It's nice to see some international attention finally being given to Brazil's incoming president, Dilma Rousseff, who will take office on January 1st. Lally Weymouth, of the Washington Post, was in Brasília last week to interview the president-elect, and the text of the interview was posted last Friday.
Some interesting excerpts are posted over the fold. The full link to the interview is here.
With regard to foreign policy, Dilma speaks about Iran and comes out more forcefully against its human-rights violations than her predecessor, Lula.
Why is Brazil supporting a country that allows people to be stoned, that jails journalists?
I believe that it is necessary for us to make a differentiation in [what we mean when we refer to Iran]. I consider [important] the strategy of building peace in the Middle East. What we see in the Middle East is the bankruptcy of a policy - of a war policy. We are talking about Afghanistan and the disaster that was the invasion of Iraq. We did not manage to build peace, nor did we manage to solve Iraq's problems. Iraq today is in civil war. Every day soldiers on both sides die. To try to build peace and not to go to war is the best way.
[But] I do not endorse stoning. I do not agree with practices that have medieval characteristics [when it comes] to women. There is no nuance; I will not make any concessions on that matter.
With regard to Brazil's economic development, Dilma describes how the Bolsa Família, one of the key wealth-distribution plans, works. Uh-oh... it looks like someone has been "spreading the wealth around." Not surprisingly, it turns out that this is in fact good for the economy! (Who could have predicted that?)
We are not in a depression here. We do not have to cut government spending. We will cut expenses but continue to grow.
We are following a very special path. This is a moment where the country is growing. We have macroeconomic stability, and at the same time we have great pride in the fact that we managed to reduce extreme poverty in Brazil.
We brought 36 million people into the middle class. We lifted 28 million from extreme poverty. How did we manage to do that? Income-transfer policies. The Bolsa Familia is one of its major examples.
Explain how Bolsa Familia works.
We pay a stipend, which is an income stipend to the poor. They get a card and they withdraw their income, but they have two duties they have to abide by: They have to put their kids in school, and they have to prove they attend 80 percent of the classes. At the same time, children should also get all the vaccines, and they have to go through a medical evaluation when they get their vaccines. This was one factor that was responsible, but it wasn't the only one.
We created 15 million new jobs during President Lula's administration. This year, we have already created 2 million new jobs.
In fact, the total number of jobs created for 2010 has already exceeded 2.5 million (a record), and the year isn't over yet. Brazil still has one of the highest wealth inequality indexes in the world, but over the past 8 years this has begun to shrink. From 2001-2008, the richest fifth of the population saw their income go up 11%, while the poorest fifth saw their income increase 72%. Unemployment is at an historic low.
Read the full interview. It gives some good insight into Brazil's new president and the challenges faced by a potential new world superpower.