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Brazil trade relations with other countries exceeded, for the first time, US$ 200 billion in a 12-month period, between April 2005 and March of this year.
The Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade released the trade balance with the new numbers and Foreign Trade Secretary, Armando Meziat, celebrated the accomplishment. According to him, even though this volume represents less than 2% of world trade, numbers show that Brazil is advancing in the process of opening its economy. The Secretary recalled that current external trade represents 25% of Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and added, "The ideal for open economies is that this volume reaches 30% of the GDP." Exports totaled US$ 123.245 billion and imports, US$ 77.446 billion. Meziat said he believes that external sales will easily reach the 2006 goal of US$ 132 billion. Small Exporters In spite of the government's efforts to get more small businesses into the export sector, a study by the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade found that 1,069 small businesses stopped exporting in 2005. A preliminary analysis of the study shows that 75% of the small businesses that stopped exporting had little experience in the sector, reports Meziat. Meziat says the valorization of the real against the dollar, which makes Brazilian goods more expensive abroad, was an important factor. He adds that the study found that the average value of exports by businesses that left the sector was US$ 20,000. However, the study also found that businesses entering the sector had average sales of US$ 23,000. Agência Brasil
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Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.
Also, will Brazilian industry have to go through a re-structuring process in order to keep Brazilian products globally competitive? If so, this could easily see many less efficient companies going out of business and others having to automate their production lines much more. This in turn will require more investment which in turn will diminish profits etc. Also, during this initial growth period workers will see their employers profits growing and could then start demanding higher salaries.
As Brazil grows stronger in relative terms compared to its neighbours, will it start to suffer an increase in illegal immigration from those neighbours who in turn will no doubt be willing to work for less per hour than Brazilian workers. What are the likely social consequences of that?
Personally, I feel Brazil is facing a major period of transition which will see it either go on to become one of the world's major industrial powers or possibly implode as the majority of the population become even worse off than they are now.