Deep Brazil » Children

Brazilian cities under the microscope

Regina — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:29:35 +0000

Downtown Veranópolis, in the Southern Rio Grande do Sul state

People don’t live in countries or states – they live in cities. Ultimately, it’s the local government, infrastructure and cultural services that define one’s quality of life. And quality of life in Brazilian cities is changing quickly, according to a study just released by IBGE (the [...]

Millenium Goals on the way

Regina — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:27:46 +0000

by Regina Scharf

Brazil is well positioned to achieve the Millennium Goals – the eight development objectives that the United Nations member states are supposed to attain till 2015. The federal government just released the fourth annual report detailing the country’s progress and the results are definitely encouraging.

Among its main conclusions (to make this easier on [...]

Scary lullabies

Deep Brazil — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 04:53:30 +0000

Most Brazilian lullabies and children songs are scary like hell. Some of them are not exactly child-appropriate. Or human-appropriate.

Check this hit parade:

The big classic “Atirei o Pau no Gato”, that says: I hit a cat with a stick, but he didn’t die. Mrs. Chica was surprised by the cat’s cry. What about the morbid “A [...]

Brazil, 20 years from now

Deep Brazil — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:41:23 +0000

From the Chrystal Ball series:

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

Science and Technology

The rhythm of innovation will speed up and new technologies will migrate quicker from the lab to the market. Biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology will be increasingly integrated. The nanotechnology market should reach 2.6 trillion dollars in two years.
By 2012, cell phone batteries will be recharged once every two months
In only three years, hybrid cars will represent 30% of the global automotive market
Electric cars will become more and more competitive

Society

In 20 years, the number of senior Brazilians will be 4 million superior to the number of children and teenagers. This difference will reach 35.8 million by 2050. By then, there will be 75 inactive individuals for each 100 workers in the labor force (more about that here)
By 2027, Brazil will have more women than men studying in universities
More people will be living in small and middle-sized towns. Migration to the metropolis will slow down (a tendency that has been going on for a few years now)
Immigration from other South American countries and from Africa might increase
Brazil should comply with the UN Millenium Goals by 2015 (halve the number of people with an income of less than 1 dollar a day, halve the number of hungry individuals, among others)

Environment and Energy

Brazil will lose R$ 7.4 billion in 2020 due to the impact of global change over the production of grains (I wrote recently about this topic)
By 2028, 45% of the energy produced in the country will be renewable.
Many more hydro power dams will be built in the Amazon till 2030 (this might be a big environmental issue, once the region is mostly flat, which means those dams will probably flood huge areas)
By 2021, the volume of rain during the dry season should diminish in the tropical areas of the country

Food

According to the World Bank, quoted by the study, global food demand might grow 50% in the next 20 years, due to population growth and the adoption of a Western diet by the growing middle classes of the world. There will be enough food to feed everybody, but its distribution will continue to be extremely unequal
Scarcity of water to supply the agricultural demand will reach critical levels and many areas that are fertile today are likely to lose their production capacity
Brazil should remain an important food producer thanks to its dimensions and the availability of fertile land and water

I was surprised that the country is close to comply with all the Millenium Goals. As far as I know, the federal government considered a few of these goals unattainable within the schedule proposed by the UN. I hope to write a post about that soon.

And Goldman Sachs’s forecast for the evolution (involution?) of Brazilian GDP seems really strange. I wonder if there is no transcription mistake. Maybe somebody forgot to add the number 1 before 925…

What’s your forecast? What will Brazil look like in 20 years?

Haiti is here

Deep Brazil — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 03:27:59 +0000

Zilda Arns

“O Haiti é aqui. O Haiti não é aqui” (Haiti is here. Haiti is not here), sings Caetano Veloso. Today this sounds quite prophetic. The catastrophic earthquake that destroyed Haiti – a country that has its own share of misfortunes – had also a big impact in Brazil.

The Brazilian Army [...]

Long life to Brazilians

Deep Brazil — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:52:33 +0000

São Paulo, Sunday afternoon/ Blablaurgh/Flickr

The land of youth, beauty and barely-there outfits is getting old. Brazilians are living at least three years more than ten years ago. IBGE, the federal bureau of statistics, released today a study showing that the life expectancy at birth is 72.86 years, superior to the world’s average of 67.58 years. In Brazil, [...]

Less undernourished, more overweight

Deep Brazil — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:07:44 +0000

Brazilian women stay slim, while men are getting fatter and fatter. Mal-nutrition and child mortality are falling, but diabetes is on the raise.

Campaign in Olinda, Pernambuco, against kidney diseases

This is one of the conclusions of a study released today by the Brazilian Health Ministry, portraying the state of the population’s physical condition. The conclusions are, for [...]

5 million workers under age

Deep Brazil — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:07:34 +0000

One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. According to the latest official statistics, the country also [...]