03/02/2007 4:20:16 pm
Back! After a month with my wife and daughter in Brazil, I am back in Sweden. It was really a great time off, strongly recommended. After all, one has to remember what is number one in life and what comes second and third.

Of course one cannot claim to know such an enormous country as Brazil well after one month. But naturally, there are observations that one can make. We visited three states - Brazil is a federation - in the North-East, which are all quite poor.

Brazil is fascinating. Extremely diverse, passionate, colourful and very friendly. But also a country of poverty, crime and racial divisions. A visitor gets to see all the strikingly positive things directly, and the other seem to appear from time to time later.

There is a lot of poverty around the countryside, and one wonders why. What obstacles are in the way for people to get better lives? After all, poverty is falling sharply in many countries. Of course the bureaucracy surrounding most things is overwhelming. And corruption in the administration is there.

In one place, iut took several days for the bank to repair the only cash machine. All the restaurants there suffered - and most likely the bank too. Why did it take so long? Well, the financial sector is heavily regulated and international competition is limited.

The recent elections were apparent in many places. Still, old posters were there, of Lula and his competitors. Positive to see such a vast and rather poor country but a well functioning democracy. Far out in the countryside there were posters.

Anyway, the trip was more about family, experiences, sun and carneval than about economics and politics. But now back to business.