Obrigado

Politics in Brazil have caused the people to live in fear, not just in the slums, as seen in the recent, powerful films, City of God and Bus 174, but also the middle and upper class citizens as well.

The statistics say crime is down overall, but this summer there was an outburst of violence that has put all citizens on edge. An organized crime ring, headed up by drug kingpins currently in jail, unleashed a series of attacks and bombings on civilian targets and against the police in Sao Paolo back in May, and then again in July and August. The police have been ill-equipped to fight back and hundreds have died.

What has made matters worse is that there is an upcoming election on Sunday. The main challenger for the presidency had been governor of Sao Paolo until just before the attacks began and thus he was the one mainly responsible for the security situation in the city. The incumbent president has seemed content to stand pat, allowing the unrest to continue, to show the public just how inept the challenger is at securing the people. The challenger has accused the incumbent of collusion with the crime ring in effort to sully his political reputation, sacrificing public security for political benefit. Despite the allegations, the incumbent is favored to be re-elected on Sunday.

Brazil's greatest natural resource is obviously the Amazon Rainforest. Under the current president, the rainforest has seen more deforestation than ever before. The deforestation, however, has led to a growth in the economy as they were able to export lumber and minerals, and use the land to farm corn [for ethanol], soy, beef and as always, sugar.

A local mayor in the rainforest region, Bruno Maggi, was given the "Golden Chainsaw" award from Greenpeace, "for the person who contributed most to Amazon destruction", and he has been dubbed the Soy King. Many Brazilians see farming/felling the rainforest as the key to bringing themselves and the nation out of poverty, while environmental groups like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund say Brazil can sustain itself without the continued destruction of the world's largest preserve of biodiversity and the "lungs of the earth".

While it's vitally important to save the rainforest, I can certainly understand why the people would say biodiversity doesn't feed my kids. The politicizing of public safety to maintain elected office, though, would be inexcusable if the accusations are true, but right now they are only allegations of a political opponent.

I don't know enough about the whole situation to sit here and advocate one candidate or the other, but I figured I'd lay out some info on an issue happening around the world which is not really making news in the major outlets and could potentially effect us all and if you want to know more, you can look into it.