A New World with New Ideas - A Brazilian Timeline

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXVIII - The road to success

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Brazil for much of its history has been an ever rising power. First, Brazil cemented itself as the foremost Latin American power. Then, Brazil, together with the United States, split the Americas into two spheres of influence in order to solidify their dominance. And finally, Brazil, in the wake of the 2nd Great War, put itself forth as a global power, above even the old colonial empires of Britain and France. However, Brazil never really ascended to the top, instead being relegated as a third wheel in the game between Washington and Berlin. Not only that, but by the late stages of the Cold-War, Brazil’s position was actively threatened by the emergence of new economic powers such as Russia and Japan. But despite all of that, comes the 21st century, Brazil now once again stands as the world’s second largest economy, as well as one of the world’s main military powers. Even so, the arrival of the Indian Flu and the new American crash really hit the Brazilian economy. Fortunately for Brazil, the nation wasn’t ready to call quits. In fact, this crisis, as seen by many in the government, brought forth further opportunities for the economical and political expansion of the Brazilian sphere.

With the crash of the American economy and the subsequent failure of multiple banks, many companies around the world also started failing, mostly as a result of the interconnection between world economies following the end of the Cold War. Thus, it didn’t take long for multiple big names in Brazilian industry to begin asking for help from the government. Seizing this opportunity, the government began offering financial support for some key pillars of Brazilian industry, but in exchange the government would be able to buy plenty of shares in these companies, as well as gain guarantees that much of the heavy industry wouldn’t be leaving the country for cheaper nations. Now, I don’t need to tell you that this measure was extremely controversial , especially amongst the opposition. However, given that much of parliament was in NLC’s hands, the P-3 had no chance of succeeding. Thereby, an appeal was made to the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the government buying shares in a company. But to the P-3’s dismay, the court eventually sided with Pérez and his economical nationalist agenda. Now emboldened with the SC’s ruling, the Perez administration began using their newly acquired shares, as well as dominance over the Brazilian parliament to pursue an ‘anti-business’ agenda. Because, basically, the NLC viewed the banks and other financial institutions as being too reckless with other people’s money. To counter this, the government passed the Lei Limpeza do Templo, in homage to the biblical event of Jesus expelling the merchants from the Temple, which resulted in the banks financial independence being slightly stripped by the government. In the end, many of the more radical members of the coalition felt that the law didn’t go far enough, but for now it was a good start, according to the NLC.

Next, the Pérez administration also sought to slightly change the Brazilian economy. Namely, the government opted to increase investment to Brazil’s high-tech industry, as they predicted that, no matter how much they stimulated the local heavy industry, there would always face threats from industry in cheap 3rd world nations. Thereby, an edge in technology was needed if the Brazilian economy was to maintain their position as the 2nd largest. Most notably, ever since the end of the pandemic, computer technology began rapidly improving in all fields. Thereby, the government began handing tax breaks and other incentives for Computer manufactures to increase production and innovation. Most crucial of it all however, would be the Brazilian manufacturing chips for electronic devices, as Brazilian companies began actually surpassing foreign designs in quality and prices. In the end, the most important of all the companies for this develop was the recently created Eletrônicos Fusaro, created by Brazilian inventor, Frederico Fusaro, which soon began making new models like the “Charged-coupled device”. But not only was Brazil developing technologically, but there soon was widespread adoption of new technologies, especially by the government, which soon allowed for more efficient bureaucracy and more accurate accounts. Not only that, but Brazil soon began experimenting with another field, robotics. As previously, that field had been dominated by Japanese companies, but now that many of them were financially shaken by the American crash and the stagnation of Japan, Brazilian companies began venturing into the wide areas of knowledge in robotics.

But not only was Brazil securing itself through technological development and economic reforms. To truly be able to assert themselves in the pillar of the great nations of the 21st century, Brazil also needed to expand their influence abroad. However, unlike the P-3, the NLC had little interest in shows of force and the use of military might. Instead, Brazil was to expand culturally and commercially to other corners of the globe. Because, previously, this Brazilian sphere of influence had been limited to South America and the Lusophone world. But now, the Pérez administration, as well as other private groups, began making headway into more of sub Saharan Africa, southern Europe and Southeast Asia. Namely, the arranging of trade deals and mutual investments between said nations. As such, Brazilian exports and imports began diversifying more and more, as nations that sought to modernize and were usually antagonistic to American influence, began instead buying Brazilian technology and using Brazilian loans. Safe to say, many lawmakers in Washington were none too happy. But considering the current economic fallout the US was going through, there was little they could do. Not only that, but Brazil was also an important American trade partner and more often than not was willing to support Washington in its foreign ventures and diplomatic clashes, though they did prefer to stay neutral. Either way, for now the eagle wouldn’t mind the Jaguar, though one nation that did mind was China. Because, especially after the Macau incident, became ever weary of Brazilian expansion. But now that Brazil was developing ties with Southeast Asian states like Malaysia and Vietnam, China had enough and began hatching counter measures.

However, said measures would ‘t come into fruition until the next year. But as the year of 2012 still raged on, Pérez had more to do. Most important of which were some legislations regarding worker’s rights he longed to pass but couldn’t. Until now that is. Now, Pérez managed to get a new bill approved through Congress the Lei do 14°, which created a new bonus salary for workers, similarly to the 13th, but instead of being given by the end of the year, the 14th would be paid in the end of June. Not only that, but the Brazilian parliament also passed through Lei da Reforma Sindical, which game more power to Trade Unions when negotiating with employers. Lastly but not least, the government also got the Lei Guilherme Leite passed. Said law, tightened Brazilian immigration requirements, as well as allocated more funding for the deportation of immigrants. All of these laws were passed between July of 2012 and Dece,her of 2012. And let me tell you, a lot of people were pissed about it. Liberals were pissed of further government meddling in the economy, while progressives were furious about the new immigrations laws. Hispanic people residing in Brazil in particular were very angry with the new restrictions, as many of them had families back in their countries they would like to bring to Brazil. That is why, during months of December and January, large scale protests gripped the streets of major Brazilian cities. However, given that the government was finally secured and the most turbulent parts of the early Pérez administration were behind him, Pérez paid no attention whatsoever to the protests. It also didn’t help that media coverage was quite low and the protesters message was largely ignored. In the end, Pérez rested easy, for his vision for Brazil was about to come into fruition.

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[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXIX - Times closer to home

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The 90’s and early 2000’s were times marked by optimism and the hope of development. However, with the pandemic wrecking the world economy and the American crash soon following, the opposite effect soon followed. The 2010’s were marked by the growth of pessimism amongst the youth, as well as the escalation of some conflicts across the world. Even so, times during the 2010’s weren’t bad. In fact, standards of living rose across the globe in spite of all the crisis that preceded the times. In Brazil, this negativity also impacted the country’s culture and thought throughout the decade. Though, if in comparison with other developed economies, the Brazilian situation was actually quite good and this total feeling of depression never reall sunk like in place such as the US, Canada, Germany, Japan and Great Britain. The whys and hows of such are still largely up for debate, though what is known is that the 2010’s up to this day, were marked by actually competent governments that rarely caused political scandal and that, even if lacklusterly, contribute to an increase in Brazil’s prosperity and development throughout the contemporary era.

For starters, the year of 2013 would be marked by a remarkable stabilization of inflation in spite of increasing government spending. This is mostly attribute to the growth of Brazilian exports to Asia, Africa, Europe and LaTam in face of a decrease of Chinese, American and Japanese competition. Still, the inflationary rate of 2013 did sit at around 4%, which was remarkably higher than previous averages during the P-4/3 administrations. Still, the money being spent by the government was directly aiding in the Brazilian economical recovery. For instance, the economical growth of Brazil in 2011 was marked at 4.3%, while in 2012, thanks to the crash, it had decreased to 1.9%, which was still far better than the rest of the world which saw a decrease in economical growth, while in 2013 the economy grew by 4.9%, the largest amongst the developed economies. This translated into a GDP of 6.669 Trillion USD by 2011, 6.796 in 2012 and 7.129 trillion USD by 2013. By contrast the US economy stood at around 16 trillion USD by 2013, while China surpassed Russia and Germany with a GDP of 6.223 trillion USD, with Germany having a GDP of 5.793 Trillion and Russia in 5th with 4.982 Trillion. But turning away from economic matters, and into work matters, Brazilian provinces dominated by NLC started experimenting with the idea of a 6 hour workday, resulting in about 30 hours of work per week. This experiment was most prominent in the province of Araucaria, later expanding to other Brazilian province such as Paraguai, Paraná and Goiás. Such reforms were however not unique to Brazil as Argentina’s left-wing government also made such endeavors to reform their workweek.

Another reform implemented by the Pérez administration during this time would be the Lei de Reforma do Censo. This new law increased the complexity of the Brazilian census as it added stuff like socio-economic classes, as well as allowing for people to choose sexual orientation. Not only that, but the time for a census was decreased from 10 years, to 5 years. The task of conducting the census would also now be the responsibility of the Department of the Interior and a new bigger budget would be allocated for the expanded census. With the frost modern census being held in 2015.

But speaking of international matters, Brazil would be once again dragged to an international shit show, in Ceylon, to be more precise. Firstly it’s best for us to explain the situation in Ceylon. For starters, Ceylon had acquired independence from Portugal back in the 70’s due to the Pacto de Salvador. But despite having a sloth transition from colony to independent nation, the task of state management was anything but smooth. For starters, much like most Portuguese colonies, Ceylon had been thoroughly Lusified, well, the southern portion of the nation that is. In the southern portion of the island, specially in the country’s capital of Colombo, the Portuguese language dominated as the lingua-franca, Christianity was also very widespread, with places such as the capital having a Christian majority, the Ceylonese elites also being heavily mixed between Portuguese settlers, mostly soldiers and administrators that had spent their careers on the island and decided to retire there, and local ceylonese nobility. However, such Portuguese influence was not universal, with places in the north maintaining their language, in this case mostly Tamil, and their religion, in this case mostly Hinduism. As such, many extremist movements began arising in the north of Ceylon aiming for further political autonomy, or, in some cases, total independence. The most numerous and powerful of these groups being the Tamil Tigers, which hoped to create a Tamil state encompassing Northern Ceylon and parts of Southeastern India.

Their operations would be heavily suppressed by the Ceylonese state, which by all accounts was a highly despotic one, as it was ruled by a de-facto one-party state under the leadership of the Grand Unity Party. However, the Ceylonese state was also supported, or at least had the sympathies, of both Brazil and Portugal, which put the Tamil Tigers in a difficult spot. However, once the pandemic hit and the American crash hit, the GUP fell amidst a see of discontent amongst the country’s youth and unemployed. In their place, rose the Alliance for Progress, the biggest opposition party. Amidst this chaos and confusion, the Tamil Tigers grew in strength and in 2013 they made their move, beginning a rebellion in northern Ceylon against Colombo. To further their chances of success, the Tamil Tigers also kidnapped many high ranking members of the provincial governments, as well as began attacking foreign nationals of nations that supported the Ceylonese government, namely Portugal and Brazil. In one particular incident, Tamil Tiger cells operating in Colombo tried to kidnapped the Brazilian diplomat for Ceylon, Reginaldo Pessoa, only to thwarted in their attempts by the Ceylonese police. Taking advantage of this event, the Ceylonese government begged São Sebastião to send military aid to them. Unfortunately for them, the NLC was none too keen on moving into another foreign mess, specially after they campaigned hard against the intervention in Mozambique. However, due to popular outrage against the attack, the Pérez administration approved the selling of military equipment, the sending of advisors to help train the Ceylonese military, as well as sending a small amount of peace-keepers which would not, under any circumstances, fight the insurgents. This proved to be the best choice, as it didn’t angler their supporters to much, while also satisfying the war-hawks in parliament.

Photo of Tamil Tiger rebels (2013)​

But as Pérez dealt with a crisis, another one reared its ugly head. Remember how back in 2005 a Chinese dissident by the name of Huai Changrui was secretly murdered while in Macau? Well, as I said previously, the case went unsolved for a long time, until now that is. In 2013, a team of criminologists in Macau, lead by a man named César Lao, acquired new evidence came to light about how Huai was murdered by an unknown assailant in 2005. Further investigation were conducted by private investigator Sérgio Guerreiro, a Brazilian detective that worked in Macau, concluded that the most likely culprit was the Chinese intelligence community, the conclusion later becoming hard facts as documents detailing the assassination plan were found. In the end, the confirmation of the student’s assassination sent shockwaves across the world. In China in particular, government opposition began gaining steam as their incompetent became apparent. Because, and this is a Brazilian tip, if you’re going to assassinate someone for your own political gains, at least be discreet about it.

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[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXL - Closing Reforms

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As the year of 2014 dawned upon the Brazilian experiment, Pérez soon was faced with another issue, that the elections were upon him. Now, looking as a foreign observer, it appeared clear that Pérez had good chances of not only retaining a majority in parliament, but expand it. However, the failure of many administrations, specially so close to the elections, made him quite nervous. Thereby, if the previous years had been stressful for him to deal with. Well, 2014 would prove to be even worse, as the Prime Minister did all he could not to tarnish his image just before such an important moment. Thankfully for him, his friend and right-hand, Rodrigo Schwab, took care of important matters for the administration during 2014.

Most pressing of all matters was a desire by Schwab to reform the Brazilian legal system. Now, for a bit of background, Schwab made his name in the province of Uruguay as a public lawyer, which for those who don’t know is a lawyer provided by the state for those who couldn’t afford one. Throughout this time, Schwab also got caught up in the Brazilian labor movement, as got sympathetic to the worker’s cause. However, throughout all of this there was one thing that made him quite annoyed. That being the fact that the Brazilian legal system, involving the Civil Code, Labor Code, Entrepreneurial/Business code, etc. were all very archaic, the youngest one, the Labor Code, being codified back in the 30’s. Thereby, Schwab dreamed of a massive restructuring of the Brazilian legal system in order to better fit the modern Brazil of the 21st century. Such choices would also better enshrine certain constitutional rights, such as gay marriage for instance, as despite being in a party known for their social conservatism, Schwab was quite the moderate/pragmatist in that regard. Unfortunately for him, remaking just one code would take decades, let alone remaking all of them. But luckily for him, he was not the first person to think the Brazilian Legal System needed a redo. Previous lawyers, mostly of little relevance, like Manoel de Vasconcelos, Carlos Tagliaferro and Leopoldo Pastor, had made a sketch of what a reformed Brazilian law code should look like. And using this as a template would undoubtedly cut the time needed to ratify these reforms. Another big problem though would be passing it through both houses, as despite holding a majority in both upper and lower houses, such matters regarding the constitution were apt for a review by the Supreme Court, which had an anti-government majority.

Either way, during a section from parliament, the proposals for a reform of the Brazilian legal code was put forward by the PTB, which prepared itself for a fierce debate in both chambers. Fortunately for them, luck was on their side, as many of the opposition agreed on the principles of a reformed Legal Code. The major problem being that they feared this would be used by the NLC as a way to entrench their power. In order to appease the opposition, Pérez appealed to a MP of the Social-Liberal Party, one of the old adherents of Henriques and Branco’s ideas, a guy named Leônidas Waldmeier, who was also a lawyer by profession, proposing thusly to form a more mixed commission, though with a slight NLC majority, to discuss upon the law code. Waldemeier agreed, using some connections within the P-3 to sway opinion in favor of the bill. By the time it was to be voted upon in the lower house, it passed with 307 yes votes, a 2/3’s majority. The same story repeated itself in the upper chambers, also passing with a very comfortable margin. The issue was indeed brought up to the Supreme Court, but it was quickly decided to be constitutional as it had a major backing from the legislative. Now, came the truly hard part, that is, making a commission of people from opposing ideologies to agree on a comprehensive legal reform. Though, luckily for Schwab and his dream, the previous sketch made by the four jurists, which we will call the Vasconcelos Sketch for short, was mostly agreeable to both sides, only requiring a few adjustments to make it more palatable for the left-wing. However, the I put it make it seem the codification was an easy affair. Trust me, it wasn’t. I would take some 5 years for it to be completed, as well a further 2 years to be implemented, only coming to full fruition by 2021.

Either way, passing this law code was a major victory for the Pérez administration, further boosting his chances at 2014. But another big event would yet come, the Brazilian space agency, RAEB, announced plans for further moon exploration with the full intent of creating a Brazilian colony on the moon by 2023. Now, this announcement caught everyone by surprise. Ever since the end of the cold-war, RAEB didn’t really stand out amongst the other space agencies of the world, even if their budget wasn’t as slacked as with other agencies like NASA. What was known was that the agency had been launching many more satellites and making more and more missions to the moon with the intent of studying soil composition, weather and safety conditions. Now, everyone knew why. However, this did not mean immediate human colonization of the moon. According to RAEB, the plan was to first create a base on the Moon, which if proven to be operational for more than five years, would being slowly but surely receiving permanent residents. Some technologies still needed to be better developed, specially to take into account the differences of gravity between earth and the moon, as it was theorized that any moon colonist would need to spend some time on earth every year to build more muscle strength. But whatever the case, it became clear that São Sebastião had big plans about turning the moon, or at least a big chunk of it, into the newest Brazilian province. To say that such news shocked the world would be an understatement, the prospect of a nation controlling the moon and the possible resources hidden there being gobbled up was haunting. Some nations, like China, protested the idea, claiming that the moon belonged to no single nation, Brazil ignored them. Furthermore, a couple of weeks later, in Buenos Aires, a group of diplomats from the Mercosul also announced the creation of a joint space-program, in partnership with RAEB, for the creation of colonies on the moon, this time concerning other nations like Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Haiti, allowing for Latin America to show themselves for the world.

RAEB concept for a moon mining facility, which would provide the money and resources to sustain the colony​

The big question was, however, whether the Brazilian finances could support such a mission. Well, the Brazilian economy had grown massively ever since the end of the pandemic, with state revenues also increasing accordingly. Not only that, but the announcement by RAEB would also bring about a revolution in the private sector, as Brazilian investors and inventors started designing their own companies for space exploration. The most successful example of which being from Brazilian businessman Amadeu Simonsen, which created the company Saturno, itself specialized in the development and manufacturing of rockets, which they would begin selling for both Brazil and other nations in the coming years, thus driving prices down. With further development in technology, Pérez transition from consumer goods manufacturing to high-end tech goods was beginning to pay off as more factories across Brazil ever producing the components needed for the ever more advanced machinery. As a result, a weird inversion began to happen, as, ever since the Henriques administration, the secondary sector of the economy, dedicated to manufacturing, decreased as a percentage of total output from 65% to some 39% by 2010, thus allowing for Financial Capitalism to replace Industrial Capitalism as the predominant economical mode of Brazil. But now, with an increase in manufacturing, as well a crisis in the financial sector, industry rose to encompass 41% of the Brazilian GDP by 2015, with the primary sector coming in last with 5% and the tertiary sector coming in first with 54%. In the end, allowing for many to think that a return to industrial capitalism could become more advantageous for Brazil, if she were to truly transcend the limits of earth.

But, enough about this, the elections of 2014 had come, and, unlike the previous ones, this election had shown a great level of civility and a lack of craziness. This perhaps may be mostly due to the fact the P-3 knew they were doomed this round, so it was better to save face now then be momentarily disregarded as crazy in the aftermath. Because, in the end, the NLC managed to increase their share in parliament from 56% to 59%, allowing for them a control in the lower chamber they haven’t enjoyed in years. For in total, the NLC had some 271 seats in parliament, as the PTB now held 150 seats and the Conservatives held 121. However, unexpectedly, the P-3 had relatively few loses, with the SLP and the Progressives remaining with 71 and 51 seats respectively, the National Federalists only losing 2 seats and going to 26, for the ones that lost the most this election were the greens, as they lost 11 seats and now had 30, a result of inaction from the party and dissatisfaction with its base.

Now, the future looked brighter than ever for Pérez, nothing being able to stand in his way… but, tragically, there was.

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[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXLI - The Newest Captain of the Ship

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The world can be quite cruel and Ernesto Pérez knew that all too well. Pérez was born in the province of Aurélia back in 1964 to Manoel Matamoros Pérez and Cristina Leal de Valverde. All his great-grandparents came from Spain, more specifically, from Asturias, Catalonia and Aragon, as they arrived in Brazil during the 1890’s and 1900’s. His life, from the very beginning, was kinda miserable as he was born in abject poverty, all the while his parents divorced and he was forced to live with his grandparents. Then, he began working at a young age, barely being able to go to college, and soon found himself entangled in the Brazilian Labor movement, which despite going through tough times, still remained relatively strong. He rapidly rose through the ranks and in no time he became PM of Brazil, though the position itself was not what he hoped for, as between him and Schwab he was always the more idealistic, which made the constant stress and berating feel like a dream crusher, but since he got results he remained strong. But now, in 2015, his wife, Beatriz Moraes, died of a heart disease and the accumulated stress fell upon him with a vengeance. Not feeling like he could effectively guide the coalition and the nation anymore, Pérez informed his closest companions of his intend to abdicate and one month later, on the 3rd of April, he formally stepped down as PM. There was a quick vote on the matter and the NLC, which had a good majority in parliament, got to elect Rodrigo Schwab as Brazil’s newest PM.

Photo of Prime Minister, Rodrigo Schwab (2015)​

The Schwab premiership would then be immediately characterized by the elevation in importance of the Conservative Party. Despite being generally more realistic, prudent and a better speaker than Pérez, Schwab simply did not have Pérez administrative skills, thus requiring him to bring Tiago Dutra along to balance things out. This move of his raised a few eyebrows, as many progressive elements of Brazilian society dreaded a return of Hitler like social policies to Brazil, as despite being generally conservative, the PTB could be negotiated with in regards to stuff like LGTB rights. So in order to ease their fears, Schwab used his new legal code to express how he was willing to compromise with the Brazilian left if it meant Brazilian society would stand united, as Schwab himself was from a more socially moderate wing of the Brazilian right. But despite his willingness to comprise, Schwab was first and foremost the leader of the PTB and would act accordingly. What this meant, was a continuation of Pérez’s economic policies, as well the more isolationist modus-operandi internationally. But Schwab didn’t just want to be on Pérez’s shadow, and instead wished to create a legacy of his own. Said legacy, he thought, should come into something that would come in the form of something that would outlast his administration and, hopefully, the NLC’s dominance over parliament. He decided then to focus on a highly environmentalist project to protect Brazilian vegetation and water from the effects of climate change.

To this end, Schwab allowed for the passage of the Lei do Lixo Oceânico, which stipulated that the Brazilian government had a duty to clear Brazilian water from microplastics and other contaminating substances. But Schwab didn’t establish something he couldn’t do, or at least complete. Brazilian scientists had, over the last couple of years, developed a bacteria capable of eating nothing but plastic. If thrown in controlled amounts in polluted areas of the ocean, the bacteria would eat all the plastic and then starve to death. The plan was simple, but effective either way, soon, Brazil started using the experimental bacteria to clean up their oceans. The man who developed this new ally of environmentalism, was a duo of college students, Antônio Machado and Vincente Rocca, who soon founded the company Ninfa, which continued developing environmental cleaning devices. Said discovered was also highly appreciated in the rest of the world, with multiple nations putting orders for the small microbe. But for now, the company only really sold to Brazilian buyers. Adding to that, Schwab, with multi-partisan support, passed the Lei Novo Século, which set the goal for Brazil to become a carbon neutral society by 2030. Such task would be no simple effort, but Brazil had several advantages. For one, Brazil had the world’s largest rainforest - which could hold on to millions of tons of CO2 -, Brazil was also the largest producer of renewable energy in the world -specially as fission, fusion, wind and solar energy increased their outputs drastically-, Brazil also started moving away from fossil fuels as gas and oil became less common in Brazilian domestic utensils. All of this, meant that, although the journey to helping the environment would be tough one, it was possible.

But despite his best efforts to focus on domestic policies and ignore much of what happened outside the Brazilian sphere, the world had other plans. Ever since the fall of the German block during the Cold-War, nations like Ukraine, Hungary and Poland had their politics more and more dominated by nationalist strongman. Ukraine specially changed drastically from the end of the Cold-War to the present. Back then, the great fields of Ukraine Fed the German block, all the while the profits were reinvested back into the country in the form of an industrial build up, allowing for Ukraine to become the 2nd biggest economy of the German block after the collapse of Danubia, as well as the development of nuclear weapons -with German help of course-. With the fall of the Eagle, Ukraine went through deep economic troubles and nationalist zealots took power. Their proposals were simple, Ukraine needed to reinvent itself and united Ukrainian lands to form one great Ukrainian nation. In 2015, they made their move. In that year, Romanian elections allowed for the conservative Peasant Party to form a government. Said government, was also keen on increasing ties with the western block. However, in the Romanian province of Bessarabia, the Izmail oblast, which had a Ukrainian majority, declared the results null and the elections to be fraudulent, with Ukraine itself soon moving in to occupy the region. Such movement caught the international community with their pants down at this sign of aggression, and many nations moved in to sanction the Ukrainian State. However, due to Ukraine’s dominance over wheat exports, especially to the African and European continents, the Ukrainian State could ignore the sanctions, and since they possessed nuclear weapons and a big and advance military, no nation really intervened on the behest of Romania.

Meanwhile, back in São Sebastião, Schwab tried his best not to comment on the Ukrainian situation, but eventually people began asking about his government’s stance on the Ukrainian situation. Given this form of naked aggression was unacceptable in the international stage, Schwab had no choice but to condemn the actions of the Ukrainian government. To which the Ukrainian government responded in mind and denounced the Brazilian government as an enemy of the nation. Now the Ukrainian government hoped they could use the huge Ukrainian diaspora in Brazil to their advantage. Unfortunately for them, few of those ever even born in Ukraine, and even fewer had any sort of loyalty to the country, they were Brazilians first and foremost and would remain so, even if they thought Brazil and Ukraine would be better together than as enemies. Either way, Brazil and Ukraine, much like the rest of the world, were in a difficult diplomatic dilemma. But the uncertainty of that Ukrainian aggression caused made many nations across Europe and the Middle East to begin arming themselves. In this regard Brazil actually scored big as many nations began purchasing Brazilian military hardware for protection. Amongst Brazil’s top buyers were Portugal, Lebanon and Syria, all of whom were eyeing their neighbors with increased suspicion.

In terms of culture, 2015 was a great year for Brazil and Lusophone culture at large. In that year, Brail earned its 3rd Nobel Prize in Literature and 6th of the Lusophone world, as in that year Laura Padovania na her work, ‘Escuro, Escuro meu’, secured Lusophone pride with her tale that criticized the post-pandemic state of the world. Not only that but Brazilian movie productions also hit incredibly well in the international, from big-budget productions like the spy-based “Uma noite em Berlim”, to his historical dramas like “A Guerra de Melo” and animation movies like “Rato de Cidade”. Not only that but Brazilian actors also made a pretty big name for themselves both nationally and internationally, with Brazilian actor Geraldo Magalhães earning an American Oscar for best support actor, not only that, but he was also the first Afro-Brazilian to ever receive such prize, later becoming a symbol for Afro-Brazilian culture and significance in Brazilian society.

But that was about what happened in 2015, not a very interesting year if compared to 2016 and 2019, but either way, important political developments did happen and the world would begin to follow the after effects soon enough.

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