What’s happening in Brazil?
June 19, 2008
Brazil has a current population of approximately 190 million people.
50% of the population in Brazil lives without access to sanitation facilities.
Brazils Income distribution is incredibly unequal: The richest 1% of Brazil’s population control 50% of its income. The poorest 50% of society have to live on just 10% of the country’s wealth.
“Favelas” are generally run by drug traffickers who are recruiting children as young as 8 or 9 years old to begin working for them. It is highly likely that if one gets involved with drug trafficking as a child he or she will not live to be and adult let alone an adolescent. In order to escape the drug world, the street life is often seen as the child’s only chance for survival.
According to the World Bank, income concentration in Brazil has created five types of social groups in the country: the indigent (24 million people); the poor (30 million); the nearly poor (60 million); the middle class (50 million); and the rich (2 million).[ According to the International Labour Office]
In the poorest regions of the country and in impoverished areas near industrial centers, 10% of the children are expected to die before they reach 5 years of age. Nearly all of the youth involved in organized crime will die before they reach 18 years of age.
In 2006, during a time of peace for Brazil, 17,163 youths were killed between the ages of 15 and 24. Almost the same number of people who lost their lives fighting in the 2002 Civil War in Angola, Africa.
In Rio de Janeiro alone, 3,937 kids were killed by gunfire between 1987 and 2001— eight times the amount of children that were killed in the Israel/Palestine conflict.
1 in 8 children around the age of ten, who live near drug zones, has parents who were murdered by drug traffickers.
In a survey conducted on imprisoned youth between the ages of 12 and 20 years of age, research concluded that 89.6% of the subjects had not completed middle school, 6% were functionally illiterate and only 7.6% had even attempted to begin secondary school (High School).
4.2 million children are believed to be working in abusive conditions. Brazil has the third largest amount of working children in Latin America after Haiti and Bolivia. According to the ILO, 7,860 children and adolescents in eight cities in Rio are working in painful and unhealthy conditions. 2,160 do not go to school.
The Brazilian Interprofessional Association for the Protection of Children and Adolescents stated that approximately 2 million children, between 10 and 15 years of age, have been forced into prostitution.
Statistics from the Brazilian Ministry for Health indicate that 1% of all births occur in girls between 10 and 14 years of age. 18% of girls 15 to 19 year old are pregnant or are already mothers.
17% of people over fifteen in Brazil cannot read or write, and in some regions it reaches 50%. Only 40% of children who start school complete their primary education. 4 million children of school age are not in school. In some states such as Pará, 76.1% of its children do not attend school. According to statistics from the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, there are one million illiterate adolescents in the 15 to 19 age group.
Almost one in ten of the urban population exists below the UN’s Absolute Poverty Line. An estimated 800 000 of Rio de Janeiro’s 5.6 million residents live in favelas (shanty towns). Brazil has 21.1 million children under the age of 18 who live in families earning less than half of the Brazilian minimum wage, about US$102. (December 2007)
This statue of Jesus stands some 38 meters tall, atop the Corcovado Mountain overlooking Rio de Janeiro. Designed by Brazilian Heitor Da Silva Costa and created by French sculptor Paul Landowski, it is one of the world’s best-known monuments. The statue took five years to construct and was inaugurated on October 12, 1931. Christ Redeemer is one of the 21 finalist candidates in the campaign to choose the New 7 Wonders of the World.
Brazil is the only nation to appear at all 18 World Cup Finals and has a record 60 wins from 87 games. Brazil and Sweden have played each other 6 times in the World Cup more than any other nation in the world.
The origins of Carnival date back to the ancient Greek spring festival in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine. The Romans adopted the celebration with Bacchanalia [ feast in honor of Bacchus, the Roman equivalent to Dionysus], and Saturnalia, where slaves and their masters would exchange clothes in a day of drunken revelry. Saturnalia was later modified by the Roman Catholic Church into a festival; leading up to Ash Wednesday. It quickly evolved into a massive celebration of indulgences – one last gap of music, food, alcohol and sex before Lent- before the 40 days of personal reflection, abstinence and fasting until Easter. 40 days of purging sins preceded by a week filled with virtually every known sin. The word itself comes from Latin “Carne Vale” or “Farewell to the Flesh”.
If you die in Brazil you will be buried within 24hrs. It’s the law.
Apsana
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