Custom «Lulas Role In The Recent Development of Brazil» Essay Paper Sample

Many factors come into play when development is to be realized. Most countries in the world have developed at distinctive rates and in most cases, cultural beliefs and behavior of such a population comes in handy to determine how fast or slow such a country will advance. Culture of world populace in a particular region is depicted by attributes such as the behavior and what they hold dear to themselves.it is for this reason that some people are known to be lazy, others innovative and active to mention but just a few. Development cannot be achieved by merely having good strategies if they cannot be put into action. Things are easier said than done and this is why execution part plays an important role in goals achievement.

The geographical surrounding of Brazil has profoundly influenced the culture of its people. Culture refers to the pattern that is practiced by individuals over and over again. It is transferred from generation to generation, and it eventually becomes their way of life. Culture is manifested through a people's language, customs, literature, religion, art and costumes. However, its history reveals the role they played in their struggle for independence during colonization in the 15th century. Immigration, genocide and rivalry between powerful nations are the impacts that describe the history of this nation. Brazil is characterized by a fusion of cultures that resulted after the interaction of the practices between people from the Far East and those from the Middle East. This is mainly influenced by the fact that the country is located centrally along the trading routes. Their cultures also comprises of both some indigenous cultural practices and Western cultural practices.

Economically, Brazil has been on the fore front for economic growth. Most of its citizens are farmers who grow both subsistence food products. They sell the surplus hence making some extra money. It is also characterized by the large plantations in which sisal, sugar, oil palm, and rubber are grown extensively. These products are grown both for domestic use and for export. Therefore, through these export activities the country is able to earn foreign exchange. Also, due the existence of extensive forest plantation, timber is also processed for domestic use and for export. Natural gas, oil, aluminum, copper and gold are also exploited but mainly for export purposes. A 'dual-economy' in Brazil dates back to the colonial times.

This is a situation whereby the common people dealt mainly in agriculture for domestic purposes while the colonialists dealt in mining and export-oriented agriculture. Over the years, this kind of economy has not been fully eliminated from the country. Brazil has enjoyed substantial economic growth especially with the rise of industrialization. Production of goods and services for both export and domestic use increases rapidly. The continuous respectful relations with its neighbors have played a crucial role in ensuring that Brazil has maintained economic stability. These relations have ensured that the export industry in the country has slowly blossomed to being one of the best. This has resulted in the country earning a lot of foreign exchange. Its economic growth has been tremendous (Sluyter-Beltrão, 253).

However, this was different before Lula came into power. Brazil has vastly changed since 2003.  Lula da Silva was born in 1945 and serve as the president of Brazil as the 35th president from 2003-2011. He had tried to run for the presidency 3 times before he succeeded. He became the president of Brazil in 2002 and was again elected in 2006. He is considered to be the most   popular politician in Brazil's history. He was even ranked as the 100th most influential people in the world in time's magazine 2010. He married Maria de Lourdes who died of hepatitis. He later married Marisa who is his current wife, and they had three sons. Growing in a poor family, Lula strived to go to school, and he learnt to read at the age of ten. At the age of 12, Lula became a street vendor and a shoe shiner. He lost his finger in an accident while working in an automobile factory when he was 19 years old. This inspired him to participate in the workers union. He steadily and was elected as the president of steel workers union. He was jailed for a month after he was found guilty of conducting an illegal strike. This is when Lula began his political career.

Having being brought up in poor background, Lula had to live in the ghetto where he could afford.  Ghettos are formed in various ways such as, immigration whereby the immigrant group together and form a large family. This was mostly caused by racial discrimination where people of different ethnic group fight each other and freeing one another in other countries. There are also tribal conflicts that lead to war and displacement of people in their own country. This may be caused by post election violence, or even just antagonism between tribes. People were forced to camp in public land and build temporary camps just for shelter before peace is retained. As a result of camping, people begun trading among themselves and later they build a community whereby they depend on themselves. Ghettos have affordable things although they are of low quality. People find themselves migrating to ghettos just to live with their standard.

During those days, tribalism had increased the level of disunity among people, slowing down economic growth. Instead of uniting and sending away poverty, people of the same tribe or cultures were teaming to improve themselves and leave the others suffering. Cultural barriers are those barriers that arise as a result of the different cultures that exist in a certain locality. Some of the most common barriers to conducting business include; misunderstanding body language of different people, lack of trust between individuals of different cultures, different religious beliefs hence different perspectives of looking at things and differences in social habits between people of different cultural backgrounds. Medical standards were poor, and people constantly died of preventable and treatable diseases.

Apart from this, all sorts of crimes such as robbery, prostitution, and devil worshipping immensely increased. People were so desperate such that they did anything to cater for their bills. Unhygienic environment and poor working conditions contributed to contraction of diseases. The infrastructure was poor leading to poor growth and development of urban areas. Poverty had been the greatest influence of the immoralities. Lack of education and unemployment led to idleness, and as they say, "idle mind is devils workshop". Neighbors were turning against neighbors and siblings turning against each other all in the spirit of competition. The deep desire to succeed and be the best had transformed people. People were willing to go to extremes to succeed without considering the feelings of others. However, Lula controlled this by increasing job opportunities for youth. He knew that the youth have the potential to achieve the impossibilities, and if they are kept away from the society, this will increase the level of poverty leading to more crimes.

The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the head of state and the head of government. The president is voted into office via a majority vote in elections that are held every four years. The president has a maximum of two terms in office. The president symbolizes unity of the nation. This is because most of the people voted for the winner of the election. He, therefore, is a representation of the people's choice. He is the center of all activities in the state and enhances peaceful coexistence. Since he is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, he has the power to call upon the military in case of any insecurity issues. He protects the citizens by constantly ensuring that peace prevails throughout the entire state. It would be impossible for people to coexist peacefully if there was nobody in charge (Oakland, 295).

It is the role of the president to guard the economy so that there is tremendous economic growth. He should set example. A good leader is able to motivate and provide direction to his people. Leaders are able to influence people towards the desired direction, meaning they can as well be in a position to influence the culture of the people they are leading. It is paramount for leaders therefore to be innovative and farsighted to head their people towards the right direction as well as foreseeing where they would like them to be in years to come. Commitments, hard work, integrity and teamwork are some of the attributes that a leader can instill to people he leads, which in turn can enhance peoples commitment and dedication to uplift their living standards leading to development and improved lifestyle.

He has the responsibility to ensure that the policies that are implemented are such that they enhance economic growth and development. This implies that these policies increase the level of employment in the economy, reduce inflation, enhance favorable taxation systems and generally enhance the prosperity of the country at large. It is assumed that the president prioritizes the needs of his subjects. It would, therefore, be impossible for the United States to attain prosperity without the president to enhance implementation of economic growth oriented policies. Lula proved to be a responsible leader as president by not assuming any of his roles.

The president is also the chief executive of the cabinet. This means that he is the central figure in decisions of concerning the government. The cabinet consists of prominent American leaders. This implies that each and every one has their views on matters concerning the state. The president plays a significant role in ensuring that all views are heard and compressed into a common view. He coordinates the matters of the cabinet and thus ensures that Americans are governed by the best form of governance. If there was no person to coordinate the running of the cabinet, it would mean that there would be constant collision of ideas. Even though, the country had poor economic status, Lula was determined to change his country's status, despite being a Portuguese. 

Success can be defined as an accomplishment or completion of one's dreams and aspirations. It is also victory and prosperity of goals that are set by individuals. Success is attained in many ways, such as through election, exams, courtship, and in businesses. Humans have aspirations and goals in life that they want to achieve Success are only achieved after realization of the goals to be attained and working on them. It is also among the aspects that bring about happiness and contention. As such, Pincott describes what might seem to be a success to one person may not be a success to the other person (89).

After winning the elections of 2002, this marked the beginning of new life of Brazilian citizens. Lula promised to transform Brazil's economy, political system, and anything that slowed growth and development. to realize any development, many factors come into play. People must be convinced that the direction they are taking is the right one. People should also be motivated and be encouraged to work towards achieving the set goals since it is through and with others that makes goals to be achievable. He was not elected because of wealth or fame but the desire to change the face of Brazil. Brazil was wasting the opportunities it had in excelling. Lula's success in accomplishing his goals was as a result of respecting public opinion. Public opinion is a collection of ideas that different adults have. Public opinion was discovered and used in the 1580s by Montaigne.

The concept of public opinion was discovered when leaders were trying to win the contention of the public. One of the things that seek public opinion is for example, through election. It is the right of the citizens to let the opinion of the majority rule. The concept of trying to win the public opinion is politics. Genuine tolerance does not tolerate support for "repression". This is based on the fact that doing so ensures that marginalized voices will remain unheard. In few words, the will to fight from repression will always depend on an individual's ability to sustain brutality from repression till death. Otherwise, factors like predominance of needs and satisfactions will make an individual surrender his human rights for them. Therefore, we should not be willing to exchange our human rights for our own selfish gains because a single individual liberation is not actually full liberation (Hunter, 18-28).

Technology is among the facts that prove Brazil's developments, locally and internationally. These new discoveries have been aided by the availability of better learning facilities and equipment. These were not available in the early days. As scientists continue to discover and invent new equipment, the world is adapting them and incorporating them in the societies. As a result, the world we are living in is heavily dependent on inventions and machines to carry out tasks. Moreover, as a result of the advanced technology, people are getting more intelligent hence they are able carry out more researches of their own as well as make their own new inventions. In the past few years, Brazil has been on the fore front in creating new and the best technological equipment. Brazil has proved to have people with most creative minds, and have developed equipment that can survive in the changing environment. For instance, they have been able to create cars that can use water and solar panel instead of fuel (Baer, 153).

Brazil has also been the best producer of agricultural products. Its soil is good for growing a variety of crops such as rice, pyrethrum, maize, beans, coffee, tea, bananas, among other crops. Brazil is able to sufficiently provide food to its people, as well as earning foreign income for exporting its high quality products. Through the new technological techniques, Brazil has been able to deal with the severe weather condition, and is able to supply food even during the worst climatic conditions. Other nations have been seeking advice from them on how to succeed in farming.

According to the United Nations (UN) secretary general Kofi Annan, a developed country should have its people free, and safe from unhealthy conditions. By this, a developed country should have proper medical services and have organization protecting the health and safety of its people. Brazil has proved to be a stable country by providing proper medical facilities and services to its citizens. Due to over population in the past, Brazil could not provide quality medical services to people in rural areas. First-class medical facilities were only available in urban areas or big hospitals in rural areas. There is now free medical services for children and free medication for vital diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The government of Brazil has ensured that people with financial difficulties, can be provided with emergency medical services so as to secure their health and reduce the mortality rate.

Brazil has at least average living standard for people considered to be of lower class in the country. This means that people considered to be poor in Brazil can be of the average level in third-world countries. This has been enhanced by the high economic growth in the country. The lifestyle of Brazilian people is good such that there are muddy houses or non-educated people due to financial difficulties. According to recent studies, in other countries especially third-world countries, students have no classrooms, and are forced to study under trees despite the scorching sun. In other places, young girls are forced to stay at home in order to perform household chore while others are forced to drop out of school as young as 15years in order to get married. Young boys stay at home to herd livestock in order to have something to sell and get some money for food and clothes. In Brazil, this is prohibited, and it is against the law.

Poverty is one of the main problem that faced Brazilians, before Lula came into power. Brazil has disapproved to be among the developing countries by leading a stable and standard lifestyle. Developing nations are always unprepared, and depend on other countries for funds to deal with calamities. For instance, Brazil has severally experienced floods, drought and earthquakes and has never even once sought donors in other countries to help them out. Unless there were thousands of deaths like in Haiti, a developed country can be able to deal with the situation.

Brazil is among the leading nation in Modernization of infrastructure. Brazil has become a tourist attraction site because of its natural and traditional sites and also the development made in roads, building, and means of transport, food stuff and other modern forms of lifestyles. Brazil now has electric trains which are known, to be expensive and can not be afforded by developing nations. Olympics and soccer world cup were once held in Brazil because it is among the best stadiums in the world, and that can accommodate thousands of people. By the look of the city, one can be able to tell that the country is economically stable. Most of the developing countries are financially unstable and have to seek for Aid and loan from other countries, in order to put up some development or investments (Baer, 56).

Brazil has been known almost everywhere in the world through its international media networks.  Brazil has a variety of languages such as French and Spanish which have now become international languages that are taught and spoken in schools, in other countries. Brazilian people have been able to sell out their cultures through movies and other media sources.  It has become easier because their languages are recognized in most of the countries. Brazil is known for producing the best footballers in the world. Their dancing styles are also unique and are adapted in other countries.

The level of education standard in Brazil is now high, unlike before Lula was sworn in as the president of Brazil. The government of Brazil has gone ahead to offer scholarship for university students from Third-world countries. Brazil is now able to sponsor and offer education opportunities to vulnerable but bright students from third-world countries. For instance, medical laboratory for medical students in china are equipped with modern facilities and students do not have to move to other universities in other countries. Internet is also used as a method of learning in universities and in some high schools, where by students can study from home or anywhere through the Internet. These give Brazilians the opportunity to secure employments even in other countries due to their high level of their education standards.

Dilma rousseff became the president of Brazil after Lula's term ended in 2010. Dilma is the first woman president in the history of Brazil. The 63 years old woman has shown signs of following the footsteps of Lula who is the former president. Her goal is to continue with the economic developments programs started by Lula, and eradicate extreme poverty come 2015. In the 1960s, she resisted and fought against Brazil's military dictatorship. As a result, she was sent to prison and tortured in the course of the imprisonment. Dilma promised to legalize abortion as among the strategies meant to reduce and eradicate extreme poverty. It was evident that Lula contributed to the success of Dilma in the presidential elections. Lula had been with her in campaigns pleading to Brazilians not to discriminate gender, and vote for Dilma (Bourne, 94).

Since Lula became the president of Brazil, Brazil has rapidly evolved, and it is hard to predict the future of Brazil. For a society to grow or form the major factor that drives its growth, social, economic and political needs should be taken care of. Clustering will be found where there are plenty of these needs. Social, economic and political advocating and cooperative management of the allocation of needs will lay a platform for exercising power. Therefore, power is reliant on these factors that lead to social growth. According to Hunter (92), asociety is organized on the basis of relatively equal power relations, self management, dispersed decision-making and a reduction or elimination of hierarchical and bureaucratic forms of administration and governance; the extent of which varies in different types of society.

This ranges from the establishment of cooperative management structures and consciousness of servitude by the society to the abolition of all repression ideas and practices. Since it is the people's needs that influence all the chances of power emergence, similarly all decision making should rely on the majority ideas of surviving and fulfilling their needs. At no chance should the idea that a group of minority ideas for majority can steer forward the community at any future let alone a better future. The only way out is for the majority to access their needs then discover the consciousness of servitude as they do their day to day tasks to accomplish the needs together. We can, therefore, conclude by saying that needs give birth to a society which is organized and reliant on power.

Richard (96) strongly criticizes consumerism form of power arguing consumerism is a form of social control and creates a divide between the rich and the poor. He suggests that the system we live in may claim to be democratic, but it is actually authoritarian in that the few individuals are dictating our perceptions of freedom by only allowing us choices to buy for happiness. That is why in most societies; only a few characters can be counted out when it comes to wealth. This wealth includes political prowess, of which most is bought by the majority blood and sweat, social, economic authority and highly questionable "modern" religions.

It is in this state of "un-freedom" in which consumers, citizen and modern religion subjects act irrationally by working more than they are required to fulfill actual basic needs, ignoring the psychologically destructive effects, ignoring the waste and environmental damage it causes, and also by searching for social connection through regrouping themselves again to search for power due to their demanding needs of mostly lack of power to manage what they achieved in their first grouping. It is even becomes more irrational in the sense that the creation of new products, calling for the disposal of old products, fuels the economy and encourages the increased need to work more to buy more. An individual loses his or her humanity and becomes a tool to the industrial machine and a cog in the consumer market delivered in bulk and informing the masses that happiness can be bought, an idea that is psychologically damaging.

The only distinction between needs is whether they are true or false. Most people have no idea where they are really standing when it comes to needs, and most do not realize whether in a certain condition the outcome favors them, or they favor the outcome for someone else to enjoy. But this does not matter to most due to their life situation that does not allow them to think ahead and instead focuses on their desperate situations in life. That is why someone would be willing to sell his/her kidney just to buy a house or do a wedding. We should be cautious as we select our needs, either true needs or false needs.

True needs are most likely to face more challenge to be achieved. It is for that reason, calls for a lot of scrutiny when dealing with needs. One might walk blindly to needs that demand liberation; liberation from that which is intolerable and unrewarding and uncomfortable. Need for consumption and waste stupefy work, where it is no longer a real necessity. Need for maintaining such deceptive as free competition. This makes it harder to really know what the false needs are, because when people are oppressed we cannot say that the ideas and needs they will generate are theirs. Reason being for them to make up these ideas and needs they must be under a spell to do just as their master's wish or their needs in hard circumstances demand (Bourne, 173).

Conclusion

Throughout his political career, Lula was never accused of any injustice. This proves how loyal he was to his people and the love he has for Brazil. On the other hand, Dilma has so far proved to follow the footsteps of Lula. In future, Brazil is going to be among the top developed nations worldwide. For a country to develop, many factors inter-play. It calls for a clear vision of what needs to be realized. Lula appears to have had a clear vision and employed the right strategies in achieving the identified goals. Objectives setting and goal accomplishment requires the commitment and allegiance of the people of a nation since the movers bridges aspirations into realities. Dilma also happens to have followed the footsteps of Lula by moving forth the strategies and plans that Lula had in making sure Brazil realizes the goals set forth, and in so doing raising the economy of the country. As a result, the country has been in a position to raise the value of the progresses that have become cognizant in this period.