When (in 2011) Brazil overtook
UK as the sixth-largest economy in the world, the Brits were furious!
“How can a South-American country overtake UK's economically?”
many were asking. In this expression “South-American country” we
could feel lots of bad feelings and prejudices. Anyhow, since then
the UK media have been showing only the bad side of Brazil.
To be very honest, and as a
Brazilian myself, people in Brazil do not really care about what the
Brits say regarding us. As long as they are not in Brazil talking
badly about Brazil, it does not bother us. We continue to grow and be
happy, even in the favelas!
This situation only shows one thing: nowadays Europe
(and UK as an example) lost its way in the world scenario and it is
without clear solution to the serious economic problems.
In the past these problems would be resolved by
taking from the colonies, but today the ex-colonies are getting
economically more important in the world scenario and are the ones
who give the cards in the world game.
The created traditions of Europe (like producing that
specific cheese in that specific town by that specific family) are
destined to end. There is a clear absence of creativity and a lack of
improvisation in European cultures, something that does not exist in
the developing nations. These invented European traditions do not
have justifications to exist anymore and they can not survive with
public subsidies. The economic inactivity and the peoples` reluctance
for changes are problems that the Europeans need to face seriously.
The so famous welfare state proves that it is in need
of reformulation as the European states do not have enough money to
sustain it for very long! The percentage of public debts by GDP of
the industrialized economies is huge! The economic growth of European
countries is small, if not negative. How are they going to pay for
such welfare in the coming years?
Also, China and Brazil (or other developing country)
hosted or are going to host big world events. The constructions to
these events follow a Chinese or Brazilian pace. This pace can be
understood as: in the beginning we use some people to show that we
are working on the constructions and when the period for completion
is ending we put 25.000 people to work. End result: the constructions
are ready on time!
This way of thinking about time is different from
Western Europeans. Europeans deal on the level of infrastructure,
while Chinese and Brazilians deal on the level of superstructure.
But the problems persists: There are no colonies
anymore to take the money (or valuable goods) from. By the way: The
British Empire does not exist anymore!!!
30/04/2014
