Word: brazile
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...these past two years for the Bavarian prelate and Vatican insider. He has become a world leader and has been learning lessons in tempering his ideas with public relations, having given controversial speeches and been confronted with fiery inter-faith conflict, particularly with Islam. A trip next month to Brazil, the first ocean crossing and first time among the fervent flock of the Third World, will further test both the pastoral and political aspects of his job, as Latin America continues to deal with widespread poverty and the continent's Catholics increasingly lose ground to Evangelical movements. Still the Pope...
Certainly, something has held Brazil back. Brazil grew an average of 2.6% from 2000 to 2005--less than half the rate of Russia, South Korea and India and less than a third that of China. Such disparities have convinced many Brazilian business leaders that if their government does not invest in education, then they must assume the responsibility themselves. By offering lessons in everything from basic literacy to aeronautics, "companies are taking on the role of the state," says Fernando Guimarães, director of SESI, an industrial organization that coordinates adult-education programs at big companies...
That education takes many forms. At Embraer, the world's fourth largest commercial aircraft manufacturer and the pride of Brazil's export industry, directors realized that the company faced a shortage of aerospace engineers because the advanced training they needed wasn't available in Brazil. In 2000 the company set up an 18-month-long postgraduate course to train its engineers in aerodynamics and flight mechanics. So far, nearly 800 people have taken the course. "We create from inside, and we are now delivering engineers with a specialist aerospace background," says Peter Clignett, a Dutch lecturer in Embraer's program...
Having access to technology and workers with the skills to use it determine a country's total factor productivity and, in the end, its wealth. In 1960 South Korea and Brazil had about the same per capita income. Today South Korea's per capita income is five times Brazil's. "Most of the growth in Korea in this period can be attributed to improvements in total factor productivity," Rodriguez says. "And that is what Brazil needs...
...companies alone will not be able to provide it. Improving education will take a commitment from Brazil's leaders. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently admitted that Brazil was "the worst in the world" when it comes to education. A former union leader who quit school to sell peanuts and shine shoes, Lula told teachers in a speech March 15 that the old methods had clearly failed. "I don't think Brazil will be able resolve the problem of the stock of people who were left on the margins of the educational process using the normal traditional...