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 Some problems are not solved in isolation. One example of this is the violence, inequality, and corruption triangle in Brazil. These elements feed off each other, demanding a joint solution.
As long as national politics are contaminated by corruption, the bad example set by the politicians will serve as an incentive to criminality. When he sees that a politician has hidden money in his undershorts, an unemployed young man will ask himself if he too could not obtain money illicitly. Above all when he perceives that the money was diverted from social programs that could have met his needs. Building a peaceful society will demand a revolution that confronts the three problems. Education is the principal vector to combat them simultaneously. But it is an illusion to believe that schooling alone will solve the problems. Education reduces inequality, violence and corruption, but this takes years. At the present time, the violence and corruption must be quelled. The use of a fountain pen instead of a revolver does not diminish the gravity of the crime, and it increases the amount stolen. Jail for the criminals and corrupt of today, and school today to prevent the crimes and corruption of tomorrow. There is a known solution to the educational problem: the federal government - and not simply the states and the municipalities - must make it a concern. It is necessary to define minimum standards for the public schools; to establish full-day sessions in all of them; to guarantee well-educated, well-paid and dedicated teachers and well-constructed, well-equipped buildings. This takes time to accomplish and demands federal resources. But it will do little in the fight against the criminality in the streets today. To confront the current violence, we must first understand that this is no longer a crisis; it is a tragedy of enormous proportions. Second, that it is a war promoted by an organized, heavily armed, parallel power. Third, that the problem is national and not local and must be the responsibility of all elected officials. The federal government needs to confront the matter and appoint someone to be responsible for it. The Ministry of Justice has already shown that it is incapable of confronting the crime. With so many duties of its own, it is leaving the combat against violence to the states, just as the Ministry of Education is leaving K-12 education to the municipalities. Besides a Ministry of Justice responsible for guaranteeing Brazilians their rights, Brazil needs a ministry that would guarantee its citizens their security. Ten of the current ministries should be closed and one created that is dedicated exclusively to security, as was proposed by the team elaborating President Lula's program. The team heard him affirm that he would not make this a pet project. It is fundamental to declare war upon the crime that has acquired the characteristics of terrorism. In that war, it will be necessary to establish national coordination of state policies and police, to define standards of preparation, to eliminate the brutal salary inequalities existing among police forces of different states and between the troops and their commanders. To permit the deployment of the police troops among states; to remove all the penitentiary directors until triage separates the corrupt from those with integrity; to replace the large prisons with small ones; and to separate the prisoners by type of crime and criminality. To assure more resources for security and prohibit the government from making contingency use of these funds; to set up an efficient anti-crime intelligence system; to incorporate a million young people into six months of civilian-military service. Above all, it is necessary to make the judiciary system more efficient and moral and incorporate it into the war against violence. This is possible and it formed part of the program of the government elected in 2002. But President Lula refused to assume his responsibility. Perhaps this may be the greatest of the problems in winning the war against violence: to have a president who takes the problem as his or her own and confronts the cursed triangle of violence, corruption and inequality. Jail to combat the violence and corruption of today. And school to guarantee equal opportunities and to reduce the inequality. Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is the candidate of the PDT to the presidency of Brazil in the October 2006 elections. Buarque is also a senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage - www.cristovam.com.br - and write to him at
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. Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome -
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Let’s face it. We need death penalty for hard criminals and gang leaders. We need to punish kidnappers with life in prison. We need to toughen our penal system.
But above all, we need to start treating corrupted politicians as common criminals and punish them severely.
And we need to educate our people better and we need to start acting fast, really fast. Enough talking!.