Brazil, a land of future?

I arrived to Brazil to start a personal life project in April 2007. I had been dazzled a year earlier by the "boiling point" at which a small fishing village in the northeast of the country, known as Praia de Pipa, was . Unknown until mid-90s for the international tourist, Pipa was the hidden gem for surfers and hippies that fully enjoyed it until its boom of the mid 2000s.

I was finally convinced for my leap by Stefan Zweig's book "Brazil, land of the future". Written around the year 1940 by the celebrated Austrian writer, I found therein a series of arguments and insights of the author about the energy and the willingness of the Brazilian people to thrive and enjoy their privileged land. Zweig unfolds in the chapters of his book the keys of his believe, by the late 30s of last century, that Brazil would become one of the leading countries at all levels in the World that had to come after the 2nd World War . What amazed of this work was the ability of the author 70 years ago to make a portrait of the country that in 2007 was perfectly valid. And that was my biggest misperception ... Moved by and excessive optimism and a personal future plan that seemed clear had to go through an "adventure" on South American soil, I did not realized something squeaked seriously if a portrait of the country published in 1941 could be considered as so current for the present.

What can I highlight of my stay in Brazi today? Slightly positive things, really. One faces here continuously a senseless bureaucracy and shortsighted rickety where every pending procedure you face yo know when it starts but you never know when or how it will end. It's just the normal way of doing things of a country of conformist people who are not given to protest the attitude of government officials and public servants who do not respect time and work of their fellow citizens. The procedures to start a business are a sight of colonial economies of two centuries ago and any gesture of protest or outrage from the user of a service does nothing but making it all more difficult since such thing serves only to waste even more time . Foreign entrepreneurs and executives who came to Brazil in recent years will hardly not agree with this statement.

Another chapter deserve labor practices and legislation. The excessive zeal shown by the government in protecting worker rights is mostly a veil that hides a legislative reality that promotes continuous turnover due to excessive and unaffordable cost for the employer to hold a worker for more than two years. The cost of dismissal is so high after such period that very few mid and small empoyers are willing to take the risk. The main consequences of this situation are the distrust of this employer to its employees and little commitment to projects and company´s future  in the medium to long run. The work environment becomes a forced and false coexistence where everyone is going to look after their interests and where it is difficult to draw valid targets beyond "getting by" and "tomorrow will be another day." Clearly we are not facing an encouraging picture for the foreign entrepreneur, used to work in a much more serious and committed atmosphere.

After a time living and working in Brazil you realize how unprepared this country is to compete. With its access to an almost inexhaustible source of natural resources, Brazil had not yet to face what means havings to be better than others to persevere (exception is the sports world, where it seems national pride is completely overturn). If someday domestic demand slackens and the country has to compete outside of its borders to "make a living", we will see how hard theis struggle to be competitive is. The country seems to evolve at a pace that is not sustainable for the rest, with an  exception as China. But we seem to be a few generations away from reaching that point, and we have arrived to a time in our history when everything evolves so fast that no one dares to be ominous beyond what its modest perception of reality allows.