and academic centers by setting up more of them outside large urban centers, and, the University for All Program (ProUni). Lula pointed out that the transformation of five schools into federal universities is underway, as well as the creation of another four. And last week 18 contracts were signed for the construction of centers in 14 states (Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo and Sergipe). "We are setting up a total of 32 university extension centers so that the youth in smaller cities can have a chance to study at the university level near their homes," said the President, adding that last year 112,000 youths from low-income families got into federal universities and that it is estimated that in 2006 the number will rise to 140,000. Basic Education Lula also declared once again that it is important for Congress to approve the government's basic education and teacher fund (Fundo de Manutenção e Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica e de Valorização dos Profissionais da Educação) (Fundeb) during the special legislative session this month. The creation of the fund requires a constitutional amendment that has already been approved in committee. "Although this is an election year, I hope Congress will vote on what is good for the country. We do not want to lose another year. That will not be good for Brazilian children, or for Brazil. We need to get funding to day care centers, and elementary and high school education," said Lula. The federal government should inaugurate 25 new professional training schools in 2006, declared also the President. "I have made it clear that in the area of education we do not spend money, we invest it," said the President. "We spend money to build prisons." Lula said US$ 64 million (150 million reais) had been earmarked for expanding federal professional and technological education schools so they can receive an additional 67,000 students. Plans are for some 40 new schools to be opened in 2006, including at least five agricultural technical courses. Agência Brasil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
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.
But it must be expanded to reach every child in hthe nation and it must be continued for 40 years if the Brazilian population is going to be educated enough to become a modern country.
Id like to see it happen, but it canԴt