www.brazzil.com Joanne Blaney

Once again Brazilians are commemorating International Women's Day. There isn't that much to celebrate though. Among the problems plaguing women are high unemployment, low wages, gender inequality, machismo, violence, and prostitution.

International Women's Day (3/8) has been strongly commemorated throughout Brazil since the early 1970's. The focus of this day is to celebrate advances in equality for women and to focus on struggles within the context of eliminating all discrimination against women. The date is incorporated in the national calendar reaffirming the necessity to educate society in respect to equal rights between women and men as well as to formulate public policies that guarantee women's rights.

Advances in women's rights have been made throughout the years; however, much remains to be done to achieve true equality for women. This year, many groups are emphasizing key issues such as employment, health, merchandising of women's bodies, gender equality, eliminating violence against women, and being a voice for peace and against war.

Employment and Gender Equality

The concentration of wealth in Brazil is well documented—the richest 10 percent of the population possess 50 percent of the income; the poorest 50 percent of the population have less than 10 percent of the income. This concentration of wealth is also connected to sex and race. Women now constitute 41 percent of the economically active population in Brazil. However, according to a 2002 study, men earn 29.2 percent higher salaries than women for the same work.

More than one-half of women workers are in the informal sector receiving even lower salaries. Women are employed in manual and repetitive work which contributes to health problems while jobs in technology and information areas are reserved mostly for men. Unemployment of women grew 7.2 percent between 2001-2002 and has now reached 22.3 percent. This social inequality also shows itself strongly in the areas of inadequate housing, education, and day care centers for women.

Brazil has the second highest population of African descendants in the world, numerically lower only to the country of Nigeria in Africa. Afro-Brazilian women, on the average, receive a 40 percent lower salary than white women. Women are more likely to be poor than men and an Afro-Brazilian women over the age of 60 is three times more likely to be poor and 4 times more likely to be indigent than other women of the same age.

Workers' rights continue to be weakened. Law #9.032/95 (2002) reduced workers' compensation. Employers may now report a work accident or work-related illness as a common sickness. This releases the employer from obligations connected to worker compensation. Another effect is the lack of legal notification of worker-related accidents or illness. This has serious implications for women. The number of accidents at work has greatly increased among women because of the repetitive, and at times, dangerous work that they do. The weakness of workers' rights means even lower salaries and lack of rights in part-time work for women.

The 2002 national plebiscite against the Free Trade Act of the Americas (ALCA) indicated a strong rejection of Brazilians to the proposed treaty and showed strong support for a model of development that guarantees Brazil's sovereignty and equality. Women's groups, in particular, are concerned about the effect of ALCA in exploiting women even more in the area of employment. The privatization of services that would result from ALCA would make health and education less accessible to women and generate more exclusion and discrimination.

Half of the Brazilian population that lives in the rural area are women. According to the Minister of Agrarian Development (MDA), only 11 percent of the titles to land are in the name of women. MDA is working to eliminate discrimination against women and increase micro-credits to women in the Northeast so that they may remain on the land with their families. Thirty percent of leadership slots in MDA organizations are now reserved for women.

According to the Brazilian Electoral Tribunal, 50.8 percent of the electorate is composed of women. In the 2002 election, 43 women were elected to the Federal Congress resulting in a 48 percent increase since the 1998 elections. There was a 25 percent increase of women state and district representatives. The Workers' Party had the greatest increase in the number of women elected across the country. Women are occupying more and more public space but are still far from having political power due to machismo.

Health Issues

In 2000, the World Health Organization's analysis of health conditions in 191 countries, indicated Brazil in 125th place because of precarious or nonexistent health services. Especially for women the situation is serious. Where they exist, most health posts lack medical personnel and proper equipment.

Maternal mortality rates are very high as compared to other countries. The latest statistics indicate that 110 women die for every 100,000 infants born. Millions of women do not have access to prenatal programs or competent assistance at the moment of the birth of their babies. There is a lack of emergency services to aid women suffering from hemorrhages, eclampsia (caused by high blood pressure), and infections in the post-delivery period. There continue to be a large number of caesarian birth as well as insufficient hospital beds.

In Brazil, the number of women between the ages of 45 and 64 with hypertension has grown significantly since the 1980's. A recent study indicated that in Salvador, state of Bahia, there is one woman with hypertension for every 2 men as compared to one woman to 6 men in France or Finland.

AIDS is now a major cause of death of Brazilian women between the ages of 15-49 years. The growth of HIV contamination cases is greatest in married women infected by their husbands. In 1985, one woman was HIV contaminated as compared to 25. In only 4 years, between 1994-1998, the number of women contaminated grew 9 times more than men and continues to grow.

Violence and Sexual Exploitation

According to the latest statistics of Foundation Perseu Abramo, every 15 seconds a woman is beaten in Brazil and 43 percent of Brazilian women suffer domestic violence. Domestic violence is also an indirect cause of high maternal mortality rates. There are only 47 houses throughout the entire country to protect victims of domestic violence. Machismo and impunity of aggressors continue to be root forces contributing to the increase in violence against women. Women's groups are working to change the laws that allow for impunity and to improve the women's police stations in the country that deal with domestic violence cases.

According to Unicef (2002), 100,000 women and children are sexually exploited commercially in Brazil. They are taken through Manaus to Venezuela, through Suriname to Holland, or through Argentina to Spain. Some also remain in Brazil and are moved from state to state in order not to be found. The exploiters of these women and children are men, of whom 68 percent are Brazilians, a majority being lawyers, businessmen, police, politicians and employees of the judicial branch of the government.

The neoliberal model with its high levels of female unemployment and absence of economic and financial perspectives for women as well as the daily merchandising of women's bodies by the media has increased prostitution and trafficking in women.

(Sources: National Brazilian Report: CEDAW Convention to Eliminate all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (2002); Policies for Women: National Council of Rights of Women and the Secretary of State for Women's Rights, 2002; SOF Newsletters: Women and Health, 2001-2003)

Joanne Blaney, an American Maryknoll missioner and former elementary school teacher and principal, works in Brazil with women who are prostitutes, prisoners or victims of domestic violence. You can contact her writing to sejup1@alternex.com.br 

This material was supplied by Sejup, which has its own Internet site: www.oneworld.net

asia.reuters.com Tue March 4, 2003 09:10 AM ET By Todd Benson

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Rio de Janeiro's famed Carnival parade came to a close at dawn on Tuesday after tons of body glitter and 20 hours of samba dazzled millions of viewers in Brazil and beyond.

Under threat from drug gangs that terrorized Rio last week, the two-day competition between 14 samba schools took place under its heaviest security as 3,000 army troops were called in to back up 30,000 police safeguarding the city.

It was the first time the army had to be deployed to help keep the city safe during the annual bash. It is an anything goes farewell to sin, ushering in the 40 days of Lent before Easter in this predominantly Catholic nation of 170 million people.

But the fears of violence and the military presence did little to spoil the party, which was expected to attract some 400,000 out-of-town visitors, including 4,000 foreigners. It was also broadcast live to millions in Brazil and abroad.

"You don't think you're going to make it, and then you hear all those people screaming and you get another burst of energy and just keep going," said an exhausted Larry Karpen, a 34-year-old music producer from New York City. He spent $125 to don a costume and parade before 70,000 cheering fans in Rio's massive "Sambadrome" stadium.

Decked out in elaborate, shimmering costumes, or as little as possible to avoid breaking the no-nudity rule, thousands of revelers in each samba school parade down a 700-yard (meter) runway backed by a thundering drum section and giant floats.

Each group is made up of about 4,000 people, many of whom have spent months rehearsing, and has 80 minutes to finish the course. They are judged on criteria including music, percussion, costumes, floats, originality and enthusiasm.

This year's themes ranged from Brazil's African roots to its other national pastime, soccer, paying tribute to the country's fifth World Cup title last year. One of the biggest crowd pleasers was the Beija-Flor samba school, which used the event to denounce the poverty and violence so common in Brazil.

Beija-Flor's floats depicted smoky visions of hell, a violent car-jacking, hungry prisoners in squalid jail cells and, at the end, a massive likeness of Brazil's popular new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula has promised to fight hunger and bridge the country's gaping income disparities.

"What we're telling is the story of humanity, and to do that we have to talk about what's going on in Brazil," said Beija-Flor's director, who is known simply as Laila.

Although purists complain that Carnival has become too commercial as companies sponsor schools in exchange for what they say are thinly veiled ads disguised as samba themes, those who participate in the parade swear it is a one-of-a-kind experience.

"It was my first time but it won't be my last. I adored it," gushed Thais Nogueira, a 23-year-old drag queen and "Miss Gay Brazil" who paraded with the Unidos da Tijuca school.

The winning school will be announced on Ash Wednesday, when the festivities across the country officially come to a close.

Some sporadic violence flared in the streets outside the Sambadrome and in the vibrant block parties that take place throughout Rio, which is as well known for its high crime rates as it is its breathtaking scenery.

During the first night of parading, six people were shot and one was killed by police outside the stadium after thieves swept through the area and assaulted passers-by. One American tourist was shot in the leg over the weekend while being mugged, but has since been released from the hospital.

Still, the incidents were nothing close to the coordinated attacks that rocked the city last week, when drug gangs torched buses, threw firebombs at apartment buildings and shot at police posts. Eleven people died in the violence.

"I think people forgot about the violence and focused on samba," said Marcos Antonio, a 37-year-old Rio native.

news.ft.com By Raymond Colitt Published: March 4 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: March 4 2003 4:00

In four attempts over the last 14 years to win presidential elections, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was seen as too radical to govern Brazil. Now that he is in office, he is concerned at being seen as too conservative.

Having run on a platform of far-reaching social and economic change, Mr Lula da Silva has come under fire from critics on either extreme of the political arena. Austere economic policies including tough budget cuts and tight monetary policy, they say, are a continuation of the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, his social democratic predecessor.

In response, Mr Lula da Silva has gone out of his way in recent weeks to justify economic austerity and explain that his plans for a more equitable society will take time. Behind the message is an attempt to manage enormous expectations and sustain his popularity.

Last week the Lula da Silva administration fired back at critics with an advertising campaign on national television and radio that sought to justify his gradualist approach during the first two months in office. Comparing Mr Lula da Silva's reform plan with the restoration of a house, a young actress against the backdrop of a Brazilian flag said: "You cannot tear down all the old walls at once. You need a lot of patience and care." The one-minute television spot continued: "President Lula's commitment is not with haste but profound change with security and serenity."

Earlier in the week, Mr Lula da Silva sought to rebuff criticism that too much debate within his government was delaying proposals for structural reforms. "Structural reform will happen but it's like harvesting fruit," he said. "You cannot be hurried and pick it while it is still green. The people will taste it, not like it and spit it out."

During an unusual visit to Congress in February, Mr Lula da Silva sought to blame recent interest rate rises and draconian budget cuts on the threat of war in Iraq. Yet in the attempt, the Brazilian president sounded more of a continuity man than an agent of change, repeating almost verbatim the same justification Mr Cardoso had given Congress in 1999.

"Basically his words are the same as ours a few years ago," says Tasso Jereissati, a prominent senator in PSDB, the social democratic party. "I think it's great that Lula speaks our language," he mocks.

The PSDB launched its own media campaign, belittling Mr Lula da Silva's policies - particularly his flagship "zero hunger" social programme - as a continuation of their own. "The battle against hunger is not starting from zero," said José Anibal, PSDB president, in an advertisement also aired on national television. The PSDB's broadcast sought to showcase the party's achievements in education, housing and health during its eight years in government.

Radicals within Mr Lula da Silva's own Workers' party (PT) have been equally disappointed with their leader's about-face. A handful publicly criticised his choice of central bank chief, interest rate rises and reform plans to cut social security and labour benefits.

Mr Lula da Silva's public relations management in coming months will be the key to selling his ambitious legislative agenda to congress and the general public. For now, many are still giving him the benefit of the doubt and his new image as a moderate reformer seems to have worked for public opinion.

"The PT came into government with a number of untested projects and ideas but quickly had to adapt them to the adverse economic reality of the country," says Walder de Goes, a Brasilia-based political analyst. "It was inevitable this would trigger criticism but I think they are handling it well. I give Lula's honeymoon a year, which is more than many other presidents had."

www.sun-sentinel.com By Patrice M. Jones Foreign correspondent Posted March 4 2003

RECIFE, Brazil · The dimly lighted clubs and bustling bars where a tourist can pick up a young girl or boy for sex are widely known in Recife, a beach city in Brazil's impoverished northeast that has a reputation for prostitution.

Even on a quiet weeknight in the upscale Boa Viagem tourist district, girls as young as 12, teenage boys and young transvestites line up under the bright lights of the main thoroughfare, hoping for foreign customers.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made ending child prostitution one of his main campaign promises. But prostitution and the sexual exploitation of children are as old as Brazil, and in the sun-worshiping northeast, the world's oldest profession helps fuel the tourism industry.

Da Silva, who was born in Pernambuco state where Recife is the capital city, has begun a national campaign to stop child sexual exploitation. Leading up to the country's Carnival celebrations, which kicked off last week, the campaign has warned Brazilians and particularly foreign tourists that sexual exploitation of anyone younger than 18 is a crime.

"There is a lot of official marketing that says Brazil has lots of natural wonders, including beautiful women," said Lauro Monteiro, founder of a nonprofit organization that works with the government on child-protection issues.

"This is good for business, but I don't think tourism sold exclusively on this aspect is good," Monteiro said. "This marketing has led to the idea that people can do anything they want in Brazil -- that they can have women or children as conquests because people here are poor. We don't want this kind of tourist."

Some child-rights activists, who have long pushed the government for a crackdown, have argued that the annual Carnival festivities are at fault for helping create an image of Brazil as a place of decadence.

Because prostitution is a clandestine business, government officials do not know how many visitors come to patronize the sex trade or how many children are involved.

But even without numbers, the pervasiveness of the underground youth sex trade is evident in places such as Recife. There are well-known Internet sites where devotees of sex tourism talk about their experiences, suggest what clubs to visit, tell about prices and share other information on underage prostitutes.

Last month a major police sweep was launched in 19 states, resulting in the arrests of 52 child "exploiters" and 19 children taken into protective custody. Arrests of foreign tourists involved in buying sex from minors have been on the rise in recent weeks.

Starting this week, several nonprofit organizations nationwide are beginning a prevention campaign. Tourists and local residents will be given pamphlets in their native languages and greeted with posters in international airports and busy thoroughfares.

"The idea is [to] have police action but also prevention," National Secretary for Justice Claudia Chagas said.

Many activists say the social ills that cause Brazilian youth to end up on the streets are complex, and government programs that focus mainly on arrests will do nothing to shake the nation's biggest obstacle, poverty, which besets nearly one-third of the nation's 175 million residents. Many in the drought-stricken northeast are affected.

An often corrupt and weak police force and an overburdened and slow judicial system mean the crime of child sex abuse often goes unpunished, activists said. The maximum penalty for child exploitation is 10 years in prison.

Even with the high-profile arrests, child-rights activists say little has changed in the nightly entertainment on the streets of Recife.

A 15-year-old male prostitute who calls himself Catherine stood on a street corner in Recife waiting for his next client. He said his mother does not object to what he does because the money helps his family.

"This is the easiest way to earn money in this city. How else could I make this much money?" he asked, referring to the roughly $14 he earns from his mainly European clientele for one hour of work.

Patrice M. Jones writes for the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune Co. newspaper.

sg.biz.yahoo.com Tuesday March 4, 2:00 AM By Mike Esterl Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. stock and bond prices continue to part ways, but the divergence is proving far more dramatic in emerging markets.

Emerging market debt gained 3.6% in February, according to the J.P. Morgan Emerging Markets Bond Index Plus, pushing year-to-date returns to 5.5%. That easily outstrips profits posted in the U.S. sovereign debt market, which advanced 1.7% last month and is up 1.4% so far in 2003, according to the Lehman Brothers U.S. Treasury Bond Index.

Investors in emerging market equities, by contrast, had a rougher February than their domestic counterparts in the U.S. After a mild downturn in January, emerging market stocks fell 3.2% in dollar and local currency terms last month, worse than the 1.7% decline in U.S. equities, according to Morgan Stanley's MSCI index.

The latest data show that heady profits - and losses - are being booked in the volatile asset class again this year even as many global investors stick to the sidelines amid uncertainty over whether the U.S. will invade Iraq.

Market participants say the Iraqi overhang is stoking fears of another U.S.-led economic downturn amid a low-inflation environment, which is good news for bonds but bad news for stocks.

"The concern is about somewhat weaker growth. The concern is not about solvency," said Jose Barrioneuvo, head of emerging market strategy at Barclays Capital.

Brazilian bond prices, which plunged last year amid mounting solvency fears after neighboring Argentina defaulted on most of its $141 billion in public debts at the end of 2001, are rallying sharply this year, with bondholders posting a 7.5% return in February and 13% so far in 2003, according to J.P. Morgan's EMBI+.

Brazil's solvency concerns have been put on the back-burner in recent months, after the country secured a $30 billion emergency loan package from the International Monetary Fund last August. The new government has meanwhile been busily raising interest rates and preaching fiscal austerity since taking office Jan. 1 - all of which tends to stunt economic growth in the short term but is good for paying the bills.

Not surprisingly, investors in Brazilian equities aren't having as much fun as their fixed-income peers. The country's stocks dropped 4.1% in February and are down 8.1% in dollar terms so far this year, according to Morgan Stanley's MSCI. The numbers aren't much better in local currency terms, with prices in reals down 3.0% in February and off 7.3% in the year to date.

Emerging market stocks, hundreds of which trade on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, often take their cue from U.S. equities. Major U.S. stock indexes have posted three straight years of declines, casting a big shadow globally.

But while initial public offerings of emerging market shares have dried up since the Nasdaq bubble burst in early 2000, sovereign debt issuers continue to find a market. Mexico has issued $3 billion in sovereign debt in U.S. capital markets so far this year, and several smaller Latin American countries have also been able to issue new debt in January and February after a busy December.

In a survey of its emerging market fixed-income clients published last week, J.P. Morgan said cash balances fell to 3.1%, below a historic cash balance of 4.2%.

Even with Iraq-related uncertainties keeping investors generally wary, many global bond players are having a tough time turning down juicy yields at a time when U.S. Treasury spreads have narrowed to their lowest levels in decades.

Despite strong recent gains, emerging market bonds as a group are still trading at around 700 basis points above U.S. Treasurys. That means an investor can play it safe and earn a yield of less than 4% on 10-year Treasurys or take a chance on comparably dated emerging market paper that's paying close to 11%.

Nigerian bonds rallied 7.6% in February - the top performer in the EMBI+ - but still trade at a little more than 1500 basis points above Treasurys. The African country, which signaled last year it might skip some debt payments but stayed current in the end, is a major producer of oil, a hot commodity these days.

Anton Pil, head of fixed-income at JPMorgan Private Bank, said some investors are also viewing the U.S. corporate bond market as too pricey after debt spreads recently rallied to their tightest levels in half a year - providing further impetus for inflows into emerging market debt.

"I would expect to see that continue unless there's another significant increase in risk aversion, which isn't evident right now," said Pil, whose group advises high net-worth individuals.

As in the U.S., the disparity between the performance of bonds and stocks in emerging markets has a bit of a history. Emerging market bonds returned a whopping 14% last year, according to the EMBI+. Emerging market stocks, by contrast, dropped 8.0% in dollar terms and 9.1% in local currency terms in 2002, according to the MSCI.

Allan Conway, an emerging markets portfolio manager at WestAM, says his fund shifted some of its Brazilian equity allocations into debt last year to take advantage of attractive bond valuations.

WestAM remains cautious on Brazilian equities. But it continues to see interesting opportunities in the country's bonds, as President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva toes a tight fiscal line and Brazil's ratio of debt to gross domestic product slips back below 60%.

"It's certainly not inconceivable seeing spreads contract by another 100 or 200 (basis points) if (Lula) keeps doing the right things," said Conway, who's based in London.

Brazilian debt was trading hands at 1163 basis points over U.S. Treasurys on Monday, according to the EMBI+.

-By Mike Esterl, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-4026; mike.esterl@dowjones.com