This Wednesday Professor Andre Rozemberg Prixoto Simores, an Agricultural Economist at Mato Grosso do Sul State University, came to have an very interesting discussion with us on Brazil. I really enjoyed the Rose Cafes last semester on several African countries so I decided this is a great opportunity to learn more about Brazil.

The professor started the conversation by showing us a map of Brazil. I learned from before that Brazil is the largest country in South Africa and Latin America. The professor point to the capital Brasilia in particular, which is located in the middle right of the country. I know that 2016 Olympics happened in Rio de Janeiro, which is located on the southeast corner of the country. The professor was mentioned that the country is very close to equator, and I remember seeing people suffer the hear last summer when I watch the competitions on television. One interesting fact about Brazil is that its education system is different from ours. In Brazil, the best institutions are state universities since they attract the best faculty whereas the private universities are less popular. Clearly it is very different from the situation in US, as the most prestigious universities here are mostly private and they get large amount of their endowment from alumni donation and private investments. I am not sure the exact reason why the system in Brazil would be different but it might be related to government funding.

The professor also discussed about the high Gini coefficient of Brazil, which is currently about 50 right now. I did a little research and a country with a Gini coefficient about 50 is considered a country with very large income equality. United States is also a country with a high Gini Coefficient at around 45. I am from China and I know China has the high income inequality problem as well, with a Gini coefficient at around 50. In the states, there is a lot of discussion going on about the richest 1% and how the richest tend to accumulate more wealth through time. I personally feel that it is okay to have a income gap among people, since there can be a large variation between two persons’ ability, intelligence, background, environment etc. But I think it is very crucial if people at top realize the benefit of distributing their wealth among the society and people who are more in need of that money.

And of course, Professor mentioned about soccer in Brazil and how crazy popular it is. I really enjoy the talk of this Wednesday, and I hope to learn more about South Africa in the future!