Brazil’s 7-1 loss to Germany may disappoint the country’s football fans but it bodes well for October’s elections. It dispels any kind of World Cup effect from the voting, and forces the electorate to focus more on the issues. And there are a lot of issues.
Brazil has made great strides forward over the past two decades, allowing it to take pride of place in the BRICs club. But further development depends on it addressing a whole range of issues, from the poor state of the country’s infrastructure to its cumbersome labour laws, unaffordable public pensions, indexation of wages which pushes up costs, cronyism, and the poor state of public services such as health and education.
