Brasileros

Last summer on a trip to South America, I spent a week in Curitiba checking out its innovations, both the ones it is famous for and new ones.

In the hostel I stayed at were both foreigners and Brazilians from Rio and Sao Paolo and other parts of the country. I talked with a young computer programmer from Sao Paolo in his 20s, he said he had just been to Atlanta for a computer conference. We talked about differences between Brazil and the US.

He said, "In the US, people go into government to represent people. Here, people go into government to make money."

I told him there is definitely corruption in US politics, lobbyists and pork. But now we hear that 2/3 of Brazil's congressmen are under some type of probe or investigation, including the President and the next two in line.

"You guys are trying to figure out how to regulate the internet, we're trying to get rid of corruption," he said.

Brazil has a huge mix of rich and poor but has made a lot of progress in reducing poverty. It is an industrial and agricultural giant. All the hard work the Brazilian people have put in to achieve this success is one of the reasons they are so fed up with the corruption in Operation Car Wash and the misuse of funds by Dilma Roussef, who is likely on her way out.

Whoever takes over Brazil's leadership after Roussef has a big task, to somehow unify this divided giant and create an atmosphere of transparency in a country long ruled by elites for elites but which now has a huge middle class.