Economist.com Cities Guide: Sao Paulo Briefing - October 2005

News this month

Unsporting behaviour

Brazil’s national football league and the São Paulo State Championship (a regional competition) were thrown into disarray in September by revelations that referees had taken bribes. Edilson Pereira de Carvalho and Paulo José Danelon, both referees, admitted to accepting money from a bookmaking ring. Consequently, the Superior Tribunal de Justiça Desportiva (STJD) said that 11 games in the national championship refereed by Mr Carvalho would have to be replayed. The equivalent body for São Paulo state said that 22 matches in the Paulista Championship, which ended in May, might be annulled.

For the replays in the national league, which finishes this month, teams are supposed to field the same line-up as in the original game. That will be tricky for Santos, a São Paulo team chasing a third successive title, whose star forward, Robinho, transferred to Real Madrid during the season. Five clubs, including Santos, are planning to dispute the STJD ruling.

Mr Maluf's woes

In early October a federal judge started hearing testimony from prosecution witnesses in a money-laundering and fraud case against Paulo Maluf, a former mayor of São Paulo, and his son Flávio. Police issued an arrest warrant after recording a conversation that implied the father and son were trying to influence a prosecution witness, a black-market foreign-exchange dealer who had admitted to sending $161m abroad on their behalf. Mr Maluf turned himself in on September 10th, and his son was picked up by police later that day; they deny all charges.

The 74-year-old Mr Maluf, mayor from 1968 to 1972 and 1992 to 1996, presided over a number of grand public-works projects in São Paulo. But his second administration was dogged by complaints of unfair tenders and irregular payments to contractors. If convicted, the Malufs face at least eight years in jail.

Are you being served?

São Paulo has joined municipalities across Brazil in trying to cut the amount of time customers in banks wait to be served. Under a new queuing law, which came into effect on September 29th, banks must issue time-stamped tickets to customers as they arrive. If customers queue for more than 15 minutes, the banks can face a fine of 564 reais ($235). But the customer, who must lodge the complaint at a city government office, does not receive any compensation.

The law gives banks more leeway on days before public holidays and days when public employees are paid. Unions say the only way to reduce queues is to hire more staff, yet bank employee numbers dropped by a half between 1984 and 2004, to 400m.

Rebelo with a cause

The beleaguered Workers' Party (PT) government of Luiz Inácio Lula de Silva, Brazil's president, got a much-needed boost on September 28th when its candidate, Aldo Rebelo, from its Communist Party ally, was elected president of the House of Representatives. Mr Rebelo replaces Severino Cavalcanti, who resigned on September 21st following an accusation that he had extorted money from a restaurant concessionaire in the House.

This time the PT used political pressure to win over MPs, rather than the alleged cash handouts that are currently under investigation. The scandal has cost the jobs of several in the PT hierarchy and continues to exact a toll: 17 deputies have defected to the opposition ahead of next year’s election.

Noise pollution

São Paulo is the third busiest helicopter zone in the world, after New York and Tokyo, with more than 55,000 flights annually. According to Aviation Today, a trade publication, as many as 30 helicopters are ferrying businessmen around the city at any given time. In 2004, helicopter flight paths were altered to spare some of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. However, those who found themselves in the new flight paths have lobbied successfully for new rules to lessen the noise. From October, helicopters must fly between 30 metres and 60 metres higher than the current minimum (150 metres above the ground). Any higher and they risk bumping into aircraft landing at Congonhas airport in the city centre.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Xul Solar: Visions and Revelations

Until December 30th 2005

This large retrospective of work by Alejandro Xul Solar (1887-1963), an Argentine modernist painter, brings together 120 pieces, mostly vivid watercolours on paper, that chronicle the artist's preoccupation with religion, symbolism and the esoteric. Born in 1887, Solar spent 12 years in Europe, where he was clearly influenced by Kandinsky and Klee, before returning to Buenos Aires in 1924. He became part of an intellectual group that included Jorge Luis Borges, a close friend.

Solar’s works are on a small scale and use, for the most part, intense colours to portray mythical beasts, Catholic symbols and characters from the zodiac. One section of the show draws comparisons with his Brazilian contemporaries, including Ismael Nery, Antonio Gomide and Lasar Segall. Solar's desire to create a pan-Latin American utopia led him to invent a language that mixes Spanish and Portuguese called “neocriollo”, words from which appear in his pictures.

Pinocateca do Estado, Praça da Luz, 2, Tel: +55 (11) 3229-9844. Open: Tues-Sun 10am-6pm.

More from the Sao Paulo cultural calendar