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CURRENTS
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The First World Meets The Third World In Brazil Brazil has First World industries, steel, electronics, automobiles, aerospace, along with First World financial institutions, universities and cultural attractions. Brazil also has Third World poverty, corruption, crime and disease. These side-by-side worlds are reflected in one of the widest gaps between rich and poor among nations. The richest one percent possesses 14% of the wealth—more wealth than the poorest half of the population possesses. Brazil seems ready to propel itself forward to true First World status in 20 or 30 years. As it does, it will become one of the most influential nations on Earth. Brazil is the world’s fifth most populous country and produces more goods and services per person than each of the top five except the United States, more than China, India, or Russia.
If there is an epicenter of Brazil’s hope for a First World future, it is Embraer. Embraer is high-tech: A theater-sized “virtual reality” room allows dozens of engineers to electronically mesh their blueprints, reducing design time and avoiding potentially disastrous mistakes, such as routing electrical conduit through a hydraulic line. Embraer is global: it is at once Brazil’s biggest exporter and among its biggest importers, requiring many specialized products such as aerospace alloys from Alcoa. Embraer is progressive: its 11,000 employees enjoy health insurance, life insurance and profit-sharing, which helps spread prosperity and build Brazil’s professional middle class. If Embraer represents the First World future to which Brazil aspires, the Third World present is epitomized by its vast shantytowns, known as “favelas.” Rocinha, not far from carefree Ipanema, is the largest and most renowned favela, with a population of some 150,000. Rocinha is so famous, in fact, you can take a tour bus through it, as long as the resident drug lord isn’t in a bad mood or warring against rivals. “Lord” is the right word for the ruler of Rocinha because he oversees a feudal society financed by drug sales, protected by violence and operated by patronage. The lord settles landlord-tenant disputes, domestic quarrels, and business disagreements. Garbage lines the mud-packed streets. Kids in dirty flip-flops play beside open sewers, the stench rising as the day’s heat builds. Young men with guns, it is said, lurk just off the main road, ready to question intruders and enforce the lord’s rules. What does the future hold? Entrenched interests and corruption plague the entire
Brazilian political system. It is far from certain the system can reform itself
and find the right balance between market forces and government regulation so
as to keep the economy expanding while lifting the poor. For the past seven
years, a center-right coalition under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has,
by most accounts, juggled these balls reasonably well. The Cardoso era is coming
to an end as the president cannot run again in the October 2002 election. The
next ten years will be critical to Brazil’s long-term future. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
