Lula turns to Bush instead of his people
One element of success of an empire is that it needs friends. The great hope of South America, the man from poor roots who lost his finger in a factory and then lost his first wife, Lula Ignacio da Silva, seems to have decided that large corporate interests are much more important than the economic health of the citizenry. See this opinion: http://www.counterpunch.org/kenfield03212007.html
When I heard that Bush was going to Brazil, I knew Lula was up to something. He has said he would support extensive agrarian reform which is badly needed. Instead he's going to help all the big sugar interests in Brazil including foreign interests that have been "investing" in Brazil sugar. This is going to hurt the people of Brazil and do nothing for the U.S., except maybe have the side effect of breaking a little of the hold on the sugar market that the right-wing Cubans in Florida have on U.S. sugar. This deal that was signed is going to steal more land for argibusiness and the price of ethanol will sky-rocket.
When sugar is produced, a certain amount of the cane is allotted for sugar production, and the rest for what is called alcool (ethanol). The harvest in Brazil, at least in the Ribeirao Preto region, is from about April/May until November. Alcool has always been the cheaper alternative to gas. Gasoline in Brazil costs about $4.00/gallon. Really expensive!! So, many people, certainly not all, have cars that run exclusively on ethanol. The price of ethanol has been traditionally about half of gas. Well, last year the price skyrocketed because the supply was low due to a lower than normal harvest. The last couple of months before the 2006 harvest (we were there in February of 2006 and everyone was complaining) the price got almost as high as gas. Now, imagine what will happen when they start to export ethanol to the U.S. In Brazil, $500/ month is a decent salary. The average is around $150/month. You can do the math or at least get an idea of the implications of the price going up for ethanol. Something like 7 out of 10 new cars now runs on ethanol in Brazil. One might wonder if the car industry isn't in cahoots with the sugar cane barons.
The sensible thing Lula could do is to have government programs that create incentives for people to open their own sugar cane farms. THe government could buy land at a decent price (not sure if they have emminent domain) and then give, lease, etc. the land to people who would like to farm the cane and then they could sell it to the usinas (sugar cane processing plants) and get their share of the pie. Government program?!! Oh, I forgot. That doesn't fit in with free market ideology. Thanks Milton! (Freidman, I mean).
This is just another of the many examples of the idiotic pro-corpoate, pro-elite U.S. foreign policy that just drives poor people into the dirt. Please keep in mind that everything the U.S. does in its foreign policy is about the extension, growth, augmentation of empire. And this goes for both political parties. Clinton (and Mr. Blair) was the worst of them all with these type of neo-liberal policies. Bush may be a total hack at empire management, but Mrs. Clinton, Obama, McCain, etc. will all continue these same policies.
