Disposable People Chapter Summary

In the book Disposable People the chapter on Brazil was very eye opening. When People hear Brazil they think of its rich cities such as Rio, and Sao Paulo, and the Amazon. What people don’t realize about how poor the country is. In southern Brazil slavery is still around. In the State of Mato Grosso do Sul there is still slavery. People in that part of the region of the country are very poor, they are even more poor then the favelas in Rio. Gato’s are the slaveholders, they bribe the people of that region with food, shelter and money. What the people don’t realize is how poor they really are. Slavery has been in Brazil since the Portuguese arrived in the 1500’s. In the reading about Brazil, there is a portuguese sailor named Pedro Álvares Cabral ( Brazil 123). He discovered how rich the country of Brazil was. Alvares discovered the rich of the sugarcane and sold it on the European market. After that he enslaved the aboriginals to work for him.

I agree with Brazil being a very rich country in South America. Brazil is the largest country in South America. From the exports
In Brazil you notice how poor the country is. Even in the big cities such as Rio. They hire slaves to build the buildings and pay them very little. For example, the U.S gets cars from Brazil because it's cheaper to make in the big cities. They also outsource jobs because they can use slave labor to make the cars and clothes that American’s wear. The world needs to realize that there still is slavery going on around the world. American’s don’t care where there shirt is made or what new phone they’re going to buy. For example, the iPhone is made in China. The phone itself is really cheap to make but just because there is the Apple logo on it people are going to spend hundreds of dollars on it. That's the same with Brazil. Clothes that are made in Brazil are very cheap to make but because the nike logo is slapped on the shirt it goes up in