This article can be found here.October 4, 2009
After being recognized as the hosts of the 2016 Olympic games, Brazilians are beginning to view their country as an emerging power in global politics. Especially since this set of games will be the first to be held in South America. The author of the article purposefully takes a quote from a Brazilian electrical technician and cites him as saying, “We aren’t the United States, but we are getting there, and we will get there.” Using this source allows the author to convey not only the newfound sense of national pride found in the lower class sectors, but emphasize the reference point on which countries like Brazil base their global status: the United States. Brazil's emergence as a new world power can best be seen through the closing gap between the wealthiest few and the middle class. But economic success can be found mostly through luck. As the author points out pessimistically, the nation was just "lucky" enough to discover "huge troves of deep sea oil". The author repeatedly points out these 'lucky' instances as he describes the President da Silva's rise from poverty to leadership and Brazil's flourishing prosperity in the midst of a global economic crisis. Does all this talk of luck insinuate that their winning bid for host as host of the Olympics was just another one of these 'lucky' instances? Was Chicago just not lucky enough? In the end, the lack of 'sportsmanship', if you will, that the author expresses creates an overall jealous tone in the article.
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