Brazil Swears in First Female President, Dilma Rousseff

Brazil's first female president was sworn in Saturday. Dilma Rousseff, wearing a white skirt and matching jacket, took the oath of office beside Vice President Michel Terner in the national Congress. Dilma Rousseff is fascinating because of her participation in 'left-wing' Marxist guerrilla organizations in the 1964 coup d'état. Rousseff was i mprisoned and tortured during the long military dictatorship of that time. (source)

Rousseff has 'big shoes to fill'. In fact, if you're thinking about getting out of the sinking ship called U.S. America, Brazil might be an option. Brazil has been making rapid progress on the financial and political stage under the direction of former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Rousseff, who was Silva's chief of staff, was chosen by Silva to be his successor.

"I'm going to consolidate the transformative work done by President Lula," Rousseff said during her inaugural address. That transformative work done by Silva? "He changed the way the government is run, and led the people to trust in themselves."

Lula da Silva didn't just tout change, he must have really believed in it!

Silva's social programs (socialist!) and wealth redistribution "helped pull 20 million people out of poverty. On the brink of sovereign default in 2002, it now lends money to the International Monetary Fund. Unemployment is at a record low, its currency has more than doubled against the dollar and the nation will host the 2016 Olympics" (see above source)

(side note: What's ironic is that America is working to put a few 100 million Americans in poverty by decades of wealth redistribution to the top 2 percent of wealthy Americans [offshore tax havens, Bush tax cuts, incentives to ship jobs to China China China and Indonesia])

Rousseff will not give the nation time to relax, she said, but will continue to achieve progress in Brazil. "There is still poverty shaming our country...I will not rest while there are Brazilians without food on their table, homeless in the streets, and poor children abandoned to their luck."

Rousseff spoke of the tough times of fighting the 1964-1985 military dictatorship in Brazil. Rousseff, part of an armed rebel group, was arrested in 1970 and was tortured for three years. "That at-times tough path made me value and love life much more," she said during her speech. "It gave me, more than anything else, courage to confront even bigger challenges. It is with this courage that I'm going to govern Brazil."

Dilma Rousseff is a new world leader to keep your eye on. I expect great things from her. She faces many challenges, such as maintaining Brazil's expanding economy. Asia's demand for Brazil's goods could play a large role in that. Brazil needs improvements in infrastructure as well as an overhaul of its airports, ports, and roads.

Trustworthy transportation is key to any growing economic and world power, and is vital in Brazil's movement onto the world stage.

Silva left office with an 87 percent approval rating. I've only seen that kind of approval for George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks and all the red-blooded Americans were chanting "Shock and awe" as the U.S. lit up (missiles!) marketplaces and civilian hotspots in Baghdad.

Silva had an unique ability to satisfy leftist elements of the Workers Party while employing orthodox economic policies in the business community, which was panicked about Silva's socialist roots.

Sound familiar? Except Silva really does have socialist roots, and those roots helped bring prosperity to 20 million impoverished Brazilians. Barack Obama isn't a socialist, but stuffy tough guys like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner like to use the word anyway. And Fox News enjoys how the word social-ist rolls off the tongue.

Good for Brazil. Good for Dilma Rousseff! Will many blessings be showered upon them! Keep your eye on Rousseff. She may prove quite interesting.