Inequality driving violence

In the last 2 decades the violence in Brazil has increased exponentially. The social tension created by the enormous economical gap between the poorest and most vulnerable portion of the population and the upper class has reached its boiling point causing a sinister development. According to the Brazilian law, children are protected until they are 18 years-old and any crimes committed before this age does not bring any serious consequences to the children or teenagers. Exploring loops in the law, adults employ under-age teenagers to commite violent crimes knowing that they cannot be touched by the Justice.

Nowadays in Brazil the society is hostage of criminals that are running free on the streets meanwhile the population ironically lives in fear behind bars and high walls. It is almost common place to read in the news about a violent crime that has been committed by an under-age member of a group of criminals. The story is always the same, apart from minor changes on the characters names. Do not be mistaken, this is not mere coincidence, adults are responsible for the planning and execution of robberies, drug running, rapes and murders but instead of taking responsibility for the crimes the perpetrators pass on the blame to a minor in his gang, who is protected by the Law.

In recent months all these violent crimes have sparked a fierce debate about what should be the age for a youngster to reach majority and be considered responsible for his/her acts. The proposed age is 16 years-old and this discussion has split the brazilian society in 2 main groups. On one side you have the Human Rights supporters that believe that lowering the age will leave the children and teenagers even more vulnerable, while in the other side lies a frightened brazilian society shook by atrocities committed and brutal crimes. Both sides have strong arguments. The Brazilian Human Rights movement has been successfully campaigning since the brazilian redemocratization in the 80s against abuses perpetrated by the Government agents during the military dictatorship in Brazil, but some can argue that they also inadvertently protected serious criminals, that portrayed themselves as victims, by given them the benefit of the doubt.

That is exactly the point where these 2 groups clash. The scared brazilian society accuses the Human Rights supporters of defending robbers, rapists, thieves and murderers but never their victims. Meanwhile the other group throws a blanket of fascism to anyone who cries for laws with more teeth and tough police enforcement on the streets.

While the controversy continues to grow, congressmen are pushed by the society to take sides. The Congress in Brasilia has established the Constitution Commission for Justice and Citizenship (CCJ in Portuguese) to overlook this delicate subject. There are three main proposes to amend the constitution that would reduce the age of majority to 16 years old in cases of torture, terrorism, drug running, kidnapping, heinous crimes and if the minor delinquent have an extensive criminal records such as physical assaults or robbery.

The Senator Ricardo Ferraco, responsible for the CCJ, has stated in recent interview to the press that “the brazilian society cannot be hostage of minor delinquents that, under law protection, commit heinous crimes”, reflecting the opinion of majority of the brazilian society on the matter.

However specialists in public security disagree with the proposition arguing that this only serves to show that the Brazilian Government failed in providing protection to its children and teenagers. Also, that the current state of the overcrowded prisons (more than half a million inmates and still with a deficit of 250 thousand places) would only contribute to transform small time outlaws into professional criminals. This is a strong argument since Brazil has one of the highests reoffending rates in the world.

The former Brazilian Supreme Court, Antonio Cezar Peluso, has stated that 7 in each 10 former inmates will end up in prison again. This number reflects the current situation of the Brazilian Penitentiary system where, according to the Judge Luciano Losekann from the Department for Monitoring and Fiscalization of Penitentiaries, only 14% of the inmates are currently working and just 8% are studying from inside the prisons. “Because they don’t have any qualification, the first obstacle to be overcome is to provide training to the inmates, while in prison, to help them to find a job that will enable them a smooth reintegration to the society”, explains Judge Losekann in recent interview to the legal magazine Ultima Instancia.

This poor level of reintegration of the inmates to the society in conjunction with the overcrowded prisons does not seems to be a suitable place to rehabilitate teenagers under any circumstances. Not to mention that reducing the majority age will add even more people to the already inflated prison system that will add up to the reoffending statistics creating the never ending vicious cycle of inequality and criminality.

A profound and systematic reform in the brazilian justice (creating alternative sentences for minor offences), educational (providing training and qualification to enable former inmates to secure jobs once released and also prevent the youth to be pushed to the crime path), prisional (less overcrowded, better equipped and trained staff) will, in time, contribute to reduce the criminality rates in Brazil. In light of the recent anti-government protests, President Dilma Rousseff has promised a number of reforms including using the funds derived from the oil exploration royalties to be invested in the improvement of the educational system. If the intention becomes reality, that would be the first step in the long path to address the inequality that drives children and teenagers in Brazil into the criminal world.

Family Allowance to solve child labour

The Governmental Program Bolsa-Familia - Family Allowance has been extremely successful in removing more than 45 millions of people from poverty. According to the private Centre of Statistics Getulio Vargas Institute - FGV, between 2002 and 2006 the poverty in Brazil was reduced in 27%. This successful program helps to keep millions of children in school and reduces drastically child labour in Brazil. However despite the success there is a lot of criticism around the Family Allowance.


Poor supervision, no incentive to seek for a job for the people enrolled in the program and possible fraud are the main concerns for the critics of the Family Allowance. Is believed that the gigantic dimensions of Brazil make it difficult to properly check on the benefited families and that this is a fertile field for widespread fraud. Also the beneficiaries have no incentive to be retrained and acquire new skills to be able to find a job, or possibly have no reason to work since the government will provide for them no matter what.


These concerns might be rightfully based but does not diminish the importance of this watershed social inclusion program. Even if some individuals enrolled in Family Allowance might be abusing or depending exclusively of this program to survive, there is irrefutable proof that their offspring will have better chances in life than their parents.


Previous generations of under privileged classes had very low expectations in life and even lower chances to go to school and were forced to work at earlier age to help their families. This has contributed to cement the social inequality and increase the socio-economic gap that exists in Brazil. The Gini Index, that measure the distribution of family income, places the South American giant in 10th place behind Haiti and some countries in Africa.


According to statistics, 4.8 million of children between 5 and 17 years old are currently working in order to help to provide for their family. From this total 1.2 million are aged between 5 and 13 years old. Family Allowance was initially created as School Allowance assistance exclusively intended to prevent children to enter the workforce at such an early age.


In 1994 a local government, in south of Brazil, created the program School Allowance with the intension of keeping children in school. Due to its popularity, the same program was introduced the following year in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, and in 2001 President Fernando Henrique Cardoso went national with the School Allowance initiative. Since then the program has been reshaped and expanded by his successor, Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva, to accommodate more people and this eventually led to an interesting development as the Family Allowance program is now a taboo among Brazilian politicians.


In the recent presidential race the opposition candidates did not criticized the program and its flaws, but instead they only praised and promised to expand it to include more families. Apparently Family Allowance has become something sacred and untouchable that cannot be questioned or criticized by any politician with presidential aspirations in Brazil.


There are negative and positives consequences of this social program. One can argue that while the Family Allowance has little effect in the great centres such as Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro or Brasilia due to the high cost of living, in the countryside and especially in poor regions as North and Northeast of the country this financial assistance is absolutely vital to families. In these regions the wave of cash has also benefited the economy in small towns and allowed families to have access, for the first time in their life, to kitchen appliances and electronic goods such as TVs and DVD players and even beds.


On the positive side statistics show that homes benefited by the Family Allowance have lower figures of broken marriages with a reduction between 2% and 11% of the mothers being left alone with their children. Other statistics link children rose by a single parent (usually the mother) with criminality in Brazil and United States, however is still early to tell if the Family Allowance will contribute to reduce criminality. It seems to be a sensible step on the right direction though.


The program has enormous potential to empower the most vulnerable and help to raise these families from poverty, but lacks tools to help the benefited to achieve financial independence from the government. This creates an environment that incentivize people to remain chronically unemployed and one might argue that this make them cast their ballot in favour of the Labour Party coalition. Time will tell which families will be the most benefited from it, the poor or the politicians.

The Future Enemies of Society

Brazil has made headlines worldwide as the B in BRIC. This South American sleeping giant is awake and its booming economy is removing millions from poverty. However, despite the great success of Brazil’s growing economy, its future might be treated by an escalation of urban violence that claims 43.3% of all deaths among children annually.

A recent survey shows that 79% of the Brazilian population is afraid of being murdered. This fear, that is constant in all regions of Brazil, is reflected on the media coverage. The cycle of violence that increases every day, particularly among the youth, is splashed constantly on the Radio, TV, printed and online publications. The statistics back up this fear as the trends show that since the 80’s the violence against children and teenagers, aged 1 to 19 years old, increased dramatically, from 6.7% in 1980 to 25% in 2010. This means that, while in 1980 3.1 children were killed for every 100 thousand, in 2010 this number soared to 13.8 in 2010 which represents an increase of 346% in the last three decades According to a study made by the World Health Organization, these alarming figures put Brazil in fourth place in the list of the most violent countries against children, only behind El Salvador, Guatemala and Iraq.

In reaction to this surge in criminality the Brazilian Government tightened the security in the biggest cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which helped to decrease drastically the violence in such places but also collaborated to push the violence to the countryside or other great centers. In consequence, states such as Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte had the murder rate among the children and teenagers increased by 7 fold and 5 fold, respectively.

While Brazil made progress in decreasing the mortality rate for children under 5 y-o due to improvements in health, sanitation and social benefits, the same cannot be said to the external factors such as violent crimes that claim fatalities among teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19 y-o. Is also interesting to mention that boys are the most affected as girls make only 10% of the fatal victims.

The most surprising conclusion we can draw from these figures is that Brazil lives an epidemic of indifference and almost complicity by a huge segment of the society and also by the State. Instead of raising awareness for this calamity, the Brazilian society and State believe that the sad fate of the youth is already decided and nothing can be done to change it.

In order to understand the acceptance by the Brazilian society for this cold rationalization, is important to note that the public opinion, in its majority, blames the victims of the violent crimes for their own misfortune. If a teenaged criminal is killed by the police or by another delinquent this is seen as a disciplinary action. This nearly vigilante approach is well received by the large segments of population simply because the security policies are unable to shift the violent crime waves that engulfed Brazil in recent decades.

It seems the economic success experienced in Brazil recently will not contribute, in short term, to the decline in the rate of violence that claims so many lives among the youth. Profound changes in Law, security policies and society will play a big role in reversing these deadly numbers.

Profane journey to divine redemption

The Carnaval is by far the most popular festive season in Brazil. Celebrated in February, right in the middle of the summer, this event marks the end of holidays and the back-to-the-normal day life. During this brief 5 days all the excess is allowed. Music, dance and nearly everything else is permitted or tolerated. The Carnaval is a massive social pressure valve that releases the tension accumulated during the whole year between the classes.

The Brazilian Carnaval has its roots in Europe, on the Portuguese Entrudo celebrations back in the 13th century. This very popular party took place before the Christian Lent to allow everybody to enjoy themselves before the 40 days period that preceded Easter. Fast forwarding a few centuries, we will see the same Entrudo has found a place in the Brazilian hearts and minds. The Catholic Church tried unsuccessfully to dismiss or empty the event, but its best efforts allied with the local elite managed only to banish the old celebration, making room for the Carnaval we all know today. The word Carnaval literally means “to remove the flesh” in a reference to the Christian tradition to abstain from the consumption of meat and poultry prior to the Easter.

Initially an espontaneos popular manifestation, this celebration was adopted during the 50s by the Brazilian Government for political gain. Ever since the Carnaval became more organized and the State started to use censorship against samba song writers that use their lyrics to oppose the Government.

Today the Carnaval is also a big business. The top 13 Samba Schools in Rio de Janeiro spent around €2 millions each, in 2012, to produce their presentations that lasted little over one hour. Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Recife and Sao Paulo holds the biggests Carnaval celebrations in the country and expect a turnover of €1 Billion this year. Last year the local economy in Rio de Janeiro benefited in nearly €400 Million.

Big numbers apart, the Carnaval is a time of the year when the profane has its reign and where everybody dresses up as a character and enjoy themselves before the time to repent. Its an international party that borrows from France’s hegemonic Carnaval, from Portugal’s theatrical Carnaval and percussion and also the Pierrot, Columbine and Harlequin characters from the Italian Commedia Dell’Arte. It is, in essence, a massive popular festive season which welcomes everybody, despite their place in society, to join the celebration of physical life pleasures at its full. Time to forget about the dull everyday routine, dress up, dance and celebrate life like there is no tomorrow. All this conveniently placed just before the divine Lent, just in time to seek enlightenment to the soul.

Trading with Brazil - Risks and Opportunities

Brazil the B in BRIC There is a lot of buzz on the international media in relation to the BRIC countries and how they don't seem to be affected by the recession that engulfed the developed world. Brazil has been portrayed as a sleeping giant that is waking up from a long sleep and this is causing a wave of investments in the country, opening doors to many new business opportunities. In 2012 alone Brazil received US$48.5 billion in foreign direct investments (FDI) and in the previous year was the U.S.’s largest source of imports followed by China, trading US$31.3 billion. Having said that, there are a few pitfalls that can be avoided if you know where they are.

  Know the new territory

 Brazil is a vast country with more than 190 million inhabitants and huge cultural and social diversity. The most developed states are Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo. The last one alone contributes more than 30% of all country's GDP. A recent study shows that Sao Paulo’s countryside is developing at a much faster pace than any other region in Brazil. Infrastructure for distribution and shipping overseas is widely available in it’s locations however production costs will be considerably higher than in other states such as Bahia where products can be bought at a fraction of the price.

 If your intentions are to export to Brazil then you should focus on the southeast since is the most developed and you will find clients with far more purchasing power than other regions. In case you plan to import, and depending on the volume of your business, it is highly recommended that you make regular visits to your suppliers in Brazil as the Brazilian commercial culture relies heavily on the development of strong personal relationships. Having said that, please note that business people in Brazil often speak English but many promising trade opportunities can fail due to misunderstandings and poor communication. If you believe Brazil will be the significant part of your commercial deals it may be worthwhile to hire recommended and trustworthy Brazilian Portuguese-speaking staff members. Also learn some simple phrases to make a favourable impression on your suppliers and clients.

 Low wages, really?

A common misconception for companies that plan to set up roots in Brazil is to believe that salaries are very low in Brazil. The monthly minimum wage is current BRL$622 ($300.00), but employees with a bachelor degree in engineering can earn from BRL$4500 ($2200.00) on entry level to BRL$15000.00 ($7200.00) for an experienced professional. Also salaries vary from state to state (southeast higher) and for experts wages may more than double in the next few years due to the economy expansion.

Hearts and minds

In order to avoid frustration please bear in mind the follow warnings when dealing with Brazilian entrepreneurs. Foreigners consider often Brazilians very vague. They can represent your company in Brazil without a firm commitment and this can easily lead to all sorts of difficult situations.

Another challenge is the nearly impossible conditions Brazilian sales representatives impose in order to do business with them. Such as, 50% sales commissions without added value, fixed fee to become their preferred vendor or even impose to the foreign part in a joint venture to take all the legal risks. These practices are accepted by some foreign companies operating in Brazil however this might drive away many opportunities as some might understand them as risky, dodgy or even illegal. However these tough preconditions might not be any of the above, just the Brazilian way of doing business.

Brazil is becoming a major player in the global trading and there are great opportunities waiting for the right individuals, however there are a significant amount of obstacles on the road even for an experienced businessperson. The Brazilian Government is planning to invest US$470 billion in the next few years for the development of the country’s infrastructure in areas such as the energy generation and distribution system, roads, railroads, ports, and airports not to mention stadiums as it prepares for the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. These investments alone represent huge business opportunities for subcontractors and suppliers. Although being a challenging country, there is great potential if all the precautions are taken.