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This article explains how poor educational standards in Brazil are holding the country back even while its economy is quickly growing. Because the education system is not capable of producing enough skilled professionals to meet the demands of the work force, Brazil is relying on immigrants to fill skilled labor positions. If Brazil is to sustain its growth, it clearly needs to improve the education system quickly.

See Michael Ray's article up above about affirmative action and Brazilian universities -- these two articles seem connected --

Brazil's government enacted one of the most sweeping affirmative action laws. This is just one example of the sort of democratic, humanitarian charge that Brazil is leading in South America. On one end of the spectrum we see Chavez's authoritarian-ruled Venezuela, with state-controlled sectors still on the rise. On the other end we see Brazil, enacting humanitarian changes such as this affirmative action law. Increasingly, we have seen Latin American countries follow the lead set by Brazil, with a shift away from the state-controlled policy championed by Venezuela. Economically, we also see that Brazil is in much better shape than Venezuela, regardless of the fact that Venezuela is oil-rich. This law just offers one example of the changes set in motion by Brazil that stand at odds with the state-controlled ideals that were previously indicative of Latin American politics.

Fascinating article -- this is a huge social engineering step, with 50% of university slots set aside for poor and minority students! While there is debate about the step, only one senator voted against it.... Since our focus here in the class and the diigo articles is science and technology, I'm wondering if anyone here is willing to venture any guesses about how this policy might affect science, technology, and medicine in Brazil. Would most of these students from poorer social worlds opt for sci/tech/med training? If so, how might this change society itself? Do the wealthier students now attending college select different sorts of majors? It would be interesting to do some digging... Of course, the influx of students from different backgrounds could affect the wealthier students' worldviews, also -- if they stay in the public university system, however, which might not happen...From the article: Dozens of other Brazilian universities, both public and private, have also adopted their own affirmative action policies in recent years, trying to curb the dominance of such institutions by middle- and upper-middle-class students who were educated at private elementary and secondary schools. Public universities in Brazil are largely free of charge and generally of better quality, with some exceptions, than private universities. Still, some education experts are already predicting a shift to the better private universities among some students. "With these quotas, these rich Brazilians who took up their spots will not be abandoned," argued Frei David Santos, 60, a Franciscan friar in São Paulo who directs Educafro, an organization preparing black and low-income students for university entrance exams. "Their parents who had money saved will spend it" on elite private universities.

This article shows the power of education to change the lives of kids living in favelas. In this case, music gives the children a way out of a life that would otherwise involve crime or some type of participation in the informal economy. This article reminds me of the successful afro reggae programs also started in favelas. I think the most important thing to take from this article is that the situation in favelas, although very difficult, is far from hopeless. I hope that the Brazilian government might someday sponsor programs such as this one instead of viewing favela communities as inevitably crime ridden and not worth helping

Another article on the war on drugs. This article explains that the Guatemalan president suggested drug decriminalization in front of the UN General assembly, and said that it should coincide with increasing military pressure on drug violence. Legal drug use would be state controlled, much like the use of tobacco and alcohol in the United States.

It certainly seems like decriminalization would take the money and violence out of the equation (or at least, a great deal of it). Certainly, Prohibition in the US re alcohol was a big mistake in regard to criminal activity, and even with the problems alcohol currently causes, there are still forms of control (laws, public attitudes, health advisories)...Would it help if we put more effort into scientific studies on addiction? Do we know enough in that regard to circulate public information that would be relevant? Why don't we have conferences about this topic where the issues are debated? I'd like to see something like that at OU, with input from the law school, and the sociologists, psychologists, law enforcement, Latin Americanists, etc. etc. It could be very enlightening. Too dangerous a topic, though? But we should be able to talk about anything at an education of higher learning...

This article lays out the reasons why Uruguay's government is considering legalization of marijuana. It has already been decriminalized and full legalization would allow the government to benefit economically from production. The profits could stimulate the economy and even be used to treat drug addicts and go towards drug education. Also, legalization would take power away from deadly cartels.

This article was very interesting. To me, it seems that Uruguay has been searching for a way to combat what the war on drugs has done to the cartels. This is vastly different to the approach the United States is taking in regards to marijuana. I wonder if we will see any of the affects here, in addition to how the U.S. government views government controlled marijuana. I feel that ong term, the different drug strategies could potentially change the U.S.'s current stance on drug policies if they prove their effectivness.

wow, great discussion! I've been working my way down from the top adding some comments and was wondering about decriminalization up above! This reminded me that there's a ballot initiative in Washington state this election year that could pass re legalization of marijuana, which would put the states vs the feds in an interesting position if so. I was looking for some info, and found this background on a site called ballotpedia -- which I didn't know existed and am definitely going to be using in the future! http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Washington_Marijuana_Legalization_and_Regulation,_Initiative_502_(2012)