Latin America used to suffer the deepest gap between rich and poor. Now it is the only region narrowing the divide.
Comment: It's great to know change is happening in Latin America. This is the result of the last wave of honest, humanist, and nationalist leaders. Great job Chavez, Lula, Kirchner/Fernandez, Vasquez, Evo, Correa, Bachelet, Ortega, Colon, and now Lugo...I'm not including Uribe in this list, down with the puppets!
Comment: It's great to know change is happening in Latin America. This is the result of the last wave of honest, humanist, and nationalist leaders. Great job Chavez, Lula, Kirchner/Fernandez, Vasquez, Evo, Correa, Bachelet, Ortega, Colon, and now Lugo...I'm not including Uribe in this list, down with the puppets.
Comment: Brazil still has a long road ahead, principally when it comes to education, public safety and corruption. Yet the previous poster takes issue with information in the article: ???Plumeting interest rates? Complete fabrication!???. In 1995 interest rates in Brazil stood around 50%, in the year 2000 rates were around 20%, today they stand around 11.25%. Although these rates are still high, the article is accurate to state that interest rates have been steadily falling. Although the most logical thought is to lower interests rates in rapidly, anyone that lived in Brazil during the 80???s knows how devastating high inflation can be.
Although Brazil could/should have been in a much better situation by now, it certainly has improved in the last few years.
Comment: Obviously, who ever wrote this is citing government provided numbers. I recently returned from living and working in Brasil for three consecutive years. I have been to EVERY captial from Manaus to Curitiba and can attest that the entire country, save a few places in the south, is wrecked with corruption and war like violence beyond belief. Plumeting interest rates? Complete fabrication! A Master Card or Visa in Brasil is 23% - per MONTH! Brasil has the highest interest rates in THE WORLD. A list recently published by o Globo revealed Brasil #1 with the next 15 in Africa. The corruption is so bad that town halls have the water and power turned off for lack of payment. The hospitals? Same thing. And dont dare ask for basic medcine or machinery. Dont have it, nor the supplies or techs to run them. Police? Can't begin to describe the futility of their existance. Dear Monica, get a clue before your blindly regurgitate some "feel good" lies typed by some government puppet agency.
Comment: Better US policies towards Latin America would improve life for all people in Latin America.
Cheaper money and education should be a priority in Latin America.
Violence seems to be on the rise--liberalizing drugs would also help in the real fight against crime in Latin America.
Supporting intelligent leaders in Latin America would also improve the chance for a better life for all the people in Latin America..........avoid banana republic dictators such as Castro, Chavez and Lula
Comment: I??m Brazilian and I??m American. I hold businesses in Florida and in Rio de Janeiro. The numbers may be wrong or wishfull, but, clearly, Brazil has evolved substantially in the last few years. If your whole life is been in Brazil, it is pretty hard to see the changes. You have to look from the outside to perceive it. Real growth is a reality. The number of miserables have fallen and salaries have grown. The proof is the lack of cement in the market, driven by the enormous boom in housing construction in the last 12 months. The streets are clean even in Mag?? (a notoriously poor county in Rio), the buildings are no longer all gray because of polution, etc...Brazil has however 3 huge problems that require solution if it is to become more than the eternal country of the future. 1 - Corruption and the consequent criminality perpetuates crime bosses, permit criminals freedom to operate and impunity after being caught. A goverment health agency in Rio de Janeiro reports that 25% of all deaths in hospitals in Rio are derived from hearth failure. The population is scared for it is constantly being held hostage to crime. The easy going, careless person the Cariocas used to be knwon for no longer exist. 2 - The huge tax burden. Brazilians pay 45 cents of every earned Real as tax. Evasion is the only way for small businesses and people to barely survive. As long as the government continues to balloon its expenditures as if there??s no end to tax revenue, the population is going to suffer because, after all, somebody has to pay for it, and it won??t be the gigantic corporations that have in Brasil one of the most profitable markets in the world. O Globo reports that Brazil??s telephone rates are 6 times higher than in the US in average. In Manaus it is 1600% more expensive than in Europe. Just to know that a person is not available in the other side of the line (answering machine), I pay an outrageous R$ 0.80. All while the telefone service providers are reporting higher profits every month. 3 - The government does not seem to envision the repercussions of its decisions. Petrobr??s created a huge market for the use of natural gas without the REAL supply at hand. A simple change in politics in Bolivia is enough to totally derail the program. The large investment in the housing industry did not take into consideration the real capacity of the manufacturing base to properly supply the necessary materials. The result will be a difficult inflation to control in the very near future. A 50 Kg Cement bag was sold in Rio for R$ 8.00 in May. It is being sold now for R$ 17.00, but it will disappear shortly because the northeast states are glad to pay R$ 27.00 for it. Supply and demand forces will drive the cement to the northeast. All other construction materials are following suit. But, as we know, uncertanties generate opportunities, and there??s great potential for profit in the Brazilian market for the right entrepreneur.
Comment: Mac Margolis, NEWSWEEK should send you to live in Brazil for a month or two and live with the poor and eat what they eat and live like they live and see what it's like. Do your self a favor and be a real journalist and don't report bull that some Brazilian official may be feeding you and go to the Brazilian ghettos and it slums and talk to the people there and see and hear for yourself from the people there. It's a shame that newsweek would post such a work of fiction on how the gap between the rich and the poor is narrowing in Brazil. This article is an insult to the truth in Brazil. A country whos government happens to be one of the most corrupt. Bolsa familia is a lie and even if were true false hope to the poor. To all who belive this rubish of an article your are weak of mind and are truly are a master of illusions.
Comment: Great article, congratulations to NW.
Some comments below indicates that Brazil need to improve many areas, mainly education. The brazilians have a poor sense of history. We can see today that many things are much better then on 80??s or 90??s, and this is what about the article says. I??m afraid that I have to agree with those claims that in some cases "Bolsa Familia" helps who do not need help ( or must not be helped). But, as Voltaire saids "It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one."
Comment: Great article, congratulations to NW.
Some comments below indicates that Brazil need to improve many areas, mainly education. The brazilians have a poor sense of history. We can see today that many things are much better then on 80??s or 90??s, and this is what about the article says. I??m afraid that I have to agree with those claims that in some cases "Bolsa Familia" helps who do not need help ( or must not be helped). But, as Voltaire saids "It is better to risk sparing a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one."
Comment: The author of the article has absolutely no idea of life in Brasil. He should go to one of slums under the bridges and check it out by himself.
The corruption of this government is completely out of control and the illiteracy is growing.
Its a shame a magazine like yours publishes such drivel. Shame on you
Comment: Dream, dream, dream. Sweet Jesus, It is beyond my imagination why NW would write such sweet lines about Brazil's economy. Bolsa Familia as you wish or more likely as you have been told does not exist. I agree that by no means this program is a solution, but also it is not what you have described. Paperwise it might fool some people, but for those who live here It is easy to realize that poverty is hidding behind all these fancy numbers of yours. Mid-class is education-thirsty and almost moneywise incapeble, i can't even describe to you how any lower class is. As a newsweek magazine reader since 2000 i hope you guys come up with somthing better then this fantasy. Keep up the great work.
Comment: It's very difficult to consider the people's earning based on dollar. Just to give an idea, today the exchange rate is BRL 1.75 per dollar, but in the middle of 2003 the rate has reached almost BRL 4.00 per dollar. It means that Brazil's PNB has more than doubled in this period (just in terms of dollar) and obviously the per capta numbers may lead us to think that the population has become richer than before, what is true, but far from the terms that this numbers show.
Comment: It??s astonishing to realize that the one who wrote such an article lives inside a fairy tale, a bubble, or anything like that. It??s obvious that the authour does not know Brazil. Or if he/she has once been there, I can say he/she is suffering a severe case of blindness or schizophrenia. A country which holds 11% of its 180 million population completely illiterate, whose most corrupt government of all times makes all educational system crumble down with not a single hope of salvation could claim that is "narrowing the gap between rich and poor" . It??s very offensive read such a thing in serious publication like Newsweek.
Comment: It??s astonishing to realize that the one who wrote such an article lives inside a fairy tale, a bubble, or anything like that. It??s obvious that the authour does not know Brazil. Or if he/she has once been there, I can say he/she is suffering a severe case of blindness or schizophrenia. A country which holds 11% of its 180 million population completely illiterate, whose most corrupt government of all times makes all educational system crumble down with not a single hope of salvation could claim that is "narrowing the gap between rich and poor" . It??s very offensive read such a thing in serious publication like Newsweek.
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