In the Big Leagues

04/15/2014 - 16h32

The World Cup and the Olympics mean one thing. It means Brazil is now playing in the big leagues. And the attention that comes with this is unavoidable and is already proving to be very uncomfortable.

The problem is compounded by the parochialism of Brazilian politics. It was only a matter of time before the New York Times would run a front page story on the history of unfinished uncompleted and grotesquely wasteful mega projects in Brazil.

There is of course a long history of such endeavours.

Some like the construction of Brasilia did in the end work. But Brasilia nevertheless came with a very hefty price tag. So it is not surprising that one of the mega stadiums with very little hope of ever seeing a return on the investment, much less for its future use, should be the football stadium in Brasilia.

The election calendar makes matters worse. Already the competition for president is much more open and unpredictable that it had once seemed to be. And the cumulative impact of multiple scandals, fairly or not, is certainly already taking its toll on the reputation of all the leading candidates.

And the ambiguity of Brazil's world role is also beginning to cause complications. It is simply not enough to seek to be everyone's friend. The world is much too complicated for that.

Brazil has refrained from taking a position on the Russian seizure of the Crimea. Dilma Rousseff wishes to have the next summit of the BRICS take place in Brazil. Vladimir Putin may even attend the World Cup. But this will not please the US and Western Europe.

And Venezuela is an increasingly complicated neighbour. As is Argentina. Again this is perhaps unavoidable given Brazil opposition to the US lead idea of a Free Trade Area of the Americas. But that is past history.

The consequent rise of a Pacific group of like minded free trading Latin American nations finds Brazil, however, locked into a dysfunctional, protection minded, grouping of its own. Which may be ideologically satisfying to the PT. But it does very little to promote Brazil's role in an very competitive world.

Perhaps Brazil will win the World Cup and all will be forgiven. After all God is said to be Brazilian.