“Brazil, the rising star” on CBS 60 minutes show

The American tv network CBS produced last December a special report about Brazil for the 60 minutes show. It is a fair Brazil 101 with interviews of Eike Batista, CEO of the holding EBX International and #1 fortune in the country and Lula, former president who was then in office.

Batista says that Brazil is an important China supplier  and will benefit from its growth. Lula jokes that the country needed a metal worker to make capitalism launch, because it was a capitalist country with no capital, until he arrived in power. (He loves to say: “never before in the history of this country..” ) He forgets to mention that this was possible because of the Cardoso administration reforms.

The show tackles on fundamental issues to understand this immense and diverse country. For one, the Brazilian peaceful ethos, no wish to go to war, no nuclear weapons. It also mentions the local paradigm of time: Brazilians are always late and don’t mind it. My personal view?  Anglo-Saxon understand that time is a limited resource, not us. Because it is endless, why rush?  This a clash of worlds but I’d say that many people going to Brazil today will be surprised. Things are changing. There are Brazilians who arrive on time, specially in the financial industry.

The show also mentions Brazilian urging challenges: infra-structure, transport, urban planning, the favelas and urban violence.

This version below has Portuguese subtitles and is available from You Tube but on the CBS website you can also watch interesting extra videos with Eduardo Bueno and Eike Batista.