Comments by Brasileta

I never thought I would write something like this about a piece of information published by The Economist, but...

...to put it plainly...

...I find this hard to believe.

But at least the USA has something to celebrate too, now. Britain had the royal wedding a couple of days ago.

Latin America does not have a long history of democracy, but nor is it considering itself a part of the "Third World". Brazil, for example, is an emerging superpower (though sometimes it forgets the word "emerging"), and craves to be treated as such, and other countries, such as Chile and Argentina, are not far behind, at least not in this kind of feeling. The neglect of the region by the U.S., though understandable, is neither justifiable nor wise. There are many stalled issues to be addressed and solved, and the U.S. cannot hope for Latin American countries to co-operate eagerly if they are being given the attitude of "second best".

Of course, one might say that a handshake, twenty-minute conversation and a picture taken of two smiling Heads of State during the visit will not do much to "strengthen ties" - but it might show that the ties are there, and they are based on two-way communication rather than just order-taking from the United States, which is what many have been thinking.

What more, in a region where such leaders as Chavez and Morales have some say, it won't do any harm to remind that America is keeping an eye on the place.

I am not expert enough to provide a detailed analysis of the topic in hand. But I'd like to give my opinion on one matter:

About buying votes from poor people - this might be true, but I think that the Bolsa Familia policy has improved lives of many people (during Lula's government the middle - class part of the society increased by 10%). Maybe it's not that wrong to "buy" votes this way. I might be wrong, of course. But from an international point of view this policy is one of the things that help other countries see Brazil as "more civilized" (forgive me if I'm not completely politically correct here), more prosperous and with bigger potential to become one of the big players on the international political scene.

Regarding all other aspects discussed, I only wanted to remind people that there are two sides on every coin.

This is none of your everyday politicians' "blah". With this, Chàvez wins the Best Diversion of Attention from the Real Problems Prize 2010. For originality.

This is an intriguing idea, to suggest that FB might resemble a state, if only for purposes of discussion, be it about academic or practical aspects. It certainly does have some traits of a sovereign state, although, as Ignacio correctly mentioned, it does not provoke any patriotic sentiments. For now.

What worries me the most is the constantly growing importance of the social networks in our lives, which causes people to neglect personal contact. It may well be that in some years (5, 10, 20...who knows) peoples' minds and souls will become so 'digitalized' that whether one is on FB or Twitter will be as important as whether one is French or American.

The money might be in Europe, but the winners of South Africa will come from Brazil!

People who are interested in the phenomena this article describes, should read the book called "The Spiders of Allah: travels of an unbeliever on the frontline of Holy War" by James Hider.

One of the main Brazil's foreign policy goals has for quite a long time been securing a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. I think that Lula's motivation is purely to increase his (and by extension - Brazil's) credibility and image as a global independent power. Whether it is the right time to do this, or is this the right issue for Lula to appear as the reconciling savior of the world from Iran, is a different question.

Go Lula! Brazil is getting more and more press attention. When such media as Financial Times praises the May 17 Deal and says that "no matter what the outcome of this may be, Brazil has proven to be a bridge between the East and the West", Itamaraty has one more reason to believe they are on the right way to glory.