I haven't followed how Lula has been doing, in terms of keeping his promises. If anyone else knows, pls post.
We are developing a strong policy of income transfer to the poorest of the population. We made a commitment to build 1 million new houses for low-income [families]. We have almost $359 billion in infrastructure projects. From 1950 to 1980, Brazil grew at over 7% a year; one year 14%—more than China today. Nevertheless, what happened? There was no income distribution. The rich became even richer. The poor became very poor. Now we have reversed this game. We want to leverage the poor. The better off the poor are, the more we improve the lives of the business community.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_41...
But one of the things that came up when I was having a conversation with someone about the new economy in some of the South American nations where they are breaking out of the old system -- brown people like Chavez were always locked out of everything -- and the criticism that came up was that these new attempts would fail because they are lacking the infrastructure that's really necessary to move forward ecomonically, and they can't create that easily with the new economic models they are using. So if that's true, this could be a boost for at least Brazil's economy, which is potentially a huge plus.
Nothing is black and white -- there is corruption and intense poverty -- but they are rejecting the fascist model of the US and anything that can support them to keep that system alive is key.
There has never been an Olympics in South America so there was huge pressure to have it there, but apparently the Brazil committee put on an excellent presentation. Also, when Michelle Obama arrived, the security was so intense that the Olympic Committee members couldn't even get into the elevators to get up to their rooms, so one reporter (international, not US) was saying that couldn't have helped anything.
But who in their right mind would choose Chicago over Rio?? You'd have to be nuts.