Brazil May 7th

Today we started out with a trip to the Santos Port. One of the managers of the Port gave us a lecture about the history of the port, what they import, export, the size of the port itself, the importance of the port, how the port works, and current projects. The port is the largest and most important port of all Latin America. They export a number of items such as petroleum, airplanes, grains, soybeans, coffee, sugar, corn, fertilizer, cars, and so much more. The port itself stretches along both sides of the canal and is about 7 miles in length. The port has about 12,000 workers and 4,000 will work at a time. The port is also powered by its very own hydroelectric plant which produces about 15,000 kW of power. There are many logistical difficulties with the port such as connecting the two sides of the canal for easier transportation, reducing traffic of incoming supply trucks and the deepness of the canal itself. One of the many projects the Santos port is working on is making the canal itself deeper. Creating a deeper canal will allow more boats to pass through and therefore increase the amount of imports and exports. The port is continuing to expand by creating more container lots, making the port length longer, and increasing the number of strips in the nearby airport just to name a few. The manager was extremely informative and answered questions with thought.
After the port visit we took a 1 hour boat ride along the port itself. Here we were able to see all of the ships docking, loading and unloading, container lots, and warehouses from the canal. It was breathtaking to see the magnitude of the machinery used to load and unload the cargo. The boat ride itself was very nice too. It was sunny and warm but with a slight breeze. A lot of us took off our business casual clothes and changed into shorts/bathing suits and just enjoyed the sun and the water.

Now back to business. After the boat ride we dressed up again and visited the town of Cubatao, another important industrial area of Sao Paulo and Brazil. In the town hall we met with representatives of a program that is building homes and communities for those who live in the favillas(sp?), or basically the slums. The people who live in these slums set up their homes whenever construction on a new project, such as a factory, occurs. Overnight these people will create communities in the newly plowed land. In doing this they ruin the local ecosystem, endanger themselves by living so close to factories, by having no sanitation system, and living in poverty. The people who live in these slums will often steal electricity and not have to pay taxes. What the city government, along with state and federal funding, is trying to do is set up communities for these people to live in. They are encouraging these people to come live in these communities, get jobs, pay taxes, and help encourage others to do the same. This project really showed me how much Brazil is different from America. The Brazilian government, along with its people, is actually trying to help others at their own expense. In the short term, it will be a financial burden, but after awhile living conditions will improve as well as the environment around them. We visited both the slums and the newly constructed communities. The slums were what you would expect, small, dirty, smelly and unsanitary. The government built communities seemed much better. With plumbing and electricity, the houses were much more safe and sanitary. The people living there were also very nice and very friendly. As Budny told us “The lesson here is they’re just people, like you and me. They all have dreams, needs, wants, wishes…” Oh yeah, and we were also being filmed by the local news. I guess we’re that important.

Today was very eye opening and very informative. We learned both about how an industry like the Santos Port works as well as social issues and what they’re doing about them.