After all it is emblazoned in their flag: “ORDEM E PROGRESSO”
It’s amazing how a few decades ago a third world country has emerged to
take its place among the most progressive and prosperous of nations. If
someone had told me forty years ago when I first started to learn the
Portuguese language I would have dismissed it as nonsense.
I know Brazil well; its people, its culture, its foods and its politics;
but at the time it all looked gloomy and hopeless for that large
country. The joke was then that “Brazil has a future and always will”
meaning that nothing would happen anytime soon.
How Brazil got from where it was forty years ago to where it is today is
amazing by itself. It is a combination of human perseverance, the
beneficial effects of diversity, an endowment of natural resources and
pure luck.
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE: n 2006, Brazil officially achieved
"energy independence" -- that is, its oil exports came into line with
imports and cancelled them out. No longer beholden to foreign suppliers
for its energy needs, the nation theoretically has no stake in costly
Middle East military adventures to secure access to oil reserves.
How They Did It
may not be easily replicable, but Brazil's biofuel program is the envy
of the world. Critics of the present U.S. biofuel push, which draws
billions in government subsidies, should take note: Brazil didn't 
replace 40 percent of its gasoline use with ethanol by letting the market sort things out.
replace 40 percent of its gasoline use with ethanol by letting the market sort things out.
Indeed, the program is the result of a
concerted, and sometimes rocky, 30-year government effort to promote the
alternative fuel.
Following the oil shocks of the early
1970s, the government of Brazil adopted an ambitious plan to guarantee
the country's energy independence. The ProAlcool policy required
that passenger cars be built to run on ethanol and led to installation
of a nationwide distribution network, which would supply ethanol in all
service stations. Supply was guaranteed via strict controls on planting
of sugarcane and production of both sugar and ethanol.
By the mid-1990s, the program was
abandoned as ethanol shortages and low gasoline prices led to widespread
popular rejection of ethanol-powered cars. Government controls on
sugarcane planting, as well as sugar and ethanol production and
marketing were also abandoned. Nonetheless, the ProAlcool program
left a long-term legacy of a dedicated ethanol-handling infrastructure,
an ethanol-powered automotive fleet (although the share of the fleet
powered by ethanol fell steadily during the following decade), and
continued production of both gasoline- and ethanol-fueled automobiles.
A SPANKING-NEW CAPITAL CITY
- Brasilia didn’t exist in the early fifties. It came about as the
dream of visionaries like Kubitscek and Niemeyer; it was inaugurated on
April 22nd 1960, in the central area of the country. Just five years
before, the area resembled a desert, with no people, scarce water, few
animals and plants. 
President Juscelino Kubitschek, who became President in 1956, invited the best Brazilian architects to present projects for the new capital. Oscar Niemeyer, today one of the most famous world's architects, combined straight and rounded shapes to create innovative architectural masterpieces. Lucio Costa, renowned Brazilian urbanist, devised a lay-out combining beauty, simplicity and functionality.
Brazilians already had a little
experience in planning a city from the ground up out of nothing in the
middle of nowhere; the region around what is now Belo Horizonte was
first settled in the early 18th century, but the city as it is known
today was planned and constructed in the 1890s, in order to replace Ouro Preto as the capital of Minas Gerais.
SOCCER AND SAMBA - Built
in 1950 to host the FIFA World Cup, Maracana stadium opened as the
”Estadio Municipal” has been the center of many of the country’s
sporting events, hosting a variety of venues from World Soccer Cups to
music concerts and political rallies. It was thought to be the largest
stadium of its kind in the world. When Brazilians build they build the
biggest and the best
The SAMBRADROME The Sambadrome ("Sambódromo" in Portuguese) was designed by Oscar Niemeyer (designer of Brasilia) and built in 1984. It consists of 700 m stretch of the Marquês de Sapucaí
street converted into a permanent parade ground with bleachers built on
either side for spectators. Its capacity is 90,000. The complex
includes an area located at the end of the parade route, the Praça da Apoteose
(Apotheosis Square), where the bleachers are set further back from the
parade area, creating a square where revelers gather as they end their
parade.
In December, the samba schools begin
holding technical rehearsals at the Sambadrome, leading up to Carnival.
Outside Carnival season, the Praça da Apoteose is occasionally used as a
venue for international music concerts.
ITAIPU HYDROELECTRIC DAM
– The largest in the world, at least until the Chinese finish theirs in
the Three Gorges site, provides electricity for 83% of Brazil’s power
production. It is an amazing feat of engineering. I visited there once
when my daughters were young and as we stood there looking at the
impressive dam from a distance I said to them: “girls, take a good look
and try to remember this because it is the largest hydroelectric dam in
the world” and my 8 year old responded: “but daddy, it’s not in the
United States”.
THE FIRST WOMAN PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL
– Dilma Rousseff succeeded Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who left Planalto
presidential palace in Brasilia with an 87% approval rating, the
highest in recent history for a departing leader of South America's
largest and most populous country. She hopes to maintain the economic
momentum that was the key to Lula's power and popularity, while
advancing an agenda of reducing poverty, improving education and
tightening the state's control of natural resources, particularly
newfound oil riches.
HUMAN RIGHTS, GAY RIGHTS
– Other than Argentina, Brazil leads all the Latin-American nations in
the areas of equality and human rights. Just recently it has
legalization of same sex marriages. Albeit a controversial fight and in
spite of the hate crimes still being perpetrated across the country,
Brazil is generally going forward in equality and fairness.
I
think that a good indicator of the tolerance that exists in Brazil
towards LGBT can be observed just by the sheer size of their gay pride
parades which have the distinction of being the largest in the world.
These gay pride events often match the magnitude and festive atmosphere
of carnival itself.
In conclusion; Brazil is not devoid of
huge problems but they are not insurmountable, they don’t have as a
dysfunctional society as we do in America, nor is their political system
as broken as ours is. They have had a lot of corruption but nothing
that compares to the corruption of American politics. The concept of
DEMOCRACY is alive and well in Brazil, thank you.
They do have a thriving economy with a
free market system in place but it has regulations and there are prudent
amounts of socialist measures thrown in for good measure. Brazil and
its government have not forgotten its poor and just the accumulated
greatness of all these accomplishments make any Brazilian proud to say:
“Eu sou Brasileiro”.
SOURCES: http://www.grist.org/article/brazil2
I love the post!!!!Thanks for the Tribute. I'm Brazilian and I love this country!!!!Boas Festas!!!
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