Brazil: Lula

Lula's great work as president has its roots in when he joined the labor union and rapidly rose up its ranks. But much more attention has been paid instead to his earlier years, like when he quit school after only a few years. This is a man of tremendous people skills, and he spent decades sharpening those skills. He is more labor leader than mechanic.

Brazil 2014

The Guardian: Brazil awarded 2014 World Cup: The Fifa president Sepp Blatter today confirmed that the 2014 World Cup will be staged in Brazil, who will host the tournament for the first time since 1950. .... Brazil were the only country bidding to host the finals .... five times world champions

Brazil's Lula

Brazil's Lula: The Most Popular Politician on Earth - Newsweek: grew up so poor, he didn't find out what bread was until he was 7 ..... made the 1,900-mile journey from the country's northeastern dustbowl for a life in the slums of São Paulo ..... dropped out of school in the fifth grade, shined shoes on the street, and went to work in a factory at 14, losing a finger to a lathe ...... rose through the rank and file to become an internationally respected union leader ..... practically shut down the continent's industrial powerhouse 
Image via Wikipediain the name of the steelworkers. ..... blunt, bearded ..... approval rating above 70 percent. .... "That's my man right there," Obama greeted him at the G20 summit in London in April. "The most popular politician on earth." ...... Brazil has withstood the global crisis better than almost any other nation: not a single bank went under, inflation is low, and the economy is growing ...... outpacing Russia and joining India and China ..... has repeatedly pumped up the minimum wage (up 67 percent since 2003 ...... long hours of practice have refined his shop-floor grammar and vocabulary ..... nothing vexes Lula more than being trapped in his office ..... 'I need to get out and travel, and meet people.' His connection is with the little guy. ...... likes nothing more than to ditch protocol, go off script, and (to the despair of his security detail) wade into an adoring crowd. ...... Starting in 1989, he ran for president three times, surging in early polls only to hit a wall on voting day. By the late '90s he was on the verge of quitting politics. Instead, he did something bolder: he remade himself. He stopped his fist-waving harangues, climbed into a suit, and hired a speech coach and a marketing wizard. ......... a "Letter to the Brazilian People," pledging to honor contracts, pay down the country's debts, abide by the International Monetary Fund's requirements, and generally play by the rules of the market. ....
Image via Wikipedia... To convince lenders Brazil was serious, Lula increased the "primary budget surplus"—the money the government puts aside every year to pay debt and interest—and boosted lending rates to a scorching 26 percent a year, throttling growth in order to kill inflation. He also kept government wages and pensions under control. "The unions and many people in the party hated it ........ was like a piece of blotting paper. ..... putting pragmatism ahead of ideology and, for the most part, fiscal restraint over the quick fix. .....With a web of hydroelectric stations and half its fleet of cars running on clean-burning sugar-cane ethanol, the country has long been the benchmark in renewable energy. ..... , exporting more beef, soybeans, and frozen chickens than any other nation ..... his aggressive diplomacy has rallied poorer nations to demand free trade and a new deal in the international economy. .......... his ability to sell unpalatable reforms to a largely poor population that looked to him as something of a savior ..... He gave the central bank a free hand to control inflation ....... He blamed the subprime market mess on "white-skinned, blue-eyed" bankers and ridiculed the champions of deregulation and the "minimal" state. "In the '80s and '90s it was fashionable to deride the state," he says. "But in the blink of the eye, the [free] market nearly bankrupted the world. And who did they go to for a bailout? The state." ...... He even defends the ham-fisted rule of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez. "Give me one example of how Venezuela is not a democracy!" ...... Then he turned the tables: why not hold the next G7 meeting in Brazil, he challenged. "After all, in 20 years maybe only three of you will still be around." Not everyone was amused.

Lula reminds me of my own Laloo. Laloo was also a self described "man of the people." It is India's misfortune that Laloo is no longer Railway Minister. Rahul Gandhi felt Laloo had prime ministerial ambitions, and so Rahul cut him to size in Laloo's home state of Bihar.

Brazil On Orkut

Image via CrunchBase

ReadWriteWeb: Facebook Growing Fast in Brazil, but Orkut Still far Ahead: Google's social network Orkut never quite caught on in most countries, but it remains the most popular social network in Brazil. .... Facebook is only the third most popular social networking site in Brazil .... The second largest social networking site in Brazil is Windows Live ...... Google's site remains far ahead of all of its competitors in Brazil. The site's visitors also spend far more minutes on the site than the users of any of the other popular social networks in Brazil. ..... average Orkut user spent 275.8 minutes on the site in August, while the average Facebook user only spent 29.3 minutes on Facebook. ..... the highest Twitter penetration in the world. Twitter is especially popular among younger users (15 to 24) ..... also interesting to note how popular the relatively new Q&A site formspring.me has become in Brazil. .... the fifth most popular social network in the country.

Brazil On Twitter

Image via Wikipedia

Time: Why Is Twitter So Popular in Brazil?: the regular appearance of Portuguese phrases on Twitter's popularity charts. ...... 23% of Internet users in Brazil — compared with 11.9% in the U.S. — visited Twitter this past August, the highest rate of participation by any country in the world .... In a country known for its vast gulf between the rich and poor, Twitter has managed to cut across the class divide. "It's not something that's just for rich Brazilians" ..... "The main reason Twitter is so huge in Brazil is because it gives access to normal people to contact their idols." ...... the country's soccer stars were among the earliest proponents of Twitter. ..... Twitter's success in Brazil .... is tied intimately to the history of the country's rise from the shadow of authoritarianism to its newfound status as a budding global power. ..... the fact that Brazil is away from the rest of the world motivates Brazilians ..... "There's a tremendous thirst to find out what the latest trend is." ..... Much of Brazil's transformation can be seen through the spread of telecommunications and the growth of social media...... Twitter, which entered the Brazilian market first as an SMS service. ..... the country's "Popular PC Project" of installing cheap computers in poorer areas has become a model the world over..... The civic participation of a once nonexistent middle class has also fueled Twitter's rise in Brazil. .... "There's a big bias in mass media against Lula" ..... the champion of Brazil's poor who himself only has a fourth-grade education. "The Internet's a way to fight back."
Image via CrunchBase .... Brazilians have taken to social-media websites other than Twitter. Google's social-media venture, Orkut, has found little success in the U.S., but in Brazil, the website was the beneficiary of 36 million unique visits in August, according to comScore. Facebook, too, is taking off in Brazil. In just one year's time, Facebook saw a growth of 479% in membership, leaping from 1 million to 9.5 million Brazilian members. It's a phenomenon that's planting deep roots. "My sister is 10 years old. My grandmother is 82," says Simas of MTV Brasil. "And they both have Twitter."