RAPIDINHAS
MAY 1998

Behavior
Panties Down

With a detailed article entitled "Lingerie Crisis", Veja, Brazil's leading weekly—circulation 1.2 million plus—has sounded the alarm: Brazilian women are buying less panties. There was a 14% percent decline in sales of the product between 1993 and 1997, meaning that a mere 180 million of the minuscule underwear were commercialized down from 211 million in '93, according to Dupont do Brasil, manufacturer of Lycra. Women used to buy in average nine panties a year instead of the current seven.

Why is this happening in the land where the buttocks reign supreme as the most coveted female physical attribute? A study by Research International revealed that the main reason for the decline is the bad quality of the product. Today's panties lack in comfort and aesthetic values. They are downright sloppy with elastic that is too tight and fabric that soon sags.

More than 100 companies displayed their products at the IV Salão Internacional de Moda Íntima (4th Intimate Fashion International Fair) held in São Paulo from March 22 to 25. This is a $900-million a year market. Foreign models, however, had to be adapted to national tastes. "Overseas they use double the cloth for the derrière," explained to weekly magazine Isto É, Ralf Hofmann, marketing manager for Triumph.

Religion
Rebel Is Out

The Catholic megacommunity of São Paulo (more than 6 million souls and over 250 parishes), the largest bishopric in Brazil, has a new pastor. He is Don Cláudio Hummes, 63, who was chosen by Pope John Paul II to replace cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, 77, an extremely soft spoken and gentle Franciscan, but a very opinionated one, who has become a mythic figure doing battle with the generals of the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1985) and the Vatican's conservative hierarchy starting with His Holiness the Pope.

Together with Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga from São Félix do Araguaia in the Amazon he has led for two decades the progressive wing of the Brazilian Catholic Church. Don Arns leaves his post without making his own successor. Archbishop Hummes didn't make the list of eight names he had presented to the Vatican in response to a request from the Holy See.

Despite reports showing Arns and Hummes in two political opposing fields, both bishops have more in common than their religious order (Franciscan), and being born in the South of the country from German parents.

Don Hummes was born on August 8, 1934 in Montenegro, state of Rio Grande do Sul, in a large family with 14 siblings. He was ordained priest in 1958 and became bishop in 1975. He is an expert in ecumenism and has a Ph.D. in Philosophy.

In an interview with conservative daily O Estado de S. Paulo, soon after his nomination was made public, archbishop Hummes sent a message to Paulista Catholics: "Pray for me and don't look at me with any kind of prejudice because I intend to be the bishop of every one."

Don Hummes points to "immense poverty" as the biggest challenge he expects to face in São Paulo. He also talks about a change in the way the Catholic Church does business, in "new manners of acting and talking to the post-modern populations." He stresses that all laic movement should be encouraged including the booming Catholic Charismatic Renewal and the left-leaning social-aware Comunidades Eclesiais de Base (Grassroots Ecclesiastical Communities), which were the apple of the eye of his predecessor.

To those who ask about his political change from socially engaged at the start of his work as a bishop to a more spiritual and conservative approach, the new archbishop says he is adapting himself to the times. "I don't feel unfaithful to myself," he declared. "What has changed," he told O Estado , "is the political conjuncture, our kind of analysis, our type of response."

As a bishop in Santo André, in the greater São Paulo ABCD, where he worked from May 1975 to July 1996, before being transferred to Fortaleza, capital of the northeastern state of Ceará, he opposed the military regime and backed workers strikes. He had a special role in the 1978 metalworkers' strike, which was led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was a runner-up in the last two presidential races. Don Cláudio even allowed Lula da Silva to make political speeches during his masses.

When the leadership of FIESP (Federação das Indústrias do Estado de São Paulo—São Paulo State Industries Federation) asked him to intermediate a strike negotiation with workers he adamantly refused, arguing: "The church cannot have the role of mediator because it is firmly behind one side, that of the workers."

"He was spectacular, he was our support," recalls Jair Meneguelli, House representative from the PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores—Workers Party) and former president of CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores—Unified Workers' Central).

"Don Cláudio has a beautiful character," declared Lula upon knowing about the Pope's selection. "I am very happy with his choice. He was extraordinary in every respect. He entirely supported our families and workers."

The archbishop's short stay in Fortaleza— he took the place of liberal Don Aloísio Lorscheider, who was sent to Aparecida do Norte, a kind of Catholic Gulag— was not without conflict with the more progressive clergy. A group of priests even signed an open letter criticizing his work. Don Arns leaves in São Paulo a large contingent of priests tuned with his more socially aggressive methods and some fear that new shocks will come. 

He has been thought as a moderate since the 1995 CNBB (Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil—National Conference of Brazilian Bishops). Responsible for the Family Pastoral Work he helped organize Pope John Paul II recent visit to Rio. He also got closer to Rio's conservative cardinal Don Eugênio de Araújo Salles, one of the most powerful prelates in Brazil. Salles turned 75 in 1995. One year older than Don Paulo he also presented his resignation to the Pope, but there is no sign that John Paul II is looking for someone to substitute him.

During the '70s Don Hummes was considered a member of the progressive wing of the Church, but his choice by the pope was being celebrated by the more conservative clergy. Don Cláudio himself avoids labels telling that he is a pastor who follows the Pope's directives. Renowned Dominican friar Betto, who worked closely with Don Hummes and who knew first-hand the prisons and methods of the military regime, believes that the new cardinal hasn't changed and that people who think differently are in for a surprise. To call him today a conservative is an injustice, says Frei Betto, one of the leaders of the religious left: "This is an unfair label. It wasn't he who changed, but the circumstances."

Frei Betto should know. Despite all the pressure against him since 1978 he was maintained until today as head of the Pastoral Operária (Workers Pastoral Program) in the ABCD region with total backing from Don Hummes. "There is much more in common between Don Cláudio and Don Paulo than our vain philosophy let us believe," says Frei Betto, adding: "I am willing to make a bet. He always had lots of affection for Lula. I will even bet that he voted for Lula."

The new archbishop believes that social problems in São Paulo have worsened considerably since the '70s. While workers fought for better salaries two decades ago, he points out, today they are striving to just get a job. He faults the neoliberalism adopted by the President Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration for the country's rampant unemployment. And he defends the Movimento dos Sem Terra (The Landless Movement), arguing that people should be encouraged to organize themselves to defend their rights. He also seems to approve land invasions—an action often taken by the landless—when he reminds that the Church defends private property, but "with social responsibility."

Says the new archbishop: "Church's primary mission is religious. It is to bring people Christ's teachings. To accept Christ, however, has a social consequence because He preached love of the neighbor. Who adheres to Christ is invited to help and to share with everybody and most of all with the poor and the oppressed who are victims of the social organization. Private property is defended by the Church as a secondary right. The primary right is the universal destination of the goods, meaning that the earthly goods are for all."

Don Hummes believes that the tendency is for polarization between conservative and progressive, charismatic and grassroots communities to dissolve. "The Church is a unity and diversity at the same time," he argues.

The Fire Within

Don Paulo Evaristo Arns had submitted his resignation to the Pope—75 is the compulsory age of retirement for cardinal—on September 1996, when he turned 75. Born in Forquilhinha, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, on September 14, 1921, he was ordained priest on November 30, 1945. He became an auxiliary bishop of São Paulo on July 3, 1966 and archbishop of São Paulo, on October 22, 1970. Don Arns was elevated to Cardinal March 5, 1973 by Pope Paul VI.

Charismatic and controversial, don Paulo Evaristo Arns has made scores of devoted faithful as well as legions of foes. He has become a mythic figure, a symbol of the fight against repression and injustice. With the change of times and the arrival of democracy his star seems to have dimmed even though inequality and abject misery is still rampant in São Paulo. He has always been mistrusted by the Curia Romana due to his connections to Liberation Theology, a religious doctrine that mixes Christian and Marxist elements.

When theologian Leonardo Boff was called to Rome by the Office of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—it used to be called the Holy Inquisition—to make his case before Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of that office, don Evaristo asked and was allowed to participate in the interrogatory.

Recalling that period in an interview with Folha de São Paulo in 1996, Boff told about the archbishop's combativeness: "Cardinal Arns even threatened Ratzinger. He said that he would denounce any persecution from the Vatican to the Liberation Theology, in Germany, where we were going to hold conferences before returning to Brazil."

Soon after assuming the archdiocese, Don Paulo sold Palácio Pio XII, the official residence of the archbishop, used the money for charitable work, and moved to a two-story house in the lower middle-class neighborhood of Sumaré. His place was burglarized twice before he decided to move to his new quarters, a little house on the back of the São Bento monastery in downtown.

His 32-year stint at the São Paulo archdiocese was one of confrontation with power. In the country against the military regime (1964-1985), in the church against the conservative hierarchy starting with the Pope and in defense of Liberation Theology. In 1989, in a move aimed at decreasing his influence, Pope John Paul II divided the São Paulo archdiocese, moving 7,000 priests and nuns to the newly-created Osasco diocese.

Arns recalled recently a meeting he had in 1971 with President General Emílio Garrastazu Médici to complain against torture, imprisonments and disappearances. "I became very depressed when he told me: `The power constituted by the revolution will not move a millimeter from what it is doing. Priests should stay in the sacristy while we take care of the public order.' This seemed to me a great offense to the Catholic Church and the citizens." 

His crusade for political prisoners has been portrayed in the 1985 book Brasil: Nunca Mais (Brazil: Never Again), an all-encompassing report on torture and repression during the military regime. As for the 20 years of being hassled and harassed by the Holy See he says that he doesn't hold any grudges: "They would weight too much if I had to carry them with me."

Don Arns hasn't changed. When there were no more political prisoners he kept fighting for the common inmate. He will be out of a post, but not out of action, since he intends to continue working among poor children and old people. He chose another modest residence in the São Paulo working-class suburb of Jaçanã to be close to a poor senior-citizens shelter.

Says the Cardinal: "Brazil's democratization will always be incomplete before we can guarantee the honor of citizenry to all Brazilians." He plans to write his autobiography now. Author of 47 books, Don Arns promises revelations prospected from his archives with never-revealed information about the action of known military and politicians during the so-called lead years of the military dictatorship. He will have no post in the archdiocese, but he will keep his position at the Curia Romana, being allowed to vote for a new pope in case there is such a need.

Obituary
What a Life!

A heart attack sealed for ever the mouth of one of the most prolific and beloved Brazilian crooners, Nélson Gonçalves. The 78-year-old singer who suffered from lung emphysema for many years, but who kept an active agenda till the end, died April 18 at his daughter Margareth's house in Gávea, a neighborhood in Rio's south side. He was living with his daughter since separating from his wife Maria Luíza a year and a half ago. They had lived together since the '60s. The singer had seven children, five of them adoptive.

On October 1996 he had suffered another heart attack and was taken to an ICU (Intensive Care Unit). The crooner was buried under applause and the accords of one of his most loved songs, "A Volta do Boêmio" (The Bohemian's Return).

In a recent interview with Rio daily Jornal do Brasil the singer dreamed of a glorious death: "It will be during a nationwide TV program. The orchestra will start the music and then I will interrupt and say: `My friends, my artistic career is right now getting to an end. Farewell.' Distrustful of the respect Brazilians reserve for its idols he made a wish that wasn't granted him. "I want to be cremated," he said, "so nobody will be able to come and pee over my tomb."

The powerfully-voiced romantic balladeer—so powerful that he could do without a microphone—was looking forward to a golden disc award (for records that sell more than 100,000 copies) given him for Ainda É Cedo (It's Still Early), a CD with rock and MPB (Música Popular Brasileira—Brazilian Popular Music) tunes. Recorded in September of last year, Ainda É Cedo was his 128th disc. He recorded more than 2,000 songs and sold more than 78 millions copies of his tunes.

His own life had much of the drama of the despair-ridden songs he sang. Born on June 26, 1919, in Santana do Livramento, state of Rio Grande do Sul, Antônio Gonçalves Sobral moved with his family to the working-class neighborhood of Brás, São Paulo, when he was six. He changed his name to Nélson before turning 20 because he liked the sonority of the new name. His father was the owner and his mother the dancer on a little circus. Composer Adelino Moreira, his most frequent partner, says that Gonçalves was really born in Portugal, but did not want to reveal this for fear of losing fans.

Nélson was a stutterer. His father, a Portuguese by the name of Manuel, was a small time con who would play the guitar on open markets, sometimes pretending to be a blind man while little Nélson perched on a soapbox would sing and collect money from the compassionate audience.

As a child, Nélson worked as paperboy and shoeshine boy. Later he also tried his hand as barber, car mechanic, and waiter in a bar owned by his older brother in Avenida São João in downtown São Paulo. It is said that he got enough money to move to Rio, then the federal capital, by pocketing part of the money paid by customers.

His romantic life was stormy and his personal life deserving of a bad and outlandish soap opera. His descent into hell apparently started in São Paulo at the end of the '50s after being "betrayed by the woman I loved." At that time he became addicted to cocaine, a problem that dogged him from 1958 to 1973. Bully, womanizer, and a gigolo of four prostitutes from Lapa, in Rio, he married three times. The singer also spent time in jail accused of drug trafficking.

He was 18 when he had his first chance as a singer after winning a talent show at Rádio Tupi in São Paulo. Two years later, in 1939 he moved to Rio, where in 1941 RCA-Victor (BMG-Ariola today) would record his first disc including Ataulfo Alves's samba "Sinto-me Bem" (I Feel Good). That same year Nélson was elected by the readers of Revista do Rádio as Rei do Rádio (King of Radio). One year later he was hired as a crooner by fabled hangout-for-the-wealthy Copacabana Palace Hotel. His 1946 recording, "Maria Betânia," a classic by Pernambucano (from Pernambuco state) composer Capiba, was the reason famed singer Maria Bethânia got her name.

But the tune that most people associate with Gonçalves was recorded in 1953. It is "A Volta do Boêmio" (The Bohemian's Return) composed by his most constant partner, Adelino Moreira. Together they created anthological pieces of Brazilian sentimentality and kitsch, songs like "Deus do Asfalto" (God of the Asphalt), "Escultura" (Sculpture), "Êxtase", "Mariposa" (Moth) and "Fica Comigo Esta Noite" (Stay With Me Tonight).

This was a bountiful partnership that lasted throughout the '50s, even though sometimes it is not very clear which was Nélson Gonçalves's participation. There is no doubt, however, that it was thanks to his stirring voice that the songs became such a big hit.

In 1961 he sang at New York's City Hall, but by 1962 his career seemed finished due to his drug problems. Three years later he rebounded with the LP A Volta do Boêmio nº 1 (The Bohemian's Return No. 1). 

His life inspired a successful play called Metralha (Machine Gun) by Stella Miranda with actor Diogo Vilela interpreting the singer. Nélson saw the play and was moved by it. Metralha was the nickname he got as a child for stammering, even though the singer tells a different story, that he got the epithet for talking too fast. "I am not a stutterer," he used to say, "I just want to talk as fast as I think." With Francisco Alves, Orlando Silva and Sílvio Caldas, Nelson Gonçalves made up the quartet of the vastly popular male singers who won Brazilians' hearts in the 40s. He was the last survivor.

Nélson Gonçalves became that rare character in Brazil: a non-foreign artist considered a cult figure. Superstitious in extreme, he used to carry around an array of religious amulets from Our Lady medals and crucifixes to voodoo symbols like Ogum, Xangô and Oxalá charms.

In an interview with Brazilian Playboy published in March, the crooner confided, "I am 78, but I feel like a 25-year-old youngster." Macho man till the end, he had implanted a penile prosthesis.

Nation
Cardoso Left
Orphan

The deaths only two days apart of two of the most prominent leaders and allies of the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration has cast across the nation a shadow of mourning and doubts that the government will be able to go ahead full-steam with its privatization program and the constitutional reform to streamline the state bureaucracy.

Sérgio Roberto Vieira da Motta, 57, the loquacious and controversial President's close friend and officious spokesman, and chief political coordinator, was in charge of the Communications Ministry and had started the privatization of the state telecommunications monopoly. Luís Eduardo Maron de Magalhães , 43, Cardoso's point man in the lower house of congress, was famous for his easy transit and fairness among allies and opposition.

After some soul searching, Cardoso cut short a four-day state visit to Spain and flew back directly to Salvador, capital of Bahia state, to be on Magalhães's wake. The president also used the double loss for a political appeal to lawmakers so that they would approve a bill limiting pensions, which is stalled in Congress for three years. In a move criticized by some as crass opportunism and disrespect for the deceased, Cardoso said: "The greatest tribute to their memory is to vote for the measures they worked so hard on. There is no reason to postpone this."

The incertitude about the future brought out by the deaths shook also the stock market, which accumulated losses. São Paulo stock exchange, the nation's largest, declined 2.7 percent the day following Magalhães death and fell another 1.1 percent the next day.

Magalhães demise—his youthful looks made him seem a very healthy person—has provoked a dramatic increase of calls to doctors and medical check ups by those executives who like the promising politician don't pay attention to their health. The politician, who died of a heart attack, was a two-pack-a-day smoker, a heavy drinker, and a workaholic with a high cholesterol count.

Ironically he felt the first pains of the attack that would kill him a few hours later while in a seven-mile walk in Brasília, Brazil's capital, under a scorching sun. As soon as he came back home, he called the father: "I am feeling very bad." He was taken to the Santa Lúcia hospital and the doctors were getting ready to install a preventive pacemaker when at 6:00 PM his heart stopped. For the next two hours they tried in vain to resuscitate him. Luís Eduardo was conscious till the end talking with the doctors and being reassured that everything would end up OK.

Son of Antônio Carlos Magalhães, president of the Senate, the younger Magalhães was the shiniest political star of his generation and a likely candidate for the presidency in the 2002 elections. The pride of the old Magalhães—"He inherited all of my virtues and none of my shortcomings," the senator used to tell people—his most praised asset was his ability to negotiate all across the political spectrum.

Luís Eduardo was groomed for power by his father, a powerful political boss in the state of Bahia who allied himself to Cardoso to guarantee the President's election. Father and son continued backing the President through their party, the center-right PFL (Partido da Frente Liberal-Liberal Front Party).

The young Magalhães became a state legislator at age 23. In 1986 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil's Lower House, being reelected in 1990 and again in 1994. As president of that body he earned a reputation as fair-minded politician, who could listen to and negotiate with the opposition. It was very fitting then that many touching tributes to Magalhães came from his opponents. The young politician was a candidate for governor in his native Bahia in the October national elections and he was considered a shoe-in for the post.

The old Magalhães's despair gave a touch of Greek tragedy to the unexpected death. He cried openly and inconsolably, and also brought tears to everybody else, including Cardoso, who approached him at his son's coffin side. More than once he was heard saying: "I lost my life. Why him and not me?", while caressing with both hands his dead son's face. Cardoso was also witness of Luís Eduardo's younger son despair. The boy, who has the same name of the father, but is known as Doquinha, also touched the dead father's head and repeated crying, "Please, please," looking heavenwards as in hope for divine intervention. Close by, Michelle, the widow, hugged the couple's two other children, Ana Carolina and Paula.

The old senator stayed close to the coffin inside Salvador's Centro Administrativo São Sebastião until an unruly crowd forced him into a VIP room. Close to 20,000 Baianos came to pay their last tribute to the young Magalhães, but most of them were there in respect for the family's patriarch, who is venerated as a saint by many in Bahia. There were flowers in abundance. Men, women and children weren't ashamed of crying out loud, several people fainted due to the emotion and the heat, chairs were broken, and for some time the 400 policemen in charge of maintaining the order were not able to reign in the crowd. For a moment it was total chaos, with people screaming and pushing each other.  

Dangerously Frank

Communications Minister Sérgio Motta died on April 19 of a pulmonary infection following several ailments. He was one of the founders of the PSDB (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira—Brazilian Social Democracy Party), the President's party. This Paulistano (from São Paulo city) with a degree in industrial engineering was a workaholic incapable of relaxing even after a heart attack at the end of 1995.

The Minister was obese—hence being also known as Serjão or Big Sérgio—, diabetic, hypertensive, and had three coronary bypasses. In spite of all of this he kept his daily routine of drinking several doses of whiskey and eating high-cholesterol food. He loved a Big Mac and told friends that he could abuse a little with what he ate since he used to administer himself a higher dose of insulin than he was supposed to get.

Motta, nicknamed trator or bulldozer, for hisbulldozer for its lack of subtleties seemed like an official bully. Often his foot ended up in his mouth and he antagonized friends and foes alike. He neither spared his colleagues in the Cabinet nor the First Lady Ruth Cardoso. Talking about Comunidade Solidária (Solidarity Community), the social program she presides, Motta commented: "This, excuse-me the word, sociologic masturbation irritates me because it doesn't get any result."

One of his most outrageous comments, which would ostracize him in some countries, was directed against former mayor of São Paulo, Luíza Erundina: "Erundina was the worst as mayor and now she is incredibly overbearing. It must be the age, the menopause." Inspiration for his tirades could come from the most unsuspected sources. Watching a cow peacefully grazing in Europe in June 1997 he commented: "It was in large tits like those that the old Brazilian elite used to suck in the past."

For all of this and since the President maintained him in his post despite all the crises he provoked, Serjão was believed to be the government's loose cannon id telling what the President and his aides thought but had no guts to say.

It was to defend Luís Eduardo that Cardoso had a rare public gesture of reproach against his all-powerful minister. After Motta criticized the Lower House whip for not having enough control of the situation in Congress, the young Magalhães demanded an apology and threatened to resign his post. The President complied, going personally on TV and apologizing.

Even when carrying around his oxygen tank with two hoses sticking out from his nose—a device Motta got at the end of March after a trip to the National Jewish Hospital in Denver—the President's friend acted like an immortal. "I have nothing of the things people say I have," he declared in January. "I have no tumor, no high pressure, I haven't been to an ICU, and there are no problems with my legs. I have absolutely nothing."

When Motta entered for the fifth time the hospital in the last three and a half years, Luís Eduardo Magalhães commented: "Motta's withdrawal would be the worst loss that government could suffer." He didn't know a thing.

Media
Goliath Is
Hungry

Not content with its virtual monopoly of the Brazilian TV market and a media empire that earned $6.8 billion last year, the Marinho family, which owns Organizações Globo, is vying for a leading role also in the printed world. The media conglomerate is shedding all of its non-media assets—hotels and farms for example—to concentrate on its core business.

The push for this dominance has begun in earnest in April with the debut in Rio of Extra, a popular daily paper which joins O Globo, the newspaper that started the Marinhos' empire.

The effort becomes even more serious in May when the premiere issue of Época comes out. The new weekly magazine wants to compete with Veja—circulation 1.2 million—and become the leading national magazine in a decade. The vice-president of Organizações Globo, Roberto Irineu Marinho, son of patriarch and still very much in control Roberto Marinho, talked about his plans with daily newspaper Folha de São Paulo.

He intends for the new publication to surpass now second place Isto É (circulation 400,000) in four years, and Veja in 10.

Marinho explained why he is concentrating his efforts in media and entertainment: "Globalization has completely changed our philosophy. Globo today has to count with the possibility of competing with Time, which might start a Brazilian edition. Our GloboNews cable channel already competes with CNN."

The Challenge

O Dia has become the best-selling daily in Rio—350,000 copies a day—with a popular recipe that mixes short articles, lots of colors, and several well-known names as columnists. Since December O Globo newspaper lost its leadership. Extra enters the fray with a price war. The new paper will cost less than 25 cents on weekdays and close to 50 cents on Sundays, half the price of O Dia.

With an initial circulation of 130,000 Extra is an ambitious project that, according to its creators, was nine months in the making, consuming close to $30 million, one third of which was spent in marketing. Aimed at the so-called C-class (lower middle-class), the paper, which employs 172 people, presents some novelties including a daily glossary with explanations for more difficult terms used in the paper.

Their editor are also counting on several columnists—some with no writing experience but who are stars on Globo TV—people like comedian Tom Cavalcante, model and actress Luíza Brunet, and kid entertainer Angélica. The paper will also lure readers with a generous distribution of prizes including two Gol cars a month. 

Globo is investing a total of $690 million this year in its expansion program. Most of it, $500 million, will be used in its pay TV projects. Today, 73% percent of all over-the-air TV publicity as well as 70% of all pay TV subscribers belong to Globo.

Fernando Portela, vice-president of O Dia says that the competition has no chance: "There is no room for another newspaper in Rio. I believe the launching of Extra will increase the cannibalization of O Globo itself."

As for Época, Globo went to Germany to get its model, which is consuming $40 million. The new magazine is modeled after Focus, a German magazine born in 1993 that has a weekly circulation of more than 800,000. Época starts with a circulation of 250,000 copies and plans to triple it in five years. The new Brazilian magazine is also the result of focus groups that compared articles from Veja and Isto É with those written in the Focus style. According to the Época editors, readers preferred the new magazine's ease of reading and criticized the excess of publicity and arrogance in Veja.

Domingos Alzugaray, director of Editora Três, the publisher of Isto É, believes that there is no public for a third national weekly magazine. He says, however, that if a publication will have to fold it won't be his: "You don't make a magazine with economic power alone. If it were the case, Bradesco (Brazil's largest private bank) would have the largest magazines. You need talent."

In an apparent reaction to the developments in Rio—something strongly denied by Editora Abril's chairman and Veja's editor Roberto Civita—Abril will launch a new national weekly. Abril is Brazil's biggest publisher of magazines, with earning of $1.6 billion in 1997. Name and precise format of the publication haven't been revealed yet. In an interview with daily newspaper Folha de São Paulo, Civita said that he is not worried with the competition, comparing a magazine to an oak tree: "You are planting big trees not chayote." He admitted that Veja may have been arrogant in the past, but guaranteed that this is an attitude that is not accepted anymore.

Politics
Dreaming

Either former President Fernando Collor de Mello is delusional or he is privy to some information no other mortal has. In an interview with O Estado de S. Paulo published on April 19, Collor, who due to his 1992 impeachment is barred from running for any elective post in Brazil until the year 2,000, declared that he will once again be elected president come the October national elections.

On Collor's dreams, he will win in a runoff against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, PT's (Partido dos Trabalhadores—Workers' Party) seemingly presidential candidate. It was Lula that he defeated the first time around in the 1990 election. Collor has just moved back from Miami to dedicate to what he calls his presidential campaign.

According to the polls, barring a major reversal in the economy or a dramatic revelation, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso will be reelected and probably in the first round.

The ex-president has a scientific explanation for Cardoso's final demise: "Fernando Henrique is living today the boiled frog syndrome. If you ignite a lighter close to a frog, he gets burned and runs away jumping. But if you take the swamp water, place it in a pan, put the frog inside the pan, and take him to the stove, the frog stays there, quiet, without budging. The water gets warmer and warmer and he dies without trying to get out because he has the sensation that is warming up, but that is going to go away.

"This is an experiment from Physics. Fernando Henrique is like that: he thinks he can stand a bit more of unemployment, a bit more of violent protests, of denationalization, of buying votes in Congress. When he wakes up he will be burned and boiled. The popular reaction to a moment like this is very violent."

Words
Complete,
Well, Almost

Since being introduced in Brazil in 1975 the Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa by Aurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira became a classic selling 13 million copies. So respected is the 1840-page lexicon that Aurélio today in Brazil is synonym for dictionary. The vastly popular dictionary published by Editora Nova Fronteira was helped by a simple fact: there was no competition.

There wasn't. Now Editora Melhoramentos has come up with a bigger, more exhaustive, more up-to-date and also cheaper product. The Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa or Michaelis—the name comes from sisters Henriette and Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcelos, who compiled a Portuguese dictionary in Portugal at the end of the 19th Century—has 201,174 terms including a thick volume of computer words.

The Aurélio, whose latest updating occurred 12 years ago, records 75,000 less words. By comparison, the Webster's Third New International Dictionary has in excess of 450,000 words in a 2664-page volume. On the preface for the 1961 edition, the Webster's editor revealed that the preparation of the book had consumed 757 editor-years, not counting the work of typists, clerical assistants, photocopiers and over 200 consultants.

The new Brazilian dictionary has been a ten-year enterprise, which involved as many as 84 people, including lexicographs, etymologists, expert contributors, and proofreaders.

New words like "deletar" and "inicializar" have been added to the lexicon due to its common use among the digerati, even though the Portuguese has more than fitting terms to substitute them. Other words such as software, download, factoring, and kickboxing were included without any Portuguesifying. 

As dictionary however, the Michaelis commits the mortal sin of adopting a politically-correct posture, which occurs in several instances. While in the Aurélio, one of the meanings for judeu (Jew) is "evil, stingy, usurer individual", this common meaning is ignored by the Michaelis. Preto de alma branca (black with a white soul), vagabunda meaning prostitute, and paraíba meaning a virago, are some other omissions.

Misery
Dry Despair

With a mostly poor population of peasants, many of them illiterate, the northeastern arid region is residence for 43 million Brazilians. Drought and hunger in the Brazilian Northeast is a chronic problem with cycles in which worse gets to worst. Malnutrition in the region is common. The El Niño presence this year gave earlier notice that the situation would be tougher than in droughts past. Apparently the timely warning wasn't enough to avoid the chaos and misery provoked by the region's worst drought in 15 years and already considered one of the worst this century.

At the end of April, 69% of Pernambuco state's municipalities were in critical situation due to the lack of rain with 119 municipalities from state of Ceará, 66 in Rio Grande do Norte, and 41 in Pernambuco being in state of emergency. The effects of the drought could be felt in 1209 of the 1787 northeastern municipalities affecting as many as 10 million Nordestinos according to Sudene (Superintendência do Desenvolvimento do Nordeste—Northeast's Development Superintendency).

In Afogados de Ingazeira, state of Pernambuco, a crowd of hungry peasants looted 17 tons of food from the Programa Comunidade Solidária (Solidarity Community Program). Army troops were sent and Zenildo Lucena, the Army minister himself visited the city.

According to a report by Rio's daily O Globo, the city of São José do Belmonte, also in Pernambuco, created a curious classification for those in need: the poor families, the very poor, and the "miserably dead". They are those who are expected to die because they have nothing to eat.

In Cedro, where 95% of the bean and corn crops were lost, a 46-year-old peasant called João Miguel do Nascimento in despair for not being able to feed his family hanged himself. He left home with a cord saying he was going out to make a swing for his little son. That was the cord he used in his desperate act.

The police were called to protect businesses and government food depots after several instances of looting in dozens of cities, with thousands of hungry peasants carrying off tons of food. Others have resorted to eating wild vegetation, rodents, and scavenging for food in garbage cans. Palma, a bitter cactus used as cattle food when there is nothing else left is the only food many people are having. In some cases the water being consumed is mixed with mud. In all this misery a piece of meatless bone boiled in water may be seen as a banquet.

The federal government recognized the seriousness of the situation saying that the drought could affect as many as 10 million people, and promised an emergency package to solve the problem. José Rainha Jr., MST's (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra—Movement of Landless Rural Workers) leader, who has been organizing the plundering, blamed the federal government for the crisis, adding that the Cardoso administration would have done nothing if it weren't for the widespread looting.

Not before April 30 the federal administration started its cesta básica (basic package) program offering one million food packs to the 1236 municipalities placed on the critical list. By the government own admission it didn't amount to much. The food would help only half of those in need and the packages containing rice, beans, manioc, pasta and milk were reduced from its usual 19 kg (42 lb.) to 10 kg (22 lb.). The very-short lived solution that still had to be delivered at the municipalities' expense cost $8 (eight) a piece.

The looting has also caused some sparks between the government and the Catholic Church hierarchy since some bishops defended the rights of people to looting when hungry. The President called the bishops' posture irresponsible. Trying to put an end to the controversy, Don Luciano Mendes de Almeida, Mariana's archbishop and the president of CNBB (Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil—Brazilian Bishops National Conference) declared: "The Church's response will be our action, in the dioceses, with a great collective effort in favor of the Northeast." CNBB's general assembly voted in favor of a national campaign to collect money and food in its 8,000 parishes. The resources were to be channeled through Cáritas, a Church organization specialized in social programs.

The culture of drought has its glossary:

Algaroba—drought resisting edible plant

Ancoreta—rubber pail for keeping water

Banho de lapada—pail bath

Barreiro (literally mud place)—improvised dam to keep water

Cacimba—water left in dry riverbed holes

Cama de galinha (lit. chicken's bed)—cattle ration

Macambira—wild plant used as food

Quengo—half of a coconut shell used as a bowl

Roladeira—a large keg that is filled up with water and rolled with the help of ropes

Torta (lit. pie)—cattle ration

Numbers
Pretty Poor
and
Dirty Rich

New numbers released by the World Bank in April tell that 4% of the world's very poor are in Brazil and that 23.6% of Brazilians earn $1 or less a day. According to the report Brazil is below Latin America's average in several indexes. While 9% of children between the ages of 10 to 14 work in Latin America as a whole, this rate raises to 16% in Brazil. The country also presents one of the world's worst cases of economic disparity, with the 20% richer controlling 64.2% of the wealth, while the bottom 20% are left with 8.3 % of the goods.

The sobering news was made public April 17, the same day Edward Amadeo, Brazil's Labor Minister, announced that the country's monthly minimum wage was being raised from $105 to $114. According to the Minister, 22.5 million workers or 6.07% of those legally hired get the minimum. Amadeo explained that with this latest increase the Cardoso administration was making good on its campaign pledge of doubling the minimum.

Not so fast, say the technicians from Dieese (Departamento Intersindical de Estatísticas e Estudos Sócio-econômicos—Interunion Department of Socio-Economic Studies) who disagree with the official conclusion. To double that value, they say the minimum should have been increased to $177. To arrive to this number they factored a 43,83% inflation increase since January 1,1995, the day Cardoso was inaugurated. According to economist Sérgio Mendonça, in reality the minimum has shrunk in buying power when compared to the salary paid in May 1995. "At the time the minimum was worth $117 in today's money," he says.

According to IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística—Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), there are 13.2 million Brazilians, or 19.4 % of the economic active population, getting minimum wage (this includes wage earners and retired people receiving a pension). Those receiving three minimum wages represent 19.6 percent of the active population. Only 2.6% of the active population or 1.8 million Brazilians earn more than 20 minimum wages a month. Another 3.5 million (2.6% of the active population) get between 10 and 20 minimums.

Lust
Man Nude

As a public utility service to its female readers, Folha de São Paulo, Brazil's leading daily paper, with a Sunday circulation of more than 800,000 copies, promoted a campaign to find out who was the soccer player that female readers would like to see naked in a magazine. The vote was taken in the Internet. In the competition announced and generously covered by the printed version of the paper, Raí (see picture), a Brazilian soccer star now playing in Paris, came in first with 45% of the votes.

Explaining her vote for the soccer ace, Lydia Cruz, 37, a clerk, told Folha: "Raí is naturally sexy. His mouth alone makes him deserving of a frontal nude shot. I think women prefer much more a guy like that than an "animal" like Edmundo." Not quite. Edmundo, whose nickname is Animal, came in second with 31 percent of the votes. "He is everything," told promoter Meire Pignadelli, 25. "In a scale from zero to ten, I will give Edmundo a 10. The third place in the survey went to Ronaldinho, the world's best soccer player. Renato Gaúcho came in fourth, and Túlio in fifth. These same readers said that is time for Brazil to have a magazine with naked men.