Dear Cdes. and friends, Here is a personal translation of a short article by Carlos Chagas that has been published on a mainstream Brazilian newspaper, the _Tribuna da Imprensa_. What is now so startling for the Brazilian _establishment_ (the _Tribuna_ is not precisely a progressive newspaper...) is that not even territorial claims remain free from the proposition that they be swapped for debt. In Argentina, 1970, no one would have imagined that our public property would one day be traded for foreign debt (of course, the trade-off was so prepared that we ended up with no public utilities of our own --and even more debt!). In Brazil, a couple of years ago, the whole right-wing would imagine it a foolish blunder by Leftists that there was any interest on the United States to grab the Amazonia rainforest. Now, they are beginning to probe deeper and see further. I know that this may sound outrageous for our Brazilian cdes., but we are facing aditional evidence that the Brazilian ruling classes do still have some kind of backbone as against imperialist burglars. By the way, and this to PEN-Lers: I have long been thinking that a new treatise on political economy should be written, dealing with the specificities of political economy in Third World countries not as a part of the world schema but from within. I suggest that this treatise be named _Political Economy of Loot_. But, then, I am no pundit in economics... ***Personal translation follows*** To: EcoNet Rede Ecológica da APREC Ecossistemas Costeiros <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: "APREC Ecossistemas Costeiros" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date sent: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 13:50:27 -0200 [ Double-click this line for list subscription options ] Tribuna da Imprensa", Rio de Janeiro, october 17, 2000 Explicit piracy by CARLOS CHAGAS BRASÍLIA - It is already two weeks since George Bush, on his debate with Al Gore, declared that foreign debts of developing (that is, poor) countries should be paid for by selling the rainforests. Translation: Brazil, Ecuador, Perú, Colombia and Venezuela should pay for their debt by giving away Amazonia to their creditors. Those who believed this story of internationalization of the region was a form of paranoia are now facing evidence that not only they are glancing at the forest, but they are also indicating how and when to grab it. The opponent of Bush thinks the same. Al Gore has expressed, some years ago, that Amazonia belongs to humankind and that Brazilian sovereignty is a relative one. The suggestion came from Thatcher The first proposition that natural goods be exchanged for debt was made by Margaret Thatcher, when she was the Prime Minister of England. The witch was not shy to propose countries in the Third World to put their riches to sale. That was the starting point of a wave of explicit piracy, to which the "Leftists" François Miterrand from France, Felipe Gonzalez from Spain, and even e até Mikhail Gorbachev (while the Soviet Union kept existing) did not precisely escape. Decissive was in this sense the role played by Al Gore and even by Bill Clinton (not to forget England's John Major). That is, loot soars above ideologies. The serious thing with Bush is that there is no way out, since both he and his opponent think alike and within a few weeks we shall have one of both as President of the greatest world power, that power which uses to defend its values and interests by means of missiles, armor units, fleets and planes..It is not necessary to imagine the marines parachuting on Natal shortly before they do the same in Manaus: those methods are restricted to extreme situations. There is still another set of much more efficient, methods, such as controlling the economies of poor countries, co- opting the elites, and purchasing their governments. Internacionalization can be seen visível The process of internationalization of Amazonia steps ahead at our sight. It is unnecessary to quote the campaign of the NGOs of any kind, directly subsidized by the USA or the multinationals. They charge that Brazil is destroying the lung of the world, that we are burning a football field per second, and that we are polluting the waters of the Amazon basin. They claim that the forest should remain untouched, that is, with its mineral and floristic richness immobilized. The creation of independent aboriginal nations, with a delimitation of areas which -oh, just a coincidence- are placed exactly on the borders of the country and hold reserves of noble minerals, keeps advancing at full speed. Brazil should wake up, but since the Government is sleeping in a beautiful craddle, it has ignored even the most recent obscenity that George W. Bush has just proposed. So that the only way to solve the situation is to bring the society to an alert. We must hope that this society gets in motion again, the military to begin with, those military who, according to the prevailing doctrine, "would lose any war, are harmless, lack importance, and are just a waste of public monies". The saddest part of all this is the option that we seem to face: silence from the person who should be shouting, and connivence of those who imagine that they will benefit with the crumbs that may fall from the table at the banquet of the powerful ones. Let us watch, for instance, our economic team. Has anyone heard a word from our Minister Pedro Malan on the necesity to safeguard our sovereignty? Our territory? Not a word from his, not a word from his chief. Preaching in the desert. Every six months (?: Bissextamente) some general puts a qualified auditorium at the High War School or at Itamaraty (Brazilian Foreign Relations Ministery) on alert, and from time to time Itamaraty attempts some verbal reaction but, with no support from the media, the denunciations are lost in the air. We are marching towards a non- return situation, which has already begun with the alienation of our strategic patrimony, the opening of our frontiers to predatory speculative capital, and the ellimination of incentives to our exports. We shall wake up some nice morning and we shall be informed that Amazonia is not of ours any more, that a bunch of technocrats have just sold it for our ever multiplying foreign debt. We shall be informed that the United Nations have recognized the independent nation of the Ianomâmi and that the maps of Latin America distributed in the schools of the First World will distribute among their children that Amazonia and Pantanal belong to "humankind". And what should we expect, if our government does no more than some Presidential histeric rethorics against commercial discrimination during his trips to the Northern Hemisphere? A good and loud shout of indignation should be necessary, with immediate and concrete measures to force out from the sand the heads of our official, business and even intellectual ostrichs. It is national sovereignty that is at stake. Our territorial integrity, that cost so much fighting, sweat and blood, is at risk. We must keep for a later time to imagine how to punish the sellers of the homeland, now the first and foremost priority is to prevent the sale of our tropical forests. Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
