The Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology released today a study that outlines how the country and the planet will (probably) evolve in the next 20 years. Produced by the Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos, the document offers a time line based on several sources. It is meant to help government plan its future strategies.
Part of its content is easily predictable, considering recent tendencies. But there are some surprises.
Among its main forecasts:
Economy
In four years, Brazil will go back to its tradition of successive commercial balance deficits
Brazilian Gross Domestic Product will be 925 billion dollars in 2015 (which means, less than our present GDP, around 1.6 trillion dollars. It is not very clear how Goldman Sachs, the original source of this information, came up with this number)
Brazil, the brand, will increase its value. The demand for products associated to the country’s cultural diversity will grow
Madeira river, in the Amazon, where Jirau dam is under construction
A study released today by BNDES, the main federal bank responsible for financing infrastructure projects, reveals that Brazil will increase its investments in power dams, highways, railways, ports, telecommunications and sanitation. According to daily paper Folha de S. Paulo, around R$ 274 billion (151 billion dollars or 111 billion euros) should be invested between 2010 and 2013, 37.3% more than the volume spent between 2005 and 2008. BNDES didn’t publicize the investments made last year, during the global financial crisis.
These resources will finance such projects as the rocket train that should connect Rio and São Paulo at a cost of R$ 34.6 billion (19.1 billion dollars or 14 billion euros) in the next ten years. It should also finance the hydro power dams of Santo Antonio and Jirau (6.4 gigawatts combined capacity), that are already under construction in Rondônia state, in the Amazon region, close to Bolívia, and the controversial Belo Monte power dam, in the state of Pará, also in the Amazon. With an estimated capacity of 11.3 gigawatts, Belo Monte is meant to be the second biggest hydro power plant in the country, after Itaipu, in the Southern state of Paraná. This project has been dragging for over 30 years due to the many environmental and social issues it raises, and the fierce opposition of environmentalists, indigenous leaders and singer/composer Sting. Its costs are estimated in R$ 16 billion (8.8 billion dollars or 6.5 billion euros) – but here, again there is controversy. Many Brazilian entrepreneurs have already indicated that this forecast is too conservative at it will probably cost twice as much.
Today is the 65th anniversary of one of the main campaigns ever promoted by the Brazilian Army and Air Force – the takeover of the inexpugnable fortress of Monte Castello, close to Bologna, in Northern Italy. World War II was in its final months and 25,000 Brazilian soldiers were sent to Italy fight alongside with the Allies to stop the German advances. Under the leadership of general Mascarenhas de Moraes, the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (Força Expedicionária Brasileira or FEB) promoted a series of combined air raids and artillery and tank attacks. Around 440 Brazilians died during the three-month operation.
Minister Dilma Rousseff, Lula’s chosen candidate for the next presidential elections, speaks to both Época and Veja magazines this week. It is her first series of interviews since she was officially declared candidate by Lula’s party, Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). She talks about her cancer and recent plastic surgeries, proposes an even bigger presence of the state in the economy and challenges those who accuse her of being Lula’s puppet (namely her many opponent in the dispute, São Paulo governor José Serra) to proof they have more experience in governing than herself.
Isto É talks about the healing powers of meditation.
The biological clock is ticking and Prince Charming is a no-show? You spent Valentine’s day with your Mom? No problem! Try one of these classic Brazilian spells (we call them simpatias) and then go shop for your wedding gown.
Buy a small statue of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of single women. Remove Baby Jesus from his arms and tell the saint you won’t return the baby unless you get a boyfriend. You can reinforce your position, keeping Anthony upside down, so he will understand you are not kidding.
If you consider yourself very ugly, choose a leaf of espada de São Jorge (a sword-like plant commonly used in Afro-Brazilian cults). Cut it into three pieces and throw them in boiling water for three hours. After the water cools down, wash your face with it, praying to Saint George and asking him to convert the “dragon” into a beauty.
Buy a new sharp knife and stick it into a banana tree on June 12th at midnight (Saint Anthony’s day is on the 13th). The liquid that will drip from the plant’s wound will form the first letter of the name of your future husband. The mother of a friend did this. She was very upset that K appeared – it is rarely used in Brazilian names. Years later she married a visiting German, Kurt.
Igreja de São Francisco, Mariana, in Minas Gerais state
When you think of Baroque, you probably remember the curvy, exaggerated, passionate form of art that blossomed in Europe since the 17th century. You may think of Caravaggio and Bernini in Italy, or the rococo in France, or Bach and Handel in Germany. Less known but equally important was the Brazilian Baroque, that dominated the art scene in the country between the end of the 17th and the 19th centuries.
Although both literature and music incorporated baroque elements, it is in architecture that Baroque really excelled.
Most baroque churches have sober exteriors that contrast with very ornate interior decoration, including chubby angels, birds, vines and a profusion of color. Cities that were rich at the time, thanks to diamonds, gold or sugar trade, such as Salvador, in Bahia, or Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais, could afford to use gold leaves and noble materials and to hire the best artists of the time. Among them, Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho (The Crippled, a nickname given in less politically correct times), and Manoel da Costa Athaide (or Mestre Athaide). Keep reading
This series of images of film director Orson Welles partying (and working) in Rio, in 1942, were published by Life magazine and brought back to life by Portal Luis Nassif.
A little aftertaste of Carnival: the Havaiana flipflops add currently on TV shows a lady criticizing a bunch of guys (including actor Marcos Palmeira) who are celebrating while the world is in crisis. Palmeira sighs and says tristeza (sadness), which reminds the group of a classical samba, by Haroldo Lobo and Nilton de Souza.
Don Quixote, the theme of União da Ilha do Governador
Porta-bandeira of São Clemente
The photos I chose were produced by Riotur, the tourism agency of the city of Rio.
Today, a little over three months after launching Deep Brazil, I had a visitor from Puerto Rico – the hundredth country to pay a visit. Thanks, whoever you are! And thanks to all of you, silent or noisy guests. I hope to keep helping and entertaining all of you in the future.
Few export products are as successful as capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art that mixes dance and music in exquisite way. You can certainly find a good capoeira school near you, no matter if you are in Lithuania or China.
If you still didn’t fall for it, you will, after watching this beautiful video, made by D’un Autre Monde, a French group that produces coreographies inspired by capoeira.
Check also this post, about “Besouro”, a film about a famous capoeirista who defied gravity and the Devil. Choreographed by Huen Chiu Ku, that worked in “The Matrix” and “The Tiger and the Dragon”, it has been recently released in Brazil and is beginning its international career.
From the Chrystal Ball series:
