Anglican Communion News Service

International Debt: Hope from Brazil?

1. The international Debt is an issue of social justice, freedom and life. More than 50% of the population of Latin America live below the poverty line. By the year 2000 the poor will be 57% of our population. Today, 44% of the population suffer from malnutrition. 54% make a living in the so called "informal economy", without any social protection. More than 10 million are unemployed. There are millions of people living in slums favelas) which are truly nests of street children! These number more than 10 million! About 3,000 children die daily from problems linked to malnutrition. The explosion of violence in Latin America is well known and is especially dramatic when we look at the statistics from Brazil: every 4 hours a person is killed by Police! This explosion of violence is a direct result of poverty. More than a third of our total population is becoming increasingly impoverished. But the media, which is controlled by the Government, manipulates the population with its power.

2. 20 million people are without land. This is aggravated by a general social inequality, an impunity for past crimes against whole populations, and the current general corruption... As you see there is a tremendous social debt where the level of unemployment grows everyday to the point where today it is at a most critical stage.

3. Is there a Hope from Brazil? No, there k a hope. More than a hope, there are challenges! The challenge is to put an end to this form of slavery in which we are controlled by the rich countries.

4. Brazil is a medieval society. The dominant social structure still includes a "feudal lord" who has all the power and controls everything. The feudal lord is not a single individual. By feudal lord I mean "a clan, who works as "a family" (Cosa Nostra) a "mafia" which reigns through "provisional laws" surrounded by corruption at many levels, supported by a powerful Media.

5. What is the history of our Debt? I suppose you know about it. It began with the Brazil Empire, in the beginnings of the 19th Century, when the King of Portugal arrived in Brazil, supported by the British Navy... and the debt grew a lot with the construction of Brasilia, the Federal capital in the 1950's. At that time, all the Pension Funds, for example, were officially stolen by the Government in order to construct a new capital city (a house) for those in power.

6. Well, there is a hope. There are challenges! How to begin? How to stimulate and to provoke the necessary changes? We need "to begin with small things; it will be a great thing "'! (according to St. Augustine of Hippo).

7. We don't see hope coming from the privileged classes ("the elite") neither do we see hope arising from the slums. The power is so strong that it corrupts almost all who gain power! The hope comes from the "salt", the "grain of mustard seed". From the authentic leaders. From the awakened people. From the kind of people that we are yearning and searching for. From an obedient Church. From an education to form and promote the citizens of the land, Because at present we don't have real citizens: we have vassals, subjects, dependents...Education which means a process where we need to eat an elephant! How will we do it? Archbishop Desmond Tutu taught us: - "We can eat an elephant piece by piece..." As a matter of fact cannot we think of Don Quixote de La Mancha, the great literary figure of the Spanish writer Miguel Cervantes, who tried to face a wind mill with a lance.

8. The utopia in the minds of our people in Brazil is win the lottery... We must give them a new goal through education and example... It means that we must strive to establish an educational process before, during and after the year 2,000. More than another Utopia, we must offer to our people a topia.

9. We have already re-paid the external debt through the payment of interest... This is a fact which you can understand with the help of specialists in this field... And now it is time for the Jubilee! But the cancelling of the Debt of developing countries should be done with the educational process I have spoken about, as well as something in more concrete terms, like the adoption of a mechanism for the control of cancelling the debt and some important principles (nine principles) that will determine future relations between rich and poor, contributing in this way to peace, stability and prosperity. The Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Southern Africa (The Most Revd Winston Ndungane) spoke about these principles as Southwark Cathedral, on 24 April, this year.

10. Let's go together to globa1ize the solidarity, where human beings have more value than property. We are on the doorstep of the next 1,000 years of humanity. Let's go forward! We are called to be the midwives of a new global society.