by CRISTOVAM BUARQUE
Ms. Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s new President. PHOTO/Nabor Goulart/AP/Guardian
President-elect Dilma Rousseff made a commitment to eradicating misery. She thus surpassed the commitment President Lula made in his first pronouncement when he vowed to eradicate hunger.
The 2010 presidential debate avoided the theme of the eradication of poverty.
Instead, the debate centered upon whether to maintain or abolish the Bolsa Família Program, if its value should be increased and if its beneficiaries should receive it an additional month per year. No journalists asked and no candidate promised to render this cash grant to poor families unnecessary, thanks to the eradication of poverty.
Once elected, Dilma took on this commitment, but she has not said how she will do this. If it were by merely raising the amount of the income transfer, she will not succeed in fulfilling her promise. Besides the lack of income, poverty is the lack of security, of quality schools, of housing, of healthcare.
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