Brazil 02.09.2010 - 17.09.2010

Economic potential, social contrasts and environmental challenges Discover the core of the Brazilian engine!

Brazil has had an impressive economic growth with a considerable increase of the traditionally thin middle class in recent years. It managed the financial crisis quite well compared to others and was able to reduce its external debt. It will be host to the Soccer World Cup in 2014 and to the Olympic games in 2016, which often is interpreted as a sign of confidence from the international community. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the investment of 900 billion US$ in infrastructure, public transport, energy and sanitation projects as well as in the urbanization of poor neighborhoods.

We will not only look at these bright signs on the Brazilian horizon, but also at possible risks and hurdles leading to an uncertain future. President Lula did not manage to implement the land reform he promised. His government got involved into a huge corruption scandal. Drug trafficking and organized crime make the daily life of many Brazilians unbearable and can block entire cities as it happened in 2006 in Greater São Paulo. The increased standards of living and the country’s enormous exports of agricultural goods lead to the exploitation and destruction of the natural environment.

What are Brazil’s perspectives, hurdles and possible solutions into a bright future? Read our program in order to know about the details of our trip!

Brazil has many unveiled secrets and much to offer! Discover it! Join us on our intercultural study trip!

Goal

Get answers to the following and many more questions by participating on our journey:

• Are you surprised that 86% of Brazilians live in urban areas and not in the Amazon jungle?
• What do you think were the toxic ingredients of the juice brawn in the Caldeirão do Diabo, the Devil’s Pot, on Ilha Grande?
• How does rush hour look like in a city with an increase of 10 % in its car fleet to 6.7 million in 2009?
• Why do you have an advantage keeping two cars in São Paulo and what does this have to do with the famous Churrasco, the Brazilian barbecue?
• How could Brazil exploit the recently discovered Tupi oil field in a depth of 7000 meters below sea level?
• How can one explain that despite the financial crisis the MSCI Brazil Index (EWZ) had a return of 124% and the BRIC Index (BFK) of 90% in 2009?
• How is it possible that 95% of all Brazilians possess a television, even that 26% are living below the poverty line?
• Does Brazilian multiculturalism with its population being 53.7% mulatto (mixed white and black), 38% black and 6.2% other, such as Japanese, Arab and Amerindian mean equal chances for all?
• What are the consequences in daily life of a Gini Index of 0.567, the 10th position worldwide, where the top 1% of the population gains as much as 50% of the poorest?
• Why did 254 Swiss families migrate to Nova Friburgo until 1839 and how does it come that today 14079 Swiss are living in Brazil?
• Which vision motivated Juscelino Kubitschek to build in 3 years and 4 months the new capital city Brasília with 30’000 workers, 200 machines on a construction site of 300’000 square meters, at a cost of 83 billion US$ in today’s value?
• Is there a possibility of coexistence between a growing urbanism and the preservation of the Atlantic Rainforest, as only 7 – 10% of the original area remains?