Saying Brazilians “Lack National Pride”,
Marketeers Create Self-Esteem Campaign
Low salaries, social inequities lead to rise in emigration.
By Kenneth Rapoza
Rio de Janeiro
A campaign to promote patriotism and self esteem was launched on last month with help from Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva The private initiative run by the Brazilian Advertising Association (Associação Brasileira de Publicidade ABP) comes at a time when the economy is improving beyond expectations, but a rising number of Brazilians are emigrating or applying for dual citizenship in European countries as a safety net.
“Of all the countries in Latin America, Brazilians are the ones with the lowest self-esteem. It's chronic”, said Mauricio Machado, coordinator of the campaign called “The Best Thing About Brazil is the Brazilians” (O Melhor do Brasil e' o Brasileiro).
“I like Brazil, but I'm always disappointed”, said Luciana Genta Cordioli, 33, a single, middle class, executive secretary at Milenia Agro Sciences. She recently got her Italian citizenship. Her sister has one, too, allowing her to live and work in Stuttgart, Germany. She plans to return home in 2007 to be with family.
“It's the only reason to come back. The disparity between rich and poor is a problem. Dual citizenship is my security blanket.” Brazilians of European origin are finding it easier to apply for citizenship, based on their family ancestry than to emigrate illegally.
German consul Michael Giersdorff in Porto Alegre in Rio Grande de Sul said German citizen applications, “is already high. The tendency is for it to keep growing upward, steadily.”
The pro-nation campaign was not designed to curb migration. The goal, says Mr. Machado, is to get Brazilians to value their country and the opportunities it offers. The campaign has the support of corporations like Microsoft and Boticario, a Brazilian cosmetics company. Local media are giving free airtime to the campaign, designed to showcase success stories of “ordinary” Brazilians.
Opportunities ?
Opportunity may be knocking, but it's paying below the national average. Seven in ten workers hired this year earn between 130 and 520 reals, a maximum of $173 monthly, according to the Inter-Trade Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies. The average Brazilian worker earns 923 reals per month, or roughly $307, according to the latest data from the Budget Ministry.
“Self esteem is not a problem”, said Sergio Abranches, a political analyst in Rio. “Country satisfaction is high. If there is any self-esteem problem, it is due to the direct effect of a prolonged recession that has forced Brazilians to look elsewhere.”
According to pollsters at Instituto Sensus, 60% of those interviewed said they were satisfied with life in the country, versus 71.5% in January 2003. An August poll by Sensus showed that over 90% of Brazilians were “proud to be Brazilian”, citing their nation's landscape, lifestyle and a nation at peace as the primary reasons.
Brazil's foreign ministry said that emigration numbers are increasing, but “not exploding”. An estimated 2 million Brazilians live abroad. Most choose to live in the United States, are between the ages of 21 and 40 and have little formal education.
Outside the U.S. Consulate on Avenida Presidente Wilson, 25 people wait to be called inside for their visa interview. No one would talk about their travel plans. One young man named Eduardo, 21, wearing a light blue baseball cap, backwards, with no team logo, said he entered the U.S. on a tourist visa and later received a student visa through City College of San Francisco. He works part-time delivering pizza and said he sends $100 home each month, enough to pay for some of his parents' bills in Rio. He said he earned about $1,800 monthly. He was waiting outside for his girlfriend to get travel permission, and declined to say whether or not she would follow his example.
The U.S. Embassy did not provide data on visa applications. Nearly 1,000 Brazilians have been detained this year, with half being shipped back home by Homeland Security.
Brazilian immigrants send $5.4 billion back home annually, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, more than half the $10 billion in foreign direct investment the country is estimated to receive this year.
“Working hard in Brazil does not mean you can have a good life. And it's almost impossible to save money”, said (name withheld), a 25 year old who moved to San Diego in January 2002 to work illegally at Pizza Hut after losing his $266 monthly income at Global Telecom (now called Vivo). “I don't have the same opportunity as a middle class American. I would love to live in the U.S. forever.”
He forged a Social Security number with the help of employees at a San Diego Kinko's. He later moved to London on fears of an illegal immigrant crackdown in the U.S. He has been able to take a month long vacation in Europe and is now traveling in Bangkok, Thailand with money he's made working part time on a British student visa. “I'm applying for my Portuguese passport”, he said in an email. “I'll move to Europe for good if I get it.”
From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, Brazil received immigrants leaving war torn Europe, Russia and Japan. But after twenty years of boom and bust cycles, upward mobility has become more difficult.
“Lula was from a poor family when he moved to Sao Paulo and quickly improved
his life once he found work as an auto mechanic. It's hard to do that today”, said Luiz Gonzaga Belluzo, ex-secretary of economic policy at the Finance Ministry.
Maricy Schmitz, a single mother of a two-year-old, said she left Brazil ten years ago in order to work in the international education field in Ohio. Leaving Brazil behind has become harder now that she has a daughter. “It's not easy”, she said during a trip to Rio with Wright State University students. “It'd be difficult for me to come back and readjust. I miss it here.”
Economic Policy Reasons
When it comes to pride in culture and lifestyle, Brazilian's consider their homeland one of the best. But a strong disdain for the establishment persists alongside harsh criticism over the government's economic policies.
The core complaint lies with the country's prime interest rate, currently at 16% per year, roughly what a standard, American consumer pays on their credit cards. Only Turkey has a higher rate. Another target of disdain is the administration's decision to set aside 4.25 percent of State income in a primary surplus, in order to make interest payments on its 947 billion reals ($315.6 billion) public debt.
“I don't understand why rich countries, with more resources than us, are allowed to have public deficits of three and four percent and we have to have a surplus of more than four percent”, said Oded Grajew, a former Lula Administration official and creator of the World Social Forum, a global meeting of organizations critical of globalization.
The surplus is essentially interpreted as a confidence indicator that Brazil can honor its contracts. Reducing it could lower demand for government bonds, which would force Brazil to raise interest rates in order to make the bonds more attractive. The higher the interest rate, the harder it is for the country to service its debt, and the harder it becomes for local companies to expand.
Nonetheless, the International Monetary Fund recommended high interest rates throughout much of the 1990s and suggested a lower surplus target of 3.75
percent.
“These are the kind of incompetent economic policies we've inherited that have put pressure on the job market and sent people packing because they can't make a living”, Mr. Belluzo said.
Between January and June, the government paid $15 billion in interest, all of it coming from the primary surplus. When the Lula camp was the opposition, they said that surplus money should go to public services. But, since taking office in January 2003, the policy has been to reduce the debt burden as much as possible to allow the country more room to invest in public services like highways and sanitation.
The government lowered its debt burden this year from 58.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2003, to 56 percent. “I was against the high surplus, but now I've seen the light”, said Fernando Ribeiro, an economist at Sobeet, a business think tank in Sao Paulo. “I just hope it's not the light of an oncoming train.”
Exporting Financial Resources
Uncertainties lead Brazil's investor class to save overseas. Bank deposits overseas rose 111.6%, from $7.9 billion in 2002 to $16.9 billion in 2003.
Even Central Bank president, Henrique Meirelles, had undeclared assets in the U.S. that he is currently disputing in the Senate. The Bank's monetary policy director, Luiz Augusto Candiota, stepped down recently after it was discovered that he had $1.29 Million in undeclared accounts in the US. On Aug 16th, the Federal Police here apprehended 63 people tied to money laundering operations valued at roughly $24 Billion, all of it shipped to a New York financial services firm called Beacon Hill Service Corp. and offshare banks. Officials in the U.S. helped with the operation. Beacon Hill is no longer in business.
“The Brazilian elite are not worried about Brazil because they put their money in the US, Switzerland, and fiscal paradises”, said Mr. Ribeiro.
“If you have pride in the country, then you'll have interest in investing here”, said Patriot Campaign leader, Mr. Machado. “Why put it overseas if by keeping it here, you are helping your fellow citizens ?”
Mr. Machado cited a study by Santiago, Chile based research firm, Latin Barometer, showing just 22% of Brazilians expressed confidence in their peers, compared to 52% of Chileans and 55% of Colombians.
“I love Brazil”, said Maria Regina Filgueiras Reis, mother of 25-year-old Eduardo. She is applying for her Portuguese citizenship, too. “It's the politicians and the establishment that we don't deserve them.”
“This generation of politicians won't change the country”, said Alexandre Jose Cardoso, driving a red cab past a calm Botafogo coast, with Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf) mountain straight ahead. “This government is still part of the old guard. They think of their pocket book first. One day we'll have a generation that will think of the common good first.” Mr. Cardoso said he has no intention of leaving Rio.
Faith in the Lula presidency remains high, “old guard” or not. The same census poll cited earlier showed that out of a potential five candidates running for the presidency in 2006, including recent ex-president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Mr. da Silva would win in a landslide.
NOTES:
1. Brazil is ranked 5 of out the top nations sending remissions back home. Mexico is number one with $13.2 billion. Brazil is followed by Colombia (3 billion) and Guatemala (2 billion). 50% of all Brazilian remissions comes from the US, followed by Europe (31%), then Japan at 17%. The avg sent home from abroad: $428. Source, IADB, and Bendixen & Associates, a consulting firm that did a study for the Inter American Development Bank (IADB). An estimated 3 million Brazilians send money to 1.3 million families in Brazil. 40% of the recipients here have an annual income under $5,000 per year (R$18,000).
2. 1.034 million jobs created from Jan to June, an increase of 4.4% for the year. - Labor Ministry, Brazil
Kenneth Rapoza
Brazil Bureau Chief
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
A similar version of this article also appeared in
THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com
Photo Source: Presidency of the Republic of Brazil https://www.presidencia.gov.br
Please also see:
Fórum Social Mundial http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br
World Social Forum 2004 http://www.wsfindia.org
Marketeers Create Self-Esteem Campaign
Low salaries, social inequities lead to rise in emigration.
By Kenneth Rapoza
Rio de Janeiro
A campaign to promote patriotism and self esteem was launched on last month with help from Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva The private initiative run by the Brazilian Advertising Association (Associação Brasileira de Publicidade ABP) comes at a time when the economy is improving beyond expectations, but a rising number of Brazilians are emigrating or applying for dual citizenship in European countries as a safety net.
“Of all the countries in Latin America, Brazilians are the ones with the lowest self-esteem. It's chronic”, said Mauricio Machado, coordinator of the campaign called “The Best Thing About Brazil is the Brazilians” (O Melhor do Brasil e' o Brasileiro).
“I like Brazil, but I'm always disappointed”, said Luciana Genta Cordioli, 33, a single, middle class, executive secretary at Milenia Agro Sciences. She recently got her Italian citizenship. Her sister has one, too, allowing her to live and work in Stuttgart, Germany. She plans to return home in 2007 to be with family.
“It's the only reason to come back. The disparity between rich and poor is a problem. Dual citizenship is my security blanket.” Brazilians of European origin are finding it easier to apply for citizenship, based on their family ancestry than to emigrate illegally.
German consul Michael Giersdorff in Porto Alegre in Rio Grande de Sul said German citizen applications, “is already high. The tendency is for it to keep growing upward, steadily.”
The pro-nation campaign was not designed to curb migration. The goal, says Mr. Machado, is to get Brazilians to value their country and the opportunities it offers. The campaign has the support of corporations like Microsoft and Boticario, a Brazilian cosmetics company. Local media are giving free airtime to the campaign, designed to showcase success stories of “ordinary” Brazilians.
Opportunities ?
Opportunity may be knocking, but it's paying below the national average. Seven in ten workers hired this year earn between 130 and 520 reals, a maximum of $173 monthly, according to the Inter-Trade Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies. The average Brazilian worker earns 923 reals per month, or roughly $307, according to the latest data from the Budget Ministry.
“Self esteem is not a problem”, said Sergio Abranches, a political analyst in Rio. “Country satisfaction is high. If there is any self-esteem problem, it is due to the direct effect of a prolonged recession that has forced Brazilians to look elsewhere.”
According to pollsters at Instituto Sensus, 60% of those interviewed said they were satisfied with life in the country, versus 71.5% in January 2003. An August poll by Sensus showed that over 90% of Brazilians were “proud to be Brazilian”, citing their nation's landscape, lifestyle and a nation at peace as the primary reasons.
Brazil's foreign ministry said that emigration numbers are increasing, but “not exploding”. An estimated 2 million Brazilians live abroad. Most choose to live in the United States, are between the ages of 21 and 40 and have little formal education.
Outside the U.S. Consulate on Avenida Presidente Wilson, 25 people wait to be called inside for their visa interview. No one would talk about their travel plans. One young man named Eduardo, 21, wearing a light blue baseball cap, backwards, with no team logo, said he entered the U.S. on a tourist visa and later received a student visa through City College of San Francisco. He works part-time delivering pizza and said he sends $100 home each month, enough to pay for some of his parents' bills in Rio. He said he earned about $1,800 monthly. He was waiting outside for his girlfriend to get travel permission, and declined to say whether or not she would follow his example.
The U.S. Embassy did not provide data on visa applications. Nearly 1,000 Brazilians have been detained this year, with half being shipped back home by Homeland Security.
Brazilian immigrants send $5.4 billion back home annually, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, more than half the $10 billion in foreign direct investment the country is estimated to receive this year.
“Working hard in Brazil does not mean you can have a good life. And it's almost impossible to save money”, said (name withheld), a 25 year old who moved to San Diego in January 2002 to work illegally at Pizza Hut after losing his $266 monthly income at Global Telecom (now called Vivo). “I don't have the same opportunity as a middle class American. I would love to live in the U.S. forever.”
He forged a Social Security number with the help of employees at a San Diego Kinko's. He later moved to London on fears of an illegal immigrant crackdown in the U.S. He has been able to take a month long vacation in Europe and is now traveling in Bangkok, Thailand with money he's made working part time on a British student visa. “I'm applying for my Portuguese passport”, he said in an email. “I'll move to Europe for good if I get it.”
From the late 1940s to the early 1970s, Brazil received immigrants leaving war torn Europe, Russia and Japan. But after twenty years of boom and bust cycles, upward mobility has become more difficult.
“Lula was from a poor family when he moved to Sao Paulo and quickly improved
his life once he found work as an auto mechanic. It's hard to do that today”, said Luiz Gonzaga Belluzo, ex-secretary of economic policy at the Finance Ministry.
Maricy Schmitz, a single mother of a two-year-old, said she left Brazil ten years ago in order to work in the international education field in Ohio. Leaving Brazil behind has become harder now that she has a daughter. “It's not easy”, she said during a trip to Rio with Wright State University students. “It'd be difficult for me to come back and readjust. I miss it here.”
Economic Policy Reasons
When it comes to pride in culture and lifestyle, Brazilian's consider their homeland one of the best. But a strong disdain for the establishment persists alongside harsh criticism over the government's economic policies.
The core complaint lies with the country's prime interest rate, currently at 16% per year, roughly what a standard, American consumer pays on their credit cards. Only Turkey has a higher rate. Another target of disdain is the administration's decision to set aside 4.25 percent of State income in a primary surplus, in order to make interest payments on its 947 billion reals ($315.6 billion) public debt.
“I don't understand why rich countries, with more resources than us, are allowed to have public deficits of three and four percent and we have to have a surplus of more than four percent”, said Oded Grajew, a former Lula Administration official and creator of the World Social Forum, a global meeting of organizations critical of globalization.
The surplus is essentially interpreted as a confidence indicator that Brazil can honor its contracts. Reducing it could lower demand for government bonds, which would force Brazil to raise interest rates in order to make the bonds more attractive. The higher the interest rate, the harder it is for the country to service its debt, and the harder it becomes for local companies to expand.
Nonetheless, the International Monetary Fund recommended high interest rates throughout much of the 1990s and suggested a lower surplus target of 3.75
percent.
“These are the kind of incompetent economic policies we've inherited that have put pressure on the job market and sent people packing because they can't make a living”, Mr. Belluzo said.
Between January and June, the government paid $15 billion in interest, all of it coming from the primary surplus. When the Lula camp was the opposition, they said that surplus money should go to public services. But, since taking office in January 2003, the policy has been to reduce the debt burden as much as possible to allow the country more room to invest in public services like highways and sanitation.
The government lowered its debt burden this year from 58.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2003, to 56 percent. “I was against the high surplus, but now I've seen the light”, said Fernando Ribeiro, an economist at Sobeet, a business think tank in Sao Paulo. “I just hope it's not the light of an oncoming train.”
Exporting Financial Resources
Uncertainties lead Brazil's investor class to save overseas. Bank deposits overseas rose 111.6%, from $7.9 billion in 2002 to $16.9 billion in 2003.
Even Central Bank president, Henrique Meirelles, had undeclared assets in the U.S. that he is currently disputing in the Senate. The Bank's monetary policy director, Luiz Augusto Candiota, stepped down recently after it was discovered that he had $1.29 Million in undeclared accounts in the US. On Aug 16th, the Federal Police here apprehended 63 people tied to money laundering operations valued at roughly $24 Billion, all of it shipped to a New York financial services firm called Beacon Hill Service Corp. and offshare banks. Officials in the U.S. helped with the operation. Beacon Hill is no longer in business.
“The Brazilian elite are not worried about Brazil because they put their money in the US, Switzerland, and fiscal paradises”, said Mr. Ribeiro.
“If you have pride in the country, then you'll have interest in investing here”, said Patriot Campaign leader, Mr. Machado. “Why put it overseas if by keeping it here, you are helping your fellow citizens ?”
Mr. Machado cited a study by Santiago, Chile based research firm, Latin Barometer, showing just 22% of Brazilians expressed confidence in their peers, compared to 52% of Chileans and 55% of Colombians.
“I love Brazil”, said Maria Regina Filgueiras Reis, mother of 25-year-old Eduardo. She is applying for her Portuguese citizenship, too. “It's the politicians and the establishment that we don't deserve them.”
“This generation of politicians won't change the country”, said Alexandre Jose Cardoso, driving a red cab past a calm Botafogo coast, with Pao de Acucar (Sugarloaf) mountain straight ahead. “This government is still part of the old guard. They think of their pocket book first. One day we'll have a generation that will think of the common good first.” Mr. Cardoso said he has no intention of leaving Rio.
Faith in the Lula presidency remains high, “old guard” or not. The same census poll cited earlier showed that out of a potential five candidates running for the presidency in 2006, including recent ex-president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Mr. da Silva would win in a landslide.
NOTES:
1. Brazil is ranked 5 of out the top nations sending remissions back home. Mexico is number one with $13.2 billion. Brazil is followed by Colombia (3 billion) and Guatemala (2 billion). 50% of all Brazilian remissions comes from the US, followed by Europe (31%), then Japan at 17%. The avg sent home from abroad: $428. Source, IADB, and Bendixen & Associates, a consulting firm that did a study for the Inter American Development Bank (IADB). An estimated 3 million Brazilians send money to 1.3 million families in Brazil. 40% of the recipients here have an annual income under $5,000 per year (R$18,000).
2. 1.034 million jobs created from Jan to June, an increase of 4.4% for the year. - Labor Ministry, Brazil
Kenneth Rapoza
Brazil Bureau Chief
U.N. OBSERVER & International Report
A similar version of this article also appeared in
THE WASHINGTON TIMES http://www.washtimes.com
Photo Source: Presidency of the Republic of Brazil https://www.presidencia.gov.br
Please also see:
Fórum Social Mundial http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br
World Social Forum 2004 http://www.wsfindia.org