BRASIL
Population: 182,032,604
Area: 8,511,965 sq. km.
Economy: In 2002, Brasil ranked 72nd on the UN's Human Development Index survey and 9th in total GDP, with a per capita GDP of $7,612. In 2001, 75.44% of its revenues went to foreign debt service and in 1998, 22% of its population lived in poverty.
Main Language: Portuguese
Monkey's Name: O Macaco (Oh Ma-kah-koo)
Fun Fact: In contrast to the revolutionary campaigns its colonial neighbors waged to boot the Spanish Crown, Brasil won independence though more peculiar means. As Napoleon's French armies advanced on Portugal, King João VI opted to head for more secure surroundings, setting up the Portuguese Empire's new capital in Rio de Janeiro. When João returned to Portugal 12 years later to defend his rule there, he left his son Pedro I as Regent of Brasil. In 1822 when the Portuguese Crown refocused its attention on colonial control of Brasil, Pedro I declared Brasil independent and himself Emperor of Brasil. This "Empire of Brasil" would last, under Pedro I and his son, Pedro II, until a republic was declared in 1889.
The only trouble is that the Monkey's photographer was practically AWOL on both trips! O Macaco's Brasilian odyssey was barely documented, and unfortunately he has few photos to share with you from his time in Brasil. The Monkey hopes you enjoy what little he does have, and he is certain that a return visit to Brasil (with photographer in tow) is in the offing soon.
Brasil is Latin America's largest country, with more than half the landmass of South America and almost half of Latin America's population, and is often viewed as Latin America's first would-be superpower. It has the eighth largest economy in the world, producing everything from fruit and gems to jet aircraft, computers, high fashion, and pharmaceuticals. Brasil is also an environmental treasure, home to the world's largest rain forest, the second longest river (in both cases, the Amazon), one of the biggest freshwater wetlands on earth (the Panatanal), and the highest quantity of primate, amphibian, and plant species of any country. Culturally, it is a fascinating blend of indigenous peoples, old (Portuguese) and new (German, Italian, and other) European transplants, Africans (many the descendents of its slaves), and significant Japanese and Middle Eastern immigrant populations. Brasilian music and dance are renowned the world over. And it's also the best footballing nation on earth.
But for all these superlatives, Brasil also has its troubles. It has one of the highest income disparity rates in the world. And with an outstanding foreign debt of $251 billion (2001), a sum only exceeded by that of the United States (that enjoys heavy influence on the international financial institutions and is therefore not put under the same sort of pressure that developing countries are to pay off its foreign debt), Brasil's prospects for long-term prosperity and fulfillment of its latent superpower status remain doubtful. Still, through greater regional integration, such as in the Mercosur trade bloc with Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay, Brasil and its partners may be in a position to assert themselves as rivals to the economic and political powerhouses of the North.
It remains to be seen which path Brasil is blazing, but in the meantime O Macaco is filled with saudade (the Brasilian word combining a sense of longing with melancholy) for Brasil. Mais, ele vai voltar…
O Macaco takes in Brasilia's space-age skyline.
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