237) India at 60th, by Amartya Sen

Commentary
India At 60
Amartya Sen
Forbes Magazine, 13 August, 2007

It is 60 years now since I, like many other schoolchildren, stayed up till midnight, bleary-eyed, to hear Jawaharlal Nehru, soon to be prime minister of India, give his famous speech on India's "tryst with destiny."

This was on the eve of India's independence from British rule on Aug. 15, 1947. India would not only be, we were told, a fully democratic and secular state but also a country that will fight for "the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity." It is interesting to ask how far along we have gone in 60 years in fulfilling that momentous resolve.

On the democratic front, India's success was immediate and came with astonishing speed. India became overnight the first poor country in the world to be a full-scale democracy. And there was--and is--success enough here. There was a short-lived hiccup in the 1970s when there was a brief attempt to change the system, but when the government sought endorsement in a general election for those changes, it was driven out of office by the voters.

There have been regular and orderly elections, and the ruling parties have vacated office when defeated in general elections, rather than calling in the army. India has also had other essential features of a democracy, in particular continued freedom and vigor of the media and independence of the judiciary, with the Supreme Court often disallowing decisions of those in governmental office on constitutional grounds.

So democracy has indeed flourished nicely in India, and that has been the case right from the time when India became independent after two centuries of authoritarian British colonial dominance. India's democratic success is sometimes seen only as a consequence of British rule, but that is comparatively recent history shared by a hundred or more other countries that also emerged from the empire, none of which has had quite the easy success that India has had with democracy.

In fact, as I have tried to argue elsewhere (in my book The Argumentative Indian, Piccador, 2005), India's long argumentative tradition and toleration of heterodoxy, going back thousands of years, has greatly helped in making democracy flourish with such ease. This would be remarkable enough for any poor country, but it was a much harder task in a land with a great many major languages, each with a long and proud history, and with a rich and old literature.

And there was, of course, the challenge of the multiplicity of religions in India, with nearly every religion well represented. Jews came to India in the first century; Christians in the fourth; Parsees immigrated as soon as persecution began in Persia in the late seventh century; and early Muslim traders started coming to the western coast of India from the eighth century, well before the later invasion of the north of India by Muslim conquerors in the late tenth century onwards.

Even though British India was partitioned into India and Pakistan in 1947 on religious lines, the vast majority of Muslims on the Indian side chose to stay on in India, and today India has nearly as many Muslims as Pakistan and many more Muslims than Bangladesh. India chose to have a solidly secular constitution, and it is as a secular democracy that India has flourished. Secularism has been threatened from time to time by actions of sectarian groups, but the massive support for secularism across India has asserted itself again and again, the last time in the Indian general elections in 2004. In the political field, India's success today is a firm vindication of what, 60 years ago, it breathlessly tried to achieve.

The story is very different on the economic side. The growth rate of the Indian economy remained stuck at its low traditional point of 3% a year for a very long time. The economic policies needed substantial reform. In the old days, some wise guys used to put forward the thesis that India's growth rate was low because of its democracy, which seemed to many of us rather ridiculous. But with continued low growth, that anti-democratic point of view gained some ground among high-octane commentators (never with the general public, though). When India changed its economic policies, the growth rate picked up as expected, without India becoming any less of a democracy to achieve this result.

The economic changes came amid much hesitation and huge resistance. To start with, India hastened slowly. The 1980s, which saw some moderate reforms, produced some quickening, with an economic growth rate of 5%, which may now seem sadly slow but was much faster than what had happened in the early decades of independence, not to mention a century of colonial semi-stagnation. But the economy was still full of problems connected with financial instability, trade imbalances and choking public administration. In general, what used to be called the "license Raj" made business initiatives extremely difficult and at the mercy of bureaucrats (large and small), thereby powerfully stifling enterprise while hugely nurturing corruption.

When Manmohan Singh came to office in the early 1990s as the newly appointed finance minister, in a government led by the Congress Party, he knew these problems well enough, as someone who had been strongly involved in government administration for a long time. (This was after his stint as a very successful university professor at Delhi University where I was privileged to have him as a colleague.) And Singh's response was sure-footed though cautious, given the complex politics of policy reorientation. While the going has been rough from time to time, the direction of policy change has been unmistakable from that point onwards, endorsed even by successor governments run by other political parties.

India is now getting used to its much higher rate of growth, first around 6% a year and now about 8%, occasionally touching 9%. It is also remarkable that India's main success has come not in traditional areas of exports but largely on newer industries, with a large component of high-tech, such as the information technology industry, which has rapidly grown to be a giant from a very modest beginning. Another area is that of pharmaceuticals. Even though in that field the Indian entry began with generic drugs (with a huge reduction--sometimes a cut of 80% or so in the price for many essential drugs, like AIDS medicines), it is now going much more into new research as well.

There is reason enough to celebrate many things happening in India right now. But there are failures as well, which need urgent attention. For example, there is still widespread undernourishment in general and child undernutrition in particular--at a shocking level. The failures include, quite notably, the astonishing neglect of elementary education in India, with a quarter of the population--and indeed half the women--still illiterate.

The average life expectancy in India is still low (below 64) and infant mortality very high (58 per 1,000 live births). It is certainly true that India has narrowed the shortfall behind China in these areas--that is, in life expectancy and infant mortality--but there is still some distance to go for the country as a whole. The problems are gigantic in some of the more "backward" states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. And yet there are other states in which the Indian numbers are similar to China's.

There is also one state, Kerala, where the life expectancy is higher than China's (75 years at birth, as opposed to China's 72), and infant mortality lower (12, as opposed to China's 28). Kerala has had good state policies of supporting school education for all and making sure that it works, and has provided free health care to all for many decades now. Even though now many better-off families choose private medical care, everyone still has the option of having health care from the state.

If India has to overcome these failures, it has to spend much more money on expanding the social infrastructure, particularly school education and basic health care. It also needs to spend much more in building up a larger physical infrastructure, including more roads, more power supplies and more water. In some of these, the private sector can help. But a lot more has to be spent on public services themselves, in addition to improving the system of delivery of these services, with more attention paid to incentives and disciplines, and better cooperation with the unions, consumer groups and other involved parties.

On the basis of some investigations that have been done by the Pratichi Trust (a trust I was privileged to set up in 1999 through the use of my 1998 Nobel money), it is clear how much needs to be done and can be done to change the organizational structure of school education and basic health care. (We studied only one part of India, but the results from other studies from elsewhere in India are often quite similar.)

However, aside from organizational change, more public funds, too, will be needed. Where will the money come from? Well, to start with, India can spend a much higher proportion of its public resources on school education and on basic health care, on both of which its percentage share of public spending is among the lowest in the world.

There is, furthermore, good news that has been discussed astonishingly little. If the total revenue, from taxes and other channels, of the central and state governments keeps pace with the rapid growth of the economy, when the economy is growing at 8% a year, that would be a big rate of increase of available funds for public services. As it happens, government revenue has persistently grown faster than the growth of gross domestic product: in 2003-04, the economic growth of 6.5% was exceeded by the revenue growth of 9.5%, and in 2004-05 to 2006-07, the growth rates of 7.5%, 9%, and 9.4% have been bettered, respectively, by the expansion rates of government revenue (in "real terms"--that is corrected for price change) of 12.5%, 9.7% and 11.2%.

Money will continue to come very rapidly into the government's hands if the fast economic growth continues. What is critically important is to use these generated resources to remedy India's continuing deficiencies, in particular in basic health care, in school education and in rapidly expanding its physical infrastructure.

So, as we look back over the last 60 years, some things have happened well enough, and some, where the gaps were large, have started to catch up. However, there are other areas in which there are still huge shortfalls. These gaps would need to be urgently remedied. We know what to do, and there are resources to do it. What we need now is some determined action to do what we can do and must do.


Amartya Sen is the Lamont University professor and a professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University. Previously, he served as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge and Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford. He was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics "for his contributions to welfare economics" and was the first Asian to receive this honor. He has served as the president of the American Economic Association, the Indian Economic Association, the International Economic Association and the Econometric Soceity.

236) A tragedia da educacao brasileira: professores desmotivados

Nossa guerra
Cristovam Buarque*
www.blogdocristovam.com.br
Jornal do Commercio, 10/08/2007

Na semana passada, no município catarinense de Joaçaba, uma moça pôs um gravador na minha frente e perguntou: "O que você diria ao pai de um jovem de 16 anos que diz ter decidido ser professor?" Respondi: "Diria que me sentia como se o rapaz estivesse se alistando no Exército em tempos de guerra. O pai tem todo o direito de se assustar com o futuro do filho, mas tem motivos para se orgulhar do seu patriotismo". A pergunta de Santa Catarina se justifica plenamente. Hoje, raros pais ficam felizes com a opção de um filho pelo magistério.

Um mês atrás, em Brasília uma professora da rede pública me disse que o pai deixou de falar com ela, desde quando ela lhe comunicou sua opção pelo magistério. No Brasil, escolher o magistério é um gesto extremo, como alistar-se para ir à guerra.

É triste reconhecer, mas a carreira de professor não oferece um futuro promissor. O jovem que escolhe essa carreira provavelmente terá um salário baixo, trabalhará em escolas fisicamente degradadas, não contará com modernos equipamentos, enfrentará turmas desmotivadas e estará sujeito a atos de violência. Entretanto, são esses os profissionais que enfrentarão a guerra da construção do futuro do Brasil. São soldados do futuro, são patriotas.

A razão óbvia para essa posição está nas péssimas condições de trabalho, inclusive salariais. Por trás, há razões mais profundas. Quando um jovem escolhe a carreira de médico ou engenheiro, o pai vê três vantagens: um futuro promissor, uma boa remuneração e o orgulho de filho que ajuda a construir o País. É um soldado do futuro e bem pago. Na opção pelo magistério, o pai não tem o sentimento de construção do futuro, do respeito social pelo filho, e sabe dos baixos salários que ele provavelmente terá.

Ainda mais do que o salário, o que pesa na frustração dos pais é a falta de reconhecimento, como se esta fosse uma profissão menor. Mas a falta de reconhecimento decorre principalmente do baixo salário. Cria! -se um círculo vicioso: não é uma carreira de sucesso porq ue os salários são baixos, e não há reconhecimento. O professor se sente diminuído e mais diminuído fica.

Os servidores do Banco Central fizeram uma greve, no mesmo período que professores em diversos estados. Em média, o simples aumento pleiteado pelos funcionários do Banco Central equivalia a quase duas vezes o salário mensal dos professores. Porque, na visão do Brasil, a educação é secundária. Não se percebe que o futuro econômico nacional está no capital-conhecimento, e que a quebra da desigualdade social só virá com o acesso de todos a uma escola com a mesma qualidade.

Quando a falha de infra-estrutura aérea ficou evidente, o governo decidiu construir novas pistas, novos aeroportos, trens especiais para levar os passageiros. Bilhões de reais foram rapidamente prometidos. Isso porque os aviões precisam decolar. Mas não há recursos para fazer o País decolar com a construção dos aeroportos do futuro: as escolas.

A maior dificuldade para tirar o Brasil do impasse que vive sua sociedade é convencer a opinião pública de que a escola é importante e os professores são os construtores do futuro.

Quando isso acontecer, no momento em que nascer uma criança, seu pai vai colocá-la nos braços, olhará seu rostinho e dirá: "Quando crescer, vai ser professor". E pensará: "vai ter uma bela carreira, um bom futuro e ajudará o Brasil a vencer nossa guerra contra a pobreza, o atraso, a desigualdade". Nesse dia, a pergunta feita na semana passada perderá o sentido.


* Professor da Universidade de Brasília, Senador pelo PDT / DF.

235) Glossario de organizacoes brasileiras (em ingles)

O cientista político David Fleischer, da UnB, preparou uma lista de acrônimos para uso dos muitos clientes de sua excelente newsletter sobre a política brasileira. A despeito de ser um tanto quanto longa, acredito que vale a pena registrá-la aqui...

Brazil Focus – David Fleischer
Phone/FAX: 55-61-3327-8085
Cell: 9218-2771 e-mail

GLOSSARY

Symbols, Abbreviations and Terms used in Brazil

ABAG - Associação Brasileira de Aviação Geral
(Brazilian Association of General Aviation)

ABI - Associação Brasileira de Imprensa
(Brazilian Press Association)

ABERT - Associação Brazileira de Emissoras de Rádio e Televisão
(Brazilian Assoc. of Radio and TV Stations)

ABIn - Agência Brasileira de Inteligência
(Brazilian Intelligence Agency, succeeded SNI)

ABM - Associação Brasileira de Municípios
(Association of Brazilian towns and Cities)

ABONG - Associação Brasileira de Organizações Não-Governamentais
(Brazilian Association of NGOs)

AC - State of Acre

ACC - Adiantamento de Contrato de Câmbio
(bank credit operation, especially for exporters)

ACM - Senator Antônio Carlos Magalhães (DEM-BA)
⇒ political leader in Bahia since 1954 – sate & federal deputy,
Mayor of Salvador, Governor, Senator, Minister of Communications
- born 1927, died 20 July 2007

Adbib - Associação Brasileira de Infra-Estructura e Indústrias de Base
(Brazilian Assoc. for Infrastructure and Capital Goods Insudtries)

ADR - American Depositary Receipts
(receipts in US$ for stocks or bonds of foreign firms, issued by a
US depositary bank)

AEB - Agência Espacial Brasileira
(Brazilian Space Agency)

AEB - Associação de Exportadores Brasileiros
(Brazilian Exporters Assoc.)


AGU - Advocacia-Geral da União
(Defense Lawyers for Federal Government)

AL - State of Alagoas

AL - Assembléia Legislativa
(State Legislatures)

ALCA - Acordo de Livre Comércio das Américas
(FTAA-Free Trade Agreement of the Americas)

AM - State of Amzonas

ANA - Agência Nacional de Águas
(National Waters Regulatory Agency)

ANAC - Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil
(National Civil Aviation Regulatory Agency)
⇒ replaced DAC

ANATEL - Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações
(National Telecommunications Regulatory Agency)

ANBID - Associação Nacional dos Bancos de Investimento
(National Assoc. of Investment Banks)

ANC - Assembléia Nacional Constituinte
(National Constituent Assembly, 1987-1988)

Ancine - Agência Nacional de Cinema
(National Film Regulatory Agency)

ANDI - Associação Nacional dos Direitos da Infância
(National Association for Children’s Rights)

ANDIMA - Associação Nacional das Instituições de Mercado Aberto
(National Assoc. of Open Market Institutions)

ANEEL - Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica
(National Electrical Energy Regulatory Agency)

ANL - Aliança Nacional Libertadora – Moscow line popular front
(National Liberation Alliance, 1935)

ANP - Agência Nacional de Petróleo
(National Petroleum Regulatory Agency)
Antaq - Agência nacional de Transportes Aquaviários
(National River Transportation Regulatory Agency)

ANTT - Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres
(National Land Transportation Regulatory Agency)

Anvisa - Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária
(National Health & Drug Agency)

AP - State of Amapá

ARENA - Aliança Renovadora Nacional
(National Renovation Alliance, 1966-1979)

BA - State of Bahia

BACEN - Banco Central [do Brasil], BC, BCB
(Brazil’s Central Bank)

BASA - Banco da Amazônia)
(Amazonas Development Bank)

BB - Banco do Brasil
(Bank of Brazil)

BBC - Bônus do Banco Central
(Central Bank Bonds)

BBC - British Broadcasting Corp.

BC - Banco Central
(Central Bank)

BCE - Banco Central Europeu
(European Central Bank)

BID - Banco Interamericano do Desenvolvimento
(IADB-InterAmerican Development Bank)

BIRD - Banco Internacional de Reconstrução e Desenvolvimento
(WB-World bank)

BIS - Bank for International Settlements - Switzerland

BIRD - Banco Internacional para Reconstrução e Desenvolvimento
(World Bank)

BM&F - Bolsa de Mercadorias e Futuros
(Brazilian Commodities & Futures Market)

BNB - Banco do Nordeste do Brasil
(Bank of the Northeast of Brazil)

BNDES - Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (ex-BNDE)
( National Bank for Economic and Social Development)

Bolsa Família – Monthly income supplement (allowance) for poor families

BOVESPA - Bolsa de Valores do Estado de São Paulo
(São Paulo Stock Market)

“Bradies” “Brady Bonds” – issued as of 1994 for emerging nations, sometimes called C-Bonds
( created when Nicholas Brady was US Treasury Secretary)

BRB - Banco Regional de Brasília
(Regional Bank of Brasília)

BRICs - Brazil, Russia, India & China

BTN - Bônus do Tesouro Nacional (no longer used)
(National Treasury Bonds, used to finance public debt)

BVRJ - Bolsa de Valores de Rio de Janeiro
(Rio de Janeiro Stock Exchange)

CAE - Comissão de Assuntos Econômicos
(Senate Committee on Economic Affairs)

CAGED - Cadastro Geral de Empregados e Desempregados
(monthly survey of employment/unemployment, by Labor Ministry)

CAINDR - Comissão da Amazônia, Integração Nacional e Desenvolvimento
(Chamber of Deputies Committee for the Amazon, National Integration &
Development)

Caixa Dois - “off-the-books” campaign contributions
(also, double set of books used by firms to evade taxes)

CAN - Confederação Nacional da Agricultura
(National Confederation of Agriculture)


CAPES - Comissão para o Aperfeiçoamento do Pessoal de Eudcação Superior
(Graduate training unit within MEC – fellowships)

CAPADR - Comissão de Agricultura, Pecuária, Abastecimento e Desenvolvimento
(Chamber Committee for Agriculture, Livestock, Supply & Development)

CAS - Comissão de Assuntos Sociais
(Senate Committee on Social Affairs)

CBA - Código Brasileiro de Aeronáutica
(Brazilian Aeronautical Code)

CBF - Confederação Brasileira de Futebol
(Brazilian Soccer Confederation)

CBN - Central Brasileiro de Notícias
(Globo’s 24-hour news radio network)

CCJC - Comissão de Constituição e Justiça
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Constitution, Justice &
Citizenship) ⇒ same symbol in the Senate

CCTCI - Comissão de Ciência e Tecnologia, Comunição e Informática
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Science & Technology,
Communication & Informatics)

CD - Câmara dos Deputados
(Chamber of Deputies)

CDB - Certificado de Depósito Bancário – bank time deposit
(bank deposit certificate, term & rates subject to negotiation)

CDC - Comissão de Defesa do Consumidor
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Consumer Protection)

CDC - Crédito Direto ao Consumidor
(installment credit for consumers, usually “white line”)

CDEIC - Comissão de Desenvolvimento Econômico, Indústria e Comércio
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Economic Development, Industry &
Commerce)

CDI - Certificado de Depósito Interbancário
(time deposit, similar to CDB)

CDU - Comissão de Desenvolvimento Urbano
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee for Urban Development)

CDHM - Comissão de Direitos Humanos e Minorias
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Human Rights and Minorities)

CE - State of Ceará

CE - Comissão de Educação
(Senate Committee on Education)

CEC - Comissão de Educação e Cultura
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Education and Culture)

CEF - Caixa Econômica Federal
(Federal Social Bank)

Cemig - Centrais Elétricas de Minas Gerais
(MG state-owned electric company)

Cenargen - Centro Nacional de Pesquisa de Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia
(National Center for Genetic and biotech research, EMBRAPA)

Cenipa - Centro de Investigação e Prevenção de Acidentes Aeronáuticos
(Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents)

Centrão - the “Big Center” (majority conservative coalition in the ANC)

CETIP - Central de Custódia e Liquidação de Títulos
(where bonds and notes are registered, held and liquidated)

CFC - Comissão de Fiscalização e Controle
(Senate Committee on Oversight & Control)

CFFC - Comissão de Fiscalização Financeira e Controle
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Financial Oversight & Control)

CFMEA - Centro Feminista de Estudos e Assessoria
(Feminist Studies Center in Brasília)

CFT - Comissão de Finanças e Tributação
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Finance and Taxation)

CGU - Controladoria-Geral da União
(Federal Controller General)

CGT - Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores
(General Workers’ Confederation – labor union central in São Paulo)

CHEVSF - Companhia Hidro-Elétrica do Vale do São Francisco
(San Francisco Valley Hydro-Electric Firm)

CI - Comissão de Serviços de Infra-Estrutura
(Senate Committee on Infrastructure)

Cide - Contribuição de Intervenção no Domínio Econômico
⇒ motor fuels tax for maintenance and repair of federal highways

CINDACTA - Centro Integrado de Defesa Aérea e Controle de Trafego Aéreo
(the four centers for air traffic control, under FAB jurisdiction)

CL - Câmara Legislativa
(legislature in the Federal District – Brasília)

CLAT - Central Latino-Americana dos Trabalhadores
(Latin American Workers’ Central - in Caracas, Venezuela)

CLP - Comissão de Legislação Participativa
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee of Legislative Participation)
⇒ same symbol for Senate committee

CMADS - Comissão de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Sustentável
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Environment & Sustainable
Development)

CMB - Casa da Moeda do Brasil
(Brazilian Mint, located in Rio de Janeiro)

CME - Comissão de Minas e Energia
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Mines and Energy)

CMDA - Code Division Multiple Access
(cell phone system that voice & data into radio signals)

CNBB - Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil
(National Conference of Brazilian [Roman Catholic] Bishops)

CNC - Confederação Nacional de Comércio
(National Commerce Federation)

CNI - Confederação Nacional da Indústria
(National Industry Confederation)

CNJ - Conselho Nacional do Judiciário
(National Council of the Judicial Branch)
⇒ External Control body for the Judiciary

CNPJ - Cadastro Nacional da Pessoa Jurídica
(corporate income tax ID number)

CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Pesquisas
(National Research Council, within MCT)

CNT - Confederação Nacional de Transportes
(National Transportation Confederation)

CNTC - Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores no Comércio
(National Confederation of Commercial Workers)

CNTE - Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Educação
(National Confederation of Workers in Education)

CNTI - Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores na Indústria
(National Confederation of Industrial Workers)

CNTM - Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Metalúrgicos
(National Confederation of Metal Workers)

CNTS - Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores na Saúde
(National Confederation of Health Workers)

Codevasf - Companhia de Desenvolvimento dos Vales do São Francisco e Paraníba
(Company for the Development of the São Francisco & Paraníba Valleys)

Conab - Companhia Nacional de Abastecimento
(National Food Supply Company)

CONAC - Conselho Nacional da Aviação Civil
(National Civil Aviation Council)

Confins - Contribuição para Financiamento da Seguridade Social
(“contribution” tax on gross of private firms, lower social security deficit)

CONTAG - Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura
(National Confederation of Agricultural Workers)

COPOM - Comitê de Política Econômica (at BC)
(Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee)

Coppe - Coordenaçào de Programas de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia (UFRJ)
(Graduate engineering research center at RJ Federal Univ.)

CPF - Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas
(personal income tax ID number, used like SS# for ID in the US)

CPI - Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito)
(Congressional Investigating Committee)

CPMF - Contribuição Provisório sobre Movimentação Financeira
( “temporary tax” of financial transactions, began in 1992)

CRE - Comissão de Relações Exteriores e Defesa Nacional
(Senate Committee on Foreign Relations & Defense)

CREDN - Comissão de Relações Exteriores e Defesa Nacional
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Foreign Relations & Defense)

CSN - Conselho Nacional de Saúde, linked to Ministry of Helath
(National Health Council)

CSPCCO - Comissão de Segurança Pública e Combate ao Crime Organizado
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Public Security & Anti-
Organized Crime)

CSSF - Comissão de Seguridade Social e Família
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Social Security & Family)

CTA - Centro Técnico Aeroespecial
(aerospace technical center, FAB in S. José dos Campos, SP)

CTASP - Comissão de Trabalho and Public Administration
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Labor and Public Administration)

CTNBio - Comissão Técnica Nacional de Biossegurança
((National Technical Commission for Bio-Security)

CTD - Comissão de Turismo e Desporto
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Tourism & Sports)

CUT - Central Única dos Trabalhadores
(Workers’ Labor Union Central – in São Paulo)

CVM - Comissão de Valores Mobiliários
(Brazilian Securities Commission)

CVT - Comissão de Viação e Transportes
(Chamber of Deputies’ Committee on Transportation

DA - Diários Associados
- powerful media chain (TV, radio & newspapers) established by
Assis Chateaubriand in 1927. TUPI TV network annulled in 1980.

DAC - Dept. de Aviação Civil
(Civil Aviation Authority – linked to FAB)
⇒ replaced by ANAC

Datafolha - Survey research unit at Folha de São Paulo

DCN - Diário do Congresso Nacional
(daily record of the National Congress)

DECEA - Departamento do Controle do Espaço Aéreo
(Dept. for Air Space Control)

DEM - Democratas (partido político)
⇒ replaced the PFL in March 2007

DF - Federal District (Brasília)


DIAP - Dept. Intersindical de Assessoria Parlamentar
(top labor union lobbying operation in Brasília)

DIEESE - Dept. Intersindical de Estatística e Estudos Socio-Econômicos)
(Labor Unions’ Statistics Bureau - in São Paulo)

DNER - Dept. Nacional de Estradas de Rodagem
(National Highway Dept. – replaced by DNIT)

DNIT - Dept. Nacional de Infra-estrutura de Transportes
(Dept. of Transportation Infrastructure – replaced DNER)

DOC - Documento de Ordem de Crédito
(deposit from one bank account to another)

DOU - Diário Oficial da União
(federal daily record)

DPF - Dept. da Polícia Federal
(Federal Police)

DRT - Delegacia Regional do Trabalho
(regional offices of Ministry of Labor)

ECEME - Escola de Comando e Estado Maior (do Exército)
(Army Officers’ Training Program, Major⇒Colonel)

ECT - Empresa dos Correios e Telégrafos
(Federal Postal Service)

ED - Esquerda Democrática ⇒ PSB
(leftist spinoff from UDN, 1946-1950)

EIU - [The] Economist Intelligence Unit (London and New York)

Eletrobrás - Federal electrical holding firm

Eletronorte - Federal electrical holding firm in Northern Region

EMBI+ - Emerging Markets Bond Index
(complied daily by JP Morgan)

EMBRAER - Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica
(Brazilian Airplane Factory, located in São José dos Campos, SP)


Embrapa - Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agro-Pecuária
(Brazilian Agricultural Research Enterprise)

Embratur - Indústria Brasileiro de Turismo
(Federal Tourism Institute)

EMFA - Estado Maior das Forças Armadas
(Joint Chiefs of Staff, abolished in 1999)

ENAP - Escola Nacional de Administração Pública (Fundação)
(national government training school – management specialists)

EPE - Empresa de Pesquisas Energéticas
(Federal Energy Research Unit – linked to MM&E)

ES - State of Espírito Santo

ESG - Escola Superior de Guerra
(Superior War College)

EURO - the new currency of the European Common Market nations

FAB - Força Aérea Brasileira
(Brazilian Air Force)

FAC - Fundo de Aplicação em Cotas
(buys and sells quotas in other funds, the “fund of funds”)

FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization - UN
(organização da ONU para agricultura e alimentaçào)

FASE - Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional
(Federation of Social Assistance and Educational Groups)

FDI - Foreign Direct Investment
(IDE – Investimento Direito Estrangeiro)

FED - US Federal Reserve Bank

FENAJ - Federação Nacional dos Jornalistas
(National Journalists’ Federation)

FGTS - Fundo de Garantia por Tempo de Serviço
(workers’ severance guarantee fund, 8% “contribution” per month by firms)
FGV - Fundação Getúlio Vargas
(Getúlio Vargas Foundation – HQ Rio de Janeiro)

FHC - former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002)

FIEX - Fundo de Investimentos no Exterior
(domestic investment fund, up to 60% in Brazilian foreign debt)

FIF - Fundo de Investimento Financeiro
(several types of investment funds: fixed rate, DI, derivatives, etc.)

FIERJ - Federação das Indústrias do Estado de Rio de Janeiro
(RJ state industrial federation)

FINEP - Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos
(federal agency that finances “large” research projects

Fiocruz - Fundação Oswaldo Cruz
(federal bio-tech research center in Rio de Janeiro)

FITVM - Fundo de Investimento de Títulos e Valores Mobiliários
(new category of fund with variable income)

FMI - Fundo Monetário Internacional
(IMF-International Monetary Fund)

FNDE - Fundação Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação
(National Foundation for Education Development)

Força Sindical – Labor Union central located in São Paulo

FSP - Folha de São Paulo
(Major newspaper in São Paulo)

FTAA - Free Trade Agreement of the Americas
(ALCA – Area de Livre Comércio das Américas)

Funai - Fundação Nacional do Índio
(National Indian Foundation)
⇒ replaced SPI-Indian Protection Service

Funarte - Fundação Nacional de Arte
(National Foundation for the Arts)


FUNDEB - Fundação Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica
(National Foundation for Development of Primary and
Pre-School Education)

FUNDEF - Fundação Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação Fundamental
(National Foundation for Primary School Development)

FX - Foreign Exchange

G-3 - Grupo dos 3 – Group of Three
(Brazil, South Africa & India)

G-4 - Grupo dos 4 – Group of Four
(Brazil, South Africa, India & Japan ⇒ UN Security Council)

G-7 - Grupo dos 7 – Group of Seven
(7 most developed industrial nations)

G-8 - G-7 plus Russia

G-20 - Grupo dos 20 – Group of 20
(emerging nations led by Brazil ⇒ WTO negotiations)

GLP - Gás Liquifeito de Petróleo
(LPG-Liquefied Petroleum Gas)

GM - Gazeta Mercantil
(business-economics-finance newspaper in São Paulo)

GMOs - Genetically Modified Organisms
( OGMs – Organismos Geneticamente Modificados)

GNV - Gas Natural Veicular
(natural gas fuel for autos & trucks)

GO - State of Goiás

GSI - Gabinete de Segurança Institutional
(Office of Institucional Security – linked to the Presidency)

GSM - Global System for Mobile
(European cell phone system, uses chip)

GSP - Generalized System of Preferences [via USTR in the US]
Facilitates access of emerging nation exports to developed nations

HFA - Hospital das Forças Armadas
(Armed Forces Hospital in Brasília)

Ibama - Inst. Brasileira do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Renováveis
(Environmental Protection Inst.)

IBASE - Inst. Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicos
(Brazilian Inst. for Socio-Economic Analysis – in Rio de Janeiro)

IBGE - Inst. Brasileira de Geografia e Estatística
(National Statistics Bureau ⇒ inflation indexes & census)

IBICT - Inst. Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia
(Brazilian Inst. for Science & Technology Information)

Ibope - Inst. Brasileiro de Opinião Pública – in Rio de Janeiro
(Survey Research Firm, does surveys for CNI)

ICAO - International Civil Aviation Organization
⇒ UN agency, HQ in Montreal, Canada

ICMS - Imposto sobre Circulação de Mercadorias e Serviços
(tax on goods and services)

IDE - Investimento Direto Estrangeiro
(FDI-Foreign Direct Investment)

IFATCA - International Air Traffic Controllers Federation

IFLAPA - International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations

IGP - Índice Geral dos Preços
(a wholesale price index)

IGP-DI - Índice Geral dos Preços – Disponabilidade Interna
(general price index, excludes imported goods)

IGP-M - Índice Geral dos Preços - Mercado
(general price index – market prices)


ILO - International Labor Organization (UN unit in Geneva)
(OIT-Organizão Internatioanl do Trabalho)

ILS - Instrument Landing System
⇒ ILS-3-the most advanced, sophisticaed version

IMF - International Monetary Fund
(FMI-Fundo Monetário Internacional)

IML - Instituto Medico Legal
(state government “morgue” – completes autopsies of the dead &
issues death certificates)

IN - Imprensa Nacional
(Federal Government Printing Office, in Brasília)

INB - Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil, S.A.
(Brazilian Nuclear Industry)

Inmetro - Inst. Nacional de Metrologia, Normalização e Qualidade Industrial
(National Inst. of Standards, Norms & Industrial Quality)

INCC - Índice de Preços da Construção Civil
(Index for Construction Prices)

Incra - Inst. Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária
(Agrarian Reform Institute)

INESC - Instituto de Estudos Socio-Econômicos
Inst. for Socio-Economic Studies – in Brasília)

Infraero - state enterprise that controls Brazil’s airports


INPC - Indíce Nacional de Preços ao Consumidor
(Consumer Price Index – up to 8 minimum wages)

INPE - Inst. Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
(National Space Research Inst., São José dos Campos, SP)

INPI - Inst. Nacional de Propriedade Industrial
(Brazilian Patent Office)

INSS - Inst. Nacional de Seguro Social
(National Social Security Inst. – private sector)

IOF - Imposto sobre Operações Financeiras
(tax on financial operations)

IPA - Índice de Preços por Atacado
(wholesale price index)

IPC - Índice de Preços ao Consumidor
(a consumer price index – up to 6 minimum wages)

IPCA - Índice de Preços ao Consumidor Amplo
(Broad Consumer Price Index, up to 20 minimum wages)

IPEA - Inst. de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada
(Inst. for Applied Economic Research – at MPOG)

IPHAN - Inst. do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional
(National Inst. of Historic and Artistic Patrimony)

IPI - Imposto sobre Produtos Industrializados
(tax on industrialized products)

IR - Imposto de Renda
(income tax; IRPF = personal income tax; IRPJ = corporate income tax)

IRB - Inst. de Reseguros do Brasil
(Federal gov’t. Reinsurance Inst.)

IRB - Instituto de Resseguros do Brasil
(Brazilian reinsurance Inst. – public autarky, to be privatized in 2007)


IRBr - Inst. Rio Branco
(diplomat training course at MRE)

ISS - Imposto sobre Serviços
(municipal tax levied on services)

ITA - Inst. Tecnológico da Aeronáutica
(FAB engineering school, in São José dos Campos, SP)

Itamaraty - nickname for MRE, Ministry of Foreign Relations

IURD - Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus – Bishop Edir Macedo
(Universal Church of the Kingdom of God)

JB - Jornal do Brasil
(Major newspaper in Rio de Janeiro)

JK - Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira
(former Brazilian President, 1956-1961)

JQ - Jânio Quadros
(former Brazilian President, 7 months in 1961)

LDO - Lei de Diretrizes Orçamentárias
(Budget Guidelines Law)

LTF - Letras Financeiras do Tesouro
(national treasury bonds, fixed term, SELIC rate

LTN - Letras do Tesouro Nacional
(fixed rate treasury bonds)

MAg - Ministério de Agricultura e do Abastecimento
(Ministry of Agriculture)

MA - State of Maranhão

MC - Ministério das Comunicações
(Ministry of Communications)

MC - Ministério das Cidades
(Ministry for the Cities)

MCT - Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia
(Ministry of Science & Technology)

MD - Ministério da Defesa
(Ministry of Defense, created in 1999)

MD - Mobilização Democrática (merger of PPS & PHS in 2006)

MDA - Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário
(Ministry of Agrarian Development)

MDIC - Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria e Comércio
(Ministry of Development, Industry & Commerce)

MDB - Movimento Democrático Brasileiro
(Brazilian Democratic Movement, 1966-1979)

ME - Ministério dos Esportes
(Ministry of Sports)

MEC - Ministério da Educação
(Ministry of Education)

Mercosul - Mercado Comum Sulamericano
(South American Common Market)

Merval - Argentine stock market index

MF - Ministério da Fazenda
(Ministry of Finance)

MG - State of Minas Gerais

MI - Ministério da Integração Nacional
(Ministry of National Integration)

Minc - Ministério da Cultura
(Ministry of Culture)

MJ - Ministério da Justiça
(Ministry of Justice)

MLST - Movimento de Libertação dos Sem-Terra
(Movement for the Liberation of the Landless
- radical splinter from MST led by PT militant Bruno Maranhão

MMA - Ministério do Meio Ambiente
(Ministry of Environment)

MME - Ministério de Minas e Energia
(Ministry of Mines and Energy)

MP - Medida Provisória
(provisional measure, issued by president⇒force of Law)

MPAS - Ministério da Previdência Social
(Social Security Ministry)

MPDFT - Ministério Público do DF e Territórios
(Federal Prosecutors for the DF and federal territories)

MPF - Ministério Público Federal (vê PGR)
(Federal Prosecutors, see PGR)

MPEs - Micro e Pequenas Empresas
(small and micro businesses)

MPM - Ministério Público Militar (junto ao STM)
(Federal Prosecutors at STM-Superior Military Court)

MPOG - Ministério do Planejamento, Orçamento e Gestão
(Ministry of Planning, Budget & Management)

MPS - Ministério da Previdência Social – replaced MTPS
(Ministry of Social Security)

MPT - Ministério Público do Trabalho
(federal prosecutors assigned to labor courts)

MRE - Ministério de Relações Exteriores
(Ministry of Foreign Relations, Itamaraty)

MS - State of Mato Grosso do Sul

MS - Ministério de Saúde
(Ministry of Health)

MSCI - Morgan Stanley Capital International
(stock market index, MSCI-Brazil for Brazil)

MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais sem Terra
(Landless Rural Workers’ Movement)

MT - State of Mato Grosso

MT - Ministério do Turismo
(Ministry of Tourism)

MT - Ministério dos Transportes
(Ministry of Transportation)

MTE - Ministério do Trabalho e Emprego
(Ministry of Labor & Jobs)

MTPS - Ministério do Trabalho e Previdência Social ⇒ divided into MTE & MPS
(former Ministry of Labor & Social Security)

MTR - Movimento Trabalhista Renovador, 1960-1965 [Fernando Ferrari]
(Labor Renovation Movement, splinter from PTB in 1960)

NAFTA - North American Free Trade Association
(US, Canada & Mexico)

NASDAQ - National Assoc. of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation
(launched in 1971, securities market for large technology firms,
recently merged with AMEX)

NBCs - Notas do Banco Central
(minimum 3-month term, 6% p.a. + US$ fluctuation)

NIKKEY - Japanese Stock Market Index

Notam - “Notice to Airmen” – Official communication to pilots

NPT - Non-Proliferation Treaty
(TNP-Tratado de Não Proliferação)

NTN - Notas do Tesouro Nacional
(variable rate Treasury notes)

NYSE - New York Stock Exchange

OAB - Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil
(Brazilian bar Association)

OEA - Organização dos Estados Americanos
(OAS-Organization of American States)

OESP - O Estado de São Paulo
(Major São Paulo newspaper)

OGMs - Organismos Geneticamente Modificados
(GMOs-Genetically Modified Organisms)

OGU - Orçamento Geral da União
(final version of federal budget)


OMC - Organização Mundial do Comércio
(WTO-World Trade Organization)

OMS - Organização Mundial da Saúde
(WHO-World Health Organization)

OIT - Organização International do Trabalho
(ILO-International Labor Organization)

OPAS - Organização Pan-Americana de Saúde
(PAHO-PanAmerican Health Organization)

ONU - Oranização das Nações Unidas
(UN-United Nations)

PA - State of Pará

PAC - Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento
(Program for Accelerated Economic Growth, 5% of GDP through 2010)

PAHO - Pan-American Health Organization (located in Washington, DC)
(OPAS-Organização Panamericana de Saúde)

PAN - Partido Agrário Nacional ⇒ PSP in 1947
(National Agrarian Party, 1945-1947)

PAN - Partido dos Aposentados da Nação ⇒ absorbed by PTB in 2006)
(Party of Retirees of the Nation, 1998-2006)

PB - State of Paraiba

PCB - Partido Comunista Brasileiro ⇒ PPS in 1993
(Brazilian Communist Party, 1945-1947 & 1985-1993)

PCdoB - Partido Comunista do Brasil
(Communist Party of Brazil, 1986- )

PCO - Partido da Causa Operária
(Party of the Workers’ Cause, 1997- )

PDC Partido Democrata Cristão
(Christian Democratic Party, 1947-1965)

PDS - Partido Democrático Social ⇒ PPR in 1991
(Social Democratic Party, 1980-1990)

PDT - Partido Democrático Trabalhista – Leonel Brizola’s party
(Democratic Labor Party, 1980- )

PE - State of Pernambuco

PEA - População Economicamente Ativa
(economically active population, those working or looking for jobs)

Petrobrás - Petróleo Brasileiro S.A.
(Brazil’s large petroleum state enterprise)

PFL - Partido da Frente Liberal
(Liberal Front Party, 1985- )

PGFN - Procuradoria-Geral da Fazenda Nacional
(Chief Prosecutor at Finance Ministry)

PGR - Procurador-Geral da República
(Chief Federal Prosecutor)

PHS - Partido Humanista da Solidariedade, 1997-2006 (former PSN)
(Humanist Solidarity Party, merged with PPS ⇒ MD in 2006)

PI - State of Piauí

PIB - Produto Interno Bruto
(GDP – Gross Domestic Product)

PIS - Programa de Integração Social
(Program of Social Integration

PL - Partido Libertador
(Liberator Party, 1945-1965)

PL - Partido Liberal ⇒ PR in 2006
(Liberal Party, 1985-2006)

PL - Participação no Lucro
(profit sharing)

P/L Índice Preço/Lucro
(price/profit index, compares stock prices)

Planalto - Palácio do Planalto
(President’s office building on the Three Powers Square)

PM - Polícia Militar
(uniformed police organization in states)

PME - Pesquisa Mensal de Emprego
(Monthly Employment Survey)

PMDB - Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro
(Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, 1980- )

PMN - Partido da Mobilização Nacional
(National Mobilization Party, 1985 - )

PMR - Partido Municipalista Renovador, succeeded by PRB in 2005
(Renovating Municipal Party, 2005) – linked to IURD

PNUD - Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento
(UNDP-United Nations Development Program)

PP - Partido Popular (joined PMDB in 2982)
(Popular Party, 1980-1982)

PP - Partido Progressista ⇒ PPB in 1995
(Progressive Party, 1993-1995, merger PTR + PST in 1993)

PP - Partido Progressista (former PPB)
(Progressive Party, 2005 - )

PPdoB - Partido Proletário do Brasil, transformed into PST in 1950
Proletarian Party of Brazil, 1947-1950

PPB - Partido Progressista Brasileiro ⇒ became PP in 2005
(Brazilian Progressive Party, 1995-2005)

PPG-7 - Programa Piloto para Proteção das Florestas Tropicais do Brasil
(Pilot Program for Tropical Forest Protection, G-7 funds via World Bank)

PPI - Projeto Piloto de Investimentos
(pilot program for investments, that would be excluded from the
primary surplus “target” (4.35% of GDP) – via IMF sanction

PPPs - Parcerias Público-Privadas
(public-private partnerships, for infrastructure development)

PPR - Partido Progressista Republicano ⇒ PPB in 1995
(Progressive Republican Party, 1993-1995)

PPS - Partido Popular Sindicalista ⇒ PSP in 1947
(Popular Sindicalist Party, 1945-1947)

PPS - Partido Popular Socialista ⇒ MD in 2006)
(Popular Socialist Party, 1993-2006) – former PCB

PR - State of Paraná

PR - Partido Republicano, 1945-1965 [Arthur Bernardes]
(Republican Party, derived from the PRs in 1898-1930 period)

PR - Partido da República, created by (PL+Prona) merger in 2006
(Party of the Republic, 2006- )

PRB - Partido Republicano Brasileiro [Vice-President José Alencar]
(Brazilian Republican Party, 2005- ), successor of PMR, linked to IURD

PRD - Partido Republicano Democrático, succeeded by PRT in 1950
(Democratic Republican Party, 1945-1950)

PRN - Partido da Renovação Nacional (party created by Fernando Collor de Mello)
(National Renovation Party, 1989-2003) ⇒ PTC

Prona - Partido da Reedificação da Ordem Nacional ⇒ MD
(Party for Rebuilding the National Order, 1989-2006)

PRP - Partido Republicano Populista ⇒ PSP in 1947
(Popular Republican Party, 1945-1947 – founded by Adhemar de Barros)

PRP - Partido Representação Popular – party led by Plínio Salgado)
(Popular Representation Party, 1947-1965)

PRT - Partido Rural Trabalhista, successor of PRD in 1950
(Rural Labor Party, 1950-1965

PSB - Partido Socialista Brasileira
(Brazilian Socialist party, 1947-1965 & 1985- )

PSC - Partido Social Cristão
(Christian Social Party, 1990- )

PSD - Partido Social Democrático
(Democratic Social Party, 1945-1965)

PSDB - Partido Social Democrático Brasileiro
(Brazilian Social Democratic Party, 1988- )

PSoL - Partido do Socialismo e Liberdade
(Socialism & Liberty Party, 2005- )

PSN - Partido da Solidariedade Nacional, succeeded by PHS in 1997
(National Solidarity Party, 1991-1997)

PST - Partido Social Trabalhista, successor of PPdoB in 1950)
(Social Labor Party, 1950-1965 & 1989-1993)

PSTU - Partido Socialista dos Trabalhadores Unificado, splinter from PT in 1991
(Unified Socialist Workers Party, 1991- )

PT - Partido dos Trabalhadores
(Workers’ Party, founded 1980)

PTdoB - Partido Trabalhista do Brasil, 1996-2006
(Labor Party of Brazil, merger with PL and Prona ⇒ PR in 2006)

PTB - Partido dos Trabalhista Brasileiro
(Brazilian Labor Party, 1945-1965 & 1980- )

PTC - Partido Trabalhista Cristão, successor of PRN
(Christian Labor Party, 1990- )

PTN - Partido Trabalhista Nacional
(National Labor Party, 1947-1965)

PTR - Partido Trabalhista Ruralista
(Ruralist Labor Party, 1947-1965)

PTR - Partido Trabalhista Renovador, merged with PST ⇒ PP in 1993
(Renovation Labor Party, organized by Joaquim Roriz in DF in 1989)

PV - Partido Verde
(Green Party, 1993- )

Radiobrás - Empresa Brasileira de Comunicação
(State TV and Radio Enterprise)

RDB - Recibo de Depósito Bancário
(fixed rate time deposit)

RG - Registro Geral
(ID number for national ID card system)

RJ - State of Rio de Janeiro

RN - State of Rio Grande do Norte

RO - State of Rondônia

RR - State of Roraima

RS - State of Rio Grande do Sul

RSF - Reporters sans Frontiéres
(Reporters without Boundaries)
- Paris-based NGO that publicizes coercion against journalists worldwide &
defends freedom of the press
SAE - Secretaria de Assuntos Estratégicos
(secretariat for strategic affairs, replaced SNI in 1990)

SBDC - Sistema Brasileiro de Defesa da Concorrência
(Brazilian System for Defense of Competition)

SC - State of Santa Catarina

SDS - Social Democracia Sindical
(labor union central linked to PSDB)

SE - State of Sergipe

Sedex - Overnight express postal service (by ECT)

Selic - Sistema Especial de Liquidação e Custódia
(basic interest rate set by Copom, every 6 weeks)

Sensus - Survey research firm in Belo Horizonte, MG - does polls for CNT

Serpro - Serviço Federal de Processamento de Dados
(Federal Data Processing Service)

SF - Senado Federal
(Federal Senate)

SFH - Sistema Federal de Habitação
(federal housing mortgage system, via CEF)

SGP - Sistema Geral de Preferências (GSP-Generalized System of Preferences)
- facilitates access of emerging market exports to developed nations

Sinduscon - Sindicato da Indústria de Construção Civil do Estado de São Paulo
(Assoc. of the Civil Construction Industry in the State of SP)
SND - Sistema Nacional de Debêntures
(part of the CETIP system, registers all debentures in circulation)

SNI - Serviço Nacional de Informações
(National Information Service, replaced by SDE and later byABIn)

SOMA - Sociedade Operadora de Mercado de Acesso
(over the counter stock market operators)

SRF - Secretaria da Receita Federal
(Federal Tax Service)

SP - State of São Paulo

S&P - Standard & Poor’s
(stock market and sovereign risk evaluation agency in New York)

SUDENE - Superintendência do Desenvolvimento do Nordeste
(Development Agency for the Northeast Region)

Suframa - Superintendência da Zona de Livre Comércio de Manaus
(Amazon Free Trade Zone in Manaus)

STF - Supremo Tribunal Federal
(Supreme Court)

STJ - Superior Tribunal de Justiça
(Highest Federal Appeals Court)

STM - Superior Tribunal Militar
(Superior Military Court)

STN - Secretaria do Tesouro Nacional
(Federal Treasury)

Supar - Subchefia de Assuntos Parlamentares
(President’s Office of Congressional Relations)

SUS - Sistema Único de Saúde
(Single, unified Health System)

TAM - Transportes Aéreos Marília
(one of Brazil’s leading airlines)

TBF - Taxa Básica Financeira
(basic financial rate, with no “reduction clause”, like the TR

TDA - Títulos da Dívida Agrária
(bonds used in land expropriations, considered “rotten paper”

TDMA - Time Division Multiple Access
(cell phone system that permits multiple users)

Telebrás - Telecomunicações Brasileiras S.A.
(former Brazilian telecomunications state enterprise)
⇒ privatized in 1998

TJ - Tribunal de Justiça
(State Supreme Court)

TJLP - Taxa de Juros de Longo Prazo
(long-term interest rate, used by BNDES for development loans)

TNP Tratado de Não Proliferação
(NPT-Non-Proliferation Treaty)

TO - State of Tocantins

TR - Taxa Referencial de Juros
(created by the Collor Plan II in 1991, currently used as a monthly and daily rate
for several types of investments)

TREs - Tribunal Regional Eleitoral
(regional electoral courts in each state)

TRF - Tribunal Regional Federal
(Regional Federal Court)

TRT - Tribunal Regional do Trabalho
(Regional Labor Court)

TSE - Tribunal Superior Eleitoral
(Superior Election Court)

TST - Tribunal Superior do Trabalho
(Superior Labor Court)

Tucano - the toucan bird, symbol of the PSDB

UDR - União Democrática Ruralista
(Democratic Ruralist Union – land owners who combat MST)

UE - União Européia
(European Union)

UFABC - Federal University of ABC (region), HQ in Santo André, SP
UFAC - Federal University of Acre
UFAL - Federal University of Alagoas
UFAM - Federal University of Amazonas
UFBA - Federal University of Bahia
UFCE - Federal University of Ceará
UFGO - Federal University of Alagoas
UFES - Federal University of Espírito Santo
UFF - Federal University Fluminense (Niteroi)
UFJF - Federal University of Juiz de Fora( MG)
UFLA - Federal University of Lavras (MG)
UFMA - Federal University of Maranhão
UFMG - Federal University of Minas Gerais
UFMS - Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul
UFMT - Federal University of Mato Grosso
UFOP - Federal University of Ouro Preto (MG)
UFPA - Federal University of Pará
UFPB - Federal University of Paraiba
UFPE - Federal University of Pernambuco
UFPel - Federal University of Pelotas (RS)
UFPI - Federal University of Piauí
UFRGS - Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul
UFPR - Federal University of Paraná
UFRJ - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
UFRRJ - Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro
UFRN - Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
UFRO - Federal University of Rondônia
UFRP - Federal Rural University of Pernambuco
UFRR - Federal University of Roraima
UFSC - Federal University of Santa Catarina
UFSCar - Federal University of São Carlos (SP)
UFSE - Federal University of Sergipe
UFSM - Federal University of Santa Maria (RS)
UFTO - Federal University of Tocantins
UFU - Federal University of Uberlândia (MG)
UFV - Federal University of Viçosa (MG)
UnB - University of Brasília
UNEF - State University Northern Rio de Janeiro (Campos, RJ)
UNESP - University of the State of São Paulo
Unicamp - University of Campinas (SP)
UNIFAP - Federal University of Amapá
Unifesp - Federal University of São Paulo (former Escola Paulista de Medicina)
UNIR - University of Rondônia
USP - University of São Paulo

UNDP - United Nations Development Fund = PNUD

URV - Unidade Real de Valor
(daily currency index rate for prices and salaries used during
the pre-Real period, Feb.⇒ 1st July/94)

USTR - US Trade Representative

UTI - Unidade de Tratamento Intensivo
(ICU-Intensive Care Unit)

VARIG - Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense S.A.
(Brazil’s former “flagship” airline)

Vox Populi - survey research firm in Belo Horizonte

VS - Vertente Socialista, 1945-1950
(Socialist Vertent, merged with ED to form PSB in 1950)

WTO - World Trade Organization ⇒ OMC

WWF - World Wildlife Fund
(Fundo Mundial para a Natureza)

YPFB - Yancimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos
(Bolivian State Petroleum Enterprise)

Brasília, 26 December 2006

234) Africa do Sul: um lado mais preocupante

OPINIONJOURNAL FEDERATION

South Africa's Betrayal
Postapartheid Pretoria has become the free world's leading coddler of dictators.
BY JAMES KIRCHICK
The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, August 8, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

Last September, not long after the Israeli-Hezbollah war, South Africa's minister of intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, praised the Islamist group committed to Israel's destruction. The Iran News Agency, albeit prone to exaggeration, reported that Mr. Kasrils "lauded [the] great victories of the Lebanese Hezbollah against the Zionist forces" and "stressed that the successful Lebanese resistance proved the vulnerability of the Israeli army." The comment received no attention in the South African media; nor, for that matter, did the international press seem particularly interested. And yet, the scandalous comment occurred immediately after the South African government had warmly received the visiting Iranian foreign minister and expressed support for Iran's campaign for uranium enrichment--in spite of the passing of a United Nations Security Council deadline that same week regarding the suspension of Iran's nuclear program.

This stance toward Iran is cause for concern on its own. Unfortunately, it is also illustrative of a much broader and more chilling trend in South Africa's postapartheid foreign policy: one that cozies up to tyrants, and is increasingly orientated against the West--even at the cost of its self-proclaimed principles of human rights and political freedom.

Postapartheid South Africa's easy relationship with dictatorships, it should be noted, is not a new development. Until very recently, however, it has largely been overlooked by the media. This oversight is likely due to the fact that, much like its out-of-control crime rate, any bad news about South Africa is viewed as a blemish on the popular and self-comforting narrative surrounding the country's emergence from apartheid. Indeed, that a country scarred by so many years of violent racial segregation could transform itself into a fully functioning democracy with a robust economy while simultaneously avoiding the wide-scale racial bloodbath feared by many is nothing short of miraculous. But judging by its international relations, South Africa--by far the most politically stable, economically productive and militarily powerful country in sub-Saharan Africa--appears to be moving into the camp of the anti-Western powers, a loose but increasingly worrisome consortium not unlike the Cold War-era Non-Aligned Movement. Drawing heavily upon its history as a liberation movement, the African National Congress cloaks itself in a shroud of moral absolutism that not so subtly implicates its critics as racists, Western stooges, or apologists for apartheid.

In a 1993 article written for Foreign Affairs on the eve of his country's transfer of power, Nelson Mandela declared that "South Africa's future foreign relations will be based on our belief that human rights should be the core of international relations." Mr. Mandela had good reason to attempt an improvement of his country's international image: South Africa's apartheid government was the cause of much instability in the region, involved as it was in international terrorism against antiapartheid leaders and cross-border raids in a number of black "frontline states."

With the transition of power, then, many hoped that South Africa would prove to be a beacon of good governance and responsible leadership for the rest of Africa. Unfortunately, not long after he was released from prison, Mr. Mandela himself began cavorting with the likes of Fidel Castro ("Long live Comrade Fidel Castro!" he said at a 1991 rally in Havana), Moammar Gadhafi (whom he visited in 1997 in defiance of American objections, greeting the Libyan dictator as "my brother leader") and Yasser Arafat ("a comrade in arms"). Mr. Mandela felt affection toward these men because they supported the ANC in exile. But he seemed unperturbed by the fact that Cuba, Libya and the PLO all employed terrorist tactics and treated their critics much as the apartheid state had.

That Mr. Mandela has comported himself so comfortably with dictators is more than hypocritical--it is a betrayal of the principles for which he languished twenty-seven years in prison. Yet while Mr. Mandela's grandstanding with tyrants is regrettable, it has been far less serious than his ANC successors' strategic and systematic support for a broadly anti-Western agenda.

Perhaps the best example of the ANC's betrayal of the cause of human rights is in its dealings with its immediate neighbor to the north, Zimbabwe. Since he initiated a policy of violent confiscation of white-owned farms in 2000, President Robert Mugabe has presided over what might arguably be the most abysmal degeneration of a modern nation-state. Once the "jewel of Africa," a relatively affluent country that boasted high life expectancies, abundant food exports and the continent's highest literacy rates, Zimbabwe may now lay claim to one of the lowest life expectancy rates in the world, mass starvation and a politically oppressed citizenry.

Four years ago, as the country entered free fall, President Bush referred to South African President Thabo Mbeki as his "point man" on Zimbabwe. And in March of this year, the African Union once again reaffirmed its support for Mr. Mbeki as a peacebroker. But the ANC government has failed to deliver on the responsibility with which the world has entrusted it. Primarily because Mugabe was a liberation hero who fought against white colonialism, the ANC has been reluctant to take any action that might alleviate the brutality of his rule, never mind dislodge the tyrant from power. Indeed, South Africa is worse than inactive on Zimbabwe: It props up Mugabe via a formal military alliance, and does its diplomatic best to keep Zimbabwe off the international agenda.

In March, Tony Leon, then the leader of South Africa's Democratic Alliance (the country's leading opposition party), invoked the repression of the apartheid years to make clear just how aberrant his country's policy on Zimbabwe has become. He went so far as to call South Africa's relationship with Zimbabwe "an insult to the Sharpeville victims," the 69 black civilians who were killed by the state's security forces at an antiapartheid rally in 1960, an act that sparked the ANC's armed campaign against white rule. Considering the conditions in Mugabe's Zimbabwe (where democracy activists are imprisoned, tortured and killed, opposition rallies are banned, and the free media are largely silenced), the comparison to apartheid-era South Africa is hardly hyperbolic.

South Africa's newfound presence on the U.N. Security Council (it took up a two-year, nonpermanent seat in January) has placed its troublesome foreign policy in stark relief. One of the strongest proponents of Security Council reform via an expanded number of veto powers, South Africa assumed its seat with the hope of stirring things up and providing a voice for both the underdeveloped and developing world. With its proximity to and influence over Zimbabwe, South Africa might have seized the opportunity its position on the Security Council offered to earn international respect by drawing attention to its neighbor's ill-doings. Indeed, Mugabe could not have offered a more convenient reason for South Africa's condemnation: In March, he cracked down on his opponents by violently suppressing a public prayer meeting, and government agents cracked the skull of the country's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Yet South Africa's ambassador to the U.N. repeatedly stated his government's belief that Zimbabwe is a local problem best left for Mugabe and his opposition to deal with among themselves. So, too, did South Africa oppose attempts to bring the issue before the United Nations, choosing to go the route of "silent diplomacy" instead. Yet this policy, partly inspired by South African President Mbeki's genuine fear of Mugabe, a man with far stronger anticolonial liberation credentials than he, has been an unqualified failure from the beginning.

South Africa has balked at the chance to champion human rights at the U.N. in other instances, as well, lest it be seen as siding with Western forces. For instance, the first significant vote placed before the Security Council this year dealt with a nonbinding resolution regarding the military junta in Burma. The resolution called for the release of all political prisoners, a process of national reconciliation (one, it should be noted, not unlike South Africa's) and an end to human-rights abuses. South Africa, along with Russia and its crucial trading partner, China (whose neoimperialism in Africa has been extensively documented), voted against the resolution's acceptance--which, ironically, called for far less stringent measures than what the ANC itself demanded the world invoke against the apartheid regime. Even Archbishop Desmond Tutu admitted that the Burma vote was "a betrayal of our own noble past." Yet South Africa was content to recommend that Burma be referred to the Human Rights Council, a kangaroo court at which the world's villains pass judgment on Western democracies, and where such a resolution would garner little attention.

The ANC has also made important entrées with the Arab and Muslim bloc by striking a defiantly anti-American pose. The ANC government opposed sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, for example, and even questioned the legality of the American- and British-enforced no-fly zones, which protected the Kurds and Marsh Arabs from certain genocide. In the run-up to the Iraq war, South African Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad (who earlier this year claimed that the United States was responsible for a "volatile, dangerous and unpredictable environment" in world affairs) met with Saddam in Baghdad to deliver a letter from President Mbeki that "expressed [Mr. Mbeki's] solidarity with Iraq."

Other ranking members of the ANC have expressed similarly bizarre, anti-Western views. Just before the war began, the secretary general of the ANC told antiwar protesters that "because we are endowed with several rich minerals, if we don't stop this unilateral action against Iraq today, tomorrow they will come for us." A year prior, the Guardian quoted the country's health minister (who has suggested that AIDS sufferers eat beetroot and garlic to treat themselves) as saying that South Africa cannot afford drugs to fight HIV/AIDS partly because it needs submarines to deter attacks from nations such as the United States (she later denied ever making the statement).

The ANC (due to South Africa's appalling lack of political finance regulations) has accepted millions of dollars in donations from foreign governments and officials including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, former Indonesian strongman Suharto and the viciously anti-Semitic Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed of Malaysia. Perhaps wary of how such an act would be received by its steadily increasing Muslim population, South Africa also decided not to co-sponsor the U.N. General Assembly resolution on Holocaust denial in January, and has joined in the chorus of those nations calling for the United States and the European Union to lift their sanctions on the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Though South Africa's Muslim community is small (just 1.5% of the population), it has become increasingly radicalized, and the ANC has done everything to appease it. In June of 2003, Mr. Pahad met with representatives of Hezbollah and legitimized the group by stating that "clear distinctions" ought be made "between terrorism and legitimate struggle for liberation." The ANC often lends credence to terrorism against Israel by likening the struggle of the Arabs to that of South Africa's nonwhites. Three years ago, Pakistani police captured three South Africans who stand accused of plotting to blow up the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and government buildings in Pretoria. Another South African has been arrested in connection to the July 7, 2005, London transit bombings, and earlier this year, the U.S. Treasury named two South African cousins as substantial financial contributors to al Qaeda. While the American government blocked them from making financial transactions in the U.S., South Africa's foreign minister attempted to use his country's new seat on the Security Council to block the terrorist-sponsoring designation from taking effect. And to top this all off, the ANC called for South Africans to "turn out in their thousands" the week of June 4 "in solidarity with the Palestinian people."

Ultimately, however, what ought to matter most to the international community is South Africa's increasingly outspoken role in legitimizing Iranian nuclear ambitions. And the U.S. has indeed shown concern: In response to the Iranian foreign minister's visit to South Africa last August (when South Africa again declared that Iran has an "inalienable right" to a peaceful nuclear energy program) the United States sent its permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency to Pretoria in hopes of convincing South Africa to take a harder line.

Given the complicated nature of South African-American relations due to the latter's inaction (and, at times, obstruction) in bringing down apartheid, it was understandable that Ambassador Gregory Schulte would attempt to win the South Africans over with flattery: "South Africa's example and leadership position you to help Iran's leaders to think hard about Iran's future and to consider two different models: The first, North Korea--nuclear-armed, but impoverished, isolated, insignificant; the second, South Africa--nuclear weapons-free, but secure, dynamic, and a respected player in your region and the world. The choice should be clear. You can help Iran's leaders make the right one." Nevertheless, South Africa has remained credulous of Iranian protestations about the supposedly civilian purpose of its nuclear program. Indeed, its representative to the U.N. recently told South Africa's Sunday Times that "We will . . . defend the right of countries to have nuclear technology for peaceful uses. For instance, Iran."

South Africa's friendliness toward Iran has apparently increased in proportion to its emergence as a considerable player on the world stage. In March, serving in its temporary role as Security Council president, South Africa attempted to halt the imposition of a new round of sanctions on Iran for its defiance of IAEA mandates. The sanctions, proposed by the unusual alliance of the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany, instituted an arms embargo and asset freeze--both of which South Africa fought to remove from the resolution, and, barring that, to postpone until after a 90-day "time out" period. Although the Security Council's five veto powers overruled South Africa's attempts at watering down the resolution, France's U.N. ambassador told the Associated Press that South Africa's diplomatic maneuvering had nonetheless "weakened a lot of the resolution."

That South Africa would support Iran is partly a matter of oil politics: Iran supplies almost half the oil South Africa uses. Two years ago, the Iranians claimed that they had entered into talks with South Africa about the latter's supplying them with unprocessed uranium for enrichment purposes, a claim the South African government later denied. But South African sympathy for Iran clearly goes deeper than mere trade links. For instance, South Africa has recently found itself in a situation similar to Iran's as it debates whether or not to proceed once again with a uranium enrichment program for "peaceful purposes." Perhaps, then, the South Africans believe they will be labeled hypocrites for demanding greater scrutiny of Iranian activity while simultaneously sponsoring an enrichment program of their own.

Yet the issue with Iran, at least, has never been uranium enrichment per se. Rather, it has been transparency and intent. No one seriously believes that South Africa's motives in potential uranium enrichment would be nefarious, and that South Africa--for the most part a good international citizen--would hinder any sort of outside inspection effort of its facilities. The same can hardly be said of Iran. As the Johannesburg Star recently advised the South African government, "Sometimes you have to get off the fence and take sides." When it comes to Iran, a democratic country like South Africa ought to know which side to take.

Increasingly an influential force behind South Africa's power plays in the world arena is Ronnie Kasrils, the country's minister of intelligence and possibly the highest-ranking Jewish official in any government outside of Israel. A veteran of the antiapartheid struggle, Mr. Kasrils fled the country at the cusp of 25 and spent the next 27 years in exile as a leader of the ANC's military wing. Though the vast majority of South African Jews--safely ensconced within that country's privileged white community--did little to fight apartheid, Mr. Kasrils was one of the Jews who, in disproportionate numbers, took an active role in opposing the racist system (in addition to being one of the Jews who, also in disproportionate numbers, joined the Communist Party). Mr. Kasrils is also a vocal anti-Zionist and Israel's most outspoken critic in South Africa. He, like other high-ranking ANC figures, appears to believe that Iranian intentions are ultimately benign, and that Israel is in fact the major source of aggression and instability in the region. The prism of Mr. Kasrils's views on the Middle East provides the necessary context for understanding the ANC leadership's views on international affairs.

In early September of this year, Mr. Kasrils wrote of Israel in the weekly Mail & Guardian that "we must call baby killers 'baby killers,' and declare that those using methods reminiscent of the Nazis be told that they are behaving like Nazis." This article was published mere days before Mr. Kasrils ventured to Tehran to glorify Hezbollah. A few months prior, Mr. Kasrils joined some 70 South African Jews in a statement published in several of the country's newspapers declaring that, "Jewish support for Israel aggression kills humanity." Not surprisingly, Mr. Kasrils supports boycotting the Jewish state, endorses a "one-state solution" that would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish state, and frequently lends credence to the "Israel is an apartheid state" meme.

Mr. Kasrils's stance on Israel has become so egregious that Helen Suzman, a prominent secular Jew who served 36 years in Parliament as an opponent--sometimes the only one--of apartheid, has written that "it is not only religious Jews who object to Kasrils's allegations. The issue is the anti-Semitism fostered by Kasrils's pronouncements." In May of this year, Mr. Kasrils invited Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader and prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, to South Africa. Of the invitation, the South African Board of Jewish Deputies released a statement reading: "Expressing support for an organization whose very founding charter describes the Jewish people as evil enemies of humanity and calls for its total annihilation, fundamentally contradicts the ideals both of South Africa and of the ruling ANC itself."

Joel Pollak, currently a student at Harvard Law School and a former speechwriter for the opposition Democratic Alliance, is a knowledgeable observer of Mr. Kasrils, having written a master's thesis on his relations with South Africa's Jewish community, which currently numbers between 70,000 and 80,000. It is not, Mr. Pollak maintains, Mr. Kasrils's extreme views that most upset South African Jews, but rather the way in which Mr. Kasrils advances them. "Kasrils, unlike Tony Judt, has political power," he told me. He went on to explain that Mr. Kasrils's attacks on Israel--and South African Jews, as well, for their alleged complicity in Israeli "war crimes"--echo the not so subtle warnings issued to Jews in the early 1960s by Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, who cautioned that Jewish support for the antiapartheid Progressive Party might inspire a wave of government-sanctioned anti-Semitism.

Though Mr. Pollak says there is no doubt that Mr. Kasrils believes the things he says about Israel (his unwavering communism, for instance, helps account for much of his anti-Zionist ideology), he has cynically used his Jewishness--a trait he rarely ever acknowledges, except when criticizing Israel--to curry favor within the ranks of the ANC, where anti-imperialism is still in vogue, however outdated. Mr. Kasrils "knows that because he's a white minister in an intensely racially nationalistic cabinet, he's very vulnerable," Mr. Pollak concludes. Thus, by so publicly going after his own relatively miniscule minority community of Jews, Mr. Kasrils proves his leftist, Third Worldist bona fides to the ANC elite. And if his rise in prominence within the party is any indication, the ANC certainly approves of Mr. Kasrils's frequent Israel-bashing: In 2004, he was appointed intelligence minister from his former post as minister of water affairs and forestry.

Mr. Kasrils, characteristic of the South African communists who were catapulted into power while their ideological fatherland crumbled, is unrepentant about the Cold War. In his self-congratulatory memoir, "Armed and Dangerous," he writes, "Whatever the drawbacks and failures I am convinced that in years to come humanity will look back to Soviet achievements as a source of profound inspiration." He blames the defeat of the Soviet system on those in power who were affected by a "fatal loss of confidence and will" and he writes admiringly of Che Guevara and "other communist heroes."

Many people might prefer to wave Mr. Kasrils off as a harmless crank from a bygone generation. But as minister of intelligence, Mr. Kasrils is instrumental in shaping South Africa's approach to dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat. As Mr. Pollak observes, "South Africa is now the only state in the democratic world aside from Venezuela, maybe, that is standing behind Iran on everything." So, too, is Mr. Kasrils integral to South Africa's treatment of the Zimbabwe problem: In the spring of 2005, not long after Mugabe uprooted 700,000 of the country's poorest citizens from their homes in a move reminiscent of apartheid governments' forced relocations of poor blacks to "independent homelands" in the barren countryside, Mr. Kasrils signed a military agreement with Zimbabwe, declaring that "the liberation struggles of Southern Africa and the resultant shedding of blood for a common cause . . . cemented our cooperation on the way forward in the development of our respective countries."

The source of the ANC's kid-gloves treatment of totalitarians is undoubtedly its historic skepticism, even downright hostility, toward the West. This viewpoint solidified during the apartheid years, when it was the Soviet Union that supplied the ANC with weapons and issued diplomatic broadsides against the United States and Britain for their cozy relations with the apartheid regime. Today, the ANC rules South Africa not by itself, but as part of the fabled "tripartite alliance" that it legally formed with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the early 1990s after these opposition movements were legalized by the apartheid government. Herein lies much of the problem.

To its credit, the ANC's left wing has been its most insistent internal critic on Zimbabwe (largely because Mugabe has crushed his country's independent trade unions). Nonetheless, anachronistic "anti-imperialist" ideology still fills the heads of those in the highest echelons of the party. Only compounding matters, both the COSATU and the SACP are "rabidly anti-Israel," as a South African Jewish community leader told me, viewing Israel as America's mouthpiece in the region. Moreover, while the ANC has supported liberal macroeconomic policies (to the delight of both domestic and international business), this is due to economic necessity rather than an ideological commitment to free markets. Indeed, the ANC has long been suspicious of Western intentions, to the point of paranoia, and nowhere has this been more apparent than in the attitudes of many high-ranking ANC figures on the supposed "Western" approaches to HIV (such as the belief that it actually causes AIDS) and Zimbabwe.

The ANC has always featured communists in its ranks, and while some members were fervently opposed to left-wing totalitarianism, they never reached anything approaching critical mass. Indeed, those liberal antiapartheid movements and activists who were just as outspoken in their opposition to communism as they were to racial discrimination--such as the novelist Alan Paton, leader of the short-lived Liberal Party; Helen Suzman of the Progressive Party; and the English-language press--have notoriously been maligned by ANC apparatchiks as handmaidens to apartheid. Consequently, a history of antitotalitarianism--a strong, bipartisan current in American politics, shaped by the Cold War experience--simply does not exist in South Africa. Instead, fuzzy leftover notions of "anti-imperialism" dominate the political discourse of influential ANC leaders.

South Africa's coddling of Iran, then, must be seen as of a piece with its deferral of responsibility as concerns Zimbabwe, its following of the Chinese cue on Burma, and its siding with the Palestinians. All of these decisions are undergirded by a long-established and deeply rooted uncertainty, if not downright antagonism, toward the West.

Of course, this bleak picture just painted should not obscure the many admirable developments on the continent in which South Africa has played a leading role. It oversaw, for instance, the transformation of the Organization for African Unity, for too long a group that legitimized the kleptocratic tendencies of its member states, into the African Union, which, however weak, has at least deployed several thousand peacekeepers to Darfur. And with the largest and most professional military on the continent, South Africa has also deployed peacekeeping troops in Congo, Ivory Coast and Burundi. Despite his faults (and they are many), Mr. Mbeki is a dedicated internationalist who envisions his country playing a robust, leading role on a continent that could learn much from South Africa's democratic liberalism, political stability and economic vitality.

But creeping anti-American and anti-Israel sentiments seem to have bubbled up from under the surface of South African political discourse. Indeed, they have now become an ideological underpinning of South Africa's foreign policy. The American political and media establishment looks askance at this development as, at least on its face, it pales in comparison to the actual human misery that is so widespread on the continent. Moreover, there is little that America or its allies can do to "punish" South Africa for its waywardness; on the contrary, the United States relies heavily on South Africa to be the continental, never mind regional, hegemon, and isolating Pretoria might imperil America's many other initiatives in Africa.

For decades, the international community rightly considered South Africa a pariah state. With the fall of apartheid, South Africa earned the unique right to be a clarion voice for freedom and human rights around the world. What a shame, then, that the ANC pursues policies hearkening back to its country's discredited past.

Mr. Kirchick is assistant to the editor in chief of The New Republic.

233) Qualidade da educação: um tema relevante

Hanushek on Educational Quality and Economic Growth
EconLib, August 06, 2007
Featuring Eric Hanushek

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Eric Hanushek talks about his research on the impact of educational quality on economic growth. Past efforts to increase the economic growth rate of poor countries have focused on years of schooling, neglecting the quality and true education that needs to take place. Hanushek presents dramatic findings about the decisive nature of cognitive ability and knowledge in driving economic growth. Join us as Hanushek talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his findings and the implications for public policy around the world and in the United States.
Listen to this podcast.
Play button Play time: 1:03:09 min.
Download button (Right-click or Option-click, and select "Save Link/Target As") MP3. File size: 29.0 MB.
Printed pages graphic.Readings and Links related to this podcast:

About this week's guest:
o Eric Hanushek's Home page

About ideas and people mentioned in this podcast:
Articles: + "The Role of Education Quality in Economic Growth", by Eric Hanushek and Ludger Wößmann. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4122, February 2007.
+ "The Effects of Education Quality on Income Growth and Mortality Decline", by Eliot A. Jamison, Dean T. Jamison, and Eric A. Hanushek. Economics of Education Review, October 2006.
+ "Human Capital", by Gary Becker. Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
+ Theodore Schultz. Biography in the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
+ "Economic Growth", by Paul M. Romer. Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
+ "Public Schools", by John E. Chubb. Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.

Web Pages:
+ OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Background on the PISA Test.
+ Mexico: GDP per capita annual growth rate. Globalis, United Nations University. Also: "GDP Growth, Potential Output, and Output Gaps in Mexico", by Ebrima Faal. IMF Working Paper, May 2005.
+ Chile's Social Security Lesson For The U.S., by José Piñera. Cato Institute, December 17, 1998.

Podcasts and Blogs:
+ Making Schools Better: A Conversation with Rick Hanushek. Podcast on EconTalk, July 24, 2006.

232) Vladimir Putin: glorificando o passado comunista da URSS

Poutine réhabilite le passé communiste
De notre envoyée spéciale à Moscou
LAURE MANDEVILLE.
Le Figaro, le 02 août 2007

La Russie de Vladimir Poutine semble tentée de puiser dans l'époque soviétique une forme de légitimité et de continuité.

Au nom du "patriotisme", les autorités poussent à la resoviétisation de l'histoire du pays, au risque de perpétuer les méthodes criminelles du régime communiste. Enquête.

UN VENT révisionniste souffle sur la Russie poutinienne et son rapport à l'histoire communiste. Preuve que, comme disait Orwell, « rien n'est plus imprévisible que le passé ». Lors d'une rencontre avec des spécialistes de sciences humaines en juin, Vladimir Poutine a jugé que l'histoire de l'URSS avait eu « moins de pages noires que celle des États-Unis » et que les répressions staliniennes avaient été « moins terribles » que la guerre au Vietnam ou le nazisme. « Nous n'avons pas utilisé d'armes nucléaires contre la population civile », a-t-il dit en allusion au bombardement d'Hiroshima par les Américains, ajoutant que la Russie n'avait « pas arrosé d'agents chimiques des milliers de kilomètres carrés » comme ce fut le cas au Vietnam. « Nos pages noires n'étaient pas si terribles... », a insisté le président qui, au nom d'un étrange relativisme historique, prône une approche « patriotique » de l'histoire.

Le message est clair. Plus question de condamner le totalitarisme communiste et ses millions de morts, comme le souhaitait son prédécesseur Boris Eltsine qui avait rêvé d'un procès de Nuremberg du communisme, avant d'y renoncer fin 1992 sous la pression de la nomenklatura ex-soviétique. Loin de vouloir exorciser les démons totalitaires, la Russie de Poutine semble au contraire tentée de puiser dans le passé communiste une forme de légitimité et de continuité, au risque d'en perpétuer les méthodes criminelles.

On voit aujourd'hui ressurgir des méthodes oubliées. Exemple : le subit internement, il y a quatre jours, de la journaliste russe Larissa Arap, punie d'avoir osé dénoncer les mauvais traitements infligés à des enfants dans un hôpital psychiatrique. La Russie n'a d'ailleurs jamais fait son mea culpa quant à l'utilisation répressive de ce type d'établissements par l'URSS. De même, films et livres « patriotiques » sous-estimant les crimes de Staline pour souligner son rôle de vainqueur du nazisme font fureur. Chaque année, le « jour du tchékiste » (nom historique des officiers de la police secrète) est célébré avec la participation du président, alors que le 70e anniversaire de la terrible année 1937 ne fait l'objet d'aucune manifestation officielle.

L'inquiétude des scientifiques est tangible

Venant de Vladimir Poutine, ex-officier du KGB et admirateur du fondateur des services secrets communistes, Félix Dzerjinski, dont il a apporté un buste au Kremlin à son arrivée, ce mouvement de balancier est peu étonnant. Le président russe n'a-t-il pas déclaré un jour que l'effondrement de l'URSS avait été « la plus grande catastrophe du XXe siècle » ? Mais ce retour en arrière traduit aussi l'état d'esprit général d'une population orpheline du rêve communiste. « La Russie ne parvient pas à faire face au passé, c'est trop tôt, trop passionnel », souligne le politologue Fedor Loukianov.

Cette passion sanctuarise l'histoire communiste. Elle est en train de détruire l'élan de la remarquable « révolution des archives » qui avait soufflé sur la discipline sous Gorbatchev et Eltsine. Au siège de Mémorial, une ONG vouée à la mémoire des victimes du communisme, l'inquiétude est tangible. Dans des couloirs encombrés de papiers, dont l'ambiance familiale rappelle l'époque des dissidents, un petit groupe d'historiens poursuit son travail surhumain de classification de millions de victimes sur d'émouvantes petites fiches. L'organisation a conscience d'être désormais perçue comme un ennemi. « Nous sommes traités comme des marginaux qui remuent de mauvais souvenirs et divisent la nation », soupire l'historien Nikita Petrov.

Le Fonds pour la démocratie de feu Alexandre Iakovlev, numéro deux du Politburo sous Gorbatchev, a lui aussi été écarté du débat public, même s'il continue la publication d'archives inédites sur les grands crimes du communisme (plus de cinquante volumes déjà publiés). Déjà, de son vivant, Iakovlev, seul hiérarque soviétique à s'être repenti publiquement pour son appartenance à « l'organisation criminelle du PCUS », avait été accusé par certains d'être « un traître ». Sa fille poursuit son oeuvre de mémoire presque en catimini.

Autre exemple : l'ancien directeur de l'Institut des archives, Iouri Afanassiev, qui avait créé l'Université humanitaire de Moscou, a dû quitter son poste en 2006, pour avoir accepté d'être financé par l'ex-pétrolier Mikhaïl Khodorkovski, aujourd'hui incarcéré en Sibérie. « Les pressions ne sont pas directes, on fait comprendre qu'il vaut mieux s'en aller... », affirme l'historien Nikita Petrov, qui note « un accès de plus en plus restreint aux archives » et le retour d'« une histoire mythologique ».

Le même pessimisme gagne le cinéaste Nikolaï Dostal, qui constate que « de nombreux films restent en souffrance s'ils ne collent pas avec l'idéologie patriotique ». Son dernier film sur la vie du grand écrivain des camps Varlam Chalamov, reflet terrifiant du siècle de Lénine, a toutefois été diffusé en prime time en juin à la télévision.

« Aucune pression du pouvoir »

Les optimistes en déduisent que les choses ne sont pas si catastrophiques. Au Fonds de l'étranger russe, notamment, une étonnante institution créée sous le patronage d'Alexandre Soljenitsyne, on se dit confiant. « Qui aurait pu imaginer qu'un centre rendant à la Russie la mémoire de son émigration blanche puisse voir le jour ! », s'enthousiasme le directeur Viktor Moskvine.

Dans un bel immeuble mis à disposition par la mairie de Moscou, des milliers de pièces d'archives sont en train de revenir, notamment de France. Le Fonds, qui a sa propre maison d'édition, est devenu une ruche intellectuelle qui permet de reconstruire le puzzle de l'aventure humaine et politique des émigrés, un pan d'histoire dont la Russie avait été amputée. « Nous ne sentons aucune pression du pouvoir, au contraire », assure Moskvine. Il est vrai que le patronage d'Alexandre Soljenitsyne assure au Fonds une légitimité « patriotique » aux yeux du Kremlin. L'écrivain a été décoré en juin par Poutine. Ce n'est pas le moindre paradoxe que de voir ce grand adversaire du totalitarisme communiste se retrouver aux côtés d'un pouvoir russe qui resoviétise son histoire.