Opinion: Roots of (the New) Brazil

03/23/2015 - 10h48

The roots of Brazil's problems go deep.

After the failure of nearly all of Brazil's hereditary captaincies (when it still was a colony), Portugal appointed the first governor-general of Brazil, Tomé de Sousa, in the sixteenth century.

As all of the proprieties belonged to the king at that time, and virtually every Portuguese living here was working for the king, a statist regime became the origin of our economy.

Brazil began as a gigantic state-owned company. To meet the needs of his employees, the governor-general created an intendance which supplied everything to the inhabitants of the colony: food, medicine, provisions, etc.

Tomé de Sousa thought it was best to choose a person whom he trusted completely for the position of intendant - his chambermaid. Despite his very low salary, the chambermaid soon acquired a considerable fortune. Then he built the first high-quality residence in Salvador, Bahia, where he received the influential people.

Only one thing annoyed Tomé de Sousa - the intendant's house was better than his own. The intendant solved the problem by building a new and comfortable house for himself.

Through his relationship with the governor, the intendant made his way up to the point of owning a farm that began in Salvador and ended in Sergipe, one thousand kilometers from the coast. He was the richest man in Brazil for a long time and, from then on, he established a noble lineage.

Praia do Forte, a beach near Salvador, was named after one of the houses he lived in, and a street in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro, was named after the intendant himself – Garcia d'Ávila street. Some of the streets in the same neighborhood were named after descendants of his noble lineage.

This story clearly shows the formation of the country, its culture, its governmental structure, the excessive participation of the government and the origin of the current ethical issues.

Brazil has developed extensively since that time. It received new groups of immigrants through the centuries and slowly became a modern industrial society.

This society is now demanding different values and a more efficient and productive economy, with competitive rules to generate an increase in production, wealth and quality of life for the people.

It also demands an ethical and transparent government which can reflect the country's growth, the expansion of its economy and the rise of a numerous and educated middle class -where many of those demands arise.

This evolution has led to a shock of values between the Brazil of the past and the new national perplexity.

The people's reaction demanding ethics, transparency and efficient work shows that the country is finally entering the modern world and once again glimpsing a future that seemed lost in recent years, after the fall produced by the "new economic matrix" and the excessive increase of the government.

HENRIQUE MEIRELLES writes this column on Sundays.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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