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Through my job I have spent a considerable amount of time in various locations throughout Brazil over the years. From the first time I arrived in that country I knew all my stereotypes and misperceptions had just flown out the window.
There are still many stereotypes out there regarding Brazil: Its all a jungle, everybody plays soccer, everybody is dark skinned, everybody walks around naked with monkeys on their shoulders, etc.....
The closer I grow to Brazil the more those stereotypes hurt. Luckily I work in the International Business field and directly with Brazil, so I am in a position to stomp out those misperceptions quickly. So here I would like to offer everybody a taste of this wonderful country by showcasing some pictures of various cities which I know are bound to baffle many with the above stereotypes.
For whatever reason I can't link the threads directly here, mods? HELP?? But if you just copy and paste the URL starting with the http and ending with the numbers; then you can see the amazing pictures. Hopefully a mod or somebody can fix this!
And here are some interesting facts about Brazil which will further introduce you to this amazing country, bet you didn't know:
Brazil has the 8th largest economy of the world and that, in 20 years, will become the 4th largest economic power, competing for this position with France, Italy and Great Britain?
Brazil's Aerospace company, EMBRAER, is the world's 3rd largest aircraft producer and manufactuer exporting their regional jets to all continents. EMBRAER jets make up the entire fleet of many of the United States airlines such as Jetblue, Expressjet, American Eagle, Republic Airlines, and various United affiliates.
Brazil, along with the United States is the world's only true melting pot with a number of different races and ethnicities living side by side. In Brazil, the population is: 55% White(European decent mainly Italian, Portuguese, German, and Polish) 38% Mixed White/African, 5% African(concentrated mainly in the Northeast of the country) and 1% Asian(the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan is in Brazil) and 1% other which includes the world's largest Lebanese population, and the 3rd largest Jewish population
That the GDP grew, on average, 4% a year from 1994 to 1996, in comparison to only 0.22% in the period of 1990 to 1993, and that, in 2000, growth was 4.6%
That Brazil's unemployment rates are lower than the Europeans? That in Italy, for example, the jobless rate is 12% and that in Brazil it was 4.8% in December of 2000
That during the Second World War Brazil sent 25,000 soldiers to Italy to fight the Nazi-fascists? That 500 of them died fighting in Italy defending democracy? That, in Pistoia, Italy, there is a cemetery for those Brazilian soldiers?
That Brazil is in seventh place in number of computers and at the moment is the world's biggest informatics market?
That Brazil is in fifth place in purchasing power, behind only the United States, China, Japan
That Brazil's middle class consists of 35 million families, according to the IBGE? In other words, Brazil's middle class is 8% bigger than the population of Germany, and bigger than the sum of the populations of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Island, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Brazil's middle class is bigger than the population of France and Canada added together. It is equal to one-third of the population of the United States or 72% of the population of Japan
That, according to the World Bank, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Russia will be the nations with the highest development rates in the next 25 years
That Brazil is responsible for 42% of the GDP of Latin America and that the GDP of Argentina is the same as that of the interior of the state of São Paulo (excluding the metropolitan region); and that the GDP of Chile is equal to that of Greater Campinas metropolitan area (a city in the state of São Paulo)
That, of the 500 largest corporations of Latin America, 300 are Brazilian; 80 are Mexican; 60 are Argentinean; and 30 are Chilean?
That capital goods (machinery and equipment) for the construction industry, the electric energy sector and for mixed purposes expanded, in the last 4 years, 49%, 17% and 9%, respectively
That the Mercosur economic bloc - of which Brazil is a member, together with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay - has a GDP of US$ 1.141 trillion, occupies 10% of the surface of the American continent and possesses a population of 212 million inhabitants (26% of the continent's total population
That Brazil is responsible for 30% of the earnings of the coffee sector in the world, 20% of soybean, 8.5% of chicken, 4.5% of footwear, 3.2% of steel and 2.9% of automobiles?
That supermarkets, in 1999, earned US$ 35 billion, with 55,300 stores, 670,000 direct jobs and 2 million indirect ones, being responsible for 85% of food supply in the country
That, between 1990 and 1999, 4,900,000 businesses were constituted, of which 2.7 million (55.1%) are considered micro and small-sized?
That their production represent nearly 20% of the GDP, 60% of jobs and 30% of the gross sum of the nation's industrial production?
Hope you all enjoyed this little tour of Brazil. Leave comments and let me know what you think!!
Last edited by BlueYonder; 11-18-2007 at 01:54 PM..
Location: The world, where will fate take me this time?
3,162 posts, read 11,436,860 times
Reputation: 1463
Brazil is simply awesome man, it's a huge country, full of different cultures and ethnicities, with a growing middle class, an improving economy and loads of natural resources.
It also has an advanced concept in city planning and design, specially in states like parana, all cities are beautiful and impressive with a quality of life rarely found in the world.
And the best? is that people is warm and welcoming, there's no prejudice to foreign visitors or immigrants, this is a country who is worth to follow closely
This thread makes it sound like it's without problems, which I'd strongly disagree with. There are a lot of social problems and severe poverty along with it.
BUT, I do love Brazil very much. I lived there for six months years ago, and had a strong desire to just emigrate there and never leave (if I had saved enough money to have done that!)
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