The post below does not intent to scare potential tourists or defame my country. I'm not pointing fingers, although we know that authorities don't work that hard to clean the image of the State. Brazil - as almost all "Third World" country - was raped and robbed by the countries that came here of its gold and natural resources. It is until now. Unfortunately we have to take off our shorts for some Nations, and people like me and you are too powerless to change anything. There are good people trying to change this sad picture, but it is not enough.
Brazil is like a cheap, but gorgeous whore, everybody wants to fuck, but no one wants to pay the price.
Let it be, alligator, the lagoon will drain and our time will come. We are still the country of the future. Brazilians and Chinese will rule the world!
Brazil is 500 years old. Yes, it was exploited by Portugal, but come one, it has been an independent country for a long long time. If we suck today, we mostly have ourselves to blame. There are quite a few examples of countries that were very poor just a few decades ago and now are doing fine (Korea, Chile, Singapore...) We used to say that we are the country of the future. After 30 years of stagnation, I guess it is getting harder to believe in that.
ReplyDeleteI will have to disagree with you at some points... how "old" are Singapore and Korea? Older than Brazil, I would say. So we do have some hope there. Plus, the Idependence came in 1722 and we were never that independent. Dictorship in Brazil came because of the US, because they didn't want us to negotiate with China, the communist. So we were always on someone's hands.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, how many poor coutries of the size of Brazil are now rich? If we consider the size of our South (Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul) and its richness, we can say that we have a "country" within our country richer than Chile and other developed countries. If you add SP...
But I do agree that it won't get better if WE don't do something. But we don't. How many people do you know that voted for Alckimin for president not because he was good, but because Lula was bad?! I know loads! And educated people. So, yeah, there's not much hope if we (everybody - rich, poor, politicians, police, students, etc.) don't change our mentality.
And "country of the future" was ironic. hehehe We will always be the country of the future, because the future never arrives!
True, Singapore, Korea, China... all those countries are much older. My point is a few decades ago, they were in much worse shape than Brazil, so being older did not give them any advantage at that time, so why should we assume that it does now? Talking about big young countries, how about Australia? Being big and young doesn't seem to be a problem for them. Look around and you will find successfull countries in all formats, flavors and colors.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Brazil, I don't think the South or even Sao Paulo can be considered a successfull "small country". Do you think that living conditions in Sao Paulo are good? Are they comparable to living conditions in a developed country? It is not about the size of the economy, but how people live. Brazil's economy is much larger than Chile's, Sweden's, Norway's and Holland, to name a few...but this is just because we have a lot of people. In fact, China's economy is already bigger than Brazil's, but life there is still worse (again a size effect).
In conclusion, as you know we have tons of problems...I just don't feel that being big or young has anything to do with it. Hopefully, things will get better. Too bad we are not in the right track. Good luck for us all.
I know what you mean and agree. Brazil's problem don't come from just ONE source. But I do believe that historical reasons helped us to become what we are. I wouldn't be naive to condense all causes and origins and reasons of the problems of the country in a post of two paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it doesn't have much to do with the topic, but living in London makes me think that research can be a tricky way to measure quality of life. For what I've seen so far, I tend to think that middle class here doesn't live in much better conditions than in Brazil.