Word: lula
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
With their endless string of pearl beaches, heavenly climate and sensual bossa nova culture, Brazilians consider themselves uniquely blessed. So when the first of two gigantic oil fields was discovered off the coast near Rio de Janeiro last fall, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva saw it simply as further proof of a celestial bond. "God," Lula gushed, "is Brazilian...
That kind of good fortune, divine or not, has helped Lula, 62, a former steelworkers' union leader and high school dropout, become Brazil's most popular President in a half-century. The oil find could make Brazil one of the world's largest crude producers, but even without that bounty, the economy has been growing as vigorously as a guava tree in the Amazon rain forest, allowing Brazil to start reducing its epic social inequality. Economic strength has also allowed the country to flex its diplomatic clout as the hemisphere's first real counterweight to the U.S. Lula...
...Lula is aiming for membership in the world's most exclusive club, the group of nations with permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council, part of his effort to "change the world's political and commercial geography." Brazil, the world's fifth most populous country, has begun lobbying more ardently for membership, and in his speech to the General Assembly in New York City on Sept. 23, Lula argued that the council's "distorted representation is an obstacle to the multilateral world we desire...
...breach between Washington and Caracas matters less to Brazilians than the huge chasm between the nation's rich and poor. Lula, who as an impoverished kid shined shoes on the streets of São Paulo, has pumped some $100 billion into anti-poverty projects like Bolsa Familia (Family Purse), which provide everything from rewards for poor families who keep their kids in school to financing for small farmers and entrepreneurs. As a result, 52% of Brazil's 180 million people now occupy the middle class, up from 44% when Lula took office...
...Lula enters the homestretch of his presidency - it ends in 2011 - many of Brazil's oldest problems remain unsolved. Chief among them is its education system, which despite increased funding remains a dysfunctional shame. There's also rampant corruption, exorbitant taxes, Amazon deforestation and one of the world's most wasteful public bureaucracies. Lula, who many Brazilians hoped would tackle those plagues more forcefully, blames "a [political] structure that has been there for centuries" but which "we are trying to dismantle." To do that in the two years he has left, however, may require more divine intervention...