Brazzil

Although I am not sympathetic with any leftist party I have been impressed with the work and honesty that President Lula is conducting his government. I start to believe that Brazil will actually grow, at least for while. A country with the size of Brazil cannot be truly developed in a very short time, considering that a good leader had taken over the government, even with a lot of help from every individual in Brazil. Specially in a country where there many people prematurely retired, by one reason or another. Lula inherited a overburden social security system from his predecessors. A poor country cannot afford to have young people (as early as 40 years) retired! Very unrealistic attitude of our country. However, I would challenge any president to change this calamitous situation of Brazil, not without paying a enormous political price, after damaged has been done by unscrupulous former members of the government (senate and presidency).

The reality is that there is no magic solution or overnight miracle. Moreover, it is necessary that the whole population develops a better conscience of a society and start participating directly in the development of the country. In Brazil the people, including most of the intellectuals, believe that the government is the only vector of development; that is a distorted concept. Without a people with a right notion of society there is no great government and in spite of that, Lula is doing better than I expected.

Obviously, Lula is not perfect and lacks even a high level of education but so what? How many well educated people in Brazil have really shown understanding of the basic needs of the people and act upon? So far, none. I recognize that Brazil has enormous needs in education and much better trained high tech professionals, such as engineers, scientists, technicians and even politicians, administrators and lawyers who understand high technology. But the education of the Brazilian population in general cannot be done in a very short time or by imposition from the top. This has to be done democratically through motivation and support of the talented individuals during many years to come.

Lula reflects the reality of Brazil of the present, an economy based in low tech and agriculture, with some exceptions here and there and we need to understand that. The Brazilian economy is walking in the direction it has to go at the present and then, eventually, shift to high tech economy, producing advanced technology able to compete with Japan, China, Europe and United States. And, finally, the majority of Brazilians need to walk into 21st century, they are living in the 19th century, noticeable when someone travels in Brazil even in big cities such as Sao Paulo, Rio and Belo Horizonte.

The poster states that "Lula reflects the reality of Brasil", this is very well said and accurate. I to am surprised by Lula's performance, I expected disaster, still his education, and lack of administrative skills are harming Brasil. The political process is a mess, too many parties, too much dirty money. President Lula is in full re-election mode, and the elections are two years away! Still there is reason to be optimistic, there are small improvements being made in the process and the country, it will take many years of strong leadership combines with gradual changes, but perhaps Brasil is on the right path.

>"an economy based in low tech and agriculture"
Get real, man!
Agribusiness is far from being a low-tech business in most of the developed world and in several developing countries (Brazil included). Have you never heard of genetic engineering, precision agriculture or biotechnology?
The records in productivity recently achieved by Brazilian agriculture are a result of years of diligent investment in research and development.
Just to give an example, the central areas of Brazil (savannas) were thought for years to be inappropriate for the cultivation of soybeans. Brazilian researchers (does Embrapa ring a bell?) modified the kind of soybeans available in Brazil as to make it resistant to aluminum toxicity (highly present in our savanna’s soil) and now the central area of Brazil produces 40% of our soybeans.
Hard work, lots of research and development and good management turned our agribusiness into what it is now: a modern, high-tech and competitive industry. That in spite of mad opposition by terrorists from the landless movement (Sem Terra) and other crazy people like our dearest Carlos Chagas (who, by the way, belongs into a museum).
Anderson C. A. Nascimento

Poster is right, this statement alone discredits the entire article. Brazilan farming techniques are envyed through out world, so are our regional jets, and software games and ERP's. What moron.

I am an engineer and scientist and I work for bioinformatics company here in the US. I am a proud Brazilian and I am have hopes for my country despite of everything. However, the Brazilian biotechnology is not enough for us to be called fundamentally a high tech society. How many to notch products in general are really developed in Brazil and then market throughout the world? Of course, I am comparing Brazil to nations such as Japan and others.

Although I agree with Anderson C. A. Nascimento that we are doing impressive work in the Biosciences and agriculture but we need more investments and to broad our R&D. We have many smart scientists and engineers outside of Brazil working in foreign institutes and universities because they lack the real research environment in Brazil. One of my friends -Brazilian- is a top neuroscientist who had to leave Brazil (USA) to work on his specialty. This is what I am talking about.

We need to have better research institutes (with better support) and wide spread high tech industry before we can call ourselves High Tech society.

Now, let's us to get real here and face the facts instead hiding behind moronic nationalism manifested by the poster of "No s**t". The lack of respect is a sure sign of personality weakness and mediocricity.

First Poster

The first poster has it mostly correct - many people think that "the welfare state" is going to pull Brazil into the 21st century - however, time and again the welfare state has not. Although I believe Lula has done a great job of setting and managing and meeting expectations fiscally...he now needs to carry this over to social programs that work - NOT social security. It is obvious that the SS system is inadequate and pays a vast amount out to people who should not be on SS (to young) or who receive way to much. This is due to the terrible history of BR´s elites stealing from the poor (high taxes) and giving to the rich (legistlators, judges, etc). Lula has stopped the bleeding, now he must focus on education and investment in areas other than agriculture to carry them forward.

Agriculture, with India and China´s vast need, will become more important in the 21st century, however, investments in Pharmaceuticals and Biotech should be #1 because of the growing markets in all the major industrial nations around the world. Embraer is a great example of were gov´t support (investment in education, technology, initial support $...and then opening it up to competition) can help raise BR up to a different level - now is the time to do this in other business areas.

Socialism is a failed ideology that leads to failed nations. Lets hope Brazil discovers Conservatism, self-reliance and rugged individualism!

I am an American who markets American products to the Brazilian scientific community. I can say, from first hand experience that the Brazilan scientific researchers have made steady progress in the last 10 years. Most large pharma businesses have built production only facilites to sell their products here and utilize a fairly talented, low paid technican employee base. But the research being done here in biofood, biofuel, organic chemistry, as well as the life sciences is really exciting (in particular stem cell research). The scientific community consistantly points at China and India, and while India creates the world's best chemists, the projects being worked on are "more of the same". Brazil on the other hand is looking at its wide variety of natural resources, including plants, insects, and extracts and doing exciting new studies, some that during the inital phases of trials are already showing promising results. I personaly believe that Brazil will have break throughs in new drugs, cosmetic compounds and organic chemicals in the next 10 years or so, but the Brazilian government is inexpereinced on how to protect patents, and make sure these break throughs create Blockbusters for Brazilian companies, the most likely result will be that the patents are sold to foreign companies, or foreign joint ventures will be formed, this is not the best scenerio for Brazilian citizens. Brazil currently has the ability to take a project through Pilot and Kilo only. The best would be for the government to invest heavily in domestic pharma, and charge the high prices that the foreign companies get, while offering the same drugs at a low price in Brazil, is a sense...get some pay back. Selling Brazilian patents to multi-nationals will only help the rich get richer.

brazi's problem is the white/criollo oligarchy, who stole the land of the indigenous peoples, caboclos, black and mulatto and pardo peoples and have stolen all of the lands in huge large farms or latifundias.

Brazil needs to carry out radical land reform like in zimbabwe or nicaragua or mexico and also it needs to have a strong affirmative action, so that the blanco, do not continue to oppress all people of colors and steal the land of the indigenous peoples.

only through radical land reform, and greater participation of non-white pardo people, will brazil be a great place.

but the blancos or white people are too racist to give up their privileges, Thus a strong president of color is needed to show that land reform and affirmative action needs to be made the law of the land!!!!

brazil is the most racist country in this whole planet!

I agree with the poster, and have said so on many occasions, Brasil is a dead end for people of color, no matter what propoganda we spew to the rest of the world, although the posters arguments in general are very shallow. Once again, the culture of looking for one person (a strong President of color) to solve problems is the easy answer for the masses. We need many strong leaders of all colors to change Brasil, something that is very disappointing, as we are lacking in leaders of any color at all. Change is happening, yet it will be gradual, our problems are large and will only be solves with small incremental improvement over time. I wish I would be alive to see a better Brasil, but now I have to pray my children will.

I'm not sure what language this article was translated into, but it sure isn't English.

In Portuguese the word white is "branco" not "blanco"...back to Portuguese 101.

No raism in Brasil, no way! We even had a president called Color at one time. You are all crazy!

i dnt no anymore

The guy used the words "blanco" and "criollo", which are words of Spanish origin.
"Criollo" is a word used to define oligarchies in Central America.
In Brasil, a country located in South America, whose native language is Portuguese not Spanish, there is the word "crioulo". "Crioulo" means "Afro-Brazilian person" in Brazil.
So, "Guest" doesn't even know the meaning of words in Brazil. He just studied Central America history, and he thinks that he can talk about Brazil using an unappropriated terminology (Spanish). As you can see, he is an arrogant person. Unfortunately, there are many people like him in US.
I think the racism in US and other parts of the World is much more stronger than the racism in Brazil. The KKK in US, the apartheid in South Africa confirm this.