Sao Paulo

In the latest tests of the OAB Sao Paulo (OAB stands for Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil, Order of Lawyers of Brazil, the counterpart of American BAR Association), 77% of the candidates failed to obtain the minimum level.

In Brazil, after finishing the Course of Laws (which take between five and six years), the students graduate as Bacharel in Laws; as a Bacharel, he/she can assume several juridical jobs (including public offices, all the way to Judges), but can’t represent on behalf of other before a Court. To become a Lawyer (which in Portuguese is referred to as Advogado, i.e., someone who advocates on behalf of others), a bacharel must be approved in tests conducted by the OAB of the respective State.

The high levels of failing at these tests are not uncommon. And if this happens in the richest State (with the best educational infrastructure in Brazil), the situation is even worse in the poorer States.

And the reasons are well known: the schools of Law in Brazil are bad. Until a few years ago, the opening of new institutions of superior learning was strictly regulated; today, it’s much easier to start a new faculty. And the easiest of all faculties to open is the School of Laws: no much need of physical instalations, no need of laboratories, no need of machines, etc.

And the result of this situation shows in the low quality of Brazilian ‘lawyers’ (everyone who finishes a Course of Law calls themselves a lawyer - advogado -, even though they are just bacharéis). The best graduates become successful and usually rich, by either working in private offices or in public offices (Judges and Prosecutors); several take clerical functions in offices and courts. But the vast majority of Brazilian lawyers end up with low paid jobs, often unrelated to the juridical career.

Being a lawyer in Brazil doesn’t have the same status as in other countries.

Credit is a problem in Brazil. Factors like: lack of capitals; a law which overprotectes debtors and underprotects creditors; high interest rates, among others, have been preventing a growth of credit in Brazil.

This week, the total volume of credits in Brazil reached R$ 1 trillion (about US$ 600 billion), the highest volume in the History of the country; that volume amounts to 36% of GNP, also the highest figure ever.

The graph below shows the total credit as percentage of GNP over the past few years.

It is noticeable that credit has been growing very fast. The reasons are the opposite of the factors mentioned in the top paragraph: there is an abundance of capitals (foreign investors are bringing large amounts of money into the country); laws are being passed to safeguard the creditors (for example, specific laws have been giving protection to banks which loan money for purchase of vehicles and real estate); interest rates have been falling.

And, as São Paulo has the biggest economy in Brazil, a good part of that credit was directed to people in the State. And the consequences are visible: the market for cars is hot, and the traffic jams are getting worse; real estate prices are reaching new record levels; the poorer classes (which never had credit before) are buying stuff like computers, TVs and the like, making their lives happier and increasing the popularity of President Lula in the process.

On May 25th, São Paulo will host the 12th edition of the São Paulo Gay Parade. In each of the last three years, a crowd of approximately 3.5 million people followed the parade, making it the biggest in the world.

This year, the organization announced the presence of 22 electric trios (large trucks with a band playing on top) who will perform for more than seven hours straight; there will be over 1,000 police forces, to guarantee peace all along the 3.5 km of the parade.

The São Paulo Gay Parade starts right in front of MASP, the Museum of Art, at Avenida Paulista; the parade moves along Avenida da Consolação as far as the Praça Roosevelt.

For more information about the organization, visit the official site of the São Paulo Gay Parade.

Brazil is the country outside Japan with the largest Japanese community in the world, and Sao Paulo is the city in Brazil with the largest Japanese community.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Japanese immigration to Brazil, a series of events has been happening. Yesterday, Mrs. Karina Eiko Nakahara (photo) was elected Miss Brazil-Japan.

Karina is a 26 year old dentist, 1.70 m and 57 kg. To win the contest, she had to beat other Brazilian-Japanese women coming from 19 States of Brazil (Brazil has a total of 27 States, but in some of them the Japanese community is not very big).

Click here and here to see photos of some other participants of the contest.

According to statistics by the Secretary of Social Assistance of Sao Paulo, there are about 12,000 homeless people in São Paulo; most live of begging for money and food in the downtown area of São Paulo.

Since 1988, the city government has been maintaining a social service to help the homeless; a law was passed in 1997 determining that the city must provide assistance to the homeless.

The Secretary maintains 35 shelters in the city (the word in Portuguese is ‘albergue’, which also means hostel), with a combined capacity of 8,000 people.  The shelters offer a bed, a place to shower and a soupper; in case of need, the wardens send the homeless to health centers and hospitals.

There is a staff of 354 people dedicated to finding homeless people and trying to bring them to the dormitories. In the head office, a team of six people runs a call center (phone: 3228-5554 and 3228-2092) which the population uses to inform about homeless. A fleet of 44 kombis answers the population calls and, as well, drives around town by night looking for homeless (photo).

Frequently, the homeless refuse going to shelters, because over there they are invited (by the wardens and by the other guests) to take a shower, which many don’t want to, and because some rules are enforced (no drinking, no loud conversations, etc). The Assistance teams can not oblige anyone to go to the shelters.

As winter comes and temperature falls, it becomes easier for the assistance agents to persuade homeless into going to a shelter.

On May 10th 2008, Governor José Serra opened to the public the newest bridge of São Paulo; the bridge is official called Bridge Octavio Frias de Oliveira (Mr. Frias, who died in 2007 at age 94, was the publisher of newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, one of the most important in Brazil). Despite this official name though, the bridge is becoming known as Ponte Estaiada, which is the Portuguese for Suspended Bridge.

The bridge is located over the river Pinheiros, and connects avenue Roberto Marinho to the Marginal Pinheiros; about 5,000 vehicles per hour, each way, should cross the bridge at peak times.

Besides being useful to relief traffic jams, the bridge, thanks to its grandness and beautiness, is also becoming a tourism spot of São Paulo.

This will be the longest curved suspended  bridge in the world, 290 meters (950 feet) long each way; the large X in the middle is 138 meters (450 ft) tall; a set of 144 steel cables were used to hold the structure.

See Veja magazine for details (in Portuguese) about the construction of the bridge; see aerial images of the bridge.