If it's Sunday, there's usually something extraordinary happening on Fareed Zakaria's Global Public Square. Today, Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva sat down to talk with Zakaria. He's the only head of state who has a higher approval rating than President Obama; his is 80%. How is that possible?Not unlike Obama, Lula had very humble beginnings. He claims to owe a lot of his success to having known labor intimately; he was first in his family to get a vocational degree and became a machine lathe operator, moving to become president of his local trade union to president of Brazil. He was also first to have a television and a refrigerator. He has known poverty, misery, hunger, unemployment and frustration up close and personally, and he has never forgotten those elements when he rose to power. There is a very definite element of practicality to his thinking.
As labels go, he considers himself a socialist, in the sense that he favors more social fairness, and regulation so that the poor are not victims of exploitation But he is a great advocate of democracy, and explained that democracy can exist in different forms than those we know and practice in the United States. He points to the fact that only through democratic elections could a man of his background rise to lead his country; similarly, he points to Obama's success largely owed to the US' democratic electoral process, and he included socialist Bolivia, where an indigenous Andean Aymara, Evo Morales was elected to become president of his country.
The global crisis and the upcoming G20 summit, as well as the AIG debacle did not escape the conversation. With regard to the latter, he described as 'scandalous' actions that were taken by AIG with regard to bonuses and public money. One gets the feeling that he is not in total agreement with the rescue package proposed by Obama. He wonders: 'how much money can your pour into banks? Why are we bailing out people who are not resolving our problems? Lula made headlines very recently when he accused white men with blue eyes of causing the world economic crisis.He admitted to praying for Obama more than he does for himself. He has immense admiration for our president and worries to an extent that through his election, he has awakened exceptional hope and expectation in the country. Therefore, he feels that Obama cannot and must not fail. He revealed having told President Obama to study the Japanese economic crisis of the '90's when the government refused to take bold action.
One senses that President Lula is very religious; he invokes God's name quite often in the conversation. He alluded to the fact that as the world's dynamics have changed, so has something in America with the election of Obama. He attributed the necessity of an Obama presidency as a divine event portending that something 'important' was going to happen in the USA.
And about God being Brazilian? Brazil's economy has had successive years of growth and Lula does not hide his pride. Yes, God was perhaps more Brazilian when oil prices were higher, and Brazil had discovered its own oil reserves. He claimed that like the US, Brazil has its rich and its poor. He was able to develop policy for economic growth and improve income distribution at the same time; 20 million people were lifted from poverty into middle class. Though he doesn't expect a 5% growth rate this year, he still feels that by year end, Brazil will show positive net growth.
And yes, there are changes in world institutions that Lula would like to see, and he made some good observations. The G20 is more representative of the world's major players than the G8 or the G5. He would like Brazil to have a permanent seat at the UN Security Council. There is not sufficient representation in the UN to reflect the geopolitical changes that have taken place in the last decade.
The Cuban embargo is absurd. It should be ended. The US should reach out to Venezuela and talk to Chavez; he made a terrific analogy here to illustrate his point: Lula used to be a boxer, and said that when you knock out your opponent, as the winner, you are the one to extend your hand to the loser, not the other way around. And in that sense, the US has to make gestures of generosity to its neighbors. We don't need to agree with everything that is being said or done in a particular country, but if you refuse engagement, you will be seen as an imperialist power. Which is precisely what the US is called in some circles.
President Obama called for mutual respect between the U.S. and Muslim countries in order to set the tone for new beginning. This does not have to stop at the Muslim world. People in Latin America are seeking the same respect.
