Here is some data no one really concerned with Brazil should neglect.
I took it from a text by Clovis Rossi (Folha de S.Paulo). He wrote, under "Brasil vota, pobre mais feliz" (Brazil votes poor but happy), in the editorial page, on the Sunday of the election: (actually, I ended up translating most of the text. So, dear readers, enjoy this exclusivity.)
...half of the voters earn, at most, two minimum salaries (about 500 dollars a month. Ya, the two amount to that.)
Ironically, he adds that "it would be necessary to tortue the facts to say that they belong to the middle class"..
..."ten percent of the voters are really poor - earn less than one minimum salary" (thus, less than 250 dollars a month).
"Also in the chapter of education, poverty is radical: 49 percent of voters accomplished, at most, the fundamental level."
"In this country by which the international media is so much seduced, more than 60% of its students do not show the suitable competence in science. In a recent study, Brazil appears in the 52nd position among 57 in that issue."
"Any surprise when the 7 or 8th world economy is only the 75th when its human development index is measured (int)"
"We should not be afraid of the words: the Brazil that goes to the polls is a poor country; an obscenely poor country in face of its natural resources, territory and population."
"It's also obscenely unequal, despite the legend that inequality has decreased.
It's impossible to reduce inequality in a country that allocates to Bolsa Familia (Family Grant) (12.6 million families) only R$ 13.1 billion and, to the Treasury bond holders, the fortune of R$ 380 billion or 36% of the 2009 Budget."
(more irony...) "Still, it's a country happier now than eight years ago or 16. Easy to understand (why): "The poor just wants a little piece of bread, while the rich, more often than not, when leans against us, wants a billion." - has already taught us our master Lula."
Well, people are probably happier because they are buying more cosmetics!
