wfn.org | BRAZIL: PRIMATE SPEAKS OUT ON CARDINAL RATZINGER'S ATTACK

[a.whitefield@quest.org.uk]

Title:BRAZIL: PRIMATE SPEAKS OUT ON CARDINAL RATZINGER'S ATTACK 
June 26, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

[97.6.3.2]

(ACNS) BRAZIL: PRIMATE SPEAKS OUT ON CARDINAL RATZINGER'S ATTACK

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.