President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva: Brazilians are close to fulfilling the potential they always believed would be theirsMAURICIO LIMA/AFP / Getty Images
Kesterton's Brazil
- The country's abundance of natural resources includes land so rich that it reaps at least two harvests a year.
- Over the past 16 years, poverty has been significantly reduced and 31 million Brazilians lifted into the middle class.
- The country's complex tax system taxes not only incomes and profits, but costs as well.
- Brazil has won the right to host the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
- Millions of poor Brazilians live in city slums. The country's humane society, unable to raise the funds for an animal shelter, has built a special slum for dogs.
( Michael Kesterton writes the daily Social Studies column in the Globe and Mail, for the G20 Summit he's contributing useful facts and information on member nations)
World Cup
- Odds: 11:2
- Team nicknames: Seleção (The Selection); Canarinhos (Little Canary) and Verde e Amarelo (Green and Yellow).
- Star players: Kaka, Robinho, Julio Cesar, Maicon
- Globe Sports: Group G news archive
Culture
Top cultural exports: Paulo Coelho, novelist; Heitor Villa-Lobos, classical composer; Carmen Miranda, singer and actress; dance and musical genres (the Samba and the Bossa Nova) (The Girl From Ipanema)
Food: Feijoada, a stew of black beans with beef, bacon, pork and sausage served with rice. It is considered Brazil's national dish.
Notable Canadian relation: Roberto Minczuk, music director of the Calgary Philharmonic; Tony Menezes, national men's soccer team member, born in Canada, raised in Brazil.
Speed Limit: Maximum speed limit on major divided highways: 120 km per hour. Speed limits are widely ignored and rarely enforced. (Source: U.S. Dept. of State International Travel web site)
National pastime: Soccer, beack volleyball
Politics
President: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
- Age: 64
- Party: Workers' Party (PT)
- Elected: October 29, 2006
- Legislature: Bicameral, elected Chamber of Deputies, elected Senate
- Political System: Presidential
Background: Touted as the "most popular politician on Earth" by U.S. President Barack Obama, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has become a national hero with his working class roots. He has no formal education and was only 14 years old when he began working at a copper pressing factory.
The Brazilian President nurtured a thriving economy when neighbouring ones were ailing. Mr. da Silva has boosted the economy while redistributing wealth to the poor helping over 19 million Brazilians escape poverty during his two terms, says the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
Economy
Gross Domestic Product: $1.61-trillion
Jobless rate: 7.3 per cent
Gross government debt (as a percentage of GDP)
- 2000: 63.4
- 2009: 68.9
- 2015 (projected): 54.1
Sources: Bloomberg, IMF
NATION PROFILES
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