Dear friend,
In March I sent you an enthusiastic note about my settling down in the
Island of Santa Catarina, in the south of Brazil.
Now, "Progress by Bulldozer" is coming our way the way Science for the
People wrote about it in the 70's (remember the "superports" and the
Transamazonic Highway?).
The Island has some 300.000 inhabitants today, most in the capital city of
Florianopolis, and is sung by the media and the tourist agencies as an
ecological paradise, a place for "quality of life". No place, that is no
beach (they say there are 42 of them in the island) is further than 30
miles from the capital's downtown.

But the technocrats of the municipality worked out a "Plan for development"
of the Southern part of the Island (Where I live with 15.000 others
dispersed on some 50 square miles) into a "New City" of 450.000, with
superhighways criscrossing the region, each 120 feet wide......   There
would be a "Via Parque", 10 miles long, over dunes and lagoons, along the
sea, one mile below my house, 150 feet wide! Another is just above my
house, at the foot of the hill/mountain and will pass over the houses and
barn of the family from which I get my milk.  To teach us speeding we'll
have an "International Racetrack" and a Golf Course to replace a swamp
today filled with lotus flowers (I am not joking!).
The econmomic interests are road builders  (remember the "Transamazonic
Highway?). The governor of the state is the husband of the mayor of the
capital; they own a bus company and have started building closed
condominiums around here......

This "Plan" will become law voted by the municipal assembly this coming month.
We want to stop that.
So, as a price for my open invitation to come visit us in our paradise,
while it lasts, please sent a quick FAX (or a true letter) to

Presidente da Câmara Municipal de Florianópolis
Câmara Municipal de Florianópolis
Praça XV de Novembro, 214
CEP - 88010 - 400 Florianópolis - SC,   Brazil

FAX  number :  55 48  222 5599

By regulation the president of the chamber MUST read all letters (so title your
fax:  "Carta ao Presidente da Câmara") from the podium of the Assembly.
You may write about:
urging to refuse the "Plano Diretor do Campeche e Planicie Entremares"
urging to not destroy what makes Florianopolis famous in the whole world.....
Your joining our battle in this modest quick way may be quite useful:
through a letter writing campaign, my friends won the rejection of a
measure, 3 years ago, which would have allowed 18 story buildings in the
city.

Science and the Island of Santa Catarina for the People!
THANKS,    maurice

PS: I attach a text in Portuguese which may help......
     You may send this message to other interested friends if you wish.