Brazil

Seen as a successful ‘emerging economy’, Brazil walks tall on the world stage and its voice is growing louder. Its success, celebrated in the 2014 Football World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, is attracting millions of foreign tourists. Yet Brazil also faces huge challenges: to combine economic growth with measures to reduce the huge social inequality inherited from its slave-owning past, to respect ethnic and cultural diversity, to ensure a popular say in government, to meet energy needs while preserving the environment – especially the Amazon rainforest – and to adapt to climate change. Sporadic nationwide protests suggest that, despite the new prosperity and measures to redistribute income, the government has not done enough to satisfy the demands of the poor and emerging middle classes. But for all its problems Brazil is still the country of sun, sea, sand and sex; the exuberance displayed in carnival. This short book, based on the best-selling Brazil in Focus, provides an introduction to the country for the student and traveller alike, people who want to know more about the real Brazil than is found in an ordinary guidebook.

Jan Rocha has lived in Brazil for nearly 30 years. Since 1974 she has been a reporter for the BBC World Service, covering Brazil and other South American countries. Between 1984 and 1994, she was a newspaper correspondent in Brazil. She is the author of Brazil in Focus and Murder in the Rainforest.

Francis McDonagh covers Brazil for The Tablet.