Brazil: stuck in the not-so-fast lane

■"Effort to Reduce Poverty and Hunger in Brazil Falls Short of Its Goals," by Larry Rohter, New York Times, 29 May 2005, p. A8.

Brazil is a hybrid Core-Gap society, as are virtually all of the New Core states. What makes them New Core is primarily their ability to largely deal with their own Gap areas without much outside assistance, in part because of the wealth generated by their very Core-like areas that are moving up the production chain quite impressively. In the Old Core, these Gap-like areas are essentially pockets in a sea of middle-class-and-above-prosperity, but in New Core states like India, Brazil and China, you're talking big numbersótoo big to ignoreóin both realms. India, for example, has more millionaires than any country in the world, and several hundred million truly impoverished.

President Lula's Zero Hunger effort in Brazil is stalling. It's tempting to say it's all about funding, but the real story seems to be poor or inept government bodies both above and below. The water cisterns that are supposed to appear as part of the program often do not. Instead, a lot of new paperwork has been created whereby the poor are supposed to submit annual income statements. Likewise, the promised medical help has been slow in forthcoming, so in villages where young women have babies each year, there's no state help on contraceptives. All in all, if there seems to be a way to bog things down, the Brazilian governmentóboth federal and localómanage to achieve it.