2050 superpower

Chapter 22: The Rising Brazil (2)
Since both Brazil and the United States are countries of immigrants, their cultures are diverse.However, Brazil and the United States have different cultural orientations due to differences in the composition of immigrants.Among the immigrants in the United States, most of them are Westerners, so most of their culture comes from the West.Although American culture comes from Europe, it is different from Europe.For example, both Europe and the United States believe in Christianity, but when Christianity arrived in the United States, some changes occurred, resulting in Protestantism.In Brazil, most people believe in Catholicism, in addition to Protestantism, Judaism, Macunba, Candombl6, etc. in Africa, which are not as pure as American religions.

Both Brazil and the United States are countries of immigrants, but they differ in the interrelationships between the various races.

Racial discrimination against black people has been practiced in the United States for a long time. Until now, although the racial discrimination system has been abolished in name, and Obama with black blood has become the president of the United States, in reality, black people are The social status is still very low.In Brazil, because its immigrants come from all corners of the world, the ethnic composition is much more complex than that of the United States, so there is no obvious inequality in the relative balance.

Both Brazil and the United States are rich in natural resources, and they are one of the few countries in the world that can be self-sufficient.However, there is a huge gap in national strength between the United States and Pakistan.This gap is not due to the difference in land area and population, but because of the difference in political freedom and diplomatic concepts between them.First of all, Brazil has always had laws and a clear democratic system, but the de facto autocratic rule has not changed much during the process from the monarchy to the "union". In 1967, Brazil changed its name from the United States to the Federal Republic, but due to the implementation of the military government, Brazil is still an autocratic country in essence.It was not until January 1985, when the military returned power to the people, that Brazil truly entered the ranks of democratic countries.In addition, in terms of diplomatic philosophy, Brazil implements a policy of doing what is good and not making evil with other countries.The United States is different. His diplomatic philosophy is that there are only enemies with competing interests in the world, and there are no friends who "same wealth and honor".Therefore, when all countries in the world have their own concerns, the United States has used its unparalleled strength to obtain huge benefits, while Brazil has remained the same without dispute.

Because of the pursuit of being kind to others, Brazil is not like some countries that "have nothing to do with themselves and hang on high", but is committed to forming alliances to jointly create a better world.On the other hand, the United States, although it also needs alliances, such as NATO, the Japan-US-Korea alliance, etc., but its alliances are needed to realize its hegemony, and the United States will never form an alliance with any country that does not submit to it.In fact, the United States can regard any country as an enemy when necessary, even its special friend who has followed him for half a century-the United Kingdom is no exception.This abnormal idea of ​​the United States comes from his hegemonic thinking. As long as a certain country wants to have an equal dialogue with the United States, then this country is the enemy of the United States.

It is not surprising that the United States and Brazil, the two countries most similar in history, have differences of opinion.For this difference, Brazil adopts an attitude of seeking common ground while reserving differences.Brazil and the United States have many differences on some important issues related to regional and global affairs, such as the coup in Honduras, the establishment of a military base in Colombia by the United States, the trip of the President of Iran to Latin America, and climate change.Brazilian President Lula has made it clear that he hopes to open up and establish new political alliances in a multipolar world, and has emphasized Brazil's independence in response to the strong position of the United States in Latin America.Lula's remarks stung the nerves of the United States and began to criticize Brazil. As a result, cracks began to appear in the always harmonious US-Pakistan relationship.Brazil is the core country in Latin America. As a pragmatic country, the United States will not set up the wrong enemy at the wrong time and in the wrong place.Seeing that Brazil is gradually alienating itself, the United States believes that it is not good for its own interests in Latin America, so it "sneaked glances" at Brazil again in order to mend relations.Obama said that Brazil is the "most important partner of the United States in Latin America" ​​and that the relationship between the United States and Brazil is "strong and will become stronger." He praised President Lula as "an admirable progressive leader in Latin America."After boasting about Brazil, the United States expressed its desire to establish a closer relationship with Brazil, but Brazil did not respond positively.After a series of conflicts, Brazil no longer tends to strengthen its relationship with the United States, but instead turns to find allies like France. In April 2009, at the "G4" summit held in London, Brazil put the United States aside and finalized Brazil's agenda at the Elysee Palace with France at the Elysee Palace.At the same time, on the issue of bomber purchases, Brazil also chose French fighters, which are more expensive but more convenient for technology transfer, instead of American fighters.

The United States and the United Kingdom have a continuous "blood" relationship, so their worldviews often coincide with each other.Just when the "World War II" was in full swing, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill uttered a famous saying - "There are only eternal interests but no eternal friends".This sentence later became the motto of the US government. Translated into the language of the United States, it is: There are no friends of the United States in the world, only the interests of the United States.Facing such a United States, it is completely understandable for Brazil to keep it at arm's length.

Unlike the United States, which does whatever it takes for self-interest, Brazil thinks of the overall interests of the region or the world.

On May 2010, 5, when the United States was fanning the flames in the Middle East with the Iranian nuclear issue as the theme, Brazil successfully mediated the Iranian nuclear crisis, extinguishing half of the flames fanned by the United States at once.After the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear crisis, Brazilian President Lula said: "This is a great day, this is a day of triumph for Brazil's diplomacy, this is a day for us to show the world that people can achieve peace and development through dialogue, because we have A million reasons to make peace and no reason to start war."

§§§The third quarter quietly rising Brazil
The world is optimistic about Brazil and has included it in the "Golden Four Countries".The rise of Brazil is not entirely due to its large GDP. In fact, Brazil's GDP ranks among the world's top 500 companies with great fluctuations.The rise of Brazil is reflected in the healthy transformation of its economic model, the continuous improvement of the international environment it has created, and the continuous improvement of its status in Latin America.The rise of these aspects is often much more important than the "rise" of GDP.The development of a country depends on the trend, just like the stock market, real stock investors look at the general trend of the stock, not the ripples on the K-line chart; only stock speculators will excessively pursue immediate benefits , Every beating of the ripples will make them overjoyed and sad, frightened, and always in a sub-healthy state.Brazil's economic development starts from the root cause, and gradually improves in the process of governance, and finally achieves the effect of "the peaches and plums don't talk, but the next will form a trail".

When we look at the rising Brazil now, it is difficult to imagine the turmoil in Brazil's past.Once upon a time, Brazil was one of the countries with the most prisoner riots in the world. Although it has a vast territory and abundant resources, it is a hopeless country that is regarded as a second-rate country by all countries in the world.Just when people lost hope for Brazil, it has appeared in front of the world with a new image after nearly 10 years of silent efforts.After seeing the great changes in Brazil, the United Nations praised with relief that the Brazilian government has given the most precious thing in the world to the Brazilian people, and this most precious thing is "hope for the future".

The rise of Brazil does not pursue the rise of a certain field like some other emerging economies, but the pursuit of overall prosperity.This comprehensiveness is reflected in Brazil's trinity national revitalization strategy.The Trinity refers to: fully enhance the country's economic strength; vigorously promote the integration of the South American region; and actively cooperate with emerging powers.Therefore, Brazil, which has been labeled as a "future power" for decades, began to strengthen its economic foundation, create new regional alliances, and build its own international platform. Finally, the Brazilian people really felt their bright future.

Brazil's achievements are obvious to all.For 11 consecutive years, Brazil's Gini coefficient has continued to decline, and the gap between the rich and the poor has continued to narrow, which means that the distribution of social wealth has become more reasonable, and the labor income of the middle and lower classes has continued to increase.In 2008, Brazilian President Lula proposed the "Zero Hunger Plan", setting the goal of reducing the proportion of the country's poor population by half.Brazil has performed a miracle compared to the forced concentration of wealth adopted by some emerging countries to build a great power.In many emerging countries, industrialization and urbanization have been vigorously promoted, and the arable land has been reduced at an unstoppable rate, leading to the emergence of "food security" problems; while Brazil, an emerging country, has become the "breadbasket of the world" in the process of its rise. More soybeans, sugar, coffee, fruits, cotton, chicken, etc. are being sold to the global market.At the same time, in some emerging countries, in order to obtain the world's advanced technology, they do not hesitate to sell their domestic market and give privileges to foreign-funded enterprises. However, even so, the "market for technology" strategy has completely failed. Not only did they fail to obtain advanced technology, they even His own citizens were also sold in and became the cheapest wage earners in the world.Brazil has not followed this path, but its technology can compete with the world's leading powers. Its large aircraft manufacturing technology is only slightly inferior to that of Boeing of the United States and Airbus of France. In some fields, some aspects have already taken the lead in the world, and more than 90% of Brazil's industrial products are self-sufficient.In terms of resources, Brazil also has outstanding performance. Relying on its rich oil resources, Petrobras has made the world's most profitable oil giants look sideways; Brazil's Vale Corporation controls half of the world's iron ore market.

Brazil has achieved outstanding results in shaping its regional status.In recent years, Brazil has gradually got rid of its dependence on the United States and began to say "no" to the United States.In order to maintain the stability of the Latin American region, Brazil has made a strong voice in regional affairs and initially established a leading position.For example, Brazil actively advocated the establishment of the "Latin American and Caribbean Community" without the participation of the United States and Canada, which promoted the integration process of Latin America. At the same time, Brazil urged the United States to lift trade sanctions against Cuba, mediate the territorial dispute between Peru and Ecuador, and resolve It played an active role in the coup d'etat in Honduras and the easing of the Falklands dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina.Brazil has now become the de facto leader of Latin America.

Internationally, Brazil has shown its influence not to be underestimated.In particular, the world political arena in 2010 has almost become a "special event" for Brazil.The Iran issue is a headache for all countries, and the cause of this headache is multifaceted.First of all, because of the daunting and destructive power of nuclear weapons, no country hopes that there will be nuclear weapons in the world, let alone countries that do not have nuclear weapons.Therefore, if Iran wants to test and manufacture nuclear weapons, the whole world will not be happy.In addition, nuclear weapons, as the only weapons capable of super-mass destruction in the world, once they spread and fall into the hands of "terrorists", the consequences will not be comparable to the "9·[-]" disaster.

When countries around the world were at a deadlock over the Iranian nuclear issue, and the United States was threatening to show its sword in the Gulf, eager to try, in May 2010, Brazil and Turkey jointly presented to the international community a coveted Iranian uranium enrichment agreement, making this Iran nuclear crisis eased.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the political and economic map of the world must be redrawn, and all powerful countries must be the "writers".Brazil has shown great intelligence in this scramble. In June 2003, initiated by Brazil and supported by other two countries, the "Triple Dialogue Forum" composed of South Africa, India and Brazil was established. This forum later became an important member of the "Basic Four" to solve global climate issues.

In 2010, Brazil hosted the "BRIC" summit, which drew people's attention away from the just-concluded US nuclear security summit and stole the show.Also in 2010, Brazil returned to the "Group of 77" and became one of the leaders of this group.In addition, Brazil is also a member of G5, G8+5, G20 and other groups. Its discourse power and influence in the international system have soared, and it is becoming an increasingly active global country on the international stage.At the G2009 summit held in September 9, French President Nicolas Sarkozy revealed a tone of news in a somewhat "gossip" manner, saying that Lula would run for the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

In this regard, Lula's foreign policy adviser Garcia said that this possibility is not ruled out.Lula is noncommittal about his running for UN Secretary-General, but he does have an inclination to devote himself to international peace affairs.Lula joked during a visit to the Middle East: "I carried the virus of peace in my womb."

Due to the sudden emergence of Brazil, the world has to look at it with admiration. On May 2010, 5, Germany's Handelsblatt published an article by Latin American journalist Alexander Busch entitled "Undervalued Great Powers".Busch said that Brazil's economy has been developing at an annual growth rate of nearly 20% in the past five years, and the economic growth rate has exceeded the population growth rate; since 5, with the growth of GDP, Brazil has created 4 million new job opportunities every year. Refers to formal work, not "temporary work": Brazil implemented the "Family Subsidy" social assistance program, which increased the purchasing power of the poor and reduced the gap between rich and poor.All of this shows the gold content of Brazil's economic growth.

Brazil has gone to the world, but if it wants to do more, it needs a more influential international platform.Since "Goldman Sachs" put forward the concept of "BRIC" in 2003, it has created an unexpected international platform for Brazil.With the popularity of this concept in the world, Pakistan, Russia, India, and China have become the focus of world attention.With the deepening of the world's attention to Brazil, Brazil's economic strength and political status in recent years have also begun to be known to people. Compared with the Pakistan-India-South (Brazil, India, South Africa) trilateral committee, the "BRIC" has more golden light. Therefore, Brazil actively participates in dialogue and cooperation among the other three countries of the "BRIC" and actively promotes the development of this dialogue. Mechanization process.

In 2010, Brazil ranked 15719th in the global GDP ranking with US$8 billion, leaving Russia and India behind, but there is still a considerable gap with China.It is normal to have a gap, because China is the third largest country in the world, while Brazil is only the fifth largest country in the world.If it is compared to per capita GDP, then Brazil's ranking will leave China far behind. In 8, Brazil's per capita GDP was US$2010, second only to Russia (7737th), ranking 54th, while China only ranked 60th, and India ranked 99th.Brazil, as the fifth largest country in the world, bowed down to the eighth largest economy in the world, so naturally it will not be satisfied.For this reason, Brazil has long positioned its development goal as the fifth largest economy in the world.

Brazil's achievements are obvious to all. It is definitely a mistake to underestimate Brazil, but it is also a mistake to overestimate it.First, Brazil's government spending has grown faster than the economy. Since September 2008, federal government wages have risen by 9%, but too little has been invested in the private and public sectors.

(End of this chapter)