Sesc SP

Foreign trade – Brazil, a country that for years has ranked on the list of the top 30 largest global exporting countries, faces the threat of seeing its export portfolio regress to 1960’s levels, when agricultural and mineral products dominated its foreign sales portfolio. This fact is due to, among other reasons, China’s voracity for such commodities.

Economy
• Just as is happening in most emerging countries, Brazil’s middle class is also in a process of expansion. Favored by a rising GDP rate, under-control inflation and universalization of basic education, 31 million Brazilians are no longer poor and have joined the middle class during the first decade of the 21st century.
• The government’s cash transfer programs benefiting poor families if, on the one hand, have proven their worth in fighting misery, on the other, have been challenged for not presenting an exit strategy for the status of beneficiary.

Crime
• Money laundering is one of the main strategies for concealing the origin of funds obtained through illegal activities. To help fight money laundering, a bill is currently in Congress that widens the scope of antecedent crimes – those that generate assets capable of being laundered.
• Sea piracy continues to exist, with spectacular high-sea, or even close-to-port, robberies. Though fought against by many countries, police officials are unable to eliminate it.

Environment
• An attempt to overhaul Brazil’s 1965, and still in force, Forest Code has generated much controversy and stirred the spirits of environmentalists and farmers. In face of the threat of global warming, the country needs legislation that enables it to continue to generate hard currency based on the countryside without harming the environment.
• Illegal occupation of the Serra do Mar, in the state of São Paulo, is a constant threat to the Atlantic Rainforest, the world’s most biodiverse biome. To try and solve the problem, the state government is phasing in a social and environmental program that promises to halt the degradation process.

Oceanography – Brazil’s marine area is receiving special attention from the government, research institutes and military bodies. A recently finished study, with the participation of tens of specialists, aims to guide public strategies for the scientific and technological exploration of the ocean’s potentialities.

Cities – Recycling is gaining momentum in Brazil. A number of city halls are supporting nongovernmental organizations or even companies, with a twofold interest: income generation for a large number of people and advantages for the environment.

Women
• As it turns 50, the contraceptive pill continues to be a widely used anti-birth method. Responsible for the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the pill brought about great transformations to society and women’s health.
• Brazil, the world’s eighth largest economic power, comes 12th in an international ranking on violence against women. In spite of breakthroughs in this area, the country is still driven by a macho mindset, which is often stimulated by the media.

Literature – Writer Casimiro de Abreu, who died in 1860 at the age of 21, only left us one poetry book, three short stories and a single theater play. Still, he is one of the most remembered names in Brazilian literature.

Interview – Born in England in 1931, artist Maureen Bisilliat changed her paintbrushes for a photographic camera in 1960. In this interview she speaks about her work and the incentive she got to build her collection.

Legislation – On 13 July 2010 the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent turned 20 years of age. During this period, there was indeed a revolution regarding public policies catering to this portion of society.

Thematic panel – Demographics expert José Eustáquio Diniz Alves, in a talk held at the São Paulo State Fecomercio, Sesc and Senac Economics, Sociology and Politics Council, discusses the Brazilian demographic reality and the consequences of the so-called “opportunity window”, whereby the population’s age structure
is expected to change in a highly favorable way.