5 histórias para entender o Brasil | Renato Meirelles | TEDxLaçador

Translator: Themis Scalco Reviewer: Claudia Sander Hello! I can't start this talk about the changes that took place in Brazil without mentioning that, regardless of the numbers you hear and see, it's the story behind them that counts. So I would like to invite each and every one of you to think about every story and every person behind the numbers you see on the news every day.

In the last couple of years, in the last decade, Brazil has experienced one of the deepest economic shifts in its history. Income changed. Income changed unequally.

Unequally because the richer saw their income increase three times less than the poorest. And the country, historically used to a social pyramid - with people living on dire poverty outnumbering the rich - became a social rhombus, with the majority of its people in the middle of the pyramid. And those are the stories I'm sharing with you today.

But we can't understand these changes, we can't understand others before we get to understand ourselves. I'm a man. I'm white.

I live in one of the biggest cities of the world. I'm the third generation of my family that holds a college degree. I have privileges.

It's impossible to understand Brazil, specially for someone like me, that had all the chances to succeed, before realizing how privileged we are. White people earn more than black people. Men earn more than women.

The ones born in the city have more chances to succeed than people born in the countryside. Both my parents and my grandparents had access to higher education, which has given me a privilege over those whose parents haven't, over those that for the first time in their family achieved a college degree. When the race started, I came out ahead.

This is also critical for understanding who is "the new middle class" everyone is talking about. In Brazil, it seems people are afraid to really look at themselves. Please, raise your hand if you are rich.

Now, if you are poor. Now who's in the middle class. Well .

. . We did research.

We asked those people, the richer 15 percent of Brazilians, who are at least the second generation to obtain a college degree, how they saw themselves. One percent of them reported to be upper class, 13 percent reported upper middle class, 47 percent middle class and 4 out of 10 stubbornly swear they are poor. When the results were published, in one of the major newspapers in São Paulo, a guy wrote, "It just came to my knowledge that I am rich.

Except for the fact that I'm not. I'm a father providing for three children. My three kids go to a private school, and I must pay for it.

Health insurance for the whole family, gas for the two cars I have, vacations on Disneyland every year! How dare you say I'm rich? I'm poor, there's no money left!

" Because in Brazil the neighbor is always richer. In Brazil, economic status and social class are two different things. So it's not Social Science, we are talking about Economics.

Those are people whose per capita income ranges from 338 to 1,184 Brazilian reais for each member of the family. It's total income, it's per capita income. Considering the family monthly income, it would range from 1,200 to a bit more than 4,500 Brazilian reais.

Let's be honest, is it too high or too low to be called as middle class? It's low, isn't it? Very low.

But it's middle because it's this part of the Brazilian population that has the middle income in Brazil. It may seem low, but it is the picture of an unequal country, where the five percent richer earn about 2,500 Brazilian reais per capita to start with. There must be a lot of people here who came in thinking they were middle class and just discovered they're rich.

These figures then give us two things: one bad and one piece of good news. The bad news is that in spite of the improvements Brazil has had, it is still unequal. The good news is we and Abilio Diniz belong to the same economic class, everybody is at the top of the income pyramid in Brazil.

To realize this and to see the other, to realize where we come from, where we're going, allows us to understand differences, and to understand the need to respect these differences. The process Brazil went through to radically reduce its poverty has had a great discomfort, as a side effect, to the traditional middle and upper classes in the country. I'm sure no one here has ever spoken these words, but, perhaps, you've already heard it, "This airport looks like a bus station!

" I'm sure no one here has ever said it, but perhaps you know somebody who may have said it. As if it were the C class to blame . .

. This elite who is bothered has its own peculiar view about consumption democratization in Brazil. Fifty eight percent think there should be different products for the rich and the poor.

Fifty percent stated they only frequent places where people their social level go to. Seventeen percent think people who are underdressed should be banned from entering some places. Twenty six percent are against the subway in their neighborhoods, because they think the subway increases the flow of unwanted people in the area, or people who are different, as people in São Paulo say.

Even if they think using the subway in New York is very cool. And 17 percent think every commercial establishment should have a separate lift for employer and employee. And these are the ones who admit it .

. . And these are the ones who admit it .

. . The first step this traditional elite took, with the income increase and what some people call the new consumer market, was to try to patronize the Brazilians whose life was improving.

As if there were only one standard. "This guy is getting ahead so he should look like me. Follow my footsteps.

" Except it doesn't work . . .

Only then do we realize that real inclusion, inclusion indeed, is not income, it is respect. It's not consumption. It is the search for equality.

The hardships in which these Brazilians grew up in, throughout life, engendered an economic ecosystem in which the "fend it for yourself" has become a parameter to measure things, and this translates as the capacity one has to cope with hardships, and it is much more present in the peripheral areas of Brazil and has given a new meaning to the so-called "Brazilian way," which is far from "taking advantage over anything" and much closer to one's capacity of making lemonade out of lemon. I'll give an example: the other day I arrived at Data Popular, I was late. I forgot my name tag, went to get it, Zé saw my phone and said, "Nice, uauh, MrRenato?

" Zé is the doorman. "Nice indeed, MrRenato? Is it the six?

" I said: "Yes, it is the six. " "Sorry to ask, MrRenato, how much did you pay for it? I said, "Zé, it was a present.

I didn't pay anything, I lectured at a conference and got a mobile phone, but it costs about 3,000, 3,500 Brazilian reais. " "That much, Mr Renato? Good client this one, right?

Is it worth? How many megapixels has its camera got? " "I have no clue, Zé, maybe eight or ten.

" "That's all, Mr Renato? Is its digital TV nice? " "Well .

. . well .

. . it hasn't got a Digital TV, Zé.

" "How come? Don't tell me the Bluetooth isn't good either? " "No, it sucks.

" "And how do you manage to hit on the girls at the bus stop, MrRenato? " "What? " "Ah, MrRenato, haven't you ever seen a nice girl there listening to music on her phone, waiting to catch the bus, approached her and said, 'Hey, what are you listening to?

Pass it on to me by Bluetooth, will you? '" I said: "No, Zé, I have never done that. " "You don't know what you're missing, you see, MrRenato?

I didn't want to tell you anything but, it's so good you've been given this new phone, because if you had paid for it, it would have been a terrible deal. " Then I wondered, "How so, Zé? " He said, "Look at mine.

" He opened a drawer and took out his "hiPhone. " Zé's hiPhone has got a 20-megapixel camera, digital TV, Bluetooth of such good quality he's become the king of the bus. And, listen to this, room for four chips!

When he told me that, I was a bit embarrassed, and from within my arrogance, I looked at him and asked, "Zé, why four chips? What for? Have you got four mouths, by any chance?

" He looked straight at my face and said what might be one of the greatest professional lessons of my life, "MrRenato, I have no idea what your job is, what you do, I don't know how your work is, but I do know that you don't know a thing about poor people. If you did, if you understood a little what being poor is like, you would know that my phone is a prepaid phone, as is everyone else's in the area. And that the prepaid bonus is used only to call one operator to another.

" I hadn't understood until he showed me his contact list. In Zé's contact list, the operator's name has become his contact's last name: José da Silva AT&T; Maria de Lurdes T-Mobile; Whichmacallit Verizon. So he could know which chip to use when calling somebody.

And while I spent a fortune on my mobile, Zé fended for himself . . .

Who has Wi-Fi at home here? Nearly everyone. At Favela da Rocinha, too.

But there, they share the Wi-Fi, as do 12 million other Brazilians, they share their Wi-Fi. Everyone chips in, in order to have a Wi-Fi connection, and to each one, the rate is very low. Can you imagine approaching your neighbor to say, "Hey brother, let's chip in on a Wi-Fi connection?

" It's unthinkable . . .

Let's try to understand the new meaning of the "Brazilian way". Let's also understand that if one thing changed in Brazil, that thing is the increase in opportunities, that empower citizens and give them more freedom of choice. The dream changes, perspectives change, the agents of such change, change, too.

It wasn't the economy that changed Brazil. Women changed it. Women who went out to work much more than men, 50 percent more than men.

Women went out to the job market, but men didn't start sharing housework or taking care of children. The other side is that women, if somehow they managed their partner's money, started to earn their own money. This bothered several men.

We did research with married men, and, guess what, more than 60 percent of them claimed to be sure their wives have some money stashed away without their knowing about it. The others keep on being fool. (Laughter) And 60 percent of them also said they'd rather change their opinion to arguing with their ladies.

It's the old story, when you marry, you need to decide whether it's more important to be happy or to be right. (Laughter) What bothered men the most were the choices made by women about consumption, even his consumption. We discovered that 53 percent of married men claimed it was their wives who had decided about the purchase of the family computer.

I couldn't believe it so I went to visit a home, a couple, and asked them who had bought the computer. I hadn't even finished asking and the wife said, "My husband, of course! " "Why your husband?

" "Because he knows a lot more about technology. " I said, "Nice. And did your husband make a good choice?

" "It's wonderful, it has Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB of memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, webcam. " "For someone who doesn't know much about technology, you're doing well. Can I take a look at his computer?

" "Sure! Bring it over here to show, will you? " And there came the man holding the notebook .

. . a pink one!

According to her, his choice. How nice! I'd like to finish, so we don't forget it, reminding you that alongside the changes there was a number of "first time" in the lives of these people.

And the first time is complicated. It's the first kiss, the first time you ride a bike, imagine the first time you fly. Last year eight million people flew for the first time.

We followed one of these families, who went to the Northeast. They arrived there, went to the hotel and, next day they were scheduled to go on a city tour, at 8 am. At 8 am they were not there, so the bus went without them, our researcher was there waiting and asked, "What happened?

" "You know, Mr I've never been so well treated in my whole life. We arrived at the hotel room and there was a mini bar full of food and drinks, all free. We stayed in watching TV and missed the hour but we could still get there.

Except that when my husband and I were about to leave the room, he touched the door handle and saw a sign saying, 'Please tidy your room. ' The room was a mess, we had to return to tidy it. " So, and I'd like to finish with this, this shows the difference still rampant in Brazil, of repertoire.

And this difference, which I mentioned here, that came up in our research, makes it impossible for all Brazilians to have, really, the same conditions to improve their lives. Lately, a kind of meritocracy mantra has been repeated over and over. People forget to say that there is no merit in starting the race 50 meters ahead.

There's no meritocracy without equal opportunity. There's no meritocracy when, in childhood, people eat well while others have to go out in the streets to beg and help bring money to the household. If we understand that, then we can truly transform Brazil.

And, truth be told, no one transforms anyone. No one transforms alone. The world, Brazil and us transform ourselves together.

Thank you very much. (Applause) Thanks.