Summary

Tourism industry – Brazil with its spectacular natural scenery and the potential attractions is not included on the international tourist routes yet. The number of Brazilian tourists going abroad is higher than that of the foreign visitors, resulting in great deficits in the tourism sector. To deal with it the Government has launched the National Tourism Plan as an initiative to support and encourage that industry, while the hotel business sector continues investing on building hotels and resorts, training people etc.

Microcredit – A successful experience is taking place in Brazil, as well as it has happened in other countries. It is the microcredit initiative, which has been created on the premise of providing very small loans to the people too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. The initiative has been meeting with success because these people get used to honouring their contracts, and keep on renewing the loans. On the other hand, the banks have been most benefited from this highly profitable kind of business. The Government itself is encouraging that activity as a way to fight unemployment and reactivate the economy.

Manari – Inland in the State of Pernambuco, lies Manari, a small village situated in a region of severe drought. Its 13,000 inhabitants living on federal resources get water from reservoirs almost always dry, or pay for emergency water supplies brought in by lorries. Poverty, lack of hygiene, lost harvests, unemployment, child prostitution, and alcoholism are part of the village life. The inhabitants are still waiting for Government resources to build a pipe to supply water to the town.

Railways – The Government has launched the National Plan for the Revitalization of the Railways in order to give an impulse to the Brazilian railroad system. The plan establishes a comprehensive programme to the sector, of vital importance to the country.

Ribeira Valley – Located in two rich southern States, Sao Paulo and Parana, the large area of the Ribeira Valley, through which flows the Ribeira do Iguape river, shows high rates of poverty and illiteracy. In the region it is also situated the major protected area of the Mata Atlantica. The legislation has made the local population break their old habits of getting everything from the forest. Now they join cooperatives and make their living on cultivating organic banana and "palmito", or farming oyster.

Pedro Nava – Doctor, painter and writer, Pedro Nava began to write when he was 65. His works have passion, strong style, and originality. At 80, on the peak of his literary life, he committed suicide, leaving great projects unfinished.

Black literature – Afro-Brazilian writers find it difficult to publish
their works. In the country there is a tradition, almost underground, of works about Black people written by Black writers, which has received the name of Black literature. Today they join associations trying to get their books published.

Press – The major Brazilian newspapers face unprecedented difficulties, caused mainly by a combination of serious misconduct and a series of economic crises which have affected the country. As a result there has been a fall in newspapers quality, measured by many public opinion polls.

Power of fright – The Witness Protection Programme is essential to fight organized crime. In Brazil, introduced five years ago, the programme called Provita has been criticized by experts. One of the reasons is the fact that the project is administered by a non-governmental organization (NGO), and not by a governmental institution as it should be, they say. Lack of resources, high cost involved in the protection scheme are other reasons.

Medical errors – The very critical issue of medical errors has received a lot of attention since ancient times. In Brazil, in spite of the legislation, until the 1970s it was quite impossible to prosecute doctors for their professional mistakes. From then on the cases of medical errors have come to trial, and consequently to a payment of compensation for the injuries caused to patients.

Russia – Lenina Pomeranz is an economist, and has got a Ph.D. in economic planning at the Plekhanov Institute in Moscow. Researcher and analyst of international affairs, she has given a speech at the Federacao do Comercio do Estado de Sao Paulo on the great social and political changes in Russia, from Gorbachev to Putin.

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