<nettime> Brazil Port Trades Prostitution for Computation

["h.d.mabuse" <mabuse@manguebit.org.br>]

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/technology/tech-brazil-port-dc.html

December 19, 2000
Brazil Port Trades Prostitution for Computation
By REUTERS
Filed at 12:02 p.m. ET

RECIFE, Brazil (Reuters) - At the tender age of 14, Carlos Peixoto started
rowing prostitutes out to ships docked in the port of Recife, earning enough
money to buy two homes.

These days few ships call at old Recife and most of the prostitutes have
migrated to busier moorings. Peixoto, now 27 and worried about his future, has
enrolled in a free computer course to prepare for the exam for a seafarer's
license.  Like Peixoto, the 465-year-old port city needs to be recycled and
technology could pave the way to a new life. Government officials have teamed
up with local technology leaders to lay the foundations for the ``Digital
Port'' where a homegrown information technology industry may flourish.

A South American Silicon Valley in the works? More like a Software Delta
situated on the lush, tropical coast of northeastern Brazil.  ``A chip factory
costs $2 billion and we cannot afford that, but we do have lots of garages with
lots of kids writing software,'' said Silvio Meira, director of the Recife
Center of Advanced Studies and Systems (CESAR), whose garage is its brightly
colored laboratory.  Created seven years ago at the Federal University of
Pernambuco to link the academic field with the technology market, CESAR today
is considered a world-class innovator, creating software solutions for the
likes of the United Nations and converting meek students into bold
entrepreneurs.

Meira, at 45, looks like one of the kids in his surfer attire. Now he and other
fortysomethings -- intellectuals, artists and former hippies who met while
rallying against the military dictatorship in the 1970s -- think they can open
the doors on the Digital Port by early 2002.  ``It may not work, but no part of
it is original. There are pieces of Bangalore, Israel, Ireland, Buenos Aires,
Bilbao, Canary Wharf...'' Meira said, enumerating successful technology
clusters and urban renewal projects around the globe.

MANGROVE BEAT OR BYTE?

If the Digital Port takes off, it will not be the first time Recife achieves
world-class status. Back in 1640, it boasted the highest per capita income in
the Western world as a major seaport and sugar exporting center under Dutch
occupation.  The city housed the first Jewish synagogue in the Americas and a
slew of Roman Catholic monasteries dedicated to higher learning. It was the
springboard for such illustrious Brazilians as anti-slavery crusader Castro
Alves and newspaper magnate Assis Chateaubriand.  In more modern times, Recife
has drawn musical cognoscenti around the world with its original take on
regional music known as ``Mangue Beat'' or the Mangrove Beat, spearheaded by
the late Chico Science and by Fred Zero Quatro.

But the city on the mangroves -- ``the Brazilian Venice'' -- has been
struggling since the sugar industry ran into competition from Sao Paulo state
30 years ago and a massive deep water port opened down the coast.

``The reconversion of our economy is our greatest challenge,'' said Claudio
Marinho, Pernambuco state Secretary of Science and Technology and a main mover
in the Digital Port with Meira.

Conditions are ripe for new ventures in Brazil as the economy recovers from its
crushing 1999 currency devaluation to grow at a healthy rate of around 4
percent annually. And even before serious work gets under way for the Digital
Port, Recife is already reverberating with the clanging and sawing of
construction and clinking of glasses in the new outdoor cafes.

``This island surrounded by sea and river is the cradle of the city's growth,''
said Leonardo Guimaraes, an architect working on the project.  ``It is from
here that we became known in the world so it makes sense to put our Digital
Port here.''

Right next to where Peixoto ties up his boat, two warehouses that used to hold
sugar and molasses will house CESAR and the state-backed technology incubator
Itep, Brazil's second largest. Dilapidated but majestic colonial buildings are
under renovation to host a society of software companies. The Port Command will
be home to the university information technology facilities.

Private capital -- whether established corporations or Bill Gates wannabes --
is expected to drop anchor around the public flotilla. Even small business is
preparing for the computer revolution on streets that once were famous for
their brothels.  Vitor Teixeira, recently arrived from Portugal, has opened
Giardino Cyber-bar where clients can surf the Net while sipping a cold draft
beer.  ``Up to now I've only been able to survive with tourists, but Brazilians
take well to novelties.''

TRICKLE DOWN TO THE SHANTYTOWN

Recife is a city of contrasts where shantytowns straddling raw sewage rub up
against pretty seaside neighborhoods and crumbling, chaotic schools compete for
space with sophisticated shopping centers.

Pouring public money into a technology cluster where basic sanitation and
schooling are lacking may seem superfluous to some, but government officials
say they cannot wait for the city's social problems to be solved first.

``If you wait, then you are going to have dual illiteracy, traditional and
digital,'' Marinho said. He and Meira hold firm to the belief that the
technological know-how of the Digital Port will trickle down to the shantytowns
and reduce the social divide that cuts across the city of 1.4 million.

The government has earmarked $17 million for the project, of which $2.5 million
will go to a technology training fund.  Meira dreams of a programming school
that can churn out 100 graduates a month, who can go on to earn $500 a month or
five times Brazil's minimum wage of $100.

Port proponents also aim to reverse the local brain drain. Twelve CESAR alumnae
work at Microsoft headquarters and others have gone to top tech slots at Cisco,
AT&T and France Telecom.

The relaxed atmosphere of northeastern Brazil, postcard perfect palm-lined
beaches, year-round warm weather, a thriving cultural life and a renowned
street Carnival may even entice a few foreigners.

``People are the essential asset,'' said Meira. ``Money is not the problem
anymore, that is already coming.''


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