Mayor says Rio is working to prepare for heavy rains

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Rio real

O Globo reports that last April’s mudslides in the city of Rio de Janeiro led to preventive action that will benefit residents of high risk areas. The first to feel the impact will be the Morro do Borel favela, in Tijuca, where sirens will be installed. Borel community agents have been trained and are fitted out with cellular phones ready to receive emergency messages from the municipal civil defense agency.

This news is not the result of last week’s tragedy up in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro state, but of rains that punished the capital and the city of Niterói, across the bay, last April.

“We had three deaths and 90 families made homeless by the April 2010 rains in this community,” Borel neighborhood association president Roberta Ferreira told O Globo. “We’re going to try to avoid this.”

Since that disaster, which brought Rio to a standstill for a day, the city has purchased and installed adequate radar equipment, and has spent the equivalent of US$ 176 million (part of which were federal funds) to clean muddied rivers and canals, undertake civil engineering work  on hillsides, install 7 hydrological stations, and complete geotechnical mapping which identified 18,000 homes in high risk areas, in 117 of the city’s favelas. According to mayor Eduardo Paes, 5,500 families have been removed from high risk locations, 3,100 of whom have already received new homes. The balance are reportedly receiving rent supplements or have received payment for lost housing. Paes added that this year the federal Minha Casa Minha Vida program will produce 12,000 housing units, which he hopes to use for residents of high-risk housing.

Sixty sirens will be installed city-wide in coming weeks, 1,875 community agents have been trained, and 300 community leaders have been given cellular emergency phones and maps of local high-risk areas. IBM is developing weather forecasting software that, among other measures, should allow the city to lower the level of the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas to prevent chronic flooding of the contiguous bike path and roadway.

The Brazilian press and the internet are full of opinion pieces on the causes and effects of the tragedy in the state’s mountain region, Brazil’s worst natural disaster (and reportedly one of the world’s ten worst in the last 111 years) ever, which has so far racked up over 700 deaths, more than 200 missing and over 21,500 homeless. Most observers agree that short-sighted politicians should not have allowed the construction of homes on hillside areas, which led to deforestation that helped cause the mudslides. Some say that mudslides occurred even in uninhabited areas, claiming that earth covered by vegetation simply couldn’t absorb such unusually heavy rainfall. Press reports indicate that no matter the cause, the response at all levels of government and on the part of thousands of volunteers has been particularly impressive. For the last week vice-governor Luiz Fernando Pezão has been coordinating efforts on site to aid victims, with support from the federal government, which has begun work on a national civil defense program. According to Science and Technology Minister Aloizio Mercadante, 5 million Brazilians live in areas that are at risk for natural disasters.

Here is information in English about how to help the mudslide victims in Rio de Janeiro state.

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Reputação do Rio de Janeiro à mercê da lama

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Rio real

[ for Is Rio for the Birds? click here ]

Tragédia espanta turistas e castiga quem mora no estado do Rio de Janeiro

Como se a Copa do Mundo de 2014  e as Olimpíadas de 2016 não bastassem, a cidade do Rio de Janeiro está prestes a chamar mais atenção e ter mais fama ainda, com o lançamento mundial, no dia 8 de abril, de Rio, um longa-metragem de animação indicado ao Oscar dirigido pelo mesmo brasileiro responsável pelo filme A Era do Gelo,  Carlos Saldanha.

Rio é a história de uma arara azul de Minnesota que vem à cidade para conhecer a única outra arara azul do mundo — uma fêmea “feminista e independente” , conforme a descrição no site da  IMDb. O trailer é lindo, e uma leitora do RioRealblog que já assistiu a vários trechos do filme em uma apresentação particular adorou. De acordo com O Globo,  o filme pode levar a cidade do Rio de Janeiro ao conhecimento internacional num grau cujo único precedente seria o personagem do Walt Disney, Zé Carioca, criado em 1942.

Em Rio, Blu e Jewel voam por paisagens lindas. Mas se o casal fosse levantar voo na região do Rio de Janeiro hoje, o filme não seria um grande chamariz. Na semana passada, o maior desastre natural da história brasileira aconteceu na serra do estado da cidade. Até agora encontraram-se mais de 600 corpos, mortos em consequência de enchentes e deslizamentos de terra na região de Petrópolis, Teresópolis e Nova Friburgo. Essas áreas de turismo onde milhares de cariocas têm casas de férias vão precisar de anos e muitos recursos financeiros para se reconstruírem. Fotos e imagens de vídeo mostram devastação total, e ainda há moradores isolados que aguardam o resgate. Grande parte da área não tem luz nem telefone. E está chovendo de novo. Peritos apontam o desmatamento dos morros para a construção de casas como um fator que contribuiu para o alto grau de destruição causado pelas águas; essas casas abrigavam o número crescente de pessoas que trabalhavam no setor de serviço local.

O custo de reconstrução das três principais cidades atingidas seria de R$ 2 bilhões, de acordo com O Globo.

Ao percorrer a região com o governador Sérgio Cabral, a presidente Dilma disse que a construção de casas em lugares de risco é a regra, e não a exceção, no  Brasil. Catástrofes naturais são comuns em países tropicais, mas a incidência vai aumentando em função das mudanças climáticas. Apesar de séculos de experiência com chuvas torrenciais e seus efeitos, a prevenção e a resposta governamental ainda não atendem às necessidades dos cidadãos. No caso da tragédia da semana passada, as autoridades disseram ter equipamento de previsão do tempo, porém assinalaram a falta de profissionais, treinamento e sistemas para alertar e realocar moradores. As tentativas de remover casas em áreas de risco estão emperradas na justiça. De acordo com alguns observadores, o governo Lula não desembolsou recursos prometidos na região, mas é também possível que os municípios não tenham cumprido os requisitos necessários para recebê-los.

Em novembro último, o estado do Rio de Janeiro e a capital solicitaram recursos federais para melhorias urbanas, inclusive a contenção de encostas e a prevenção de enchentes, como parte dos preparativos para as Olimpíadas. O prefeito carioca Eduardo Paes disse ontem que a capital já identificou 18 mil famílias que moram em áreas de risco e devem ser realocados com assistência do governo. Mais  40 mil famílias moram em situações de risco moderado.

A culpa é de todos, diz o economista André Urani em sua coluna semanal no jornal O Dia. “[As elites] acham muito prático terem seus serviçais por perto e estão pouco se lixando em como estes vivem. Já repararam que todo condomínio de luxo, na serra ou no litoral, é cercado por sua favelinha? Em nosso maravilhoso litoral, tira-se a maior onda em cima dos tais condomínios ecológicos, com privadas a vácuo, água reciclada e painéis solares, mas a praia em frente à casa dos bacanas é infestada pelos coliformes fecais que são nela despejados por seus jardineiros, seguranças, piscineiros e babás que se amontoam na comunidade do outro lado da estrada.”

Como sempre acontece nos casos de enchentes e seus estragos, os residentes do estado e da capital agora conclamam ao governo a melhoria na prevenção e na capacidade de reação. “No dia que um prefeito, olhando as nuvens no horizonte, enxergar a mais remota possibilidade de ir para a cadeia pelas mortes que poderia impedir e incentivou, as cidades brasileiras deixariam aos poucos de ser quase todas como são: feias, vulneráveis e decrépitas”, escreveu o jornalista Marcos Sá Correa na seção de opinião de O Globo na sexta-feira passada.

Pode ser que as críticas hoje tenham uma chance maior de serem acolhidas do que anteriormente. A presidente Dilma apresentou aos seus novos ministros um “choque de gestão”, numa reunião na sexta-feira passada, que seguirá os exemplos da Austrália e da Nova Zelândia, levando aqueles que ocupam cargos federais a serem mais responsáveis pelas suas ações e omissões, e com um foco maior em performance. Um sistema parecido foi anunciado poucos dias atrás em relação ao sistema de educação fluminense. Será que se trata de uma tendência?

Em abril de 2010, a capital do Rio de Janeiro ficou paralisada na ocasião de chuvas pesadas e os estragos subsequentes, com perda de vidas e casas; em outubro de 2007 houve caos na cidade quando toneladas de lama desceram o morro e bloquearam o túnel Rebouças. Os eventos esportivos que estão por vir acontecem na capital no inverno, época seca (de incêndios na mata), então são poucas as chances de termos jogos enlameados. Mas 12 milhões de pessoas vivem o ano todo no Grande Rio,  sujeitas a condições climáticas sempre mais intensas e a paisagens não tão lindas. Espera-se que a cidade e o estado possam se tornar mais seguros tanto para turistas como para a população local, seja ela formada de aves ou humanos.

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Is Rio for the birds?

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Rio real

Neverending mudslides and deaths are no draw for tourism and terrible for locals

[UPDATE JAN. 25 2011] The mudslide death toll in the mountains north of Rio tops 800, more than died in the Chile earthquake last February according to O Globo, and reconstruction and cleanup costs are estimated at US$ 1.2 billion equivalent for the region. Around 500 people are missing. Rio mayor Eduardo Paes says the state capital has 18,000 families living in high-risk areas and must move elsewhere, with government aid. Another 40,000 families live in moderately risky locations.

As if the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics weren’t enough, the city of Rio de Janeiro is about to garner even more attention and fame, with the April 8 world premiere of Rio, an animated feature film by the Brazilian director of the Oscar-nominated Ice Age, Carlos Saldanha.

Rio is about a blue macaw from Minnesota who comes to the city to meet the only other surviving member of his species— a “fiercely independent” female, as she’s described in the IMDb blurb. The trailer is adorable, and a RioRealblog reader who’s  seen big chunks of the film in a private screening loved them. Globo reports that the film could raise international consciousness about the city to a degree perhaps seen only once before, when Walt Disney invented the José Carioca character in 1942.

In Rio, Blu and Jewel do a lot of flying around over lovely scenery. But if they were to take wing in the Rio area today, the movie they’re in would be no advertisement. This week, Brazil’s worst natural tragedy ever occurred in Rio state, in the inland mountain range that separates the state from Minas Gerais to the north. So far more than 500 bodies have been counted as a result of  flooding and mudslides in the areas of Petrópolis, Teresópolis and Nova Friburgo. These are all tourist areas where thousands of cariocas have second homes, and will need years and a great deal of money to recover from the damage. Photos and video images show total devastation, and reportedly some residents still await rescue. Much of the area has no electricity or phone service. And it’s raining again. Many of the destroyed buildings were built on risky mountainsides, home to a growing number of people who work in the region’s service sector.

Surveying the damage yesterday together with Governor Sérgio Cabral, President Dilma said that the construction of homes in such locations is the rule, not the exception in Brazil. Tropical countries have always suffered natural catastrophes, but with climate change these are intensifying. Despite centuries of experience with torrential rain and its effects, prevention and response still fall far short of citizens’ needs. In the case of this week’s tragedy, officials said they have weather forecasting equipment, but lack personnel, training and systems to alert and evacuate residents. Government efforts to remove homes in at-risk areas are stuck in the courts. According to some observers, Lula’s government failed to disburse prevention funds for the area, but it may also be the case that local officials failed to comply with disbursement requirements.

Last November, the city and state applied for federal funding for urban upgrades to prepare for the Olympics, including civil defense engineering and flood prevention.

As is always the case when such flooding and damage occur, Rio de Janeiro state and city residents are now calling on government officials to do a better job of prevention and preparation. “The day a mayor, looking at clouds on the horizon, glimpses the most remote possibility of going to jail for the deaths he could have avoided and that he encouraged, Brazilian cities would gradually stop being, as they almost all are, ugly, vulnerable and decrepit,” writes journalist Marcos Sá Correa in O Globo‘s opinion section of today’s paper.

It could be that such calls have a better chance of being heeded than previously. President Dilma is expected to announced a “management shock” for government at today’s ministerial meeting, which would follow the examples of Australia and New Zealand and push federal officials to be more accountable and more performance-oriented. A similiar approach was announced earlier this month for Rio state’s education system. Could this be a trend?

Last April, Rio de Janeiro proper was paralyzed by heavy rainfall and resulting destruction with loss of life and homes; in October 2007 chaos resulted when the Rebouças Tunnel, a key link between the city’s north and south zones, was blocked by mudslides. The upcoming sporting events will take place in the city’s winter season, traditionally dry (and subject to forest fires), so that the chances of muddied games are slim. But 12 million people live in greater Rio, year-round, subject to ever more intense weather and not-so-lovely scenery. One hopes that the city and state can and will become safer for tourists and residents alike, be they birds or human.



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Does Santa exist? The professional and the personal in Rio

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Rio real

[Para português, clique aqui]

Better to keep things separate

The euphoria begins as soon as the state takes control of territories formerly under drug traffickers’ thumbs. Police and favela residents become friends. Police officers waltz with favela debutantes.

In at least one instance, a military police captain said he’d try to help a former drug trafficking “soldier” to find a job.

And José Mariano Beltrame, our much-loved Public Safety Secretary, played Santa for a day,  giving presents out to children in the recently-occupied Vila do Cruzeiro.

In a society marked by inequality and fragile institutions, personal relations– and the emotions that arise from them– are the basis of everything that Brazilians cherish and accomplish in life. Thus springs the world-famous human warmth. Thence the Olympic slogan,  viva sua paixão (live your passion)

And there lies a minefield for the future of the integration of Rio de Janeiro. While the emotions of professional work done in the public sector result from performance, the emotions of a political career come not only from performance, but from show business. And show business, aside from being ephemeral, relies a great deal on lights and mirrors.

So it’s a bit frightening to hear that Secretary Beltrame might run for mayor in 2012. At very least, we need him in his current post, so he can carry on with the excellent work he’s been doing to make Rio safe, since 2008.

Here’s  O Globo columnist Zuenir Ventura, in yesterday’s paper:

One of the reasons that José Mariano Beltrame is today one of the best-loved and respected people in the state of Rio, applauded wherever he goes, is obviously the unanimously lauded success of the police pacification units, but also his refusal to get involved in politics or allow politics to intrude in his work. His behavior, his choices and his criteria have always been technical. There’s no evidence of a military police commander or a civil police chief having been chosen due to a recommendation from state legislators or city council members, or in response a a particular party’s interests. This is very different from the days when top police posts were launching pads for their occupants, with the promiscuity and the support of [corrupt police], if they ran for a legislative position. Some ended up in the state legislature or the city council and later, in jail. Others avoided being put behind bars.

For this reason, it’s worrisome to hear that governor Sérgio Cabral is thinking of supporting Beltrame as a mayoral candidate next year. This may be mere speculation with no basis. After all, Eduardo Paes will want to be reelected, allowing no one else to enjoy the glory due him as mayor, leading the festivities of the  World  Soccer Cup and the Olympics. Apparently he does want this. Even so, in the name of peace — the Secretary’s candidacy would damage the pacification process — one hopes for a vehement denial from the parties involved . In a recent interview with Paula Cesarino and Plínio Fraga, Beltrame had this to say about the observation that there would be a great deal of pressure on him to run for office: “I haven’t yet been bitten by that bug.”  The “yet” isn’t very reassuring. I’d prefer that the sentence ended with “will never bite me”.

Certainly Beltrame, Cabral and Paes understand that the hard work of intergrating this city has just begun. And it may well be that Beltrame will never be bitten, since in a recent interview governor Cabral singled out his vice-governor Luiz  Fernando Pezão as successor and said he favored Paes’  reelection.

For an idea of what could happen should politics take charge, see this post. And to read in Portuguese about one city council member’s evaluation of mayor Paes’ fulfillment of his election promises, click here.

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Papai Noël existe? O profissional e o pessoal no Rio de Janeiro

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Rio real

Seria melhor separar

Logo que o estado toma conta de territórios até então sob domínio de traficantes de drogas, surge a euforia. O convívio entre a polícia pacificadora e os moradores de favela é amigável. Policiais dançam a valsa com meninas debutantes do morro.

Em pelo menos um caso, um capitão da PM ficou de ajudar um ex-soldado do tráfico a arrumar emprego.

E José Mariano Beltrame, nosso querido Secretário de Segurança Pública, deu uma de Papai Noel, distribuindo presentes às crianças da recém-ocupada Vila do Cruzeiro.

Numa sociedade desigual e com instituições frágeis, as relações pessoais– e as emoções que surgem delas– são o fundamento de tudo o que o brasileiro preza e consegue na vida. Daí o calor humano  de fama mundial. Daí o slogan das Olimpíadas, viva sua paixão.

E daí um campo minado para o futuro da integração da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Pois enquanto as emoções de um trabalho profissional no campo público resultam de performance, as emoções de uma atuação política resultam, além de performance, de show-business. E show-business, além de ser efêmero, acontece por meio de luzes e espelhos.

É assustadora, então, a notícia de que o secretário Beltrame possa se candidatar ao cargo de prefeito em 2012. No mínimo, precisamos dele no cargo atual, para que continue o excelente trabalho que vem realizando desde 2008.

Diz o colunista de O Globo, Zuenir Ventura, em sua coluna de ontem:

Uma das razões de José Mariano Beltrame ser hoje uma das personalidades mais queridas e respeitadas do Estado do Rio, recebendo aplausos por onde passa, é evidentemente o unânime sucesso das UPPs, mas é também a sua recusa em se meter em política ou deixar que a política se metesse em seu trabalho de pacificação das favelas. Sua conduta, suas escolhas e seus critérios foram sempre técnicos. Não se sabe de um comandante da PM ou de um delegado da Polícia Civil que tenha sido nomeado por indicação de deputados e vereadores ou para atender aos interesses deste ou daquele partido. Tão diferente daqueles tempos em que a Chefia da Polícia servia de trampolim para que seus ocupantes eventuais, com a promiscuidade e o apoio da banda podre, se candidatassem a uma vaga no parlamento. Alguns foram parar na Assembleia Legislativa ou na Câmara Municipal e depois até na cadeia. Outros conseguiram se livrar das grades.

Por isso, causa preocupação ouvir dizer que o governador Sérgio Cabral pensa em lançar Beltrame candidato à sucessão do atual prefeito no ano que vem. É possível que seja apenas uma especulação sem fundamento. Afinal, Eduardo Paes não há de querer abrir mão da reeleição, transferindo para outro a glória que lhe cabe como prefeito, que é comandar os festejos da Copa do Mundo e das Olimpíadas. Tudo indica que ele vá desejar isso para ele. De qualquer maneira, em nome da paz — a candidatura do secretário seria um golpe nas UPPs — aguarda-se um veemente desmentido das partes envolvidas. Em recente entrevista a Paula Cesarino e Plínio Fraga, Beltrame respondeu assim à observação de que haveria muita pressão para que ele viesse a ser candidato: “Essa mosca ainda não me pegou, não.”  O “ainda” não chega a  tranquilizar. Eu preferiria que a frase terminasse por um “jamais me pegará”.

Com certeza, Beltrame, Cabral e Paes entendem que o trabalho duro de integrar a cidade do Rio de Janeiro apenas começou. E pode muito bem ser que o Beltrame nunca seja mordido pela tal mosca, pois numa entrevista recente o governador Cabral apontou seu vice, Luiz  Fernando Pezão, como sucessor, e se manifestou a favor da reeleição de Paes.

Para ter uma ideia do que pode acontecer se a política tomar conta da tarefa, leia esse post anterior. E para ler a avaliação de uma vereadora, do cumprimento das promessas de campanha de Eduardo Paes, clique aqui.

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Assistência social: governo ao estilo antigo persiste no Rio de Janeiro

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Rio real

[Click for English]

Dança das cadeiras beneficia apenas aqueles que têm a sorte de se sentar

O Globo publicou ontem na página 19 da seção Rio uma matéria, que não está online, afirmando que o líder do governo na assembleia legislativa, Paulo Melo, vê com naturalidade a troca feita pelo governador Sérgio Cabral, de um administrador experiente e maduro, com uma visão moderna e ampla dos problemas sociais brasileiros, por uma nomeação política, do encarregado da Secretaria Estadual de Assistência Social e Direitos Humanos. Até a troca, a secretaria tinha responsabilidade pela UPP Social, que entra nas favelas já ocupadas pelas UPPs para mapear as necessidades sociais dos moradores e então assegurar a assistência.

“A Ação Social sempre foi comandada pelo PT. Não vejo qualquer problema na substituição do secretário,” diz Melo na matéria. “O Henriques estava na pasta porque a Benedita teve que sair [para se candidatar ao congresso]. [Críticos da imprensa, presumivelmente] estão polemizando porque saiu um técnico e entrou um político. Mas Rodrigo [Neves, o substituto de Henriques] também é um técnico. É um sociólogo com experiência na área de assistência social.”

De acordo com sua própria biografia online, Neves se preocupa com questões sociais há muito tempo, e se elegeu duas vezes à assembleia estadual nessa base, tendo promulgado leis para “promover desenvolvimento com cidadania para todos” – mas ele nunca ocupou um posto executivo na área de formulação e  execução de políticas públicas. No governo de presidente Lula, Henriques formulou o programa nacional Bolsa Família e implantou-o em conjunto com os cinco ministérios envolvidos. Ele diz que o desenho do programa surgiu de um acúmulo de conhecimento de muitos anos, de parte de seu grupo de amigos no Instituto de Política Econômica Aplicada, Ipea, no qual atuou por um período longo.

A matéria do jornal O Globo inclui uma longa descrição das acrobacias políticas às quais o governador teve de se submeter para acomodar aliados que o ajudaram a se reeleger ao segundo mandato, iniciado há poucos dias. Não menciona a maior ironia da história: Henriques é filiado ao PT. A líder do partido na assembleia, Inês Pandeló, teria dito ao Globo que, apesar de Henriques ter trabalhado com Benedita, ele “não tinha uma ligação direta com o partido”, e sua nomeação no mês de abril passado “não passou pela cúpula do partido”.

Na época da reeleição, comentava-se que Cabral ganhou as eleições no primeiro turno com 66% dos votos por mérito de sua política de pacificação das favelas do Rio de Janeiro, no intuito de trazer segurança à cidade para as Olimpíadas de 2016. Aparentemente, ele também precisou de algumas porcas e parafusos políticos.

No começo da semana, um ministro e um secretário estadual recém empossados em cargos públicos apontaram prioridades políticas como obstáculo à performance governamental. O novo Secretário de Educação do próprio Cabral, Wilson Risolia, tem como principal objetivo a reforma do sistema educacional de 1.693 escolas, nas quais todos os diretores e coordenadores são escolhidos por nomeação política – com base em demandas… da assembleia legislativa. Espera-se que não seja o caso em relação aos médicos do estado.

A descontinuidade causada por repetidas nomeações políticas em todos os níveis de governo cria caos e atrapalha o atendimento aos cidadãos. Depois de perder o emprego, Henriques aceitou o convite do prefeito Eduardo Paes para presidir o Instituto Pereira Passos, que teria responsabilidade pelo planejamento estratégico do desenvolvimento econômico do Rio de Janeiro – mas que agora irá abrigar a UPP Social, transferida ao nível municipal. É certamente encorajador saber que todo o trabalho feito até agora não descerá pela frágil rede carioca de saneamento. Mas até agora ainda não se sabe se a equipe original de Henriques irá com ele para o IPP (onde, imagina-se, existem funcionários preparados para trabalhar em planejamento estratégico, e não em assistência social). Nesse meio tempo, milhares de jovens nas favelas “pacificadas” do Rio, de certa maneira órfãos dos traficantes de droga em fuga, precisam de programas de treinamento e de empregos. Essa era apenas uma das áreas de atuação de Henriques. E nesta semana mais 12 mil cariocas se juntaram à população servida pela UPP Social, pois a BOPE ocupou ontem mais três comunidades, para criar a 14ª UPP daqui a um mês.

O troca-troca também mexeu com o currículo de Felipe Góes, até então presidente do IPP. Eduardo Paes declara que Góes, ex-consultor da McKinsey com MBA pela University of Michigan, continua como Secretário Extraordinário de Desenvolvimento, cargo que ele já ocupava. O IPP responde à essa secretaria na hierarquia municipal.

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Social assistance: old-style government persists in Rio

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Rio real

Musical chairs are good only for those who get to sit in them

O Globo reported today on page 19 of its Rio section, in a story that couldn’t be found online, that the speaker of Rio’s state legislature , Paulo Melo, thinks it’s “natural” for governor Sérgio Cabral to have traded an experienced mature administrator with a modern and wide-ranging outlook on Brazil’s social problems, for a  political appointee, to run the state’s Social Assistance and Human Rights Secretariat. Until this switch, the Secretariat was responsible for the Social UPP, which follows the police pacification units into favelas to assess social needs and work to ensure they’re met.

“The Social Action [secretariat] was always run by the Workers’ Party. I see no problem in the secretary’s replacement, ” Melo says in the article. “Henriques was in the post because Benedita [da Silva, no relation to ex-president Lula, but a former federal official in the social policy area] had to leave [to run for congress] They [critics in the press, presumably] are creating a controversy because a technical person left and a political one came in. But Rodrigo [Neves, Henriques’ substitute] also has a technical background. He’s a sociologist with experience in the area of social assistance,” he added.

According to his own online biography, Neves has long been concerned about social issues and was elected twice to the state legislature apparently on this basis, having created laws to “promote development with citizenship for all” — but has never held an executive position in the area of public policy design and implementation. Under President Lula’s government, Henriques designed the national Bolsa Família income transfer program and implemented it in coordination with the five ministries involved in this area. He says the design arose from an “accumulation of knowledge over years” acquired by his group at the Institute for Applied Economic Policy, IPEA, where he was active for a long period.

The Globo piece includes a long description of some of the political acrobatics the governor had to undertake to accomodate allies who helped reelect him to his second term, which began just a few days ago. It doesn’t mention the biggest irony of the story: Henriques is a member of the Workers’ Party. The party’s leader in the state legislature, Inês Pandeló, reportedly told Globo that although Henriques had worked with Benedita, he didn’t have a direct link to the party, and his appointment to replace her in April of last year didn’t have party approval.

At the time of his reelection, Cabral– a member not of the Workers’ Party but of its national ally, the PMDB, or Brazilian Democratic Movement Party– was said to have won with 66% of the vote because of the success of his policy to pacify Rio’s slums, making the city safe in the runup to the 2016 Olympics. Apparently, he also needed some political nuts and bolts.

Just this week, two new appointees spoke of political considerations as a stumbling block to effective government. Cabral’s own new Education Secretary, Wilson Risolia, has set out to reform a school system of 1,693 schools where all school principals and coordinators are political appointees– based on demands from… the state legislature. One hopes the same isn’t the case with the state’s doctors.

The disruption caused by changing political appointments at all levels of government in Brazil creates chaos and slows down the delivery of services to citizens. Since losing his job, Henriques was taken on by mayor Eduardo Paes to run the Instituto Pereira Passos, ostensibly an institution responsible for Rio’s strategic planning for economic development– but which will now house the Social UPP administration at the municipal level. It’s certainly heartening that the work done so far won’t be flushed down Rio’s shaky sewage system. But at this writing, it is still unknown if Henriques’ original staff will go along with him. Meanwhile, thousands of young people in Rio’s “pacified” slums, in a sense orphaned by fleeing drug traffickers (who employed them as soldiers, messengers and lookouts), need training programs and jobs. This was but one area Henriques was working on. And 12,000 more cariocas join the population served by the Social UPP this week, as Rio’s BOPE elite squad today took possession of three additional communities, to create a 14th police pacification unit a month from now.

The shakeup also threw a wrench into the resumé of Felipe Góes, until recently president of the institute Henriques now heads up. Mayor Paes has said Góes, a former McKinsey consultant with a University of Michigan MBA, stays on as Extraordinary Development Secretary. That secretariat oversees the Instituto Pereira Passos, in the municipal hierarchy.

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Rio de Janeiro on the agenda of new officials, state and federal

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Rio real

O Globo reports today that governor Sérgio Cabral’s new state education secretary, Wilson Risolia, is creating a “goals program” to catapult Rio de Janeiro state from second-to-last in the national Basic Education Development Index (IDEB is the Portuguese acronym) to one of the top five by 2014. The program will use a merit system to select education coordinators and school principals.

Currently, Globo says, top positions in the state’s 1,693 schools and 30 regional coordinating offices are handed out on the basis of political criteria, as determined by state legislators.

Education specialists quoted in the piece say the challenge is huge, citing teacher training, infrastructure, crowded classrooms, lack of classrooms, and salaries as some of the critical areas. “The best professionals go to the federal education system or to municipalities, which sometimes pay twice as much,” says Bertha do Valle, an education professor at Uerj, the Rio state university.

Some measures that have been mentioned are performance-based pay bonuses and the extension of school hours to a full-day schedule. Brazilian schools, both private and public traditionally have half-day programs and thus serve two or more enrollments.

Rio is no model on the education front, but the new justice minister, José Eduardo Cardozo, cited the state as an example to be followed by others when it comes to public safety, “where the Union, the state, the city, the police forces, the armed forces, the media and society come together around a common objective, and results occur. We have to learn from this experience, deepen it, perfect it, and take it to the four corners of our national territory,” he said in an interview published today in O Globo. He too singled out political interests as a stumbling block to effective public policy. “When there are political, partisan, personal, corporativist, or other interests, these must yield to to agreements around the defense of the public interest, of our society and our country. The Brazilian state is stronger than organized crime, you can be sure of this. And we Brazilians, in and out of government, will demonstrate the truth of this, no matter who suffers as a result.”

Cardozo added that improved border controls are a priority of president Dilma Rousseff’s new government, which began work yesterday. According to the minister, Brazil is negotiating with its neighbors the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles over foreign airspace to perform reconnaissance missions. This is good news for Rio, since drugs and weapons have flowed quite freely from abroad and into the city’s favelas, to drug traffickers’ benefit. State public safety secretary José Mariano Beltrame has repeatedly invoked this aspect of Rio’s crime panorama as a problem he needs the federal government to address.

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Governor Cabral anew

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Rio real

Rocinha could be “pacified” in a matter of days or weeks

Sworn in yesterday to a second term as governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral announced his top three priorities: public safety, public health, and education. Last year, Rio came in second to last in the IDEB education ranking, among Brazil’s 26 states and the federal district, Brasília. According to Cabral, 40 consultants are working on a model to improve education at the state level.

Rio’s municipal education system embarked on a significant upgrade with the election of Eduardo Paes in 2008, under the able hand of secretary Claudia Costin.

O Globo reports that the governor has a schedule for ridding Rocinha and (Vidigal) of their drug-trafficking ruler, Nem— developed with his public safety secretary, José Mariano Beltrame. From the interview, the goal sounds short-term: “In January we’ll have wonderful news,” Cabral told O Globo.

Cabral reiterated his intention to install 40 police pacification units covering 140 favelas by the end of his term; Rio already has 13, created in the past two years. The model is currently being adapted to different locations, with increased manpower as needed. The  Complexo do Alemão and the Complexo da Penha favelas, occupied at the end of November in response to a wave of car- and bus-burnings, will have five police pacification units with 2,200 men, once the occupation phase is completed by the Brazilian army and special operations police, the BOPE.

Just before Christmas, Cabral announced the replacement of Ricardo Henriques, his secretary who since last April headed up the social programs component of Rio’s public safety pacification policy– with a state legislator who has much less experience and vision. Several commentators, including this blog, read the move as a political appointment that failed to recognize the importance of Henriques’ post to the sucess of that policy. Henriques has since accepted a position at the municipal level where it is hoped he’ll be able to accomplish much of what he’d set out to do as state Secretary for Social Assistance and Human Rights; whether or not his team (including the impressively capable Silvia Ramos) will accompany him is unknown.

Although Cabral comes across in his interview in Globo as focused on management, not politics, he’ll be a man to scrutinize over the next four years, as Rio’s pre-Olympic upgrade comes up against the deep cultural attitudes and prejudices that underlie the city’s socio-economic apartheid. Making good on the promise to integrate the city involves the hard work of undoing centuries of neglect of Rio’s poor, uneducated and unhealthy populace.  An estimated million people live in its favelas, roughly a fifth of the population overall of Rio proper.

The governor said he’ll also be working to make improvements in the areas of transportation, agriculture, the environment, sewage treatment and infrastructure. Management, he added, was the challenge of his first term; and one of his management-oriented team’s top accomplishments during his first term was an investment-grade ranking from Standard & Poor last March. “We have the same investment grade as Petrobras, Vale and the federal government,” Cabral rejoiced. “We were the first state government in Latin America.” Cabral led the way for pay raises for police officers and teachers, thousands of new hires, and a cleanup of the state’s finances. “We came out of the stone age,” he noted, in reference to the state’s school system. “Teachers hadn’t had a raise in 12 years.”

Cabral repeated that he won’t be running for public office in 2014, but supports his vice-governor, Luiz Fernando Pezão, as his successor; and that he’ll work to re-elect Dilma Rousseff, also sworn  in yesterday, to the presidency. Cabral’s success is largely owed to his ability to partner with both the federal and city governments– as well as the private sector.

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Social UPP program suffers a big loss

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Rio real

[Clique para português]

[UPDATE Dec. 30, 2010] Ricardo Henriques has accepted Mayor Paes job offer to head up the Instituto Pereira Passos. According to O Globo, this means he’ll be running a municipal level Social UPP. It’s not known yet if he’ll be taking his topnotch team along. See this column in O Globo for spot-on local comment.

Peace depends on social programs in pacified favelas

The year 2011 hasn’t yet begun, but RioRealblog’s New Year’s resolution to focus on politicians and politics is already proving to be useful. Just before Christmas, governor  Sérgio Cabral dismissed Ricardo Henriques from his position as Social Assistance and Human Rights Secretary. With him goes his excellent team, which was doing one of the area’s most difficult jobs, key to the sucess of Rio’s state pacification policy for 40 of  the capital’s favelas. Henriques, “considered one of [Brazil’s] top public policy experts”, as Globo columnist Míriam Leitão wrote today, belongs to the Workers’ Party– but, according to a blog source, he ignored party whims and demands to give priority to technical issues. In Míriam Leitão’s column the governor denies having made the change for political reasons, but backstage commentary is that he was meeting party demands by naming Rodrigo Neves to replace Henriques. State legislator for the Workers’ Party, a native of the neighboring city of Niterói across the bay from Rio, Neves is a young sociologist and former student leader who was just about to begin his second term.

Hopefully the change doesn’t imply a complete re-do of Henriques’ work, begun last April. Continuity is crucial in the context of the social change now under way in  Rio de Janeiro. This previous post portrays a negative scenario for the city’s future, should short-sighted politics take precedence over long-term public policy objectives.  The experience of other cities and plain common sense show that the state’s occupation of territories previously dominated by drug traffickers must be accompanied by well-run social programs, to bring about urban integration.

Most likely, Ricardo Henriques– one of the creators of the successful federal income transfer program Bolsa Família– won’t remain unemployed for long. According to the O Dia newspaper, mayor Eduardo Paes has offered him the presidency of the Instituto Pereira Passos, responsible for Rio’s strategic planning. Henriques, according to the report, would bring along most of his team if he accepts the job.

In O Globo, governor Cabral defends his decision by saying that social programs are basically municipal issues such as trash collection. Yet Henriques and his team were involved in much more than this, for example the creation of  partnerships with NGOs and private enterprise to train and find jobs for the young population of occupied favelas, whose dreams were long subverted by the drug trade. He also had carte blanche from the governor to give priority to favelas with UPPs, over other areas of the city, even if more needy.

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