Greatness: what Lula gave back to Brazil

 To paraphrase Charles De Gaulle, Brazil cannot be Brazil without greatness.

Brazil cannot be small. Everything about it—its geographic size, population size, economy, abundance of strategic resources, the greatest biodiversity on the planet, possession of the largest portion of the biome crucial for climate balance (the Amazon), a rich and unique culture, etc.—makes it a nation destined for greatness.

Unfortunately, in recent years, the country, governed by mediocre people, has been diminished. Small-minded leaders make a country small. We have become insignificant pariahs.  

Therefore, it is heartening to see Lula once again traveling the world and making Brazil great.  

Lula walks with his head held high, whether in a slum alley or in the White House. With him governing from Brazil, we can be certain that we will not witness degrading displays of canine submission, such as those Bolsonaro frequently promoted when he drooled profusely before his leader, the criminal and anti-democratic Trump.  

One can say what one wants about Lula's foreign policy, but it must be acknowledged that it is bold, as well as "active and assertive." Lula thinks big and does not confine Brazil to the mediocrity of roles pre-defined by major powers.

Besides returning to defending Brazilian interests, Lula is the only prominent world leader who is openly speaking about peace. More specifically, peace in Ukraine. Lula wants to create a "group of countries for peace" committed to resolving a conflict that is causing harm to the entire world and threatening the planet with nuclear war.  

Some, both here and abroad, criticize him for not taking Ukraine's side and getting involved in the war, supporting draconian sanctions against Russia or sending ammunition to the battle zone.   

That would be a huge mistake.  

Firstly, because such involvement would be incompatible with the mediating role that Brazil intends to play. Furthermore, Brazil has already formally condemned the invasion.  

Secondly, because the war in Ukraine will not have a military solution. Such a military solution was close to happening in May 2022, when the rapid Russian advance led the Ukrainians to almost accept a peace agreement. They were discouraged by the US and European allies, who began to strongly encourage Ukrainian resistance. Since then, a military balance has been created that will hardly be decisively broken by either side. Because of this, the war tends to drag on, spread geographically, and deepen. It has become a sword of Damocles that could sever the neck of the planet.

Therefore, the only solution to this war that threatens everyone will come through negotiation. And the sooner the negotiation happens, the better.   

Thirdly, because non-participation in the conflict is overwhelmingly the majority view worldwide. Only the US, its European allies, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and a few other countries are participating in this useless and dangerous war effort. These countries represent around 16% of the world's population. The other 84% do not want to participate, even indirectly, in the conflict. Thus, the vast majority of nations on the globe wish to remain neutral, like Brazil, and yearn for peace, like Lula.  

Lula is giving voice to this majority.

But greatness, which leads to independence of thought and action, cannot be limited to foreign policy. It must also be reflected in domestic policies.  

Just as happened in foreign policy, mediocrity and sameness spread to domestic policies throughout the retrograde governments that followed the 2016 coup. Brazil became hostage to the pettiness of anachronistic and failed neoliberal policies, often justified by a belated neo-Udenism, fueled by Lava Jato.  

Take the example of BNDES.

Since its founding in 1952, this bank has been at the forefront of national development. Brazil would not be what it is today without BNDES.  

When it was founded, Brazil was a predominantly agrarian and rural country with very poor infrastructure. Less than thirty years later, Brazil was already an industrial and urban country with reasonable infrastructure. At that time (the early 1980s—before the debt crisis), Brazilian industry was larger than that of South Korea and China combined.  

The "fetish of industrialization," as defined by the newspaper "O Globo," was very successful while it lasted.  

However, in the post-2016 governments, there was a strong offensive against BNDES. In the wake of Lava Jato, which destroyed the entire heavy construction industry chain in Brazil, this bank was accused of investing its resources abroad, of not supporting Brazilian companies, of supporting dictatorships, of bankrupting the Treasury, and of all sorts of accusations without any empirical basis.

In reality, this bank never invested a single cent abroad. The money for so-called service exports was given in reais to Brazilian companies, which hired Brazilian labor and bought Brazilian supplies. And most of these projects were carried out in the US; not in Cuba or Venezuela. Furthermore, these loans had a default rate of 0,01%.  

We could write several articles debunking this farce about BNDES, but suffice it to say that, in the last 25 years, BNDES financed exports of engineering services to the amount of US$10,5 billion. However, in the same period, it received payments of US$12,7 billion on these loans. In other words, BNDES and Brazil profited US$2,2 billion from these operations.  

But the important point to highlight here is that, due to these lies and this attempt to criminalize the activities of BNDES, the bank has shrunk and, instead of financing the country's development, has begun to finance the Treasury. In reality, it has started to take money out of the economy. Since 2015, BNDES has returned more than R$ 678 billion to the Treasury in the form of principal payments, interest, early debt settlement, and dividends.  

Now, however, under the leadership of Aloizio Mercadante, BNDES wants to regain a prominent role as a financier, especially a long-term financier, of national development and the reindustrialization of Brazil, in partnership with the private sector.  

Mercadante no longer wants a timid BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank) that practices a very high (IPCA + 6%) and volatile interest rate, the TLP, since its formula includes inflation measured daily. He wants a modern, green, digitally inclusive, and competitive BNDES that contributes to Brazil overcoming the challenges posed by the essential decarbonization of the economy, the disruption of global production chains, the preservation of biomes, and the necessary generation of quality jobs for everyone.

But there are people who don't like it. Who think it's clinging to "fetishes of the past." These are the same people who argue that Brazil should have the highest real interest rates on the planet.

Well, these are the people who live in the past. In a very small and backward past.  

They don't even pay attention to what's happening in the world, which is undergoing rapid geoeconomic rearrangement and paradigm shifts.  

Just look at what's happening in the US, for example.  

There, Biden and the Democratic Party are investing trillions in infrastructure, ecological transition, clean energy, healthcare, and reindustrialization. Yes, reindustrialization.  

Driven by an invincible "fetish for reindustrialization," the US approved, in August of last year, the CHIPS and Science ActThis regulation provides for investments of US$ 52,7 billion in research and the establishment of semiconductor and chip industries in the US. It should be emphasized that, to qualify for these funds, companies will have to commit to generating quality, well-paid, and unionized jobs—another “fetish” of the past.

But the main goal is to resume manufacturing semiconductors and chips in the US. That country produced around 40% of the world's chips at the beginning of the century, but that proportion has fallen to less than 10% now. During the pandemic, there was a shortage of chips for the US automotive industry and even for the defense industry.  

Biden wants the US to once again manufacture most of the world's chips and semiconductors, eliminating dependence on Taiwan, China, etc., and competing globally with these countries.  

He wants to "replace" these imports, another great "fetish" from yesteryear. As Biden said in his State of the UnionThe major production and value chains will begin in the US. They will be based there. This is called strategic vision, another "fetish" that has fallen out of fashion. It may not work out very well, but history cannot accuse you of being mediocre.

And it only took the state taking the lead for large private companies in the US to join the initiative, announcing their own investments of US$50 billion. This is how capitalism normally works, even in the most developed countries. The state takes the lead, points the way, invests, and the private sector joins in, in partnership.  

In the field of infrastructure, Biden's idea is to modernize it entirely. The US once ranked first in the world for infrastructure, but decades of underinvestment have caused it to fall to 13th place. Now, hundreds of billions will be invested in the rehabilitation of roads, bridges, ports, the electrical grid, etc. This will be the largest initiative in this area since Eisenhower, another "fetishist," created the... Interstate Highway System, the system of major highways that revolutionized the USA.  

You know what else? Biden recently decreed that all the materials used in this reconstruction must be manufactured in the USA. Another nationalist "fetish".  

Biden will help fund all of this by taxing the wealthiest. In 2020, the 55 largest corporations in America had profits of $40 billion and paid zero in federal taxes. Starting this year, they will have to pay 15%. A socialist "fetish," one might say, as "O Globo" might suggest.  

In reality, whoever reads the recent State of the Union Biden sees that it contains something very close, mutatis mutandisThis is what Lula intends to do in Brazil. The principles and the main objectives are basically the same. The "fetishes" too. Fundamentally, both, in different ways and starting from very different levels, want to build modern, sustainable countries, without poverty and without great inequalities, based politically, socially and economically on a large middle class.

Perhaps in the best part of his speech, Biden asked the following question: And where is it written—where is it written that America can't lead the world in manufacturing? I don't know where that's written.

The same question can be asked in Brazil. Where is it written that Brazil cannot reindustrialize? Where is it written that this reindustrialization cannot count on the support of a development bank and state investments, as the US is doing? And as all the major countries have done and still do? Is Brazil disrespecting a fundamental economic law, with the coercion of a natural law? Where is it written that we are eternally condemned to be only one large farm?

In reality, this law isn't written anywhere, except in the small minds, small thoughts, of small people. The same old mongrels. Those who have a terrible fetish for backwardness and an invincible inferiority complex.  

They are the "Old Man of Restelo" of whom Camões spoke in "Os Lusíadas." That anachronistic and somewhat pathetic character who condemned the navigators who would bring greatness to Portugal.   

Fortunately, Lula, Mercadante, Haddad, Marina, Anielle Franco, Celso Amorim, and many other public figures in the current government do not suffer from this sterilizing complex.  

They know very well that Brazil will only be Brazil when it is great.