Brazil Term paper
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The name Brazil comes from Pau Brasil. There are around 145 million people living in Brazil, most of them near the coast. The population is growing rapidly and half of all Brazilians are under the age of 20. By the end of the century, it is estimated that Brazil's population will have reached 180 million. Brazil borders on ten other Latin American countries. Most of the northern part of Brazil is low-lying and veined by the mighty Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon is the largest river in the world. The native peoples of Brazil lived in the forests and along the rivers, hunting, fishing, and gathering fruits and nuts. When the Portuguese arrived early in the 16th century, it is estimated that there were between 1 and 2 million native Amerindian people. They were used as slaves, and many thousands died from diseases brought by the Europeans. Recently Amerindians have been exploited and killed as land speculators and highways go farther into the rain forest. There are probably less than 150,000 Indians now.Portuguese settlers developed vast sugarcane estates in the Bahia region, and for 150 years these estates were in the world's main source of sugar. To work the estates, the owners used salves from Africa. Today there is still an African tradition in Brazil.Modern immigration began early in the 19th century. Only about 4.5 million foreigners, mostly from Europe, settled in Brazil after then. Most were Italians and Portuguese, but there were also Spaniards and Germans, and later Slavs from Poland, Russia, and the Ukraine, and Arabs from the Middle East. In this century the most significant immigrants have been Japanese. They have become the most prosperous ethnic group in Brazil, growing a fifth of the coffee, a third of the cotton, and all the tea. Traditionally the majority of Brazilians settled near the coast, but in the last 30 years the rapid movement from rural areas to urban centers has led to a very uneven distribution of the population. In parts of the interior there is an average of just two people per square mile. More than 75 percent of the people live in towns. Half of these are in just two cities. Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.People have moved from rural areas to the towns to seek work and better medical and educational facilities for their families. But the reality has been very different. Tens of thousands of people now live in shantytowns or Favelas, on the outskirts of the cities, with little hope of ever getting a decent job. One of the features of Brazil is that many different races and peoples intermarry, making Brazilians one of the most varied peoples in the world. The average Brazilian has a fascinating family tree which may include a Portuguese great-grandfather, a native Indian grandmother, a slave grandfather, a German father, and so on.Family ties are strong in Brazil. Three generations, including grandparents and young married couples, often live together in one house. Poorer families are frequently large, with five or six children, and grandparents look after the very young while the rest of the family work.There is a wide gap between rich and poor. The wealthy live in luxury mansions or on vast estates, employ maids and gardeners, and enjoy the same consumer goods as any family in the developed world. Homes for the poor are shacks of cardboard and corrugated iron, furnished with the barest essentials and mostly without water, light, or sanitation.The extreme poverty in the urban slums, the high unemployment, and the increasing numbers leaving rural areas for the cities have led to serious problems. The poorest people suffer most because the state cannot provide for them, but children who About 90 percent of Brazil's population belong to the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has gone through a great transformation in the last 20 years. Most young Catholic priests and many bishops are "progressives." They believe that society should be more like Christ himself wanted it to be. The great injustices that exist in Brazil have made many Catholic priests and bishops ally themselves with the poor. Many have been persecuted and murdered for this, especially for defending the poor squatter farmers. Although Brazilian Christians are traditionally Roman Catholics, the religion that is growing fastest is the Pentecostal branch of Protestantism. These days, often the first church to be built in the new towns that spring up overnight in the North and Amazon regions belongs to one of the Pentecostal religions. Since their ministers do not have to go through years of training like the Roman Catholics, these religions can expand much more quickly. Pentecostal ministers can be ordinary people, with jobs outside the church. More Brazilians are going to school these days and more learn to read and write, yet the average education received by a Brazilian adults is still less than four years. One hundred years ago, in 1890, it was estimated that 80 percent of the adults in Brazil could not read or write. For nearly 30 years, primary education has been compulsory in Brazil, and today, only around 20 percent are still totally illiterate.Children start school at six to seven years old, and are supposed to go on the age of 14 or 15. In 1980, for every 100 children who started primary school, only 13 finished the full eight years of primary school. Of these, fewer than half went on to some form of higher education.Children have to pass examinations every year. If they don't get good enough grades at the end of the year, they have to repeat the whole year over again. Many children fall so far behind, repeating the same year two or three times, that they give up and drop out. Another problem is that although parents don't have to pay for children to go to state school, they do have to pay for books, writing materials, and uniforms. They also have to pay some school taxes, such as contributions to the Parents' and Teachers' Association. The poorest families cannot afford this. The school day in Brazil in only four hours long, which is shorter than in most countries. Most schools have two or three "shifts" a day, in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings. Many youngsters who work during the day go to school in the evening. Universities also offer evening degree courses. From the 1970s onward, more and more private schools have opened all over Brazil. The more expensive private schools have longer hours than the state schools and include drama, sports, and art lessons. The welfare services in Brazil show that what people say is true - there are not just two different Brazils but two different Brazilians. Rich Brazilians are taller, stronger, healthier, and live longer than poor Brazilians. Brazil became an independent country in 1822 when Dom Pedro I was crowned emperor. His son, Dom Pedro II, introduced many reforms. When Dom Pedro II passed the "Golden Law" to abolish slavery, the wealthy landowners became angry. They plotted with military to depose him, and the empire ended. Since 1889, when Brazil became a republic, there have been both military and civilian governments. One successful president was Getulio Vargas, known as the "Father of the Poor" because of the measures he took to try and improve the welfare of the people. Another president, Juscelino Kubitschek, in 1960 founded the new capital city, Brasilia, on an uninhabited plateau in central Brazil. From 1964 until 1985, there was a military government, with political regression and torture of its opponents, but also economic success. The military eventually agreed to a first civilian president in 21 years. The constitution was revised to ensure that five years later the next president was elected by the people. All persons age 18-69 who are over age 70, or between 16 and 17 years old may do so if they wish.Two years after taking office in 1992 the new president, Fernando Collor de Mello, was forced to resign on corruption charges. This shocked the Brazilians. Brasilia is now home to the Congress building, ministries, president's office, and more than...
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