Coming out on top

I couldn't really come up with a better title (I'm not really feeling creative right now, haha!), so... I'm sorry to disappoint you guys here, but, I'm going to talk a little politics.

I'm just going to take a little side-step here, and just bring to light an interesting article that I read today about the Brazilian President, 'Lula,' since I went to Brasil last summer and am thus, interested in seeing how Brasil will grow in the coming years.

As Goldman Sachs termed in 2001, BRIC is an acronym referring to the countries of Brasil-Russia-India-China, and basically saying how these are the fastest developing economies in the world, that will eventually become the economic powerhouses by 2050.

Basically, Lula gathered with the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadand Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "in helping broker an agreement announced this week under which Iran will ship much of its nuclear fuel to Turkey in exchange for fuel rods."

I'm not going to be commenting too much on what position Brasil played, and whether or not I agree with how Lula handled the situation, but I just found it surprising/refreshing that finally, Brasil was playing a hand in international politics.

I mean, although Brasil has a smaller population than the U.S. (Brasil, 192 mill.; U.S. 312 mill.), Brasil's size is very comparable to that of the U.S. (Brazil, 3.288 mill. sq mi; U.S., 3.719 mill. sq mi) and has a tremendous amount of resources - thus, accounting for the already occuring (and predicted) increase in economic development in Brasil.

So, yeah, I congratulate Brasil on its economic growth and attempts at becoming more globally politically active... especially since I remember how everyone I met in Brasil, upon meeting me for the first time, asked me "So, what do you think of Brasil?" But, more... as if a question of: "Now that you're here, how do you compare us to the U.S.?"

I felt it kind of silly that the Brasilians I would talk to were constantly looking up to the U.S. (you heard it in the music, too, how all the radio stations were majority U.S. songs dubbed in Portuguese; not to mention, my host-mom knew more about the Chris Brown-Rihanna scandal than I did, which isn't saying that much, but.. still!).

But, how can you really compare two completely different countries, especially when they come from such different histories, social dynamics, etc....?

Even within the 'normal' every day occurrences in Brasil that I encountered, there were so many things that Brasilians seemed to take for granted but us U.S. students just... couldn't/didnt-want-to accept. The gigantic gap between the wealthy and the poor (this is such an understatement/abridgment), (below) mediocre government control of labor laws/health care/financial support, mistreatments of certain races/women/both...

Don't get me wrong. There was SO much beauty in Brasil as well, and I can't wait to go back to revisit its rich culture, language, food, and spirit.

I know that the U.S. has problems, too. But, it just seems to me that there was a lot of work for Brasil, in terms of basic humanitarian issues, to take care of... that perhaps it needs to overcome these, before trying to step out into the bigger, global scheme of things.