Word: braziller
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...world's fifth largest nation (3,-290,000 sq. mi.) and the eighth in population (85 million), Brazil represents half of South America's landmass, half of its wealth and half of its people. With potentially more arable land than in all of Europe, it is first in world production of coffee, third in sugar, corn, cocoa and tobacco. Within the vast solitudes of its mountains, rolling plains, winding rivers and lush, tropical rain forests, it contains the world's largest hydroelectric potential, one-seventh of the world's iron-ore reserves, 16% of its timber...
...different from all we know." "We are doomed to greatness,"' lamented President Juscelino Kubitschek (1956-61). "This is the land of Canaan, unlimited and fecund," said President Jánio Quadros, who only held office for seven months in 1961 and who also rashly declared: "In five years Brazil will be a great power." Everytime they strike up their national anthem, Brazilians join in a chorus of self-hypnotic confidence in the future...
Stiffened Spine. Yet today is yesterday's tomorrow, and many of yesterday's fond hopes are still hopes. For all the hallelujahs, Brazil today-like all of its neighbors in Latin America-is faced with staggering problems that cannot be put off much longer. Brazil has South America's highest child-mortality rate (11.2%), its third highest illiteracy rate (50%), its third lowest per-capita income ($285), and one of its most ruinous rates of inflation (41%). About 1% of Brazilian landowners control 47% of the farm land. Side by side with a wealthy aristocracy dwell filth...
...balance westward, Brasilia was long considered the "mad city" that Ku-bitschek built, was shunned by officials, who preferred to spend their time in Rio. But Brasilia has been made more attractive with bright colors and expensive trees and shrubs, and its fine university draws students from all over Brazil. Even its night life has picked up, and fully 30 of the federal deputies defeated in last year's elections decided to remain in Brasilia and make their homes there. "Brasilia," says Costa, "is indispensable for national integration...
Uncompleted, ambitious, yet troubled-as the already growing slums at its outskirts attest-Brasilia symbolizes all the hopes and visions of Brazil, and the distance yet to go. The tug of modernization is strong and compelling, but tradition and apathy are fighting hard rearguard actions. The economic indexes show that, broadly speaking, Brazil is falling behind many other advancing countries, including some of its neighbors in Latin America. But this is not the final judgment, for Brazil has reached a middle stage in its development at which the dynamics of modernization can work wonders if the country can only channel...