Pope
Francis is in Brazil this week. His visit is related to the "World
Youth Day", an opportunity to preach the faith to thousands of young
people in the largest Catholic country in the world.
You
will see images of Pope Francis greeted by many well-wishers and happy
faces. However, there is a lot of anger in Brazil and the Pope won't
avoid it:
1) The population is fed up with prices and the high cost of living. I could not believe this information from this week's NY Times:
"Shoppers
here with a notion of what items cost abroad need to brace themselves
when buying a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone: the same model that costs $615
in the United States is nearly double that in Brazil. An even bigger
shock awaits parents needing a crib: the cheapest one at Tok & Stok
costs over $440, more than six times the price of a similarly made
item at Ikea in the United States.
For
Brazilians seething with resentment over wasteful spending by the
country's political elite, the high prices they must pay for just about
everything -- a large cheese pizza can cost almost $30 -- only fuel
their ire. "
Wonder what we would say if we had to pay $30 for a large pizza?
2) Brazil is not as Catholic as it used to be:
"While
Brazil still has more Catholics than any other nation -- an estimated
123 million -- rising secularism and the fast-growing Protestant
churches have challenged centuries of Catholic supremacy in Latin
America's largest country. Only 65 percent of the Brazilian population
now identifies itself as Catholic, down from 92 percent in 1970." (NY Times)
3)
Brazilians are really angry at the lack of priorities. They've
watched their government spend millions of dollars in preparations for
the World Cup and Olympics. However, public services, from bus service
to health care, have not received the same attention.
This is from a young man in the streets:
""We've
got nothing against the pope," said Christopher Creindel, a 22-year-old
art student from Rio who was protesting outside the palace. "This
protest is against our politicians." "
Pope
Francis did not choose Brazil for his foreign tour. However, there
are many in Brazil who see his visit as a double blessing:
They get to cheer the new and very popular Pope from neighboring Argentina, and,
They get to tell the world's media about the problems in their country.
Many
of us were wrong about Brazil. We've been hearing about all of the
growth and boom. However, we are now learning that there are a lot of
Brazilians left out.
It's
the old "macro vs micro" problem. The "macro" looks good to
economists in the world's universities or investors in Wall Street.
However, the "micro" does not, specially if you are part of the lower
middle classes in Brazil.
Or as Tip O'Neill once said: "All politics is local". We are seeing that in Brazil!
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