Adventures of a Gringa

The Paulistanization of Rio

Traveling between Rio and São Paulo, it's evident that in some ways, Rio is becoming more like Brazil's biggest city, in both good ways and bad as it grows and develops. Here are just a few examples. 

-Traffic has spiraled in Rio with a spike in the number of cars on the road. Sitting in traffic in Rio after sitting in traffic in São Paulo, it's hard not to compare the experience: bumper to bumper traffic, barely moving, with motorcycles noisily speeding between lanes. São Paulo traditionally has some of the biggest traffic jams in the country; Rio commuters now deal with longer and longer treks to and from work, and you'll find heavily congested roads even outside of rush hour.

-Car ownership in Rio rose by 62 percent--or 1 million cars--from 2001 to 2011, according to the Observatório das Metrópoles. There were an estimated 2.82 million cars in Rio last year. (São Paulo still has the largest number of cars in the country.) Motorcycle ownership also rose by 338 percent over the same period to 430,733. In one weekend edition of O Globo, one of Rio's largest newspapers, I counted nine sections on cars, including ad sections and a "caderno especial."

-Air quality has gone down as a result of so much traffic. São Paulo, which historically had poor air quality, now reportedly has cleaner air than Rio. A 2011 World Health Organization report indicated Rio had the worst air quality in the entire country.

-Cost of living has increased in Rio, with everything from restaurants to housing to movie tickets. São Paulo has traditionally been the most expensive city in the country and has a higher cost of living than Rio, according to the 2012 Mercer cost of living index. This year, Rio ranked as the 13th most expensive city in the world, right behind São Paulo at 12th in the world. But Rio has been creeping up behind São Paulo; it was two spaces behind in 2011 and 8 spaces behind in 2010.

-Rental and real estate prices also spiked. São Paulo has traditionally had some of the most expensive real estate in the country, but Rio real estate has become very costly. According to Cushman & Wakefield, this year Rio has the most expensive office space rentals in Brazil and all of Latin America. (Its office rentals are now the 8th most expensive in the world.) In October, Rio passed Brasília to have the most expensive real estate prices per square meter in Brazil.

-Malls have mushroomed in Rio. With the largest economy in the country and no beach, the city of São Paulo was known for its malls. Rio, too, has a big mall scene but in recent years, the city's seen new malls popping up in the Zona Norte and Zona Oeste, as well as numerous malls in Barra and Recreio. The city could see a new mall in its train station, Central, and a huge new luxury complex called VillageMall is due to open in Barra next month.

-More finance and multinational companies are opening offices in Rio, even though São Paulo is still Brazil's business hub. Just a few examples of companies opening or planning on opening offices in Rio include Pimco, Honeywell, Fircroft, and Dow Chemical. Cisco plans to open a center for innovation in the city, and GE plans to open its Fifth Global Research Center in Rio. The massive R&D center will be built on Fundão and is the first of its kind in Latin America. Direct Edge even hopes to launch an equities exchange in Rio de Janeiro to compete with São Paulo's Bovespa. Media companies are also planning expansion into Rio prior to the upcoming mega events; one recent example includes SNTV, a TV sports news agency.

-International educational centers are opening in Rio. International exchange company CIEE opened its first Rio de Janeiro center in August. Columbia University will officially inaugurate a Rio de Janeiro study center next year. Harvard University is rumored to be negotiating a Rio de Janeiro center.

-Tech companies are increasingly flocking to Rio, though São Paulo is still a major destination for such companies. Over the past few years, Rio has become one of Brazil's biggest hub for startups. Rio has more tech parks than anywhere in Brazil and hosts 22 incubaators, according to Rio Negócios. Around $1.4 billion in private investment have gone to Rio tech hubs since 2010. Some hope Rio could become Brazil's "Silicon Beach."

-The fine art scene is growing in Rio. While Rio has a number of fantastic art museums, São Paulo has traditionally been the national leader in fine art. But that may be changing. ArtRio, the city's biggest art show, began last year, when sales hit $70 million--three times what the show reached earlier in São Paulo, according to RioReal Blog. This year, the show saw 74,000 visitors in just the first four days. With a growing cultural scene, Rio's gallery scene is also expanding.

Image: Mark Goble

The Strange Tale of Female Sterilization in Brazil

Tubal ligation, a form of female sterilization, has long been one of Brazil's most popular forms of birth control--despite the fact that it was illegal until 1996. Known as laqueadura tubária in Portuguese, or "tying the tubes," the procedure was often done in conjunction with a cesarean section, allowing doctors to covertly provide the operation after a legal one. Perhaps as a consequence, Brazil now has one of the highest rates of C-sections in the world, even after sterilizations were legalized. But the law didn't necessarily make sterilization access easier. The law requires spousal consent, which can limit access for single women or those whose husbands refuse to allow the surgery. The law also forbids sterilization right after a woman gives birth. One study found that private doctors have tended to ignore this rule, but public doctors sometimes adhere to it--which can limit access to this form of birth control for poorer women.

Passed in 1996, Brazil's family planning law legalized both male and female sterilization, which was permitted for any "man or woman with full citizen’s rights and older than 25 years of age, or who has at least two living children, such that s/he observe at minimum a 60-day period between the request and surgery, in which the person must have access to fertility regulation services, including counseling by a
multidisciplinary team, in order to discourage premature sterilization."

But the law also states that a patient must seek consent from his or her spouse in order to have surgery. In practice, this sometimes means women can be denied sterilization surgery if they are unmarried or dont have permission from their husbands. Men, meanwhile, are unlikely to be asked for permission from their spouses to undergo a vasectomy. A bill is under consideration in Congress to remove the consent requirement from the law. "In my opinion, the body of another person is viewed in the family planning law as if it was a good, like a car for sale. It's a distortion. Sexual and reproductive rights belong to each person," the bill's author, Congressman Paulo Rubem Santiago, said in June.

Until 1996, female sterilization was illegal, outlawed by article 16 of decree 20931 of 1931 and by article 129, paragraph 2.III of the Brazilian Penal Code of 1940. Punishment ranged from two to eight years in prison for doctors who carried out the surgery. Despite being banned, the practice was widespread throughout the country, even in public hospitals. By the early 1990s, female sterilization was the most common form of birth control in Brazil, due in part to limited access to other types of contraceptives. Less affluent women also often lacked family planning knowledge and access to such information. In 1996, 40 percent of Brazilian women (married or in unions) aged 15 to 49 had sterilization surgery; of those women, 57 percent had the procedure before the age of 30 and 34 percent had only one or two children. In poorer parts of the country, sterilization rates were higher. In 1994, an estimated 76 percent of women of reproductive age in Maranhão had undergone the surgery, along with 72 percent in Goiás and 60 percent in Pernambuco.

Because tubal ligation was illegal, doctors often performed the procedure following cesarean section surgeries. A 1996 survey found that 59 percent of tubal ligations took place in conjunction with C-sections--many of which were performed only to conduct the sterilization. A 1991 estimate put it even higher, at 75 percent of all tubal ligations performed with C-sections. By performing the two surgeries together, the doctors were able to perform the banned surgery following a legal one, and also charged double. Meanwhile, patients footed the bill for the sterilization. C-sections are still popular in Brazil--today, around 50 percent of all pregnancies are delivered using a cesarean, and 82 percent of women with private insurance get C-sections. Some speculate that Brazil's history of sterilizations performed with C-sections is the reason the country has one of the highest rates of cesareans in the world.

Tubal ligation is controversial in part because of its political uses. Despite being illegal, some state governments promoted the practice in the 1990s, offering the surgery for free. In 1991, Congress launched an investigation of "mass sterilizations," also looking to see if black women were sterilized at higher rates. (It found there wasn't discrimination, but a need to regulate the practice.) Local politicians throughout Brazilian sometimes offer to pay for sterilizations in exchange for votes. "We have a culture of sterilization in Brazil. It's nationwide. A lot of politicians are elected because of their sterilization promises," said Jurema Werneck, executive director of women's health organization Criola told the Washington Post in 2004. In the past, some employers even required women to provide proof they had been sterilized in order to get a job, as they did not want to offer maternity leave.

With the passage of the law in 1996, the number of tubal ligations remained high. A 2001 survey found that nearly 1 in 2 Brazilian women had been sterilized. However, the law outlawed women from having postpartum sterilization surgery in an attempt to reduce unnecessary C-sections. One study in 2003, however, found that private doctors were ignoring this part of the law and still performing sterilizations with C-sections. Public hospital doctors, meanwhile, were less likely to give postpartum tubal ligations. In other words, poorer patients--the ones less likely to have access to other forms of birth control--had less access to sterilizaton.

Photo: Governo da Bahia

Rio's 2012 Election: Now What?

Today, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes swept the election in Rio, winning with nearly 65 percent of the vote. In second place was Rio state assemblyman Marcelo Freixo, who won 28 percent of the vote. For those familiar with Rio politics, it wasn't a surprise: Paes is a popular incumbent who raised much more money than Freixo (around 14 times more at nearly R$3 million), had a huge coalition (Freixo refused to create one), enjoyed much more TV advertising time than Freixo, and has support from the state governor, President Dilma Rousseff, and former President Lula. Amid a construction boom with new government-funded hospitals and education centers, Paes also counts among his administration's accomplishments presiding over the preparations for the World Cup and Olympics. In addition, Paes won despite recent accusations of corruption--allegedly paying off another political party not to run for the mayoralty of Rio. Freixo also was at a disadvantage due to popular appeal; Paes is a seasoned politician, whereas Freixo--who comes from a background of academia and activism--is less accustomed to smooth-talking.

Supporters of Freixo backed him, among other reasons, to support his stand against corruption in politics, as well as his famous opposition to militias and organized crime as depicted in Tropa de Elite 2. He's been critical of the mega-event preparations, saying during the most recent mayoral candidate debate: "We want the Olympics. But a city that's good for the Olympics must be good for the people who live in it." He also stood up to Paes on the campaign trail, and is not one to mince his words. Supporters saw him as a change from the usual suspects in Rio government. Given all that he was up against, it's impressive that he received nearly a third of the vote. It's also important to note that his party, the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), doubled the number of seats in the city legislature from 2 to 4.

So what does this mean for Rio?

From my perspective, it means Freixo is well-positioned to play the role that fits him best, given the circumstances: that of a watchdog, a critical voice who will try to ensure transparency during the next Paes administration and the upcoming mega-events. As an activist who has worked hard to combat militias, there's still lots of work to do there. And given Rio's recent history with the PanAm Games and concerns about white elephants already emerging in the run-up to the World Cup, there's a long road ahead for the city. He's exactly the right person to spearhead efforts to see that the local government does what's best for its residents and not FIFA or the IOC. He's also the right person to work to oversee the city's preparations for the mega-events to prevent corruption and overspending. Maybe he'll be something of an Al Gore for Rio.

Rio politics may not have changed dramatically yet. But with someone like Marcelo Freixo working outside of the Pálacio da Cidade, there's a chance that there will be more accountability and a push for more transparency, as well as a continued fight against organized crime.

Photo: Marcelo Freixo