e illiterate – some two and a half times the number of whites who cannot read or write. Only 4 per cent of Afro-Brazilians between the ages of 18 and 24 are in universities, compared to 12 per cent of whites. Three-quarters of all Afro-Brazilians have not completed secondary school, and 40 per cent of blacks have not completed elementary school. In the UNDP's Human Development Index (HDI), Brazil ranks 69th. This is roughly the average of two Brazils divided by race: the HDI of a hypothetical Afro-Brazilian nation would come 101st, while an all-white nation would rank 46th. Social and economic progress in Brazil depends on the advancement of the country's large black population.
In 2007 Afro-Brazilians continued to earn less than 50 percent of the national average income. They also suffered from the highest homicide, poverty and illiteracy rates in a country, with one of the highest homicide rates in the world and the world's highest death rate by firearms.
Seriously under-represented in professional positions and in the middle and upper classes, Afro-Brazilians continued to be over-represented in prisons. In 2007 Afro-Brazilians made up more than 56 per cent of the prison population.The statistics for indigenous communities are just as troubling. The infant mortality rate in indigenous communities is almost three times the national average. A quarter of indigenous children do not have access to schools and 15 per cent of children between the ages of 10 and 15 are illiterate. Three-quarters of indigenous children live below the poverty line. The National Foundation of the Indigenous (FUNAI) reports that Brazil's indigenous people continue to face disease and poor health care, loss of native culture and recurring incursions, especially in the rainforest.
Likewise, regarding health and access to health care, indigenous communities find themselves collectively in an increasingly precarious situation. A recent study of the Javari Valley in the Brazilian Amazon – which is said to be the second largest indigenous territory in Brazil – warned that rates of malaria and hepatitis are spiralling out of control, with uncontacted tribes in the area being in grave danger. In 2006 it was estimated that 90 per cent of indigenous peoples in the area suffered from malaria. A further study by Survival International in 2007, of 306 indigenous people, revealed that 56 per cent were carrying the hepatitis B virus, 85 per cent had contact with hepatitis A and 25 per cent were carrying hepatitis C.
Local indigenous organizations in the area accuse the government of shirking its responsibilities under Article 231 of the Federal Constitution, which holds the state responsible for protecting the customs, languages and traditionally occupied territories of the indigenous population. Indigenous groups also hold the Brazilian authorities responsible for the provision of health care to communities and believe that they have taken insufficient action to combat the crisis.
In 2007 more than half of indigenous communities continued to live in poverty in areas where traditional ways of life are increasingly threatened by land development, agricultural expansion and mining.
However, there was also continued evidence in 2007 of eroding government concern over indigenous land rights especially since – according to long-time Brazilian indigenous rights advocate Sydney Possuelo – the head of FUNAI is reported to have claimed that indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon have too much land.
This largely matches the attitude of Brazil's powerful elite, who seek even more Amazon deforestation for cattle and large-scale agriculture. Ranchers, land-grabbers, miners and loggers have already destroyed nearly one-fifth of the Brazilian rainforest. More than 17 per cent of the original tree cover has already been eliminated and what remains is disappearing fast.
Violent land wars between indigenous groups, ranchers, companies and farmers, increased in 2007, and a 10-year high was reached in the rate of murders of indigenous people. Killings were mostly related to lan