Inflation

Bradesco has found that while Brasil during the last 45 years has had an inflation of around 14.210.480.006.034.800 percent, compared to Norways 916 percent. Pretty impressive, but hey, going through a military dictatorship accounts for something.

The currency history of Brasil is pretty impressive. Of course, exchanging a million Cruzeiro to get one Cruzeiro Real, and then multiplying that 2.750 times to get the current Real is kind of bitter. The inflation number is so ridiculously high, partly due to numerous trasitions to new currencies and locked to the USD and then freed to normal exchange rate. Overnight an imported product became twice as expensive.

Thannkfully Brasil is an immense country, who can swallow a whole lot of pain before it collapses. Natural resources abound, it is theoretically self sustained. The land of the future and all that. It has had a damned hard time reducing its traumatized relationship with different more or less subtle colonial demands. Invaded by Dutch navy or American big corporations, first and foremost its natural resources has been the target. Brasil is bred with foreign influence to an extent few others have come out of alive. Independent since 1822, and long before that restless.

Of course you must apply some tricks throughout the time to distribute real values where they are wanted. That also include slush funds, and lots of them. If all you have is your manual labour, you are not far from being a slave. My impression is that the great academic class in Brasil has learnt a whole deal from living through a military dictatorship. But certainly, it must do something to you if you are used to imminent threaths of betrayal and bodily harm. I may be harsh, and I overdo it, but the inflation rate quoted does not say much about the real value in a persons life. If you own the means to make exchanges of goods or ideas, you will manage through any hardship that is not aimed at you personally. It would be a different thing altogether if the redistribution of real value was specifically meant to hurt you or your social frame. So you watch your ideas or your sugar plantation. Each can be a threat or a weapon.

There is nothing useful in thinking Brasilians victims or anything of the sort. They are handling life and there are great ideas abounding. It's just the little detail of actually getting it done. It is even one of the more environmentally conscious countries in the world. A great deal of the cars run on methanol and recycling projects exist on a grand scale. Oh, I know forest is being chopped, crime is rising and corruption exist. That is part of a difficult game of capitalism meets feudal society. Many scary monsters in that closet.

On another note, Mono has been away for one and a half day. I was getting worried, little cat alone. He came trotting happy and content. Time to trust him. He's an almost adult cat now.