To: elmatador who wrote (19735 ) 6/21/2007 12:46:14 PM From: dan6 Respond to Brazil's Population Abatement Soaps may be the Source Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas and credit programmes introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, albeit indirect, role in lowering ie birth rate. Brazil is one of the world's biggest producers of soap operas, or noveis, which first became popular in the late 1960s. Globo, Brazil's most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three other all show at least one hour a night. Soaps are based on wealthy characters iring the high life in big cities. "Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they portray middle and upper class values... not many children, different attitudes towards sex, women working," says Martine. "They sent this image to all parts of Brazil. It was an indirect effect. It made people conscious of other patterns of behaviour and other values, which were put into a very attractive package." The credit programmes, in which people could buy small items, such as shoes, in regular instalments, were also introduced in the 1970s to try to encourage poorer segments of the population to become consumers. "This led to an enormous change in consumption patterns and consumption was incompatible with unlimited procreation," says Martine, Martine, who has studied Brazilian population growth for 20 years, expects the country's population, currently around 1 So million, to stabilise in the first quarter of the next century at around 250 million.nsplus.com
