Dilma to the Legislature– A Few Promises
3 Feb
PROMISES
1. The PAC2 stands for the Program for Growth Acceleration 2, and it’s not a midnight TV infomercial. It’s government’s gimmicky excuse to spend lots of money, $955 billion Reales over the next four years, or close to $600 billion U.S. The Program is for national development—highways, hydro-electricity projects, school and hospital building—the stuff you would expect a government to spend its money on anyways. We just hope there is transparency in what is spent. Anecdotal evidence tells us no: the PAC website makes no mention of the Program’s commitment to transparency, and there is more than one article and blog on the Program’s lack of transparency.
2. $________ . A minimum floor for teacher salaries. In Korea teachers are considered nation builders. But teacher’s in Brazil must find it difficult to build nations when they earn under $600 US a month, especially when working conditions are dreadful. You get what you pay for; students typically don’t stick around: in 2006 the average Brazilian spent just over 7 years in formal schooling. The minimum floor would be set around $1000R (~$600).
3. Tax Reform…no details given, but a goal that has eluded previous presidents.
4. International Disaster Prevention System…a response to the recent mudslides and the yearly disasters caused by erosion, rain, and bad building locations.
A FEW THINGS SAID
-Dilma called Brazil’s new oil finds the country’s ”passport to the future”. That’s what Nigeria, Venezuela and Libya said when they found oil. Let’s hope so.
-28 million people stepped over the poverty line in the past 8 years. Huge advance.
Greg,
Any thoughts on if (and why or why not) Brazil will handle the oil windfall better than Nigeria, Libya, and particularly Venezuela? It seems to me that democracy has a stronger foothold in Brazil than in the other 3, but I am far from an expert on these things.
Venezuela was considered the most stable democracy in Latin America for a long time, although in truth it was an elite-pact quasi-democracy. There is still some “quasi” in Brazil’s democracy, but you’re right, Brazil is on a far more stable footing than these other (exaggerated) examples.