Association for World Education

Public employees at strike in Belem

Public employees at strike in Belem

We heard about the strike first time at the Sunday marked in Belem.  And we have heard about the closed public schools. Wednesday morning we meet with Mrs. Fatima – one of the speakers from the Sunday marked manifestation.

The strike is about the salary and it involves teachers, health care workers and other groups of public employees. She explains, that one of the problems is, that no public employee can survive unless you have 2 or 3 jobs. She herself has a full time job as educator in the health sector and a part time job as nurse.  All together she earns about 740 R$ pr. month – equivalent to 370 US$. And furthermore, prices have raised 20 % within the last 2 years without any wage compensation.

Mrs. Fatima has no clear idea of the result of the strike, but she knows that State Government needs to take action, because it is no longer possible to live a decent life as public servant. And also private employees suffer from underpayment. The only beneficiary of development seems to be the very rich people.

Selected pictures from Belem

Kirsten amusing schoolchildren at Forte do Castello

Belem from the seaside

Sunrise in Belem

The Center of Belem

Sunday and marked in Belem

Interview with Salomao Hage

Salomau Hage is organizing our next days in Belem

Interview with Salomao Hage, Federal university of Pará

Salomao Hage works at the university, and with the Chamber of the State Government of Pará responsible for Adult Education, Culture and Sports. The chamber is also responsible for coordination of activities in remote areas.

He explains the challenges related to a diverse cultural population, where 40 % of the population above 15 years haven’t finish 4 years of primary education. Brasil is an emergent  economy, and the country is rich in resources, but social inequality is manifest. The problems are not simple, they appear in one way in an urban area, another in rural areas - and also in different forms in the great variety of cultural backgrounds present in the society in Brazil.

Popular Education

Salomao stresses that adult education in the Para region is popular education based on the ideas of Paulo Freire. Popular education should meet the needs of the specific groups of people involved.

His identification of different groups with different kind of problems include The river people, descended slaves, the indigoes people,  Landless people, mining workers, unskilled workers in out-skirt areas and criminals. He offers to organize the next couple of days for us, so we can visit different programs.

FISC and CONFINTEA VI

Salomao is very engaged in the FISC conference, and the exchange of experiences in literacy and other programs between the NGO’s. But CONFINTEA’s importance has to do with the necessity of committing all governments to support popular education and the social work of the NGO’s .

Reflections on development

Lighthouse in Belem

Brazil develops. You can feel is, you can see it, the city is rapidly changing. Dany takes us on an evening ride to Icoaraci where we dine at the riverbank. We passes different areas of the city, an extreme mixture of wealth and poorness, new-build areas and areas under destruction and deconstruction, old industrial areas, new industrial areas. Fenced living areas for the rich people side by side with the favelas.

It reminds me of the suburbs of London, where I was recently, driving from the center of London to catch a ferry back to Denmark.

Brazil is a developing country. Jorn has put four countries on his list of developing countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China. The BRIC countries. I could add Denmark, USA, Sweden, Norway, The European Union, Turkey, Vietnam …  so many countries changes rapidly.

But I could also make a list of not-developing countries. I have to be careful. But on the top of my list I would put Palestine and countries as Burma (Myanmar), Zimbabwe and Tchad. Countries where mismanagement and lack of leadership makes development impossible.

Sunday in Belem

Captain of the tour

Rainforest in the city

Sunday is market day at Place de Republic i Belem. The day where the rainforest enter the city with all kind of local resources and artisan products. A trade fair like anywhere else in the world, the same red or white plastic chairs, the same type of tables and roofs, that you will find in Tibet, Darjeeling, New York or Berlin. But the products are unique, the plastic bags with aquaria fish, the materials, the forms and the motives for paintings and carvings.

Public movements - the first impression

But the marked is much more than trading. It is university students organizing games with children, it is agitation and reggae, it is theater and NGO’s reminding people of human rights, sustainable development and limitations of resources, and it is teachers and health care workers on strike for better working condition and patient safety.

Visit to the rainforest

From the market we take a taxi to Isabel Princesse Port, where Dani, her mother and friends are waiting for us. We cross the river, and in a corner of the rainforest we spend some unforgettable hours together with them. We have a short walk in the slippery surroundings looking at trees, flowers, birds and butterflies, we taste new courses of meals   made of fish and fruits from the forest, we swim in the river, we dance the Samba and we talk and talk and talk - English, French, Portuguese and Danish words are dancing in a light brice, that suddenly turns into a storm. When leaving we follow a small stream bringing us into the forest, and we realize how people are living by the stream at pillowed houses, just as if it was a highroad and instead of a cars, canoes or moterboats are placed in front of the houses.

CONFINTEA VI was postponed - but we came to Belem anyway

A week before the conference the Brasilian government announced that the conference was postponed due to the risks of the “A”-flu. As the Danish part of the AWE delegation couldn’t change the plane tickets we decided to go to Belem anyhow. We will experience this part of the world and get an impression of life and popular movements and adult education in the country of Paolo Freire.

The first impression

The first impression is that Belem is a soft and calm and living city, with a pulse like the river, the heart of this city. The weather is perfect, not to hot, not to wet - and people are gentle. We walk in the city center as if we were the only four tourists in this city, and nobody take notice of us, we are just welcome and included. Our thumb is the mean of communication - yeah man - life is here and just now. The smell is of fish, river, people, plants and wet concrete, the colours are bright and green - the city is covered with Mango-trees.

Getting closer to the rainforest.

Dani(ella) picks us up at the hotel as she did in the airport. She takes us to the botanical garden, where her daughter is playing together with her mother. We taste food from the forest, we see trees, birds, animals and the butterflies. The botanical garden is a playground but also a place, where you can learn about the forest. But we learn more from Dani, when she tells about her work as a medical doctor and about social differences in a country, where colour of skin, eyes and hair comes in all varieties, and still you have - as a doctor - to decide for every newborn if you are white, black or others.

We cross the city with its 2 mill. inhabitants living in a mixture of favelas, skyscrapers and old colonial houses and we go to a bird park at the river site, where we drink coffee and from the top of the lighthouse we have an overview of the city.

AWE - workshop at CONFINTEA VI