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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, August 15, 1980
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people and another 5 million in the suburban areas. That makes Sao Paulo
the largest city in South America and second in population to Mexico City
in the Western Hemisphere. Brazil's census later this year will undoubt
edly uncover even more people in this industrial megalopolis of 43,000
manufacturing enterprises (and it is still the heart of the coffee-growing
region).
Brazil's mushrooming population now stands unofficially at 123 million,
placing it sixth in the world (after China, India, U.S.S.R., U.S.A., and
Indonesia). Brazil's land mass--larger than the original 48 U.S. states-
makes it the fifth largest country in the world.
Traffic congestion in Sao Paulo (Portuguese for Saint Paul) is incredibly
heavy, though it does flow. Nearly all the cabs are VW "bugs" (with the
right front seat removed to facilitate passenger ingress). Because of
all of the Brazilian-made VW's of all types, traffic is not only heavy but
noisy. And the sights of Sao Paulo equal the sounds. No matter where one
stands in this city of many hills, the view of the horizon is always the
same--an unbroken panorama of pastel-colored concrete; an endless sweep
of 10-lS-story buildings, commercial and residential.
Sao Paulo has a hurried tempo about it, unlike Rio de Janeiro, where the
pace is more relaxed, no doubt due to Rio's incalculably beautiful scenery
(site of some of the world's greatest beaches). Yet the hustle and bustle
of Sao Paulo masks, for the casual visitor, the extremely precarious state
of Brazil's economy.
Boom Plays Out
The years 1968-74 were Brazil's boom years--until OPEC lowered another kind
of boom--sharply accelerated oil prices. As a result, Brazil is now
saddled with a $52 billion dollar foreign debt, with little hope of ever
paying it off, only "rolling it over." U.S. banks are up to the lower
eyelids in financing Brazil's debt--over $13 billion dollars worth of it
(Citibank alone is out $3 billion, a sum equal to its entire stockholders'
equity. Chase Manhattan is similarly exposed).
The major problem, of course, is oil, the one resource the giant country
seriously lacks. It presently imports about 84% of its requirements,
most of it from Iraq. Yet, unlike the United States, Brazil is actively
doing what it can to increase its own production, diversify its foreign
sources of supply, enforce conservation and--most importantly of all--to
substitute homegrown, renewable plant-based fuels for fossil fuels.
In Brasilia, the 20-year-old inland capital of Brazil, we had the oppor
tunity to speak with Mr. Cesar Cals, the Minister of Mines and Energy,
perhaps the most important cabinet post after the Minister of Finance.
In a fast-paced 45-minute session, the energetic Senor Cals outlined for
us, without notes at hand, the complexities of Brazil's energy dilemma
and how his government is dealing with it. First of all, there is an
ambitious hydroelectric program underway, including the construction of
the world's largest power dam at Itaipu on the Parana River (jointly
constructed with Paraguay). Nuclear power production is being pushed
hard, without regard to reservations from Washington concerning plutonium