5 things Brazil needs to get right

Step up, please…

5 things Brazil needs to get right

- in order to move on from being an Emerging country

1. Banks needs to be coordinated

You can have a loan in one of the big banks, but you can not pay the bill in another of the big banks… so if you should have several loans or bills to pay you have to go to different banks (or somehow fix it online). WTF ?  This was a big surprise for me. So imagine me waiting in one bank for 45 min (waiting time is unbelievable long) and when I finally got to talk with the cashier I found out the hard way. After that I went to the correct bank, waited forever again and at the cashier I could not pay with credit card (read: the cashier could not change from her counter??!!). So I to go to their cash machine only to find out that the machines didn’t accept foreign credit cards…. Unbelievable… we live in 2013 so come on !

2. Corruption among politicians and public worker needs to stop

Almost every week there is an episode in the news about a politician or highly ranked public worker court up in corruption. And we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. What amazes me the most is that these people can continue, at some level, or just change job even after being convicted of a corruption crime… Politicians can, if they get caught, resign that specific position and then also the punishment and run for an another public position – and get it ! Unbelievable…

You have a famous politician who is wanted by Interpol for dirty money in an American bank (money he stole from public projects), but as long as he stays in Brazil he will not be handed over to US or get his punishment. In fact the politician is famous here for publicly announcing that he accept bribes and steals money from public projects – but defends himself with that he at least gets the public projects done… People are still voting him into public office anyway – Why?

These days there are discussions in Federal Supreme Court of whether some dirty politicians (who already is convicted in 2012) should be able to get a rerun in Supreme Court (even though its a Supreme) – due to some technicalities. Even though they got sentenced last year they are yet to step into jail… Come on here !

3. Product development needs to increase

Brazil, and President Dilma Rousseff, enjoy some very high import taxes on almost all products. Resulting in lots of products being produced in the country, beneficial the economy – but not all the countries that wants to export into Brazil. All those goods are very expensive. This is good for Brazilian economy but not good for the people interested in safety, environmental correct production and newest developments.

This is seen very clearly in the automobile industry. All imported cars get +100% taxes… and at the same time some of these models are being produced inside Brazil, by the big producers, as Volkswagen, Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and others (even more to come). The big problem is that even though Brazil produces the same model as in Europe or Asia the quality is much lower and so is the security development.

According to this article thousands of Brazilians die due the bad quality and 4 out of 5 most popular cars simply failing crash test. I know from being a smaller car (Citroen C3) that it is common to have the cheapest model without airbags or ABS (anti-blocking-brakes). At the same time in Europe you have smaller cars 4-6 or even 8 airbags – all with some kind of anti block brakes. But another problem is simply the construction that technically is too bad quality. It is so easy to make the new cars so much more safe – demand higher quality (comes with higher education of workers though).

4. Get the most intelligent people out of public service

Once hired in the public sector you will receive a high salary, membership of private clubs (for low fee), health security, dental insurance, lifetime employment and great pension schemes (though pension schemes has been adjusted lower). Previously there was even more corruption than now and one way to put an end to this, was to hold competition, so the best qualified would get the job – no personal judgement involved. As this in general sounds good there are some very bad side effects.

You have the smartest people (in general) in the public sector that doesn’t produce anything for the country – they might make business easier, more equal opportunities, helping poor people etc. But you also have people with the highest intelligent, many with little motivation to work, locked up in an office not producing anything, but mostly talking, discussing and maybe help. As we have seen some many have to much time to steal money from the people.

The way out has to be fewer people, being able to fire low efficient workers, better control (maybe even external and publicly) with salary and money, and move all these intelligent people out and enhance production and development throughout the country.

5. Higher minimum wage

The minimum wage here is R$ 678 (with 13 salaries per year) but its still way to low (resulting in very poor people and high crime – and desperate crimes that is. In the capital, Brasilia, you have a lot of people working in the public sector so the city is very different, due to the unnatural amount of well paid employees so the prices inside the city is very high too. This means that all the people on the low minimum salary has to live outside the city. Strange really. Working for the public sector you will receive a much higher salary, p

Second most expensive square meter in Brazil

Just like living in a bubble.

It’s expensive here

A brand new survey reports that the Federal District, which only have the capital Brasiilia, now has the second most expensive square meter price in the country. Only Rio de Janeiro is more expensive.

Read more about it here: Correio Braziliense (Its in portuguese though)

Like a bubble

I am lucky enough to live here inside the center of Brasilia. Everything in here is nice and clean, not that much crime, good hospitals, nice schools etc. and of course a lot of public employees… and here is the issue. Here you have all the federal employees as well. All these public employees here are getting really good salaries, lifetime employment, great pensions schemes etc. so it is very “un-brazilian”. But just a little bit outside the center you have suburbs with a more normal brazilian living standard, more violence and crime and all that follows. But inside its a different.

Public employees earning too much ?

If the city with all the federal employees are having the highest square meter price in the country – don’t they receive too much then? (Brasilia also has the highest income per capita of the big cities in Brazil).

There is on thing though – there are strict rules about construction of new buildings (and the city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site) so there can not be built more apartments inside the city. The city wer built for 5-700.000 people but there lives around 2,5 mill. So the square meter price has to go up… and so the public employees probably demands more money…

So relative to the condition of the whole country – public employees earns too much money !

Greatest destroyer of wealth

Eike Batista lost 99% of his fortune

In 2012 Eike Batista was to be worth $34,5 billion and now it’s estimated that he is worth around $ 200 mill. So in one year loosing $34,3 billion – that’s a lot of money… (this is in worth not in cash). Read more at Bloomberg.

He is still rich though

Richest man in Brazil

He is an entrepreneur and business magnate from Brazil, who made his fortune in mining and later oil and gas industry. But he has been building many companies through his life.

For a long time he has been the richest man in Brazil, and lots of people here are admiring him.

Living on a big lie?

It all went downhil when the market discovered that his announcements and estimations of oil productions in his companies, were found as fraud. Announcing huge oil productions (but only made 2% of it), announcing having license to big oil fields of the coast of Brazil but didn’t have really. So since 2008, when OGX went public, they have announced and publicated lots of wrong information – and cheated a lot of people to invest. And now as the truth reveils, its all coming down…

Will it stop here? I don’t think so.

O papa Francisco, The Pope is here !

The Pope is here!

He is for sure in Brazil and he is making a super good impression. Brazil is a big catholic country so no wonder why the country is making so much out of his visit.

It’s great.

He is a nice guy.

From interviews, pictures and live video footage he really seems like a very nice man, with some very nice messages. Compared to the last couple of popes he is very young at heart, and that is a relief (and I guess necessary for the catholic church to be updated – otherwise they will loose too many members).

Lack of security

The Pope decided himself to drive around in an open car, and to get very close to people. On both sides of the convoy with his car there were security people running. All controlled by Policia Federal. On one occasion the Policia Federal decided to change his path away from planned, with out telling the local police – lack of communication. This resulted in a caos as the cars in front of him had to stop, they were mixed in with busses and his car couldn’t move (and had open windows). So if you imagine several hundred thousand people wanted to get closer, and he can’t get away…. many people handing inside the car to him, trying to touch him… super risky.

How these security people are still employed today is a mistery.

Can you imagine if something would happen? what to do??

It wouldn’t happen to the American President

Yes, he is a total different security risk, but this would never ever happen to him. Where ever he goes or travel everything is timed and planned, and nothing becomes uncontrolable. They would always have a plan to get out of the situation.

I was at Copenhagen Airport when Barack Obama visited Denmark, and the whole week before there were security people checking everything, bomb dogs sniffing around, 24 hours guards, seperate US army area and so much control everywhere.

Nothing would be misunderstood.

So I think it was unbelievable that there wasn’t somebody responsibly taking action on this. I hope they don’t have any misunderstanding towards the World Cup, Olympics or any other big events.

Believe or not to believe

As I am an atheist I believe all religions are very good stories, that have more “control of people” instead of reality – so I don’t believe in them. I don’t really care what other people believe in, it’s a private matter, and should be kept that way. I hate when people are trying to convience me of some religious way.

Anyway it’s awesome to see this great person influencing so many people in a positive way.

Petrobras - Weak earnings (or corruption scandal?)

Weak earnings in oil business

I am amazed.

As it says in this article – Weak earnings in Petrobras.

An oil producing company that has problem making money. OK…. This must be the first in the world. I am not only seeing a “lower than expected” earnings but the company having problems making money. There is a sentence I didn’t see coming.

I guess one cause is that it is state owned. Already there it flags too much administration and ineffectiveness. They are even being favorized by the government and still can’t make it.
This must be the perfect opportunity for consultants to make a turnaround, if the government dare to open the books. I don’t think so.
Too many people there gets too much money – and there you have the result.

Eike Batista - Rich or poor (or corrupt).

From super-rich to just really rich in 1 year…!

How can a man go from a net worth of USD 35bill and down to USD 3bill in just one year? Losing USD 32bill in one year…. crazy!

On top of this, two of his companies were spending USD 1bill in pure cash in the first three months.

Value in assets

Most of his value are in assets, shares in his companies. So when the stock price drops, so does his value (and net worth). Many things went wrong here.

Global crises, inflation in Brazil, lost his support among investors and mostly because everything was built upon future  expectations. When you can not live up to them then your support will leave.

Once he was no. 8 richest person in the world now not among the Top 200, according to Blomberg.

The big question remains – does it stop here or will he continue down ?

It's cold ??

Winther time

Waking up today, got the dogs and took them a walk, as usual.
But its cold and there is no sunshine?! WTF ?

Of course when its winther here in Brazil it should be colder, but still it felt like freezing …. brrr… I am used to enjoying the long warm evenings, even after the sun has set, so these days are so bad.
And of course I have got a cold, coughing constantly – amazing when its 27 degrees during the day.

Always dark in Denmark

The one thing I hate the most in Denmark is the winther. I was even used to driving to work at 8 am in darkness and leaving work at 17 in darkness – the only light or sunshine was through the office windows. That was really bad. The mood was even a few steps lower than normal, in average.

So moving to Brazil its so nice to have sunshine and daylight every day – and then today with this cold…..  damn.

Luckily these days will not last long, soon we are gonna have spring and warm nights again – can’t wait !

Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha - Update !

   The first officiel game at the new stadium has just been played.
So I guess somehow they will be ready for the Confederation Cup on June 15, 2013 - the game Brazil against Japan.

Here is the newest picture of the stadium from outside... cool.

The bad side is that they are gonna spend R$ 1,6bill. (equal to 0,8bill US$), and it will be a multiarena being ready for sports, concerts and big shows.
Estimated to have seats for 70.000 people.

It is for sale if anyone is interested !!!

This is going to be a very expensive World Cup when you take into account all the stadiums and infrastructure (incl airports expansions).
My god - its going to be amazing !

Brasilia National Stadium or Estádio Mané Garrincha

Will it be finished?

Well the newly renovated stadium in Brasilia is very soon to be finished, official finish date should be May 18.
With a finish date at 18th of May it will be ready for the opening game of the Confederation Cup 2013, warm-up to the 2014 World Cup. Luckily I have reserved two tickets for this game Brasil vs Japan - it will be awesome!

This is a picture of how it looks right now - very close to be finished.

Very soon the stadium will look the same as the model in the picture below - awesome !

The FIFA organisation and internally Brazil have been very worried when the deadlines have been broken, but now more and more stadiums are getting ready for the upcoming World Cup. Fantastic !

The name of the stadium

The stadium is owned by the Department of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation of Distrito Federal, who has given it the name of "Estádio Mané Garrincha" (after the brazilian football legend) but according to FIFA the official application the named it "The National Stadium". So this is what they are supposed to call it for Confederation Cup and the World Cup.
 - Come on..... its a name - Get it changed and move on (we want to watch football - not discuss the name!!).

For the Confederation Cup in 2013 six stadiums should be ready - only the following are ready by today:
- Belo Horizonte
- Fortaleza
- Salvador
- Recife

now missing only Brasilia and Maracanã in Rio de Janeiro.

For the World Cup in 2014 further stadiums will be needed:
- Saõ Paulo
- Porto Alegre
- Cuiabá
- Manaus
- Natal
- Curitiba

Still got a lot of work to do before the World Cup, and I am wondering if they are gonna make it at all...

Congratulation Brasilia !

53 years old and 2,6mio inhabitants (incl suburbs).

It's amazing to see a city built for only 500.000 people but has attracted many more. This has caused some major trafic problems, even for a city built primarily for car transportation.
Even though there are buses driving around and Brasilia has its metro, lots of people still uses the car. Big trafic jams.
The trafic jams here are nothing compared to the huge ones in São Paulo though.

The building of the city as a new capital, 53 years ago, was in a time of concrete and car transportation. All the original buildings are made of concrete, designed by Oscar Niemeyer and are really remarkable. Beautiful once as the cathedral, the National Congress, the presidents office, Supreme Tribunal and so many more.

The newer office and hotel buildings is typical modern,with glass fronts and looking so much different. Beautiful in many ways but also a shame when they are not following the original style or architecture.
I guess this is the way it's done everywhere and part development - but what a shame.

During the last weekend Brasilia celebrated it's 53 years birthday, during which the city center had concerts, children playground, exhibitions and a round of the Brazilian Championship in beachvolley  - yes beachvolley in the city center. Very cool.

The economy in the world

When living in Brazil I still follow news from Denmark, get updates from my family, friends and former colleagues.
There are so much bad news, companies firing, economical issues everywhere...

Comparing this to Brazil then there is so much differences. Optimisme, looking forward towards the olympics and world cup football, really busy car dealers, eletronic stores, supermarkets, restaurants... Its great with this optimisme.
On the other hand Brazil has an increase in private loans and its very easy and common to buy items and pay over 12 month. Which should be a bit alarming for the government.
Together with all the government construction work preparing for the big tournements - it keeps the country moving forward, where others are in a stand still.

Its terrible to see all the those fanzy EU employees and politicians talking, discussing, having meetings, earning lots of money tax-free and then nothing happens.
In that sense EU is f...... ridiculous!
Move your asses !!

For all private companies I recommend a travel to Brazil to experience the buying power of people here... (including the helipads at shopping centers for the ones that spend serious money) !

A New Year

So much has happened in 2012 so let describe the main parts here... its a bit crazy :

- found the love of my life, and married her (cool )
- turned 40 years (which only a number of course)
- moved to Brazil
- delivered all papers to Federal Police, DETRAN, Cartorio

and now finally everything is in place for being allowed to stay permanently, allowed to work, got CPF number, will get drivers license....

So many documents to be retrieved, copied, notified, translated, authorised and handed over to authorities - and everything in português (which I don't speak fully) - What a job...

It really couldn't have been done relatively easy without all the time and energy from my wife - Thank you so much !!

I know 2013 will not be the same !

My main goal for 2013 is to:
- learn and speak português
- get money working
- buy a car
- and go to the Brazil vs. Japan football game here in Brasilia for the FIFA Confideration Cup - so cool !
- so many thing more!
Enjoying the weather, the friendlyness of the brazilians, cold Caipirinhas, fantastic barbeques and enjoy that my daughter is getting even better at school!

Whatever your goals are for 2013 - Make it happen !!!