If you ever visit a country and there’s a Wikipedia page about events that happened while you were in that country, then you know things were interesting! Brazil in 2013 was like this for me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_protests_in_Brazil
I went to Brazil twice in 2013 for work. Ahead of time we were already alerted to high crime rates and had to take precautions when traveling to Sao Paulo. Some of our executives a few years earlier had been rounded up in their hotel room, tied up, and robbed of their belongings. Since that time we always travel with off-duty police officers, and a driver so we never are alone other than in our hotel rooms. Even a day trip to the beach is with a very sweaty police officer that is trying to watch over us while fully dressed and trying to hide the guns he has on him at all times. We stick out.
So we traveled to Brazil knowing ahead of time that Brazil has some issues, but all counties do in one way or another so it wasn’t too unusual. We were there helping our Brazil team prepare for the World Cup and we were looking forward to it.
My second trip to Brazil started out much like the first. The hospitality of the Brazilians was better than I had experienced in any other country I had visited up to that time. We had the normal language barriers, and far fewer Brazilians speak fluent English out and about town than in other countries. Most of my coworkers spoke English fairly well because it is a requirement of the job (we are headquartered in the United States), but you could still tell who the newer employees were because their English was not at a level comparable to the longer tenured employees who got daily practice with English.
On our third day in the country we could tell something was wrong. Our coworkers all seemed very distracted and talking about traffic conditions. We started to get no-shows to our meetings because people couldn’t make it into work. Because our hotel was next to the office we didn’t need to deal with anything outside of work and didn’t know about protests that had started all over the country. Originally protesting a fare increase for public transportation, the protests increased in size and scope to include protests against the leadership in Brazil and rampant corruption. Many were upset that billions were being spent on the World Cup and Olympic construction projects, but millions still lived in poverty and had limited access to good healthcare.
Because we knew the team in Brazil pretty well they opened up a lot about leadership in Brazil. It can be very corrupt. Even recently Brazil is making news for corruption so things haven’t changed (NOLEN, 2015). They have a real leadership vacuum and the country is paying the price for it. As our reading this week indicated, voting is compulsory for people aged 18 and 70 (Penn State University, 2015). To many this sounds great, as it forces an active voting population and everyone has “skin in the game” so to speak. To my surprise, our hosts pointed to this law as one of the problems in Brazil. Many people uneducated to any issues or whom they should vote for are voting for less than noble reasons. Many votes are purchased via Unions or other corrupt means.
Our trip ended with us heading to the airport early to avoid a protest planned for the freeway heading to the airport. We got there and checked in just fine. However, the airport closed and locked down with us inside of it as the protestors descended on the airport. Outside we would see police surrounding the airport firing tear gas as the crowds trying to disperse them. All flights in and out of the airport were canceled and we had a very long night in the airport, finally flying out the next day. It was quite memorable!
Despite the high crime and political unrest I’m still a big fan of Brazil. The people, culture, and food are amazing and make up for any other shortcomings. I think Brazil is a really good example of how a good group led by bad people can have huge negative implications and why global leadership is so important to all.
Bibliography
NOLEN, S. (2015, Oct 12). Multiplying corruption charges opens way for impeachment for Brazil’s president. Retrieved Oct 18, 2015, from The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/multiplying-corruption-charges-opens-way-for-impeachment-for-brazils-president/article26775119/
Penn State University. (2015). Lesson 08: South America: Focus on Brazil. Retrieved Oct 18, 2015, from Leadership in a Global Context: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa15/olead410/001/content/08_lesson/03_page.html
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