Fulfilling potential in Brazil

Marcos Arruda of PACS [CAFOD]

Marcos Arruda of PACS believes the traditional concept of development, as simply the increase in production and consumption, has to be challenged

“We have a huge struggle on our hands in building another world,” says Marcos Arruda who works for PACS, a centre for socio-economic research engaged with church groups and other community organisations in Brazil.

“Our goal is the unity of humanity and the fulfilling of people's potential, yet we live in a divided world. The systems that underpin our lives are divisive, putting people against each other.”

Reinterpreting development

Marcos Arruda believes that the traditional concept of development, which is understood as simply the increase in production and consumption, has to be challenged.

“To us at PACS, the raw material of development is the mental and spiritual potential within individuals, peoples and nations.

“Development consists of nurturing this potential and helping it gradually to come to fruition. Economic development should only ever be a means to human development, not an end in itself.”

“If you look at the word 'economy', you can see it initially meant the management and care of a household. We live in a global household, so our economy should really be about developing and caring for all the people of the household.”

“We need to recover those original values of reciprocity, sharing and co-operation and put them at the heart of our global economy.”

Understanding the processes

According to Marcos, this means that we need to go beyond the idea of removing people from poverty and looking at the processes of impoverishment itself.

Marcos gave the current example of a Zero Hunger programme run by the Brazilian government. This has succeeded in providing food for many people, yet Marcos says there is evidence the government's economic policies are creating yet more impoverished people.

“There is no point helping five people with food with one hand if, on the other hand, your policies are creating another 15 who need food.”

Marcos says that in Brazil and many other countries, the factors that contribute to impoverishment include the debt burden, the economic policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, unjust trade rules under the World Trade Organisation, a reliance on foreign investment and a culture of over-consumption.

Hope for another world

Despite the enormous challenges in turning the global economy around, Marcos Arruda remains hopeful: “Everywhere people are moved with thirst for another world.”

“I believe that we have two great allies in this belief. Firstly there is the yearning from people’s hearts, a realisation that having is not the same as being happy.”

“The second is that our current systems are creating a crisis that will have to bring about change. We have an environmental crisis, we have an extremely unstable financial system where money no longer correlates to real wealth, and we have a social crisis as increasing numbers of people are resisting the divisions created by our current economic systems.”

Marcos believes CAFOD supporters have a crucial role to play in building another world.

“We can start by being moved by what we see, when we see the faces of children in hunger. Compassion is a good start, but the second step is to ask the question: Are we happy with the world, which we are told is the only possible world?

"Is it not time to think of the world in terms of uniting and respecting people and their right to fulfill their potential?”

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