Igneous Quill » Brazil

The Poverty & Justice Bible, Now in Portuguese

Adam Gonnerman — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:46:26 +0000

Earlier this year I wrote a review of the Poverty & Justice Bible (PJB). It wasn’t very favorable. This is an edition of the Bible that I’d love to love, but can’t bring myself to like.

My main problem with the PJB was the translation used, the Contemporary English Version. Reading it I found not only questionable translation, but a loss of meaning with key terminology muddled or lost entirely that helps unlock the meaning of Scripture.

This edition of the Bible highlights in orange the passages of Scripture that pertain to poverty and justice issues. Reading it is eye-opening, as the heart of God for justice is plainly revealed. More than any other topic in Scripture, poverty and justice are discussed. This can be surprising to many Christians, particularly in the United States, where sexual morality and “reclaiming” America’s “Christian heritage” have been at the forefront for years.

It’s easy to predict that this edition of the Bible will find a ready audience in Brazil, where social responsibility has been a value esteemed for quite a while, even finding a place in the operation of corporations in that country. The translation used is the Bíblia na Linguagem de Hoje, analogous to the Contemporary English Version. Having not read this translation, however, I can’t say either way whether it will be an improvement over its English counterpart. I have a copy of this version on my phone in the YouVersion app, so I’ll try to look it over and see what I think.

Next year I plan to travel with my family on vacation in Brazil, and I’ll try to obtain a copy of the PJB in Portuguese. If it looks good, it could be a help in advancing the work of HOPE worldwide through churches and into communities in that country.

See Also:

Book Review: The Poverty & Justice Bible (IgneousQuill.org)

Bíblia Pobreza e Justiça é ferramenta para entidades do Terceiro Setor (Cidadania Evangélica)

The Poverty and Justice Bible (American Bible Society)

Bíblia Sagrada Pobreza e Justiça (Sociedade Bíblica do Brasil)

A Child’s-Eye View of Favela Life

Adam Gonnerman — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 13:38:01 +0000

The video below is a bit long (almost 31 minutes) and is a little silly, but it shows life in a Brazilian favela from the point of view of some of its youngest residents. I’m not sure how the kids were instructed on what type of information to provide, but they go into amusing detail at times describing doors and guitars and so forth. The point is, these are normal kids with hopes and dreams who in a few years will already be adults trying to deal with the world.

The Bottom Rung of Society

Adam Gonnerman — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:00:19 +0000

It continues to shock my sense of what’s real and tolerable in our world every time I see fresh photos from a dump somewhere in the world where people are not only looking for recycling, but actually eating garbage. This began for me around Christmas 2002 when I read an article in a Brazilian newspaper about a young man who got up early in the morning to scavenge in the local dump for the day’s food for his family. Whatever he found he gave to his mother before washing up and heading to his high school. This is life at the bottom rung of society for countless people around the globe.

Then, a couple of years ago, I came across a video online by reporter Nicholas Kristof. In it we see the life of people living in a Cambodian dump. Kristof’s point in the video is that even a “sweat shop” is better than scavenging for a living in a fetid dump.

A year or so later (at least, that’s when I noticed), Trey Morgan started talking about the work of Marc and Terri Tindall in with the poor in Honduras. One of their projects involved taking food to the “dump people” once a week. From that was born an annual “Jesus Banquet” at the dump, an annual fund-raiser to finance the weekly food deliveries, and regular visits from teams down to Honduras to help out. Sustainable solutions, including a farm, are in the works.

About a month or so ago I finally watched an excellent documentary about people working in a Brazilian dump. Though their situations were not as extreme as those in Honduras, Cambodia and elsewhere, it is life in a dump nonetheless. Check out the trailer:

Finally, and more recently, I came across photographer Jose Ferreira’s pictures from a dump in Mozambique. Horrific. Click the picture below to see the most complete set from the series I’ve found online.

Photo credit: José Ferreira. Image via Behance.

See Also:

21st Century Third World Gehenna (IgneousQuill)

Poverty and the Risk of the Possible (IgneousQuill)

Life in ‘trash land’ captured by photographer (CNN)

UPDATE:

Here’s another post I came across, describing mission work with Roma people living at the margins in the midst of an informal trash heap: Hell on Earth and the Kingdom of God.

Book Review: The Street Children of Brazil

Adam Gonnerman — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:27:39 +0000

Sarah de Carvalho’s book about rescuing children from the streets in Brazilian cities is one I wanted to like but struggled to read. Brazil is near and dear to my heart, as it’s where I served briefly as a missionary and is my wife and children’s home country. It is also a nation to which I have long sensed a strong calling to serve in the name of Christ, and to which I hope to return in not too many years. With that said, here are my two main difficulties with this book.

First, it’s a question of style. I really think Sarah was trying to say too much in this book. She told how she came to believe in Christ and then went to Brazil after a period of time, explained how Happy Child International got started and skimmed through the development of this organization and many of the struggles they faced. So far, so good. What was already a swift retelling of events became even more difficult to grip when the author began giving background on not one or two of the children, but on several of them. As a reader I found it incredibly challenging to keep track of who was who. It may have made more sense for her to have created a composite story of the “typical” street kid (telling us that this was what she was doing), and then have provided brief real-life vignettes of young people she encountered and helped.

Second, the theological viewpoint of the author is very clearly neo-Pentecostal, and this shows up not only in brief asides but as a key component in the story. Of course, Sarah is simply recounting her experiences and what she believed moved events forward, so she’s only being honest. At the same time, for those of us who don’t share her exact beliefs, what she has to say can at times seem quaint and seemingly breathless to downright annoying. In general, it’s distracting. This is a hard point for me to convey, as I in no way want to take away from the good work she and her organization continue to do.

Despite my criticisms of the style and theological perspective of this book, I would still recommend it to anyone with an interest in Brazil and poverty issues there. It should not be at the top of your reading list, but certainly deserves 5th or 6th place. At only 242 pages you certainly won’t lose any considerable amount of time reading it, and will come away from it better informed.

The Dignity and Death of a Child Worker

Adam Gonnerman — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:30:14 +0000

He was 10 years old, the main “actor” in a documentary about child labor in Brazil, and he was washed away in a flood and died three days before the short film premiered. His name was José Deyvison Fernandes and he lived with his mother at the Mutirão neighborhood dump in Campina Grande, Paraíba. In the early hours of July 17, 2011 heavy rains brought flooding that collapsed his home and washed him away. His mother managed to survive. His body was found the 20^th, the same day the documentary had its first showing.

Due to his poverty and means of living his was the object of teasing at school. With this documentary, I believe, some dignity and respect was accorded to the boy. His death is tragic and senseless, but thank God he lived. Let’s remember that there are millions like him in this world, boys and girls, whose innate value and potential as human beings made in the image of God must be respected and encouraged to flourish.

Poverty and the Risk of the Possible

Adam Gonnerman — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 19:30:27 +0000

“Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it. To contradict it.” – Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope

It could be I’m the last to comment on this documentary about people who made their living by picking recyclable materials out of the world’s largest dump, located on the edge of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I write “made” because apparently the landfill is being closed down. The following is a brief synopsis of the film, taken from the official website, followed by my few thoughts on one aspect that seemed key to everything with this documentary.

Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT and COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) and co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley have great access to the entire process and, in the end, offer stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit.

To me, the key point in this film was the question of whether it was fair and good to show a different life to folks working in the dump. Although certainly through TV they are aware of a reality outside of that which they live, most have never experienced it themselves. They’ve largely only known poverty and struggle. By engaging some of them in an art project and possibly even taking some to foreign countries (the latter of which did happen with at least one participant in the project) they would be seeing a side of life that could not be theirs.

Or could it?

To be perfectly honest, in the beginning I tended to side with the non-engagement perspective, the one that calls it unfair to make people think their lives can be any different, any better. Now I realize that was simply my lack of faith, hope and love.

We are all creatures of habit. We live a status quo that, however unpleasant it may be at times, we prefer over the uncertainty of unknown, different possibilities. When we plan for the future, we do it based on what our eyes can see and our minds can calculate. At some point it may become so bad that any alternative is welcome, but this tends to be rare and we run right back to the stability of the known and counted.

Sometimes, disruption is called for to break the spell of the status quo.

Is it unfair to dangle a different life before they eyes of the poor? No, not at all, especially if the intention is right and a willingness is present to at least provide encouragement. By seeing new possibilities, people are enabled to dream new dreams and strive for goals they previously never considered setting. Is it risky? Of course. Failure is always a possibility, but despair cannot be considered a valid option.

Not everyone from Jardim Gramacho who was featured in this film has “come out on top.” None, however, walked away unchanged. That is what really matters. Whatever work is done with the poor, false promises should never be made, but also no one should be denied taking the risk of the possible.

“For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:37 NRSV)

See Also:

Waste Land Official Website

São Paulo School Books Go Open Source

Adam Gonnerman — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:00:28 +0000

As of June 7, 2011, all of the teaching materials produced by the Municipal Secretary of Education office in São Paulo are available online, for free, under a creative commons non-commercial license. This means that anyone with Internet access and a printer can obtain hard copies (or of course, simply save them to disk as pdf files) of this material and can use it, so long as it is not used commercially. From what I can see, the texts currently available are for Portuguese and Math from grades 1 through 9. Obviously the school system likely obtains its physics, chemistry, history and any other texts from publishing houses.

Beyond being a potential benefit to other school districts in Brazil, I can think of two other communities that can utilize this material.

First, school systems outside of Brazil where Portuguese is spoke. African nations in particular that speak Portuguese could easily download, print and bind (even if only spiral binding) these texts for use. There would be cost involved in the printing, but I have to think it would be less than professional publication of materials in-house.

Second, the Brazilian diaspora can use the Portuguese texts to teach Brazilian children being raised in nations around the world where Portuguese isn’t the primary language.

As for myself, I’m thinking any and all of this material can be useful to my family as we attempt to prepare ourselves for a move back to Brazil. With a daughter in her teens and a son who will likely be entering his teen when we move, the academic challenges they will face may be the biggest hurdle to their transition back to life there.

Click here to check out what’s available, and here as well to see where you can download school lunch manuals from Sao Paulo

A Look at Linux Educacional 3.0 (IgneousQuill.net)

Can Social Entrepreneurship Work in Brazil? – Fábio Rosa and Rural Electricity (Part 2 of 2)

Adam Gonnerman — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 22:30:27 +0000

Last week I wrote about Fábio Rosa and the work he’s done as a social entrepreneur in Brazil on behalf of the rural poor. For this post I’d like simply to share a PBS report that focuses on his work. It is encouraging to me to see that it is possible with a great deal of intelligence, planning and persistence to make a go of this sort of effort in Brazil. You’ll notice in the videos that there’s mention of the solar power equipment being rented to people in the countryside. The reason for this is that selling the equipment would incur added consumer costs through sales tax that could increase the overall cost by 50%. In my opinion, this makes the Brazilian not only anti-business but anti-development.

My apologies in advance for the terribly incorrect — even grating — pronunciation of place-names in Portuguese by English speakers in these videos.

Can Social Entrepreneurship Work in Brazil? – Fábio Rosa and Rural Electricity (Part 1 of 2)

Adam Gonnerman — Sun, 29 May 2011 22:30:44 +0000

High taxes and red tape make the business environment rather hostile in Brazil. Small businesses pop up and fail at an almost dizzying pace, unable to cope with the fees and often excessive regulation. Large corporations and international investors tend to fare better, but only if they take the long view on returns. I’ve written before about this situation in What Keeps Brazil Back, so no point going into it again here.

With all of the above in view, it made me wonder if or how social entrepreneurs could ever get a foothold in the country. Doing good for the social good is a high-minded ideal that can crash pretty hard against the jagged, stony reality of adverse tax and business codes. Looking around, I found a shining example of a successful social entrepreneur in Brazil: Fábio Rosa.

Looking at the rural area of southern Brazil where he grew up he saw clearly that the poor were moving rapidly to the cities not because the quality of life there was so much better, but because they couldn’t make a living outside of the cities. One of the major hindrances to life in the country was the lack of electricity. Incredibly, a great many people in Brazil’s rural areas have no access to the electrical grid. In the eyes of the private energy concerns, it simply isn’t profitable enough to invest in building and maintaining the needed infrastructure over large areas for a relatively small population.

Check out the slide presentation below for more, as well as the two articles linked at the bottom of this post. If you understand Portuguese then the IDEAAS site is worth a look. It’s the site of the organization Rosa leads in promoting sustainable development.

Next week I’ll bring more on Mr. Rosa and the projects he has led to improve the lives of rural Brazilians.

View this document on Scribd

See also:
Fabio Rosa: The Sun Shines For All (youthxchange)
A Visit to IDEAAS: Clean Energy Solutions for Brazil’s Poor (NextBillion.net)
Dealing with Brazil’s Red Tape (IgneousQuill.org)

Dealing with Brazil’s Red Tape

Adam Gonnerman — Sun, 22 May 2011 22:30:11 +0000

Standing in line to buy a bus ticket to Brasilia (I had to make a run to the U.S. embassy as part of finalizing my Brazilian immigration process), I saw a sign on the wall. It was one of the very common “official decree” announcements explaining some aspect of legislation relevant to the location. In this case, it stated that no one over the age of 5 could travel for free on any bus line. Seems simple enough, but then I remembered the “two-for-the-price-of-one” deals I’d seen offered before by Greyhound in the United States. Essentially, in the unyielding, over-legislated environment that exists in Brazil, bus lines don’t have the freedom to do promotional offers that enable anyone to travel for free. This may seem like a small example, but it is one of countless that can be shared from every aspect of daily life in Brazil. From the bank to the supermarket to the school and pretty much everywhere else, there are multiple, often little-known or unknown laws that can be invoked to ruin someone’s day or even bring down their business.

In “Too much red tape leaves Brazil’s economy lagging,” Andres Oppenheimer neatly lays out straightforward examples of how Brazil’s bureaucracy compares to that of other nations. Although the article is apparently from 2005 or so, not much has changed in the past few years. A more recent article, entitled “Demand for 4G grows in Brazil, but common hurdles stand in the way,” describes how wireless carriers are striving to upgrade the nation’s network in time for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. Unfortunately, obtaining all of the needed permits from all involved agencies is placing a serious drag on the process.

The root causes of Brazil’s chronic red tape and unfriendly business environment can be boiled down, in my opinion, to three ideological factors that are deeply ingrained in the country’s political culture: Collectivism, Centralism and Positivism. The first holds that all property, to some extent, is common property. Rights of personal ownership, while technically guaranteed, are undermined by many prevailing laws and regulations. The second causes the entire nation to look to Brasilia for answers, even directing the nation’s tax system (called a “tribute system”) to the federal government for redistribution. Federal law even regulates the traffic law for the entire (geographically very large) nation, one of the most obvious but perhaps least harmful examples of local conditions not being taken into account. The third reinforces the former two, advancing the notion that leadership can micro-manage the country through legislation to create optimal conditions. For more on this, read my post, “What Keeps Brazil Back.”

What can be done? In times past I thought the answer would have to be almost purely political, involving the success of a particular party in persuading the populace and winning national offices to implement change. While I still tend to think that one party, O Partido Federalista, has the right idea, I’ve also come to believe that more immediate, direct action is needed on the local level. People can’t easily be sold theoretical ideologies, but they can be brought on board projects to teach valuable technical skills to young people and improve neighborhoods. It may be slow and small-scale, but it’s collaboration that can make a genuine difference. For more on this, check out “Helping Under-Resourced Neighborhoods in Brazil” and “Ideas, Resources and Objectives for Community Development in Brazil.”

In the short run, people need to be helped to navigate the heavily bureaucratic system. Over time, the red tape will need to be cut through community organizing and related social action. In the long run, perhaps proven success can sufficiently overcome corruption at high levels and old habits, permitting the poorest to really live free, make the most of opportunities and realize as a society the lofty twin goals of order and progress that are emblazoned on the national flag.