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 In São Paulo, every Secretary is dealing with a lack
of resources. According to Finance Secretary's chief of cabinet,
Fernando Haddad, his department will be the last to
leave "intense therapy. "We are in the nervous center
of the system and were able to avoid a collapse of services."
By Alessandra Dalevi
Has São Paulo left the ICU? At the beginning of March it didn't seem as though the
largest city in South America was ready to leave the Intensive Care Unit, as it new mayor,
Marta Suplicy, had promised. On January 25, the anniversary of São Paulo, and five days
short of a month of her inauguration, Suplicy had said that by the end of February, the
city would be ready to leave ICU to occupy a room in the hospital. The mayor's closest
aides agree today that their boss was too hasty in her assumption and that they need more
time to correct a situation close to chaos left by the past two administrations.
For the men and women in the streets, São Paulo seems as abandoned as ever despite
some emergency measures taken by City Hall, including the Belezura (Beautifying)
Operation. Potholes, abandoned parks, lack of street lights and trash on the streets are
the main complaints. Talking to daily O Estado de S. Paulo, bar owner Eduardo
Zacharias, who lives and works in Penha, an east neighborhood, commented: "Nothing
has changed. For six months we have been complaining about high wild grass and weeds in
the area to no avail."
Residents from Granja Julieta, a wealthy enclave in the city's south side, whose
security is done by private police, are also having this feeling of abandonment. Tired of
waiting for a public solution, a group of residents from the upscale Jardins neighborhood
raised money to install new lights on their street.
For the director of Ilume (Departamento de Iluminação Pública—Department of
Public Lighting), Newton José Guaraldo, the near future is not very promising in his
sector. He acknowledges that 4 percent of the 530,000 lights that São Paulo maintains are
not working right now. In some instances the service isn't being done because the
contractor in charge of the work hasn't been paid regularly. Some of them haven't been
paid since October of last year.
Potholes lead in the number of complaints. In some areas the problem has dragged for so
long that the holes have celebrated their first anniversary without a solution. In the
west side neighborhood of Alto da Lapa all the administration could do to avoid accidents
was to install a wood panel around a big hole. Even this hasn't prevented cars from
falling into the hole during the night.
Every Secretary is dealing with a lack of resources. According to Finance Secretary's
chief of cabinet, Fernando Haddad, his department will be the last to leave "intense
therapy". "We are in the nervous center of the system and were able to disarm
the time bombs left by the past administration in order to avoid a collapse of
services." The Finance Secretary has already cut personnel and took other money
saving measures to deal with the crisis, but Haddad believes that there will be no
solution to the problem before the country starts to grow again, allowing an influx of
taxes to city hall.
Matters in the social sector aren't better either. Social Assistance secretary,
Evilásio Farias, has complained about the slowness of the public machine and believes
that nothing that he is doing now—backstage work as he calls it—will show before
July. Eduardo Jorge, the Health secretary, is not more upbeat than his colleague and says,
"It's impossible to catch up in two months following eight years of
misgovernment."
Patients have complained about the lack of personnel and medicines in public clinics.
Close to 25 percent of the drugs normally dispensed by the municipality are out of stock.
In some cases people have to wait three weeks or more to get an appointment with a doctor.
For Supply secretary, Jilmar Tatto, his department has already done something since
"the patient is eating better". He is referring to the more balanced diet that
children now are receiving at school. But he also has complaints about the lack of staff,
which should be alleviated when a new decree will allow for parents and other members of
the community to work as volunteers in the schools' kitchens." Things will get better
in the second semester, he promises.
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