Posted on 05/13/2006 6:58:30 AM PDT by Westbrook
The Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused the European Union, the United States, and other developed economies of "corrupting" inefficient farmers by granting of subsidies and, with this, producing "poverty" in the developing world.
In a speech in the second session of the Summit of European Union-America Latin-Carribean, Lula inquired, "How long will we tolerate this perverse situation?" Later, he afirmed that "In the international community, the feeling grows that agricultural subsidies, which we already know are immoral, are also illegal. The countries that retain these privileges are, in truth, producing poverty in the undeveloped countries." Later, Lula said that "(the subsidies) corrupt inefficient farmers of the most rich nations and penalize the most poor consumers throughout the world."
Lula made the theme of combatting poverty and social cohesion central to his speech at the Summit of Vienna and to point out the hypocricies of the most developed economies - which say they are financing the reduction of misery, even though they are aggravating it by granting subsidies and protecting their agricultural markets.
Later, in reiterating the accomplihsments of his government in the reduction of misery in Brasil, the president insisted that the increase in international commerce is one of the principal ways to "attack hunger and poverty", but that it is necessary "to correct the profound inequalities" in trade between nations. "Agricultural protectionism of the rich countries is one of the most unjust forms of depression of the conditions of life in the developing world", he attacked.
The president said he understands the political difficulties of some countries in making necessary reforms (in their agricultural politics), but, he stressed, "hunger and poverty cannot be the price to pay [for this]."
Lula called out to the leaders present that they seek to unblock the negotiations of the World Trade Organization and informed that he will make a similar plea during the G8 meeting (the most rich economies summit in Russia), scheduled for July in St. Petersburg, Russia. The president went on to defend his position to organize a meeting of the leaders of influential countries in the discussions at the WTO, since "the negotiations in Geneva (where the WTO is seated) is not producing hopeful results."
The president reminded that the "agreed upon terms were not met. The risks are evident. There is no time to lose. I call upon all the leaders to come together in this effort."
To stress that it is necessary to maintain an elevated level [of pressure], Lula went on to declare that Brazil is ready to increase its commercial concessions in the industrial and service sectors. But he pointed out that this attitude depends on the satisfactory movements of the developed economies in the area of agriculture.
He underscored that, still, "the principal responsibility falls upon the rich countries" and that the proposals of the emerging and most poor never will be able to breech the negotiations.
He repeated, finally, his maxim that the consessions must be proportional to the level of development of the involved countries. "The pretext of immobility cannot be accepted," he affirmed. "The rich nations will need to make the greatest gestures. The developing countries will make significant steps according to their abilities. And the most poor countries among the poor should not have any cost," he recommended.
You will need to subscribe to Paraná-Online and be able to read Portuguese to read the original article.
My dois centavos (R$.02):
I guess the "rich" nations' contributions to medicine and technology don't count.
And where do they think all that famine relief comes from anyway? It comes from our "subsidized" agriculture.
Not to mention, that there are more than a few Latin Americans here in the States making way better money with way better living conditions than those in the socialist paradises in South and Central America.
It's getting so you can label any "news" coming out of certain coutries that way, without even reading the articles.
Lula is lulu.
Well I know that the leftist rant that there is terrorism because wealthy westerners are exploiting the poor is BS.
Bin Laden is a Billionaire. Arafat was a Billionaire. Saddam spent a BILLION dollars on a mosque in the shape of his thumbprint so "Allah" could see it/him.
The money is out there. Despots use it for evil.
And socialists put the poor out of their misery.
He raises the victim mentality to a whole new level.
Ironically, Lula has governed fairly pro-capitalist, compared to other LatAm politicians. This is more populist rhetoric to help him in the polls, as he faces re-election this year: Brazilian farmers are facing tough times because the large appreciation in the Brazilian Real is eating into their incomes.
Until we tell you to hop on one leg and bark like a dog.
It may be populist rhetoric, but it still will influence how his citizens think.
I know Lula has moved in a pro-market direction and I understand politics very well. The fact that Lula finds this type of rhetoric useful indicates the victimization-think that his listeners are prepared to recieve.
Yeah, that's the way it works. You have a tiny productive anomaly that accomplishes everything while the rest live off their scraps and whine about it.
As long as we say you will, punk.
-ccm
Even in an unsubsidized market place, Brazil would never be able to compete against our highly mechanized production methods.
And there lies the reason for Europe's high subsidies, they can't compete either.
There is no easy cure for Brazil's poor agricultural sector, except one- stop socialized farming, it doesn't work. 15 million dead Ukrainians in the early 30's, the result of Stalin's forced collective farming are proof of that.
Any serious effort to stop farm subsidies begins with Europe, where small, inefficient farmers are the most heavily subsidized in the world. The resulting collapse, and amalgamation of these small farms into larger, self sustaining commercial farms is something Europeon leaders have resisted for decades, over fears of political backlash.
This has placed Europe as many decades behind in the ag sector, making the inevitable transformation all the more painful. Revolts will plague Europe, which is why they will continue to provide farm welfare for years to come.
Lula is a Socialist a**hole who because he is part of the elite governing class criticizes everyone else. Brazil is nor a poor country. They have a wealth of natural resources, good ports and harbors, and rich farmland, and significant foreign and domestic investment.
What unfortunately they also have in abundance is an oppressive, corrupt, socialist mentality that ensures that generation after generation, the poor are kept down in the "favellas" where their life is short, violent,disease ridden, and thoroughly Hobbsian in nature.
They will have yet another revlution before is' all over.
Plus they have their niche markets in agriculture as well, coffee for example, banana's and nuts.(plus the political kind you mentiond)
Spent almost seven weeks in Brazil last Autumn, almost all of it in the southern state of Paraná.
Folks there tell me that there are "Two Brasils", the poor agricultural Brazil of the North, and the more middle-class techno-industrial Brazil of the South.
I don't think that there's a revolution in the works, as the government is relatively lenient and tolerates all kinds of rhetoric from across the political spectrum. With plenty of venting opportunities, the pressures that foment revolutions don't tend to build-up enough.
There is a lot of corruption in their government, but there's a lot in ours, too. Perhaps not as much, because we're more proactive about it.
The biggest problem in Brazil is crime. Where we were, it was mostly breaking into stores at night. There are a lot of security agencies with vigilante mindsets, so you have to be pretty desperate to be willing to risk something like that.
By the way, the Ethanol pumps, while present at every gas station, appeared to be frequented only by delivery vans and panel trucks. I don't recall ever seeing a car at an ethanol pump. Our rented car was gasoline, and I don't think that they had any ethanol cars in the fleet where we rented our car. Gas was about R$2.50/liter, which translated roughly to US$4.00 per gallon, at the time. Ethanol was a bit less, about US$3.50 per gallon. All the tractor-trailers we saw were regular diesel.
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