Brazil is on the queit!

There is nothing much to report on Brazil as of late, aside from the issue of two key resignations of cabinet ministers this last year: Defence Minister, Nelson Jobim and Labour Minister Carlos Lupi. This year has seen the resignation of Mario Negromonte, Minister of Transport.

The instability of President Rousseff's cabinet is absolutely insane. When things happen like this, so early in the game for a first time president- whether it is in the developed world or a developing country like Brazil, which can be classified as a BRIC, medium sized country- it means one of two things: 1. the ministers and personnel were thrust upon a leader and that leader was forced to work with these people and their imperfections and they too were ill-equipped for handling the task at hand; or 2. the president, him/her self, is corrupt and using his/her ministers as scapegoats for his or her wrong doings (which is a highly unlikely scenario). Either which way, it's not good to see this play out. Because the very next question is with regard to "when will the other resignations happen, and why?".

Needless to say that these are very interesting times in Brazilian politics. But the country has remained stable, which is pretty much fine with the rest of Latin America.

What's surprising through it all is that Brazil is not undertaking a massive food aid programme worth over $2 million dollars with cooperation from the FAO, which is pegging food assistance to developing countries in need in Africa-Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal.

This is a good thing. Brazil is taking a page out of China's book with regard to developmental aid in Africa, even though this input is rather small.

Another issue which should have regional heads turning; Brazil is now in the process of increasing its arms and defence production in the Latin American region. America must be pleased (not!). The intent is to capture the Latin American market in defence and also produce economies of scale to mass production in arms globally. Interesting!

Well, that's it for them, now!