Chapter CXXVI - The Early 2000’s
Chapter CXXVI - The Early 2000’s
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Furthermore, during the year of 2002 the government also passed further immigration reforms. Basically, the required time for applying for Brazilian citizenship, decreased from 5 years, to a mere 2 years. Not only that, but the requirements for foreigners to enter, as per the point system, were also generally lowered. The end result was brazil becoming the second largest destination for immigration in the world. Between 2002-2006 the country would receive up to 5 million immigrants. Most of whom, coming from Hispanic-America (54%), Asia (18%) and Africa (17%). This influx however only cemented the divides between working class Brazilian whites and the P-4 establishment, as they saw many get fired as employers preferred to hire the cheaper and non-unionized labor from abroad. Not only that, the P-4 were also able to use propaganda to solidify their support amongst minorities and immigrants, allowing for nearly 5 millions new voters to be all but guaranteed.
Hispanic-American immigrants arriving on Brazil (2004)
In the however, the P-4’s combination of a booming economy, ample support from racial-minorities, women, progressives and white collar workers. Allowed for them to increase their number of seats during the 2002 election, mainly as a result of the conservatives loosing ample support. As a result, the Social-Liberals once again became the largest party, earning some 100 seats, followed by the PTB with 91, the Conservatives with 87, Progressives with 69, PNF with 45, the Greens with 33 and the rest with 5. Thus giving the P-4 some 247 seats.
Union backlash however would not stop. In 2002, worker’s in Tieté went on strike over the steel mill’s decision to fire a tenth of their workforce and substitute them for cheaper labor from Angola and Mozabique. The strike however largely failed, as the steel mill was able to bring the unions to justice over their physical attacks of strikebreakers. In the end, the 10% not only were fired but they were followed by a further 10% the next few months. The end result was that Union activity was greatly weakened, as companies now saw that they could fight back. Helping them, was the government, which passed the Lei do Direito ao Trabalho. A law that stipulated that forcing people to join a union, or blocking non-unionized labor was illegal. As a result, the unions lost even more power and were left a shell of their former selves. However, the worker’s that once voted against the Conservative-PTB during the 1998 election, now turned once again against the P-4 during the 2006 election.
One result clear result of the election to Ashur however, was that the P-4’s pro-market and immigration policies were deeply unpopular with the unionized workforce. Thus, he need to shift away focus from the economy and into more amiable sectors. Namely climate, women’s rights and police reform. For starters, he decided to slowly but surely take away the military grade equipment the police possessed. Something he did by outright buying them with the surplus money generated during the 2000’s boom. The now surplus military equipment in government hands, was however quite outdated for the Brazilian army. Instead, Ashur saw fit to sell this newly acquired surplus to the rest of the world. Namely, other Latin-American nations such as Colombia and Argentina, as well as to nations such as Saudi-Arabia, Dravidia and Korea. This venture proved profitable, and started Brazilian ascendancy as one of the world’s largest arms dealers.
Meanwhile on climate, the government expanded the “Minister for Indian Affairs”, to include more government land to be allocated for native tribes. Not only that, but the government also began expanding the funding for governmental agencies tasked with protecting the Amazon. To further this, the government, in conjunction with the Brazilian space agency, launched project “Olho da Lua”, which involved using Brazilian satellites to monitor illegal activity in the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian military bases in the region were also expanded and turned into veritable research facilities, packed with scientists, college students and foreign researchers, eager to explore the Amazon’s hidden biological treasures.
Simultaneously, the government also instituted another reform, this time on education. Namely, the government would institute mandatory cultural classes for Brazilian kids that attended public schools in a native reserve. This was done in order to teach native children about their native heritage, furthering their ability to preserve the legacy of their ancestors. The classes would however also include the non-native population of the reserves, as the government saw them as having to abide by the reservation’s rules. However this was never really a problem, as the reserves were about 66% Mestiços, 24% purely indigenous, 9% white and 1% others. These classes would include, courses on the native language of the tribe inside the reserve, as well as history lessons, lessons on architecture, folklore, etc. However above all, the classes were not based on the old memorizing system the traditional schools used. Instead, it focused on interaction between the student and the subject, as well as focusing on making the kids more interested in learning. The initiative proved successful, as well as deeply popular with native leadership. Photos also began circulating of white children in the reserves partaking in indigenous culture. Something which really increased the bond between white-Brazilians and native-Brazilians. As despite white-Brazilians’ stereotypes as racists, they actually were very cordial with Natives and to a lesser extend Asians (namely East Asians).
However the biggest impact of the Native Reserves public schooling reform, was that it influenced a much bigger project. All in all, the P-4’s leadership wanted to distance the educational system from the memory based system inherit to industrial society. Since they wanted Brazil to become a more technological nation, which valued intellectualism, they decided the system need reforming and the Ministry for Native Affairs showed them it was possible. Thus, the Minister for Education, Lotário Souza, began working in changing the Brazilian education system. However, his project would only really come to fruition in 2004. As for now, the idea was still largely on paper.
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