COMMENTATOR (COMM.): Previously on Life... The dangers of the new Global Economy are to split societies... Globalisation is creating untold numbers of losers.
PROTESTERS: Well, I went back to the rich man's house And I took back what he stole from me...
PROTESTER: We're fighting this corporate-greed based Race to the Bottom.
PROFESSOR THUROW: You're on the globe but you're not in the Global Economy...
PROFESSOR FUKUYAMA (ON ARCHIVE): Both the people in that situation haven't really tried to play the game seriously...
GERALDO DA SOUZA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): My name is Geraldo. I work for six years in this Ford factory, here. At the end of last year, or to be more precise, on December 22nd, I was laid off. They sent a letter to my house. There was my Christmas present.
JON ALPERT: You ask me any questions that you want me to find out the answers to, then I'm gonna go out, basically do the research, and report back to you, OK?
GERALDO: This is my house. I've been paying rent for four years. Now I've had to start borrowing money. If I don't get my job back things will be very hard.
This is Mateus... Ivy... and my wife.
DAVINA (GERALDO'S WIFE): My name is Davina.
GERALDO: I'd really like to know why I lost my job. I wish I could get an answer because I still have no idea.
COMM: Globalisation is affecting millions all around the world. Geraldo Da Sousa was one of two thousand car workers laid off in São Paulo, Brazil, because of economic events elsewhere in the world.
To find out why Geraldo is out of work, we asked TV reporterJon Alpert to investigate and report back to Geraldo using all the tools of modern technology. JON ALPERT: I have to start out with a confession: I don't know a lot about the economy. So why, in the world, do they ask me to work on this programme? I've been fired from lots of jobs - I mean, more than you can even imagine! And I've won lots of prizes for investigative reporting - oh, how convenient, my awards are down here. So I'm gonna go work for Geraldo. I'm going to go to places that he can't go, I'm going to talk to people that he can't talk to, we are gong to stay in touch and together we are going to figure out what in the world happened to him.
What we have here today, we have an internet hook-up on which is a computer & webcam with Geraldo. What I'd like to report to you today is that I've had absolutely no success in get anybody from the Ford company to talk to me. I'm really sorry.
GERALDO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Tell him we're still fighting Ford over here. And I'm sure he's still doing his best over there.
JON ALPERT: So Geraldo, we are all saying goodbye to you and I'll be in communication with you in the next couple of days, we'll have another internet link like this and I'll try and tell you more of the information we've been able to discover.
MIGUEL JORGE Hello, my name is Miguel Jorge, Vice President of Volkswagen in Brazil.
JON ALPERT: Geraldo wants to know how international forces affect the automobile industry.
MIGUEL JORGE: When you have a crisis like in Russia, all the Volkswagen, Brazil's investment in Brazil, all the foreign money that was in Brazil, was very afraid of what could happen to Brazil. Then these money flew out from Brazil.
JON ALPERT: How does that affect somebody like Geraldo?
MIGUEL JORGE: Then, when this money went out, the Brazilian government put very high the interest rates. What happened? People could not buy the car. When people could not buy the car, the production was very small. When the production is small, people like Geraldo suffer because they don't have work.
JON ALPERT: Which part of the economy is making money right now? If you guys are having difficulties, Geraldo wants to know, 'Who's making the money?'
MIGUEL JORGE: Yeah, the banks are making the money.
JON ALPERT: The banks?
MIGUEL JORGE: The banks, yes. As in all - every place, all the time, the banks make money.
MIGUEL JORGE: We are doing cars. You can touch the car; you can drive the car. In the bank, what you can touch? What are they producing? But they are earning the money.
JON ALPERT: How did you save these workers' jobs?
MIGUEL JORGE: In Volkswagen we have a special programme. We did an agreement with the unions, we didn't fire any people, but we reduced the-the income from the labour force and we reduced the hour time. We are working only four days a week in three weeks. In the fourth week we work five days a week. We reduced fifteen percent of the salaries and we reduced fifteen percent of the labour.
JON ALPERT: So if Geraldo was working here he'd still have a job?
MIGUEL JORGE: He would still have a job.
(ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS): DIVINA: Any news from Ford about getting your job back?
GERALDO: The information I heard was that they'd had a meeting but nothing was resolved.
GERALDO: Bye Mateus. Give Dad a kiss. Bye, bye-bye.
JON ALPERT: Press the "video call" button. Doop! Enter the number. Doop! And I predict that in a few short seconds, we will be seeing Geraldo waiting to speak to us. And...!
Tudo bom? Everything OK?
GERALDO (FROM MONITOR): Tudo bom, tudo.
JON ALPERT: What we can do today, we can talk about the report that we've been working on. I can give you an update. I can even play for you some of the tapes that we shot some of the people you asked me to go out and talk to. Let's get your reaction.
All right, Geraldo, we are here in Sul America, this is one of the largest insurance companies in all of Latin America, we are going to talk to an economist here: Roberto da Costa.
ROBERTO DA COSTA: Geraldo. Brazil has to produce more to export. Let me explain this point that I think is very important. Brazil is a country that is a very small participant in the world trade. We participate in less than two percent in the world trade. Just for your, for your understanding, Mexico, which is half of the Brazilian size in terms of Gross National Product, export two times of Brazil. We are living the worst part of the adjustment period. Brazil is a country of transition.
You are paying a price for this transition period of Brazil. If I was in your position, first I would look for opportunities outside of the city of São Paulo, and secondly outside the state of São Paulo. And if you are not comfortable with that, please look to opportunities outside of Brazil.
JON ALPERT: All right, Geraldo, here we are in my capital, Washington DC. Here is the White House down there and if you pan around over here you can see the Washington Monument is under going repairs, sort of like the Brazilian economy. And if you want to learn about globalisation here in Washington, you have institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that really exert a lot of power over what happens in Brazil.
SANDY MCKENZIE (International Monetary Fund - IMF): Geraldo, my name is Sandy Mckenzie and I'm chief of Atlantic Division of the Western Hemisphere Department in the International Monetary Fund. And this is the division that deals with Brazil. Brazil's government, and by that I mean all the governments combined, taken as a bunch, spend more than they take in.
JON ALPERT: So how does this affect Geraldo then, if he goes to work in Ford?
SANDY MCKENZIE: The countries in such a position are vulnerable, to some extent, to the whims of international investors. In the fall of 1997 the Asian economies that have been growing very, very rapidly, suddenly got themselves in terrible trouble and investors around the world start to pull their money out of the emerging markets. And Brazil is one of these emerging markets. In fact is the very largest in the whole world.
Now, what the government had to do at that point, to attract investors, was raise interest rates sky high. That meant loans to people that want to buy cars was much higher. The result was the automotive industry in Brazil really suffered a terrible decline in demand for its products. Unfortunately, about a year later, the Russian crises erupted in the world, and again there was a flight away from the emerging markets and a withdrawal of money.
JON ALPERT: So what actually happened on the other side of the world in Asia and in Russian had a direct link to Geraldo's situation?
SANDY MCKENZIE: It had a very direct link with Geraldo's situation. There's, there's, there is no question about it.
GERALDO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Press withdraw... now wait. Go ahead, Ivy. I have a negative balance of $160. Around the twentieth of the month when the money run out it gets pretty depressing. You just have to live from day to day.
JON ALPERT: In the past week there has been actually a precipitous decline in the value of your currency and it's causing problems for the government... but is there any news about this in the Brazilian papers?
GERALDO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): There is. And they are talking about the dollar. The government has to pay its bills in dollars. And in terms of interest payments alone they amount to over one billion dollars. All of the affects us in our daily lives because the government will then raise taxes and increase fuel prices to collect more money to sent to the IMF.
JON ALPERT: Geraldo, you have asked me to find people from other economic classes were doing - not only workers, not only poor people - who might affected by this economic situation. Specifically, you wanted to know if there were wealthy people that might be getting hurt by the troubles as well.
We found a gentleman that used to work in his factory, his name is Fábio Bruno.
FABIO BRUNO, former Brazilian factory owner (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Hello, Geraldo, I know you too were interviewed. I'm here as a boss but there's no difference between bosses and employees. So come into my house and let me tell you my story. I lost everything. All I have left is my house. And now I'm going to show you my factory. When I started out none of this existed. This was just a wooden shack.
FÁBIO'S DAUGHTER (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): I managed the sewing division. My father made the fabric and I supervised the fabrication of these shirts.
FABIO: This is an example of our fine fabric. I'm not advertising; there's no use anymore. It's just to show you that I didn't make bad quality clothes. I'm not that type of business man. The government says the industry didn't modernise. But how? If you wanted to buy a machine you had to pay an eighty percent import tax while in Taiwan they get a three year payback period, pay no taxes and receive financing. How do you expect us to survive? We'd have to be able to perform miracles!
FÁBIO'S DAUGHTER: Geraldo. Here I am starting all over. They are too - at seventy one years old, they are starting over. So let's hope that our country will recognise our value, both yours and ours. So keep going. Be strong!
PART TWO
COMM: Geraldo's search for the reasons why globalisation cost him his job sees him back on the streets. It's not the carnival - it's a protest march.
JON ALPERT: It's a big demonstration!
GERALDO: Hello Jon. Here we are. It took us fifteen hours to get here. We are demonstrating for our rights as Brazilian citizens. Our right to democracy, to employment, to healthcare and to housing. These are our rights and we don't have them here.
JON ALPERT: You wanted us to find out if there were people that were actually confident of the government, who were doing well because of the government's economic policies and we found a business man, Mario Garnero, who actually is quite excited about what is happening in the Brazilian economy and who has big, big plans.
MARIO GARNERO: If you'd like to go outside, we could go outside.
JON ALPERT: Actually, I'd like to enjoy this office because I've never seen an office like this before in my life, it's really spectacular! Geraldo wakes up one morning and he doesn't have a job, what forces, externally and internally, simply, made that situation come about?
MARIO GARNERO: Internally, mostly, I think that er when you fight inflation you have a sort of recession. We had a mild recession bringing down an inflation that was about two thousand percent a year, to four percent a year. JON ALPERT: Mr Garnero feels so confident that the Brazilian economy is rebounding, he took us on a tour of his latest investments. The biggest and most ambitious is the construction of the world's tallest building. It's down there in downtown São Paulo, not too far from your house, Geraldo. And this building's gonna be taller than the World Trade Centre, and Mr Garnero says he is going to build in the shape of a giant pyramid.
From high atop of the world, here, Mr Garnero likes his view of the future and he feels pretty confident.
MARIO GARNERO: We will be creating the, with these new projects, around ten thousand direct jobs and I hope to have exactly Geraldo coming in one of them.
JON ALPERT: He said he is going to be creating ten thousand new jobs and that he has a job for you.
GERALDO: I am happy to hear that. I hope it's true and he's not just another one of our country's lying entrepreneurs. If he creates ten thousand new jobs I'd be very glad of course to be one of the people to be hired.
JON ALPERT: Well actually, what we've discovered in one of our interviews is that the wealth distribution in Brazil is the most inequitable of any country in the world: the difference between what the rich people earn and what the poor people earn.
We could actually show you some scenes from a very poor community five miles from your house.
JOSÉ DA SILVA ROLIM (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Hello Geraldo. My name is José da Silva Rolim. I'm president of the neighbourhood union in Paraisopolis. We have sixty thousand inhabitants in our community. Devaluation of our money also affects us here. We have unemployment; we have lost our buying powers. Let's meet some of the community members who have the same problems as most other Brazilians.
JON ALPERT: How many people are living here?
WOMAN WITH BABY (TRANSLATION): Eight people live here. Just in this room. Eight people.
JOSE DA SILVA (TRANSLATION): Here, eight people. In around twenty square metres.
JON ALPERT: Hi. How are you? What's your name?
NADIA (TRANSLATION): Nadia.
JON ALPERT: So, how many people living in your house, here?
NADIA (TRANSLATION): Four of us - no, five of us: three children; me and my husband.
JON ALPERT: Does your husband work?
NADIA: No.
JON ALPERT: Could you please show me how much food you have left in the house right now? Beans? That's it?
NADIA: That's it.
JON ALPERT: So things aren't getting any better for you?
NADIA: No.
JON ALPERT: What's your name? Sandra? Can you show me what's behind your house?
SANDRA (TRANSLATION): This is the toilet and everything. It goes straight into the sewer here. Behind here. Geraldo, I know you haven't got a job and we don't either. That's how it is for many Brazilians.
JON ALPERT: Did you ever have a life like that? Was there ever a time in your life when you were poor and you didn't have any food, and you didn't know anybody who had a job?
GERALDO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): I lived in the streets for two years. I didn't even have the basic necessities and I also lived in the slums. It makes you feel very sad to see people living in such conditions. Living in misery with nothing to eat. It's very sad.
JON ALPERT: And now you're making me sad, Geraldo, just, just, just watching you.
GERALDO: Time goes by. The years go by. And nothing ever changes. Of course we all are for bringing down inflation. Inflation had to be controlled but not at the price of poverty and hunger and unemployment.
JON ALPERT: What is the latest information that you got from Ford about whether or not you are going to get your job back?
GERALDO: I've been told that there's a list of seventy people being considered for rehiring. And my name is on that list according to the committee at the Factory.
JON ALPERT: One of the things you asked me to do was to go visit the World Bank and to talk with them and find out how they see their policies affecting Brazil and how they look at the Brazilian economy. So I have a tape that I made when I visited the World Bank, I'd like to play if for you.
GOBIND NANKANI (World Bank): Hello Geraldo, my name is Gobind Nankani and I work with the World Bank. Geraldo, you're working in the industry, which happens to be the industry that grows extremely fast when the economy is doing very well. But is also one of the industries that drops the fastest when the economy slows down.
Brazil today receives twenty billion dollars of direct foreign investment a year. Fourth in the world, second in the developing world to China. This is a mark of confidence by international investors, not just moving funds in and out of the country but really to invest in plant, in equipment and machinery employing Brazilian to produce in Brazil. So, my plea to you is, as difficult as it is, look at the bigger picture, look at what Brazil is trying to create, not just for your generation, but your children's generation. It's a hard time, but really there is lots and lots of light at the end of a not too long tunnel.
JON ALPERT: He said hold on, Geraldo, and everything is going to be OK.
GERALDO (TRANSLATION): I feel very small and helpless. It's as if my hands are tied.
JON ALPERT: We've been working on this programme now for almost three months and for three months we've been trying to get Ford to talk to us and they refuse. But they did send me this lovely fax. 'Ford recognises our employees are our strength and our most valued resource. To dismiss workers is an extreme measure and only done when there are no other options available. Due to the weakened economy and shrinking market in Brazil we were compelled to look at all cost cutting measures and to let some of our workers go to remain competitive. Ford is committed to our employees, customers and shareholders. We have operated in Brazil for eighty years of good and bad times and remain dedicated to that market.'
JON ALPERT: Geraldo, this is the best I could get from Ford. Have you got any word from them about your job?
GERALDO: I'm supposed to receive a telegram this week about returning to work at Ford. At least that's what I was told last week. Today forty three people went back to work.
JON ALPERT: I think we've learned these forces can affect anybody anywhere in the world. They can affect you and they can affect the people watching this TV programme. The one day things can start happening in a far away corner, and the dominoes can start falling and you could wind up joining Geraldo in the unemployment line.
So Geraldo the last part of this programme we are saving for you when you send us news whether you can get your job back. I wish you the bet of luck and we'll be holding our breath waiting for news of you getting your job back. OK?
CAPTION: 'Geraldo Da Souza has now got his job back. He was one of 4 per cent of the 2,800 workers laid off to be re-employed by Ford.'
END
PROTESTERS: Well, I went back to the rich man's house And I took back what he stole from me...
PROTESTER: We're fighting this corporate-greed based Race to the Bottom.
PROFESSOR THUROW: You're on the globe but you're not in the Global Economy...
PROFESSOR FUKUYAMA (ON ARCHIVE): Both the people in that situation haven't really tried to play the game seriously...
GERALDO DA SOUZA (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): My name is Geraldo. I work for six years in this Ford factory, here. At the end of last year, or to be more precise, on December 22nd, I was laid off. They sent a letter to my house. There was my Christmas present.
JON ALPERT: You ask me any questions that you want me to find out the answers to, then I'm gonna go out, basically do the research, and report back to you, OK?
GERALDO: This is my house. I've been paying rent for four years. Now I've had to start borrowing money. If I don't get my job back things will be very hard.
This is Mateus... Ivy... and my wife.
DAVINA (GERALDO'S WIFE): My name is Davina.
GERALDO: I'd really like to know why I lost my job. I wish I could get an answer because I still have no idea.
COMM: Globalisation is affecting millions all around the world. Geraldo Da Sousa was one of two thousand car workers laid off in São Paulo, Brazil, because of economic events elsewhere in the world.
To find out why Geraldo is out of work, we asked TV reporterJon Alpert to investigate and report back to Geraldo using all the tools of modern technology. JON ALPERT: I have to start out with a confession: I don't know a lot about the economy. So why, in the world, do they ask me to work on this programme? I've been fired from lots of jobs - I mean, more than you can even imagine! And I've won lots of prizes for investigative reporting - oh, how convenient, my awards are down here. So I'm gonna go work for Geraldo. I'm going to go to places that he can't go, I'm going to talk to people that he can't talk to, we are gong to stay in touch and together we are going to figure out what in the world happened to him.
What we have here today, we have an internet hook-up on which is a computer & webcam with Geraldo. What I'd like to report to you today is that I've had absolutely no success in get anybody from the Ford company to talk to me. I'm really sorry.
GERALDO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Tell him we're still fighting Ford over here. And I'm sure he's still doing his best over there.
JON ALPERT: So Geraldo, we are all saying goodbye to you and I'll be in communication with you in the next couple of days, we'll have another internet link like this and I'll try and tell you more of the information we've been able to discover.
MIGUEL JORGE Hello, my name is Miguel Jorge, Vice President of Volkswagen in Brazil.
JON ALPERT: Geraldo wants to know how international forces affect the automobile industry.
MIGUEL JORGE: When you have a crisis like in Russia, all the Volkswagen, Brazil's investment in Brazil, all the foreign money that was in Brazil, was very afraid of what could happen to Brazil. Then these money flew out from Brazil.
JON ALPERT: How does that affect somebody like Geraldo?
MIGUEL JORGE: Then, when this money went out, the Brazilian government put very high the interest rates. What happened? People could not buy the car. When people could not buy the car, the production was very small. When the production is small, people like Geraldo suffer because they don't have work.
JON ALPERT: Which part of the economy is making money right now? If you guys are having difficulties, Geraldo wants to know, 'Who's making the money?'
MIGUEL JORGE: Yeah, the banks are making the money.
JON ALPERT: The banks?
MIGUEL JORGE: The banks, yes. As in all - every place, all the time, the banks make money.
MIGUEL JORGE: We are doing cars. You can touch the car; you can drive the car. In the bank, what you can touch? What are they producing? But they are earning the money.
JON ALPERT: How did you save these workers' jobs?
MIGUEL JORGE: In Volkswagen we have a special programme. We did an agreement with the unions, we didn't fire any people, but we reduced the-the income from the labour force and we reduced the hour time. We are working only four days a week in three weeks. In the fourth week we work five days a week. We reduced fifteen percent of the salaries and we reduced fifteen percent of the labour.
JON ALPERT: So if Geraldo was working here he'd still have a job?
MIGUEL JORGE: He would still have a job.
(ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS): DIVINA: Any news from Ford about getting your job back?
GERALDO: The information I heard was that they'd had a meeting but nothing was resolved.
GERALDO: Bye Mateus. Give Dad a kiss. Bye, bye-bye.
JON ALPERT: Press the "video call" button. Doop! Enter the number. Doop! And I predict that in a few short seconds, we will be seeing Geraldo waiting to speak to us. And...!
Tudo bom? Everything OK?
GERALDO (FROM MONITOR): Tudo bom, tudo.
JON ALPERT: What we can do today, we can talk about the report that we've been working on. I can give you an update. I can even play for you some of the tapes that we shot some of the people you asked me to go out and talk to. Let's get your reaction.
All right, Geraldo, we are here in Sul America, this is one of the largest insurance companies in all of Latin America, we are going to talk to an economist here: Roberto da Costa.
ROBERTO DA COSTA: Geraldo. Brazil has to produce more to export. Let me explain this point that I think is very important. Brazil is a country that is a very small participant in the world trade. We participate in less than two percent in the world trade. Just for your, for your understanding, Mexico, which is half of the Brazilian size in terms of Gross National Product, export two times of Brazil. We are living the worst part of the adjustment period. Brazil is a country of transition.
You are paying a price for this transition period of Brazil. If I was in your position, first I would look for opportunities outside of the city of São Paulo, and secondly outside the state of São Paulo. And if you are not comfortable with that, please look to opportunities outside of Brazil.
JON ALPERT: All right, Geraldo, here we are in my capital, Washington DC. Here is the White House down there and if you pan around over here you can see the Washington Monument is under going repairs, sort of like the Brazilian economy. And if you want to learn about globalisation here in Washington, you have institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, that really exert a lot of power over what happens in Brazil.
SANDY MCKENZIE (International Monetary Fund - IMF): Geraldo, my name is Sandy Mckenzie and I'm chief of Atlantic Division of the Western Hemisphere Department in the International Monetary Fund. And this is the division that deals with Brazil. Brazil's government, and by that I mean all the governments combined, taken as a bunch, spend more than they take in.
JON ALPERT: So how does this affect Geraldo then, if he goes to work in Ford?
SANDY MCKENZIE: The countries in such a position are vulnerable, to some extent, to the whims of international investors. In the fall of 1997 the Asian economies that have been growing very, very rapidly, suddenly got themselves in terrible trouble and investors around the world start to pull their money out of the emerging markets. And Brazil is one of these emerging markets. In fact is the very largest in the whole world.
Now, what the government had to do at that point, to attract investors, was raise interest rates sky high. That meant loans to people that want to buy cars was much higher. The result was the automotive industry in Brazil really suffered a terrible decline in demand for its products. Unfortunately, about a year later, the Russian crises erupted in the world, and again there was a flight away from the emerging markets and a withdrawal of money.
JON ALPERT: So what actually happened on the other side of the world in Asia and in Russian had a direct link to Geraldo's situation?
SANDY MCKENZIE: It had a very direct link with Geraldo's situation. There's, there's, there is no question about it.
GERALDO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Press withdraw... now wait. Go ahead, Ivy. I have a negative balance of $160. Around the twentieth of the month when the money run out it gets pretty depressing. You just have to live from day to day.
JON ALPERT: In the past week there has been actually a precipitous decline in the value of your currency and it's causing problems for the government... but is there any news about this in the Brazilian papers?
GERALDO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): There is. And they are talking about the dollar. The government has to pay its bills in dollars. And in terms of interest payments alone they amount to over one billion dollars. All of the affects us in our daily lives because the government will then raise taxes and increase fuel prices to collect more money to sent to the IMF.
JON ALPERT: Geraldo, you have asked me to find people from other economic classes were doing - not only workers, not only poor people - who might affected by this economic situation. Specifically, you wanted to know if there were wealthy people that might be getting hurt by the troubles as well.
We found a gentleman that used to work in his factory, his name is Fábio Bruno.
FABIO BRUNO, former Brazilian factory owner (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Hello, Geraldo, I know you too were interviewed. I'm here as a boss but there's no difference between bosses and employees. So come into my house and let me tell you my story. I lost everything. All I have left is my house. And now I'm going to show you my factory. When I started out none of this existed. This was just a wooden shack.
FÁBIO'S DAUGHTER (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): I managed the sewing division. My father made the fabric and I supervised the fabrication of these shirts.
FABIO: This is an example of our fine fabric. I'm not advertising; there's no use anymore. It's just to show you that I didn't make bad quality clothes. I'm not that type of business man. The government says the industry didn't modernise. But how? If you wanted to buy a machine you had to pay an eighty percent import tax while in Taiwan they get a three year payback period, pay no taxes and receive financing. How do you expect us to survive? We'd have to be able to perform miracles!
FÁBIO'S DAUGHTER: Geraldo. Here I am starting all over. They are too - at seventy one years old, they are starting over. So let's hope that our country will recognise our value, both yours and ours. So keep going. Be strong!
PART TWO
COMM: Geraldo's search for the reasons why globalisation cost him his job sees him back on the streets. It's not the carnival - it's a protest march.
JON ALPERT: It's a big demonstration!
GERALDO: Hello Jon. Here we are. It took us fifteen hours to get here. We are demonstrating for our rights as Brazilian citizens. Our right to democracy, to employment, to healthcare and to housing. These are our rights and we don't have them here.
JON ALPERT: You wanted us to find out if there were people that were actually confident of the government, who were doing well because of the government's economic policies and we found a business man, Mario Garnero, who actually is quite excited about what is happening in the Brazilian economy and who has big, big plans.
MARIO GARNERO: If you'd like to go outside, we could go outside.
JON ALPERT: Actually, I'd like to enjoy this office because I've never seen an office like this before in my life, it's really spectacular! Geraldo wakes up one morning and he doesn't have a job, what forces, externally and internally, simply, made that situation come about?
MARIO GARNERO: Internally, mostly, I think that er when you fight inflation you have a sort of recession. We had a mild recession bringing down an inflation that was about two thousand percent a year, to four percent a year. JON ALPERT: Mr Garnero feels so confident that the Brazilian economy is rebounding, he took us on a tour of his latest investments. The biggest and most ambitious is the construction of the world's tallest building. It's down there in downtown São Paulo, not too far from your house, Geraldo. And this building's gonna be taller than the World Trade Centre, and Mr Garnero says he is going to build in the shape of a giant pyramid.
From high atop of the world, here, Mr Garnero likes his view of the future and he feels pretty confident.
MARIO GARNERO: We will be creating the, with these new projects, around ten thousand direct jobs and I hope to have exactly Geraldo coming in one of them.
JON ALPERT: He said he is going to be creating ten thousand new jobs and that he has a job for you.
GERALDO: I am happy to hear that. I hope it's true and he's not just another one of our country's lying entrepreneurs. If he creates ten thousand new jobs I'd be very glad of course to be one of the people to be hired.
JON ALPERT: Well actually, what we've discovered in one of our interviews is that the wealth distribution in Brazil is the most inequitable of any country in the world: the difference between what the rich people earn and what the poor people earn.
We could actually show you some scenes from a very poor community five miles from your house.
JOSÉ DA SILVA ROLIM (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): Hello Geraldo. My name is José da Silva Rolim. I'm president of the neighbourhood union in Paraisopolis. We have sixty thousand inhabitants in our community. Devaluation of our money also affects us here. We have unemployment; we have lost our buying powers. Let's meet some of the community members who have the same problems as most other Brazilians.
JON ALPERT: How many people are living here?
WOMAN WITH BABY (TRANSLATION): Eight people live here. Just in this room. Eight people.
JOSE DA SILVA (TRANSLATION): Here, eight people. In around twenty square metres.
JON ALPERT: Hi. How are you? What's your name?
NADIA (TRANSLATION): Nadia.
JON ALPERT: So, how many people living in your house, here?
NADIA (TRANSLATION): Four of us - no, five of us: three children; me and my husband.
JON ALPERT: Does your husband work?
NADIA: No.
JON ALPERT: Could you please show me how much food you have left in the house right now? Beans? That's it?
NADIA: That's it.
JON ALPERT: So things aren't getting any better for you?
NADIA: No.
JON ALPERT: What's your name? Sandra? Can you show me what's behind your house?
SANDRA (TRANSLATION): This is the toilet and everything. It goes straight into the sewer here. Behind here. Geraldo, I know you haven't got a job and we don't either. That's how it is for many Brazilians.
JON ALPERT: Did you ever have a life like that? Was there ever a time in your life when you were poor and you didn't have any food, and you didn't know anybody who had a job?
GERALDO (ENGLISH TRANSLATION): I lived in the streets for two years. I didn't even have the basic necessities and I also lived in the slums. It makes you feel very sad to see people living in such conditions. Living in misery with nothing to eat. It's very sad.
JON ALPERT: And now you're making me sad, Geraldo, just, just, just watching you.
GERALDO: Time goes by. The years go by. And nothing ever changes. Of course we all are for bringing down inflation. Inflation had to be controlled but not at the price of poverty and hunger and unemployment.
JON ALPERT: What is the latest information that you got from Ford about whether or not you are going to get your job back?
GERALDO: I've been told that there's a list of seventy people being considered for rehiring. And my name is on that list according to the committee at the Factory.
JON ALPERT: One of the things you asked me to do was to go visit the World Bank and to talk with them and find out how they see their policies affecting Brazil and how they look at the Brazilian economy. So I have a tape that I made when I visited the World Bank, I'd like to play if for you.
GOBIND NANKANI (World Bank): Hello Geraldo, my name is Gobind Nankani and I work with the World Bank. Geraldo, you're working in the industry, which happens to be the industry that grows extremely fast when the economy is doing very well. But is also one of the industries that drops the fastest when the economy slows down.
Brazil today receives twenty billion dollars of direct foreign investment a year. Fourth in the world, second in the developing world to China. This is a mark of confidence by international investors, not just moving funds in and out of the country but really to invest in plant, in equipment and machinery employing Brazilian to produce in Brazil. So, my plea to you is, as difficult as it is, look at the bigger picture, look at what Brazil is trying to create, not just for your generation, but your children's generation. It's a hard time, but really there is lots and lots of light at the end of a not too long tunnel.
JON ALPERT: He said hold on, Geraldo, and everything is going to be OK.
GERALDO (TRANSLATION): I feel very small and helpless. It's as if my hands are tied.
JON ALPERT: We've been working on this programme now for almost three months and for three months we've been trying to get Ford to talk to us and they refuse. But they did send me this lovely fax. 'Ford recognises our employees are our strength and our most valued resource. To dismiss workers is an extreme measure and only done when there are no other options available. Due to the weakened economy and shrinking market in Brazil we were compelled to look at all cost cutting measures and to let some of our workers go to remain competitive. Ford is committed to our employees, customers and shareholders. We have operated in Brazil for eighty years of good and bad times and remain dedicated to that market.'
JON ALPERT: Geraldo, this is the best I could get from Ford. Have you got any word from them about your job?
GERALDO: I'm supposed to receive a telegram this week about returning to work at Ford. At least that's what I was told last week. Today forty three people went back to work.
JON ALPERT: I think we've learned these forces can affect anybody anywhere in the world. They can affect you and they can affect the people watching this TV programme. The one day things can start happening in a far away corner, and the dominoes can start falling and you could wind up joining Geraldo in the unemployment line.
So Geraldo the last part of this programme we are saving for you when you send us news whether you can get your job back. I wish you the bet of luck and we'll be holding our breath waiting for news of you getting your job back. OK?
CAPTION: 'Geraldo Da Souza has now got his job back. He was one of 4 per cent of the 2,800 workers laid off to be re-employed by Ford.'
END