SAO PAULO BRIEFING January 2005

News this month

Serra takes over

José Serra took over as São Paulo's mayor on January 1st, pledging to govern for the people rather than for special interests. But his administration was immediately thrown into a fiscal and political crisis: not only must it repay the 7 billion reais ($2.6 billion) the city owes the federal government by May, but also Mr Serra lost his first key vote in the Assembly, thanks to Roberto Tripoli, a turncoat from his own party. Mr Tripoli switched parties (in order to be elected president of the Assembly), leaving the mayor with an opposition-led legislature for the first time since 1992. This will make one of his first initiatives—renegotiating more than 22 billion reais worth of city contracts awarded by his predecessor—especially awkward. Mr Serra is seeking to cut 20% from city expenses.

A new federal law designed to curb city and state spending requires a debt-to-revenue ratio of 1.78. São Paulo has 27.6 billion reais of debt, giving it a ratio of 2.76; to comply with the law the city would have to pay down 15.2 billion reais, or 25% of its budget, which it cannot do. Mr Serra and the outgoing mayor, Marta Suplicy, went to Brasília to negotiate a delay in the first instalment of 7 billion reais, and the Folha de S. Paulo, a newspaper, reported that the federal government allowed Mr Serra to delay 145m of that debt, provided he does not slam Ms Suplicy publicly for mismanagement. But that leaves the bulk still to pay. At risk are federal funds needed for the construction of new roads and hospitals in the city's outskirts.

Mom snatched, coach poached

After 40 days in captivity and a reported $185,000 ransom, Marina de Souza, the mother of Brazil's brightest footballer, Robinho, was released in time to see her son play in the deciding game of this year's Brazilian Championship. Robinho's team, Santos, beat Vasco da Gama 2-1 to win the title for the second straight year. The kidnappers had forbidden Robinho to play while they held his mother. Ms de Souza was found in Perus, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of São Paulo.

Immediately after Santos's victory, the team's coach, Wanderley Luxemburgo, announced he was leaving to coach Real Madrid, a struggling but star-laden Spanish team. Many had expected Robinho to follow in his footsteps, but the young star hasn't left yet. Rumours abound that Mr Luxemburgo may jettison Real's three English players—David Beckham, Michael Owen and Jonathan Woodgate—and replace them with South American stars, including Robinho, in summer 2005.

Dog days

Can man have too many best friends? São Paulo now has one dog for every four inhabitants, more than double what scientists believe is a healthy ratio. This wouldn't be such an acute problem, were it not for leishmaniasis, an insect-borne parasitic disease that has killed 48 people since 2000. Pet fur is the preferred habitat for the protozoa that carries the disease, which is then passed to humans through infected mosquitoes or fleas. The state has decided on mass dog castrations, which are cheaper than killings ($11 versus $48)—to say nothing of karmic benefits. Officials are also encouraging dog-owners to spay their pets and advising on how best to avoid infections.

Roads kill

More than 2,300 people died and 35,100 were injured in road accidents in São Paulo in 2004. The year's 70,350 accidents mark a 9.3% increase from 2003, with a 3% rise in deaths. Locals blame bad driving and congestion on São Paulo state's roads. The roads have improved in the last decade, encouraging Paulistas to drive faster and more recklessly, while the number of vehicles has more than tripled. State highway authorities are planning to install more radar cameras to capture and punish the Ayrton Senna wannabes.

Sunday shopping

As many as 70,000 more shops will be allowed to open in São Paulo on Sundays, thanks to new legislation. In the past, only convenience stores such as gas stations and supermarkets could trade all day on Sundays, though shopping malls could open in the afternoons. This change, which required negotiations with several unions, is expected to create up to 10,500 more jobs. Whether Paulistanos will give up their long Sunday lunches in favour of shopping, however, remains to be seen.

Catch if you can
January 2005

Photography exhibitions at the Museu da Imagem

Until February 1st 2005

In a country famed for its narcissism, André Gardenberg, a journalist and photographer, is asking a lot of his subjects. His immense black-and-white close-ups highlight the wrinkles of famous Brazilian actors, musicians and media figures. But as the title of his exhibition—“Taking a Bright View of Wrinkles”—suggests, they are often beautiful. The most illuminating photographs are of the oldest subjects, such as Elisabeth Cserda Nagy, whose skin is an impressively worn terrain, lined with a lived life.

More a preserver of images than a recorder of events, Eduardo Salvatore, like Henri Cartier-Bresson, took pictures that illustrate rather than describe. Witness one of his remarkable early works of a couple on a park bench at night, lit by a halo of ghostly street lamps. A Paulista photographer born in 1914, by the 1950s he preferred form to content and objects to scenes. One of his pictures has three boats nestled against a dock, with no sense of time or place. By the 1960s he had moved fully into abstraction, using super-imposed images and extreme close-ups to create geometric forms from natural objects. One striking picture turns a portion of a leaf into a rolling, variegated landscape.

Museu da Imagem e do Som, Rua Europa 158, Jardim Europa. Tel: +55 (0)11 3088-0896. For more information, visit the museum's website.