Word: sarney
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...make his plan work, Collor, 40, will have to overcome a stubbornly resistant economy. Under former President Jose Sarney, Brazil tried to implement three anti-inflation programs in four years. All failed, mainly because as soon as the reforms were announced, consumers rushed to buy goods, creating a new surge in inflation. They were betting that the government could not control prices, and they were right. Thanks to Collor's freezing of assets, that shopping surge seems unlikely to happen this time. But labor leaders have vowed to strike if the President follows through on plans to sell or close...
...impression that Rio is the Wild West, the steady stream of foreign visitors is not likely to resume -- even though, according to Ribeiro, only about 1 in 100 tourists will be the victim of a crime. Last year, after 528 people were murdered in April alone, President Jose Sarney sought to compare Rio's plight favorably with another land's ten-year civil war. "It's not possible that they are killing more people in Rio than in the unfortunate, cruel and unjust civil war in Lebanon," said Sarney. Perhaps. But no one ever claimed Beirut was a Carnival...
Many might wonder why he sought the distinction. Brazil, with a population of 147 million, is now the eighth largest economy in the noncommunist world -- and one of the sickest. Under President Jose Sarney, who took office in 1985, it has run up the Third World's largest foreign debt ($110 billion), is being choked by bureaucracy and is mired in hyperinflation. Collor's credentials for curing those woes are slender: he served only one term in the National Congress, and the sleepy northeastern state he governed, Alagoas, has only 2.3 million people. Last week, however, Collor exuded confidence...
...face of pressure from abroad and complaints from environmentalists at home, Brazil has grudgingly begun to respond. In April, only a few months after denouncing the environmental movement as a foreign plot to seize the forests, the Sarney administration announced a hastily patched-together conservation package dubbed Our Nature. Much of the language was ambiguous, but the program contained promising provisions, such as the temporary suspension of tax incentives that spur the most wasteful forest exploitation. Says Celio Valle, director of ecosystems at the government's newly created environmental agency: "Before, we used to consider Brazilian environmental groups...
...green monster so huge and vital that it could not possibly disappear. Asked about a controversial hydroelectric project that might flood an area as large as Britain, a Brazilian engineering consultant said, "Yes, that's a big area, but in terms of the Amazon it's small." Maintained Sarney recently: "It's not easy to destroy a rain forest. There are recuperative powers at work...