The Economist lied about Brazil!

The Economist is a traditional British publication, present in the market since 1843 but when it highlights such an unprepared journalist, such as Sarah Maslin, to cover news from Brazil, it does a great disservice to the country and its readers. Sarah gained notoriety in her native United States for pursuing small business owners, especially salon owners (!?!). She also involved a quarrel with the Irish colony, one of the foundations of American cultural formation. That is it, the girl is a cliché of progressive left.

Sadly, Maslin goes the same way this week in a cover story (June, 5th, 2021) where she fantasizes about an impoverished, dangerous Brazil and on the verge of a coup d'état. Her headline was “Time to go.” Pure lie. Don't take my word for it, just read what the Wall Street Journal (founded in 1889) published on its cover a day after "Brazil's economy bounces back while covid-19 still rages". In the sequence, the WSJ presents positive data on the Brazilian economy and governance.

Who is telling the truth: the newyorker WSJ or the londoner The Economist? As these are two reviews of financial-journalism, we move on to the numbers: January 2016, the index of the Brazilian Stock Exchange (^BVSP) pointed out 38,000 points. In May 2021, the same index shows unbelievable 129,000 points – an unprecedented fact in Brazilian finances. The government of President Jair Bolsonaro is already the one which invested the most in railroads in the last 50 years, something fundamental for a country with a gigantic volume of exports of commodities: grains, ore, animal protein. The government is preparing to privatise giant state companies such as the Post Office and Eletrobras – something unthinkable two years ago. Corruption in the Federal Government in the billions of dollars (see Netflix's The Mecanism) has dropped to close to zero. Homicides retreating 20%.

The pandemic is still a problem here, as in the rest of the world, but Ms. Sarah omitted the data that deaths from covid-19 fell in the last 30 days from 3,000 to 840 per day, a number still high but with a clear 73% decrease in cases of deaths. Brazil has vaccinated more than 50 million inhabitants, added to the first and second doses of the vaccine, the country has applied more than 72 million doses. Brazil is the fifth country that has applied vaccines in the world and the only one among the first ones that does not manufacture them; all the others ones, China, India, the United Kingdom and United States are manufacturers.

Among the various lies uttered by journalist Miss Maslin, the worst was: "The political system that helped him (Bolsonaro) win office needs a deep reform". Jesus Jones! Bolsonaro is the anti-system himself. Brazil has 33 political parties and one of the smallest, PSL (liberal social party), accepted to have him as a candidate and, although brazilian legislation allow for party coalitions, no other party wanted to join forces with PSL. After the elections, PSL became the second largest party in the country.

The uninformed journalist still tries to associate the Brazilian president with some kind of coup d'état or a return to the military dictatorship, while she missed a great chance to talk about journalists who are actually persecuted in the country for their ideas. One of them, Osvaldo Eustáquio, was arrested in an absolutely irregular process according to the laws in force in the penitentiary system and after only a few days in prison, he suffered an 'accident' that left him crippled for life. Strange, right? Investigative journalist Osvaldo was a government sympathizer like the vast majority of the population, so the readers of The Economist will never even see a mention of the name of this brave professional. Other opinion makers such as economist and writer Rodrigo Constantino fled to Miami and the director of Brazil's largest conservative portal tercalivre.com.br, Allan Santos, turned to Washington D.C.

Weird – if President Bolsonaro is this ruthless authoritarian, how come left-wing journalists feel so at ease in the country and precisely his supporters have to emigrate to the U.S.

What made me sadder in this compilation of Fake News was the discovery that Ms. Nair is the daughter of the eminent polish psychiatrist, Yehuda Nir, a holocaust survivor, and the Jair Bolsonaro government pays a very high price for turning Brazil into one of Israel's main allies. It is common to see Israeli flags in the various demonstrations in favor of the government that take place throughout Brazil. Ms. Sarah Maslin Nir should not only apologize to the Brazilian people, she owes an apology to History .