Summary
Postado em 01/09/2000
Women – Fighting for better conditions of life,
Brazilian women were able to attain some progress in the past few years. In the job
market, however, the discrimination is still great: for the same job the salary for women
is 40 percent lower than the salary for men, and this difference rises with the increasing
requirements of education, which is a paradox itself because at school female performance
regularly surpasses male performance.
In politics the situation is worse. Not even the electoral legislation imposing a minimum
quota of female candidates to an elective position has succeeded in changing the present
situation of male majority.
In the health area they are still fighting to have their basic rights respected: the
rights to life and procreation. There are no reliable data about the number of Brazilian
women who die as a consequence of difficulties during pregnancy or delivery. It is only
known that they are many, but they could have been saved if they had received a good
treatment during their pregnancy.
Migrant’s journey – Forty-five years after the publication of the play "Morte e Vida Severina", by the poet Joao Cabral de Melo Neto, the journalist Leonardo Sakamoto retraces the journey of the character Severino through the Northeastern backlands in his escape from the drought. He acknowledges that very little has changed since then: the people in the backlands still lead a miserable existence suffering from lack of rain and still dreaming about a better life in the big city.
Interview – The many times awarded architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha, one of the participants of Brazilian exhibit at the Venice Biennial 2000, talks about his profession, his projects, behavior, politics, and life in general.
Education – Born a hundred years ago the educator Anisio Teixeira fought during his lifetime for the improvement of education in Brazil. The continuity of his ideals was met with the antagonism from his adversaries, but nonetheless they never failed to show him respect. He was petitioning for a place at the Academia Brasileira de Letras when he suffered a deadly accident.
Violence – Janice Theodoro, professor and researcher, presents a study analyzing and comparing the great conflicts taken place in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, from 1946 to 1996. Based on the data from each region, she demonstrates that the Latin Americans show great conciliatory capacity.
Debate – The economist Ruben Almonacid analyzes and explains the present economic situation in Brazil, Argentina and the USA. According to him, the Brazilian economic policy as well as Argentina’s are wrong, and they will pay a high price for not making a much needed adjustment when confronted with the superheated American economy.
Tax – Lawyers debate the questions concerning an urgent tax reform in Brazil and point out alternatives while the government insists on postponing the discussion of that reform.
 | |