"Significant progress is not likely. The negotiations in Hong Kong reached the limit of what was possible at that moment. There must be a pause before discussions involving more substantial matters are resumed. I am going there to observe the ritual as well as to establish procedures for the future," the Minister commented.
Amorim noted that the European Union has been emitting negative signals with respect to the issues discussed at the Hong Kong meeting, which took place in December, 2005.
"I thought it was still too soon to expect a robust offer of new markets. And on the basis of what was said and placed on the table by the negotiators at Geneva, we are sensing a movement in two directions on the part of the European Union.
"When it comes to agriculture, there is a tendency to claim that we have already done all we could. In other words, that the offer is final," he explained.
Another item mentioned by the Minister was the question of market access. According to Amorim, the European Union wants to deal with this question in terms of quantities of products.
In his view, this is not a positive solution, since it will stimulate divisions among the developing countries, which united to negotiate at the Hong Kong meeting.
"Even if this approach could satisfy the interests of some countries, it would be inadequate to produce the kind of tariff reductions that might lead the United States, another major subsidizer, to lower its domestic subsidies the way it should, the way we want," he said.
According to the Minister, the impression conveyed by the developed countries is that the agreements discussed in Hong Kong will never be implemented.
"What is on the table is a veiled attempt to move backwards. One gets the impression that defensive instruments are beginning to take shape so that the commitment that was assumed in Doha, in Agreement 4 of 2004, and now in Hong Kong will never be fulfilled," he said.
Following the WTO meeting, the Minister will participate in a conference on Afghanistan, at the invitation of British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.
Brazil was the only Latin American country invited to the conference, which will discuss the participation of the international community in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
Agência Brasil
]]>On Friday and Saturday, September 9 and 10, Amorim, coordinated ministerial meetings of the Group of 20. On the agenda, the bloc’s agricultural negotiating strategies for the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha Round, in preparation for the WTO’s Sixth Ministerial Meeting, scheduled for December, in Hong Kong.
According to information furnished by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations (Itamaraty), on the first day the meetings, Amorim commented on the central role of the G-20 in the Doha Round, emphasizing that the united action altered the content and format of the negotiations.
The G-20 was founded in August, 2003, during the preparatory phase of the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, in Cancun, Mexico, to defend the mutual interests of developing countries with regard to agricultural issues.
The group has presently 19 members: five from Africa – South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe; six from Asia – China, Philippines, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand; and eight from Latin America – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela.
The G-20 represents 13% of the global GDP (Gross Domestic Product, that is, the sum of all goods and services produced by a country or group of countries) and 21% of the global agricultural GDP, 57% of the world’s population, and 70% of the world’s agricultural population.
It also accounts for 26% of world agricultural exports and 62% of global sugar production, 50% of global coffee production, 62% of global soybean production, 54% of global cotton production, 72% of global rice production, and 70.5% of global tobacco production.
Brazilian victories in the WTO against US cotton subsidies and European sugar subsidies were cited by the Pakistani minister of Commerce at the opening of the meeting.
He also mentioned the importance of the union among developing countries in combating distortions in the way agriculture is treated in the sphere of international commerce, and he underscored the role played by Brazil and India in coordinating the work of the G-20, which has led to positive results.
According to the Itamaraty, at a private meeting with the Pakistani Prime Minister, Amorim delivered a letter from President Lula, expressed gratitude for the visit by Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, to Brazil last year, and examined areas of potential bilateral cooperation, such as ethanol and aviation.
Minister Amorim is the first high Brazilian government official to visit Pakistan in 20 years. Since the visit by the Pakistani president to Brazil last November, official and business contacts between the two countries have become more intense. According to the Itamaraty, there are prospects for negotiating an agreement between Pakistan and the Mercosur.
Minister Amorim will take advantage of being in Pakistan to meet with president Pervez Musharraf and Foreign Minister, Kurshid M. Kusuri, for discussions on bilateral cooperation in energy, ethanol and aviation.
Agência Brasil
]]>In a hearing before Brazil’s Foreign Relations and National Defense Commission, the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, rebutted press reports that Brazil is not paying attention to the United States.
“That is totally false. Over the last two years our exports to the US have risen 40%. If that is little attention, it is a surprise to me,” said the Minister.
Amorim’s comments were part of a report on the country’s foreign relations over the 32 months of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration in which he rebuffed media criticism of the Foreign Ministry and its performance.
The Minister pointed out that ten of the thirty-one countries where Brazil exported most over the last six months were developing countries.
Those countries were: India, in first place, followed by Russia and Nigeria; there were five South American countries on the list: Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia (all members of the Andean Community), and Argentina; the list ends with Thailand and South Africa.
“What this shows is that our policy of strengthening ties with developing nations has been a success,” declared Amorim.
He added that just with Nigeria, where the two countries deal with petroleum, bilateral trade reached US$ 170 million (400 million reais) in the first half and could easily reach US$ 424 million (1 billion reais) soon.
As for Arab countries, which have gotten special attention, including a Lula visit, Brazilian exports rose 45% in 2004, compared to 2003, and are up over 20% so far this year.
Exports included 700 buses to Qatar and 15 Embraer aircraft to Saudi Arabia, which Amorim said were results of the Latin America-Arab Summit in Brasília this year.
“The importance of these exports is that commercial decisions in these countries are political decisions,” said the minister.
With regard to lack of success, Amorim said he was pleased to have the opportunity to “speak of failures,” explaining that the decision to present a Brazilian candidate to head the World Trade Organization was seriously thought out and his defeat did not affect Brazil’s international prestige.
Concerning Brazil’s vote in the Human Rights Commission of the UN in favor of not censuring Cuba for human rights violations, Amorim pointed out that the Lula administration seeks “operational partnerships with other developing nations that effectively improve the ideals of democracy, social reform and liberty for all.”
He explained that whereas Brazil had always abstained in the past on the Cuba vote, this time it voted jointly with an increasing number of South American countries.
Agência Brasil
]]>Brazil’s Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, met with the Foreign Minister of Equatorial Guinea, Micha Ondo Bile, in BrasÀlia. His country has decided to place its first South American embassy in Brazil.
According to Amorim, the fact that Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking nation in Africa (it was formerly known as Spanish Guinea), and Brazil the only Portuguese-speaking nation in South America, gives the two nations something in common.
“From our point of view, there is no reason that Equatorial Guinea cannot integrate with the community of Portuguese-speaking countries. Besides that, it occupies a strategic location, on the Gulf of Guinea. Brazil can also provide assistance in the areas of tropical agriculture, health and education,” said the minister.
Minister Bile declared that his country is interested in strengthening ties with Brazil in order to take advantage of Brazil’s experience, technology and skills. He pointed out that Equatorial Guinea is a small country that needs assistance in order to develop its natural resources.
The two ministers will discuss possible cooperation agreements, along with the South Atlantic Cooperation Peace Zone and UN Security Council reform.
Agência Brasil
]]>Brazil’s special presidential advisor for international affairs, Marco Aurélio Garcia, affirms that Brazil desires “the best possible relationship” with the new government of Ecuador.
Following the ouster of Lucio Gutiérrez last week, Vice-President Alfredo Palácio assumed the Presidency.
Garcia says that Brazil will not judge the domestic situation in Ecuador but wants to establish good relations with the new government.
“There is a desire on our part and on the part of the Ecuadorian government as well,” he remarked.
According to Garcia, Brazil established important economic agreements with the Ecuadorian government, and these “will surely be maintained by the new government.”
Garcia, who participated in the seminar, “The Growth of Brazilian International Relations,” in Brasília, also defended the political asylum granted by Brazil to the ex-President of Ecuador.
“Asylum is a routine political practice in Latin America. Brazil granted asylum, because it concluded that the circumstances warranted it,” he added.
ABr
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Elitism is like cholesterol: there’s the good and the bad. Bad elitism stems from privileges guaranteed the members of an inherited cultural or financial aristocracy. Good elitism results from competency acquired through effort and talent.
The role of a progressive government is to do away with the first type and support the second. This, in my opinion, is what the Ministry of Foreign Relations did by eliminating the English requirement in the Rio Branco Institute admissions test.
The Institute prepares Brazilians for diplomatic service, and the Ministry decided to consider a candidate’s entire range of knowledge instead of his or her mastery of a single subject.
It was a mistake, I believe, to announce that the measure aimed to “de-elitize” the Brazilian diplomatic service. But, yes, I think the Ministry was correct in deciding to consider an applicant’s grade in English as a classifying element for a diplomatic career but no longer a disqualifying one.
I had the honor of teaching in the Rio Branco Institute and there I encountered some of my best students. But, I always asked myself, how many equally brilliant young people were denied the opportunity to enter the Brazilian diplomatic service, stymied by the required mastery of the English language?
Students with an excellent academic record who, over the course of their diplomatic careers, could have formulated a foreign policy that would have transformed Brazil into the international leader that it is only now beginning to become, students who could have represented the country in an exceptional manner in the international community, utilizing the languages learned over the course of their training.
The knowledge of foreign languages, especially English, is an absolute necessity for the diplomat. But a previous mastery of languages says little about the potential for creativity, knowledge and competency of a young person attempting to gain admission to the diplomacy course. Henry Kissinger, for example, would have failed our diplomacy course since he still speaks with a German accent.
No Brazilian should graduate from the Rio Branco Institute if he or she is not fluent in English and other foreign languages. But the Brazilian diplomatic service cannot continue losing excellent potential diplomats simply because they have not yet mastered English when they enter the course.
These are persons who, when selections are made for admission to the Institute, lose out to others who have had the opportunity to live abroad, or who have bilingual parents, or who have had the chance to begin the study of languages early in life, or even those who possess a specific gift for learning foreign languages.
For this reason, I am convinced that, at the same time that it is eliminating English from the admission tests, the Rio Branco Institute will offer intensive courses for those selected for the program who are not fluent in the fundamental languages of international relations in the modern world, like English, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Chinese.
It is also necessary to call attention to an important fact. That Ministry of Foreign Relations decision represents a gesture rare in Brazilian public administration: that of setting aside a privilege granted the dependents of its employees.
By deeming English a mandatory prerequisite, the selection process in fact favored young people who had the chance to live abroad as children, as occurs with the children of diplomats.
Without any intention of playing favorites, the disqualifying nature of the English language requirement wound up giving an advantage to the “career children.” Setting aside that privilege is a surprisingly positive step in Brazilian public administration.
Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a professor at the University of Brasília and a PT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage – www.cristovam.com.br – and write to him at cristovam@senador.gov.br.
Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome – LinJerome@cs.com.
]]>The Brazilian minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, will make a tour through the Arab countries this month. The minister will visit Oman, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia between the 17th and 27th of February.
As well as talking about the Summit for the Arab and South American countries, which will take place in May in Brasilia, Amorim will discuss the bilateral relations between Brazil and the region, the reform of the United Nations (UN) and also topics raised during the visit of President Lula to the Arab nations in 2003.
In the ten countries, Amorim will get together with Foreign Relations ministers and local officials. The agenda is still to be defined by the Itamaraty, the Brazilian Foreign Office.
The first city to be visited will be Amman, in Jordan, followed by Ramallah, in Palestine, Beirut, in Lebanon, Damascus, in Syria, Jeddah and Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, Muscat, in Oman, Doha, in Qatar, Kuwait City, Tunis, in Tunisia, and Algiers, in Algeria.
In Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Amorim will lead a delegation of Brazilian businessmen between the 21st and 24th.
Twenty four companies have already confirmed their participation in the Brazilian trade mission to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Amongst the companies are Vale do Rio Doce, Embraer, Avibras, Petrobras, Comex and Docol Metais Sanitários.
Also representatives of the Bank of Brazil, the National Confederation of Industries (CNI), the Brazilian Association of Toiletries, Perfumes & Cosmetics Industries (Abihpec) and the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (CCAB) will join the delegation.
According to information from the substitute chief of the Commerce Promotion Operations Division of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Rodrigo de Azeredo Santos, the participation of 40 to 50 companies is expected.
Registration, which can be made through the website www.braziltradenet.gov.br, is open until the 11th of February. As well as going to seminars that will be promoted by commerce chambers in the two countries, the companies will participate in business meetings and visit factories and distributors in the region.
Economic Forum
In Saudi Arabia, Amorim will also participate, on the 20th, one day before the mission’s official program, of the 6th Jeddah Economic Forum.
Amorim will talk about Brazilian foreign policy, mainly of the relations with the Arab countries, and also of the Summit of Arab and South American Countries, to take place on the 10th and 11th of May in Brasilia, capital of Brazil.
The meeting in Jeddah is sort of a Middle East version of the World Economic Forum. Amorim will talk on the 20th in the afternoon.
The forum, which this year has the theme “Capacity Building: Developing People for Sustainable Growth”, will discuss international cooperation and economic solutions for global growth.
Amongst the 2000 people who should participate in the meeting are national and international officials such as the presidents of Nigeria, Afghanistan and Senegal, the prime ministers of Pakistan and Malaysia, the secretary general of the League of Arab States, Amr Moussa, the former secretary of state of the United States, Madeleine Allbright and the secretary general of the World Tourism Organization, Francesco Frangialli. Amorim was invited by the Forum organization to participate.
Program
On the day following the forum, when the official program for the Brazilian mission begins, the delegation will participate in a seminar about the opportunities in trade and investments in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In this space, Brazilian government and sectorial leaders will speak, among them Foreign Trade director at the Bank of Brazil, José Maria Rabello, and the ambassador Mario Vilalva, director at the Comercial Promotion Department at the Itamaraty.
In the afternoon, there will be business roundtables and the following day will be free for business meetings. The program will repeat itself in Kuwait City on the 23rd and 24th of February.
The aim of the Brazilian government, with the mission, is to present Brazil to the Saudis and Kuwaitis and increase trade relations between the two regions.
“We wish to show that we are capable of improving the relations and exporting new products,” says Azeredo. In the delegation there will be companies which do not yet export to the Arab countries as well as those which already do business with the region.
Avibras, manufacturer of aeronautical products, is one of the companies which will participate in the mission with the objective of strengthening the relationship with the Arabs.
The company has been exporting to the Middle East for 25 years. “The journey of the Minister of Foreign Relations is of extreme importance for Avibras, since it strengthens relations of the governments of Brazil and those countries, fundamental for the continuity of business of Avibras in the region”, said the president of the company, João Verdi Leite. The clients of Avibras in the Arab countries are the governments.
Service
Trade Mission to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
Date: 21 to 24 of February
Information: (+55 61) 411 6240
Registration: www.braziltradenet.gov.br
Translated by Silvia Lindsey
ANBA ”“ Brazil-Arab News Agency
Last week, all the newspapers and the overall press in Brazil gave wide release to the Brazilian alpinista (mountain climber) who died attempting to climb the Aconcagua. Well, the Aconcagua is located in the Andes.
The word alpinista refers to climbers of the Alps. In Latin America we have for a long time now used the word andinista for those who climb the Andes. Pay Google a visit.
The word andinismo registers, today, 36,800 occurrences. Andinism associations proliferate throughout the whole continent. Can’t find the word in Portuguese dictionaries?
Blame the authors who insist on keeping their eyes turned to Europe. It does exist, but our brave journalists insist on ignoring it.
If at least our Brazilian guy had started in the Alps… But that was not the case. According to the newspapers, his first decisive bet was the Andes. Therefore, andinista.
Meanwhile, no journalist would ever embarrass himself enough to use a solecism such as descatracalização, a neologism based on charges appearing in the daily Folha de S. Paulo and imposed as an essay topic to the vestibulandos (candidates for college-entrance examination) of a university in search of media attention.
The recourse had a good effect and the university in question was able to create a controversy. According to the organizers of the vestibular (exam), the idea was to make the candidates discuss the descatacralização of life, and society, imposing catracas (ratches) on everyone.
They forgot to suggest the possibility of descatacralizing the universities themselves to begin with, for imposing the vestibular—a major catraca—to whoever wishes to attend college.
With universities duly descatacralized¸ we would see the end of all these ridiculous discussions about quotas, good only for producing racism, utter bliss for the nostalgics of the now defunct era of class struggle.
In some newspaper I read that the Spanish police has detained in the city of Sabadell, in Cataluna, seven fake curandeiros and psychics who came from Brazil. Wait, now—so there is such a thing as a genuine curandeiro (healer) or psychic?
Considering that the profession remains absent from any law, curandeiros or psychics are people who decide to call themselves so. They are, therefore, as fake as they are genuine. Same thing with psychoanalysts.
Psychoanalysis is not a profession recognized by any law, therefore anyone—even I or you, the reader—is absolutely free to hang a psychoanalyst plaque at the door and start treating those naïve souls who still believe that psychoanalysis is a science.
I must mention that everywhere I look I see people practicing medicine illegally, from witches to pajés and even quiromantes and spiritual surgeons. In Porto Alegre, folks unemployed and just out of Philosophy degrees have set up a more sophisticated hoax—clinical philosophy.
Do you have an existential problem or a problem of a psychic nature? Visit a philosopher. In exchange for a reasonable payment, the new soul specialist will relieve you from your ills.
A friend tells me that at Campeche Beach, in Santa Catarina, there is even a hospital for spiritual surgery. Since I don’t see any manifestation from the Medicine Board, I suppose that good medicine has surrendered to the advance of these gigolos of human anguish.
The Brazilians jailed in Spain—so the story tells us—had inserted advertisements in newspapers all over that country, offering their services as curandeiros able to solve all sorts of sentimental and personal problems, as well as to cure physical illnesses, depression and serious health problems, in exchange for high amounts of money.
Imagine if this catches on in Brazil. Even our large newspapers would see a downfall in their classifieds’ revenues. Not to mention the horoscopists. Newspaper owners know that horoscope is superstition, but they also know that horoscopes sell newspapers.
If anyone still believes that our press is serious, just read your horoscope and you will have a hint of what editors think about the intelligence of their readers.
The supposed charlatans, according to the press, abused people in desperate situations who responded to their ads and threatened them, saying that tragedies would happen to them if they didn’t deliver different amounts of money, depending on their financial status.
The Spanish police are now dealing with expelling them from their country. It must be an effort to avoid competition with local charlatans, because there is no shortage of curandeiros and psychics in Spain.
As if it were not enough for newspapers to call andinistas alpinistas and to create the exotic concept of a fake curandeiro, we just had the President use his inherent folkloric authority to confer the title of intellectual to Brazilian rap and rock virtuosos.
According to the Supreme Ignoramus in the Nation, during the times when people with graduate degrees led the country, “you would hardly see an official act and you would not honor here, for example, the Titãs and Mano Brown. They would have mentioned other personalities of the intellectual world, but never two intellectuals so close to the Brazilian periferia (poor suburbs)”.
Given this promotion, vestibulandos can now prepare to deal, in their literature exams, with quotations from masterpieces written by these two new intellectuals. It should not surprise anyone.
If Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, according to the organizers of the vestibulares¸ are already part of Brazilian literature, why not go some steps further down the ladder?
The Supreme Ignorant was even bolder. He saw himself in the mirror, thought he looked beautiful and recommended his image to the nation, stating that education and specialization are potential hindrances for the good performance of public officials.
Which is very coherent with the recent decision by the Rio Branco Institute, the school that trains candidates for Itamaraty (Brazilian Foreign Service), of demoting English to the status of non-eliminatory subject in its exams.
Only in the administration of an atrocious monoglot can anyone conceive that a school for diplomats would dispense its students from speaking the only lingua franca that we have today.
The level of universities, deplorable already, has lowered even further with the institution of quotas. Today, depending on the color of his skin, even an illiterate Brazilian can go to college.
In the vestibular exams, English is mandatory. In diplomatic school, where English is a basic working tool, it is now waived. If universities already reserve quotas for black people, Itamaraty has introduced a novelty by reserving quotas for monoglots.
If the President doesn’t speak English, why should his representatives do it? Let’s equalize everything down at the lowest level and institute an examination for interpreters.
Given Itamaraty’s vocation for thirdworldliness, it will not be a surprise to see Suahili or Wolof become mandatory languages in the exam.
As far as their relations with the First World are concerned, diplomats can very well follow the simplicity of the President, taking interpreters on their shoulders when they travel abroad.
Janer Cristaldo—he holds a PhD from University of Paris, Sorbonne—is an author, translator, lawyer, philosopher and journalist and lives in São Paulo. His e-mail address is janercr@terra.com.br.
Translated by Tereza Braga. Braga is a freelance Portuguese translator and interpreter based in Dallas. She is an accredited member of the American Translators Association. Contact: terezab@sbcglobal.net.
]]>The International Relations manager of the Brazil/US Chamber of Foreign Commerce, Fábio Rua, affirmed that the outcome of the American presidential election will not be detrimental to trade relations between Brazil and the United States.
Rua recalled that Bush, who was re-elected President, signed various important foreign trade agreements with Latin American countries.
According to Rua, trade between Brazil and the United States has grown at an 8-10% rate for the past three years.
In 2003, trade between the two countries generated a US$ 2.4 billion surplus for Brazil, something that had not occurred for many years.
Senator Eduardo Suplicy (PT-SP) joined the chorus of optimists regarding Bush’s re-election, although he said that his expectation was for Kerry to win the election, mainly because of “Bush’s rash actions.”
Suplicy believes that, with Bush’s re-election, Brazilian should maintain its “partnership” relations with the Americans.
The researcher from the Brazilian Institute of Social Research, Geraldo Tadeu Monteiro, rejected Rua’s position.
According to Monteiro, Bush took a unilateral stance during his first four-year term and did not maintain a dialogue with the Latin American countries.
For Monteiro, what kept the American president from taking a more radical stand on the war in Iraq was his candidacy for re-election.
Now that Bush has been re-elected, Monteiro expects the American president to become “more radical.”
Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein
The Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, considered important the American electoral process that re-elected President George W. Bush, because the United States is a country that serves as a model for many people and tends to be followed in many respects.
“It is very important for there to have been a democratic process and an unarguable victory [for Bush]. I think that democratic institutions are the big winners,” said the Minister.
Regarding relations between the two governments, Amorim pointed out that they have been satisfactory and very efficient, besides being cordial not only at the presidential level but in various aspects of cooperation.
The Minister emphasized the good relationship between Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and George W. Bush, “demonstrated at the encounters the two presidents have already had.”
“I believe that, even in trade matters, the cooperation between our governments has been exemplary,” he affirmed.
The Minister said he hopes that the relationship between the two countries be one of solidarity and respect, following the example set by previous Administrations.
Lula Congratulates Bush
The Ministry of Foreign Relations released today the contents of the message sent by Lula to Bush, congratulating him on his re-election.
In the message, Lula says he is convinced that Brazil and the United States will continue to deepen their bonds of friendship and fruitful relations.
The two countries will also help advance their common aspirations on the global level in the battle against “poverty, insecurity, and other sources of imbalance and instability in the context of a more just and democratic world order.”
Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein