Jay wrote:
>>HARRY: The earth is a veritable storehouse of everything we need.
>>If we run into a temporary shortage, the market will handle
>>it while government is printing the appropriate forms.
>>
>>If we run out of something, we'll use something else. We are
>
>You are probably right Harry about using something else. It
>may be possible to boil raw sewage into something edible. I
>suppose road kill may not taste too bad if one adds lots of
>spices. No oil though, so you're your going to have to cook
>with reclaimed Pampers ... but again no problem, you can wrap
>wet rags around your head to survive the greasy smoke.
>
>I am constantly amazed that economists would prefer to live
>like this. Do economists assume that everyone would prefer
>live in the gutter?
This kind of hyperbole, unfortunately will get you everywhere. Perhaps
conditioned by "Film at 11" we expect ever escalating scenarios.
It bares little relation to reality, but it isn't intended to. It's
intended to shock, to present a frightening aspect of society. That wakes
'em up!
Jay, you escalate very well, using Ed's wonderful description of the
hellish conditions in Sao Paulo. By the way, thank you, Ed.
What you didn't say, Jay, is revealing - but then you were making what
passes as a biggie point - somewhat irrelevant, but big. The trouble is you
are caught, with others, in that obsession with silly things like
prospective global warming, overpopulation, and the end of food as we know’
it.
More can be said about Brazil. There are five and a half million homeless.
Every day 32 million go hungry. That's 1 in every 5 Brazilians.
Well, that's overpopulation for you - and the taste for raw sewage. But,
not quite.
You didn't mention the land problem in Brazil, where just 2.8% of the
population owns 57 percent of Brazil's countryside--an area greater
than Spain, France, Germany, and England put together. Making
matters worse, 62 percent of that land lies idle. Just 342 farm properties
cover 183,397 square miles - an area larger than California, yet 70% of
rural households have little or none.
Ed mentioned the first stage favelas, which "are usually occupied by people
who have recently come in from the country, especially from the north of
Brazil, to look for work".
Northern Brazil is often compared to the American Wild West, where powerful
barons rule almost feudal fiefdoms. Huge undeveloped tracts account for
more than 70 percent of the land. A single company, Manasa, owns land the
size of Belgium.
Now you know why they came to the city. They were landless - so they chose
the work and the raw sewage.
Others are not quite so passive.
The largest land occupation ever staged happened in the rich farming state
of Paranį in southern Brazil. Paranį is the bread basket of Brazil, yet ’
40%
of the land is fallow. Late one night, in April 1996, 10,000 squatters
descended on a 200,000-acre spread owned by the Giacometti lumber company.
Many held out against the company through a winter of cold and hunger.
There were deaths on both sides. Eventually, the government announced
38,000 acres would be turned over to the remaining squatters
In Parį state, there have been 67 similar land invasions so far this year.
Last year, 536 families settled on a 86,400-acre ranch. Backed by
government credit they plan to produce chicken, peaches, and packaged rice.
Their tents have already been replaced by cinder block housing.
Before they arrived on the 86,400 acres, the ranch was fully occupied by no
less than 110 cattle.
The people have been promised land reform, but one third of the seats in
Congress are held by the large landholders, so don't hold your breaths.
But, Jay was too busy making his funnies to let you know that Brazil is
better known for its emptiness than its overpopulated sewage eaters.
The world is empty. We should stop crying the sky is falling and attend to
the real problems.
Harry
