Lessons from the Cold War and Global Warming!

The cold war was a war that never came (THANKS FOR THAT!!) but which lessons can it teach us regarding Global Warming?

Global warming use to be a debate now is a certainty with more than 97% of scientists supporting it! The only question remaining is: Can WE change the out came or it is too late? Well, I most certainly don´t have the answers and I think no one does! Here the phrase “Time will tell!” is the only answer!

But can The Cold War teach us anything about Global Warming? I think it can! Global Warming as the name says is GLOBAL! Just like cold war! Because a nuclear war in Europe, USA, USSR, China and its zones of influence would destroy the conditions for humans to live on planet and not just in those countries directly bombed!

The strange and unexpected aspect of Global Warming is that for the first time, the POWER is in the hands of the poor! Developed countries used their natural resources and of other countries to become DEVELOPED! This is OK! This was done under the “Game’s rules”!

Now, less developed countries, like my Brazil are doing the same! But now developed countries wants to change the “Game’s rules!”. Developed countries are saying: Sorry you cannot use your natural resources (like we did) to develop because this will cause Global Warming! Sorry to say, we are going to do it! We are going to do it not because we want Global Warming but because we want development!

So what is the answer? What are the solutions?

Like in the Cold War, developed countries will have to do it first! HOW?

First we have to come to an agreement on what level of use by humans can this planet support! This in itself is very hard to do! After it, we can finally agree that the population has to go down (I believe, I don´t know because I cannot find data to support it). How we gone do it, I have no clue! I hope we still have time to do it through education! Once we done these maths, we can move to the real issue, the Natural Environment! Here my proposal is quite simple, same burden/cost to all countries! What will deter it is population! For every single citizen, all countries will have the same X m² of Natural Environment to explore economically! These will be determined by math, so these calculus will show that developed countries will have to reduce their present areas of economic use of their Natural Environment. For less developed countries, there will have more areas to develop! Here there will be NO Carbon Credit bull shit! Developed countries will have to move factories, agricultural farming and everything else of economic development to less developed countries. These actions will make the areas that were used for economic use today in developed countries, back to Natural use leveling the burden! WHY? Let’s take the grains production in the USA, very efficient but its Natural conditions allow production is just a few months of the year! Move an American farmer to a tropical country with same economic conditions and his production will go up simply because he now can produce 12 months of the year!

What I am proposing is NOT a GLOBAL communist scheme! Sure American farmers will not move from Ohio to Nigeria! But an equal burden means that a lot of economic development present placed on developed countries will have to move! Just like it did towards CHINA, but it will be done not for economic reasons but by environment ones! So even if a country offer a better economic solution, if this country has reach his environment quota, sorry it has to go somewhere else! This is the only fair and equal burden solution I can see! If we do not share the cost equally we will never get an equal solution! Global Warming as its name says is GLOBAL! So country base talks or solution will not cut! We are running out of time fast!

BUT rest assures that less developed countries will develop! The only question remaining is: Will the planet support this development given the present conditions?

Brazil

Why I LOVE so much my country!

Brazil is a vast country, it has 8.515.767 Km² which makes it the fourth largest continuous country in the world! The most stacking characteristic of Brazil is the fact that it starts around 32 degrees south and goes up north to about 5 degrees north of the Equator. Why this so important? Climate! If you look at the World Map you will see that Brazil is the largest country to reactive sun light! Our geographical position allows us to cultivate virtually any plant, livestock or microorganisms that we decide to. This is a great thing, but it is not the reason, this is the cause!

Brazilian colonization started by Portuguese in 1500 A.D. and very soon the slavery trade came to be. So Brazilians, in its birth, were a mix of Indian (true Brazilians), Portuguese (European) and Africans. In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Brazil received large number of Asian immigrants (especially from Japan) complementing the mix! So we are a people blessed with blood from almost everywhere! I know that most countries these days have also mix people, but we had the Portuguese inheritance that gave us o more comprehensive and less radical approaches to differences. Surely we have racism in Brazil and I hope that we get rid of it! It will take time but hopefully humanity will also do it! What we have not are the radical position that lead to extreme violence, such as ethnic wars, mass murder in schools, shopping centers, etc. (even that some are starting to happen, due to copycat and a sense of injustice, most likely!). But Brazilians are FUN! We are the only people that even in the worse situations; we can dance, sing and smile! People from around the world that came to Brazil during the Football World Cup never felt more happy and enjoyed it fully!

But Brazil is vast and nature was also favorite. I had the luck to visit some of the best national parks in the USA in 1980. Parks like Sequoia, Bryce, Teton, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are truly gems of Nature. I am sure all makes Americans proud and care about each! In Brazil we have our National Parks, places like Pantanal, Xingu, Serra da Canastra, Sete Cidades, Fernando de Noronha, etc. are just as nature gems as the American parks. Pantanal is our everglades, a wetland with 200.000 Km² where you can look down to thousands of birds’ nests! YES DOWN! 

Ninhal in Pantanal

Fernando de Noronha is our middle Atlantic island with unique sea views and life. Sete cidades is a 14.000 year man site and has posed some difficult explaining to the man migration through the Americas. We also have more than 8.500 km of cost line, most of it tropical! This makes Brazil the most tropical cost line anywhere! The beaches, or NATAURE WHY DID YOU MAKE THEM! It is impossible to describe so, see one below to get an idea!

Being so vast, Brazil has great differences in food! You can eat a barbeque in Rio Grande do Sul cooked in an open trench or find international food in São Paulo, a great Tutu mineiro dish in Minas Gerais, a acarajé in Bahia, a tapioca in any Brazilian northeast state, a duck with Tucupi in Belém do Pará or Pirarucu fish in Manaus, Amazonia. 

On the side of fruits, NATURE went ballistics! You can eat berries in the south, Jaboticabas in the middle, Cajá, Siriguela, Cajú in the northeast, Serrado fruits, like Pequi, Mangaba and Araticum, are just unique as the serrado itself. Açaí and Cupuaçu in the north! All will make you travel to tastes, smells and sensations never experienced before!

I could not write about Brazil without saying something about our flowers! But to try to write about it is waste of time! Better to see it!

So Brazil is a unique, rich and diverse experience! That’s why I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

I could try to write more, but I will only screech the surface! You have to come! Be sure that you will be loved and respected.

Next post, I don´t know on what it will be! I will wait to get inspiration!

All the best,

Brazilian Justice.

Brazilian Justice, a very Injustice system!

I am no lawyer or Judge, but I truly believe that JUSTICE is a fundamental right that can be easily explain and be part of everyone's daily life if common sense is applied. So what, in my opinion, are the fundamental aspects that a JUSTICE system must have in order to be an effective part of a society?

The first and most important is the absence of impunity! If you commit a crime you must pay for it! The punishment must fit the crime! These are quite obvious, so Does Brazil have it? Let me give you some recent examples and you take your conclusions:

In Brazil, juvenile criminals (Brazilian Law says that under 18 years of age are consider "children" and a special set of laws applied to them!) are on the rise! Adult’s career criminals use these “children” to commit crimes on their behalf and benefit from it! A juvenile criminal cannot be convicted to a normal imprisonment term in a public jail. He will get no more than the time to reach his adulthood. So you he/she is 17 years and 11 months old and kills someone, he will spend no more than a month on a juvenile facility for the crime committed! Sure a judge can see the absurd of it! There are legal mechanisms to impose a harder punishment, but for a Judge is easier not to do so and let it get out of his court! So impunity and no punishment that fits the crime is ever applied to these "children”.

Brazilian Justice System has a unique mathematical calculus system! You will not be impersonated for more than 30 years regardless of your crime! If you have “good antecedents”, “good behavior” and other strange legal terms, you time in jail will be cut to 1/6 of your full term! So if you kill someone for the “first” time, you may be out in just 6 years! Again, a Judge has legal mechanisms to impose a harder punishment and let you stay in the jail for much longer, but for a Judge is easier not to do so and let it get out of his court!

In Brazil murders by fire arms in 2013 were 35.000!! Car “accidents” killed another 54.000 Brazilians!! Accordingly to the “It was no accident” organization site (http://naofoiacidente.org/blog/como-assim-agora-apenas-8-o-numero-de-pessoas-condenadas-e-presas-por-crime-de-transito-no-brasil/) just 8 Brazilians were convicted for a driving car accident resulting in someone’s death! 54.000 deaths happed and just 8 convictions in 2013! IMPUNITY RULES! Car accidents in Brazil are in most cases done by middle and upper middle classes criminals! So the Justice System clearly favors those criminals! Fire arms crimes convictions in Brazil is less than 8%! (http://g1.globo.com/jornal-da-globo/noticia/2014/04/maioria-dos-crimes-no-brasil-nao-chega-ser-solucionada-pela-policia.html). We have more than a war zone death tool and a conviction of less than 8%, IMPUNITY RULES!

These patterns of Injustice are widely spread in Brazilian society! Brazilian society has this strange behavior of complaining but no acting! So I think the picture is clear! Crimes pay off in Brazil! Again in a normal situation, we would expect that Society acts to correct such IMPUNITY, but you have to understand Brazilian society (and any other underdeveloped country) to understand why is does not happen! Lowers classes in Brazil (about 65-75% of the population) are educated in the public education system, which I have comment on a previous text on this blog. This education system is set up to keep the status quo! So they don’t know yet how to make the changes and enforce it on our Legal and Law Systems! Education and Elections takes time!

Judges in Brazil are not afraid of any of his actions and when caught on a crime, normally he/she gets an early retirement! IMPUNITY RULES!!

The upper classes in Brazil use to have no interest on JUSTICE FOR ALL! Simply because they are the criminals that most profit from not having a JUSTICE System working and punishing! But like everything else if life, the bill is presented! This bill is being presented in the most savage and ruffles ways! CRIMES are getting into their homes! I mean it for real! In Brazilian Cities, criminals are getting into your home when you are in it! Murders, car accidents, death is on the rise! Surely the numbers are proportional to the population classes, but at these levels, crimes to middle and upper classes reached staggering numbers! Citizens of these social classes that assumed they were immune to crimes are finally seeing that they are not! These staggering numbers, I hope, will finally make us to see and understand that JUSTICE FOR ALL is the only way!

If you have IMPUNITY, no Legal System is present and savage takes over! I can only hope and do my part to show my friends in the middle and upper classes that JUSTICE FOR ALL AND THE END OF IMPUNITY is the only way to a better future for ALL!!!

My next post will be why I love Brazil so much!

All the best,

My Thoughts : 3 Candidates and One Problem!

My Thoughts : 3 Candidates and One Problem!: What are the fundamental differences in the 3 Presidential Candidates in the 2014 Brazilian Elections! The 3 Presidential Candidates...

3 Candidates and One Problem!

What are the fundamental differences in the 3 Presidential Candidates in the 2014 Brazilian Elections!

The 3 Presidential Candidates in the 2014 Brazilian Election come from very different backgrounds. Dilma Rousseff was middle class and a far left activist in the 70's, persecuted and imprisoned  by the military regime. She is our President today. Aécio Neves is an upper middle class and grandson of our first Civilian President after the military dictatorship, Tancredo Neves who died before taking office. He was Governador of Minas Gerais State for two terms. Finally, Eduardo Campo is an upper middle class and grandson of former Pernambuco State Governador, Miguel Araes. He was Governador of Pernambuco State for two terms. Their parties are PT (Labor Party), PSDB (Brazilian Social-Democracy) and PSB (Brazilian Socialism), respectively. PT and PSDB are the two last parties to hold the presidential post in Brazil. PSDB elected Fernando H. Cardoso for two mandates from 1995 to 2003. PT elected Luis I. Lula for two mandates (2003 to 2011) and Dilma Rousseff (2011 to date).

Brazil has serious problems that in my opinion derived on its core due to ONE Brazilian choice: Bad EDUCATION for the poor. You may be wondering how a country can willingly choose BAD EDUCATION as a country choice! This was systematically done by the military government during the dictatorship in Brazil. Bad education means that a vast majority of the population has no knowledge of its rights and obligations and so can be easily manipulated. EDUCATION IS THE ONLY TOOL FOR DEVELOPMENT!

Education in Brazil is truly strange. It has, like any country, 3 levels, primary, secondary (high school) and third level (Universities). On all levels there are public and privet schools. The strange aspects of it are quality and access. Privet schools in the two first levels are so much better that public ones, that everyone in Brazil dreams of having his sons and daughters studying in a privet school. On the University level, public ones are, in most cases, much better than privet (even that we have some very good privet Universities!). Until recent, the only way to get into a Public University was trough an exam (vestibular) where the 99% of the candidates were from privet schools.

How does the 3 Candidates really see education in Brazil?

If you read the 3 manifests, they are quite similar, simply because education is a central issue to all political campaigns. But the key issue is what each has done while in power. The three candidates hold offices and each could have implemented changes, but just one did.

Aécio and Eduardo public education policies in Minas Gerais and Pernanbuco states were conducted to keep the status quo. Public primary and secondary schools are administrated by a local or state staff with no real improvements in quality and availability. No real change of operation, access and administration was done. Bad salaries for teachers and pedagogic and daily decisions left to the parents that are the result of this same bad education system. This means that the public education system improvement is left to those that derived from it, a vicious circle is formed with no perspectives for real improvement.

When PT (Labor Party) came to power in 2003, it proposed and with many difficulties, implemented a key change in the system. Today in Brazil, there are the ENEN (High School National Exam) were all students are encourage to take because your points will give you direct access to Public Universities (just 50% of the seats on most Public Universities). Since the ENEN has been in place, the numbers of student coming from public high schools that enter Public Universities has increased yearly! Sure the numbers are not ideal, but the path to change has been laid! When ENEN was introduced, resistance to it came from all sectors of society, the ones that most revolt me came from the Lectures at the public Universities. Some extremists said that the public University system will fall apart and disappear! These persons had no understanding that the University public education system in Brazil  was created to give access to the poor to quality University education and not to be a privet club for the rich or upper middle classes! The numbers and improvements done in public education by PT government is quite vast, so if you want to know more about it, Google it!

By law on the public first and second levels, the Federal Government has to pass money to local and state government that administrated it. There have been improvements, but not near enough! In my opinion, what is missing the return of the middle class to the public education system. If law is pass that the access to all public Universities (Local, State or Federal Universities) will only be possible if you study the 14 years of first and second level at a public school, the middle class in Brazil will have two choices:

1   1) Put yours sons and daughters on the public schools and help to improve the public education system;

2   2) OR keep your children on privet schools and know that you will have to pay for all your children education.

In my opinion, the public education in Brazil and in any country, will only work as long as the middle class study on it, keep an eye on it and participate on his daily administration, problems and solutions! I know that my proposal above is quite radical and extreme, but when facing extreme circumstances, extreme measures are needed! The return of the middle class to the public education system, as it was prior the military dictatorship, is the only path to change and improvement of the public education system in Brazil!

My next post will be on Brazilian Justice System (a very unjust one!!)

All the best,

Election in Brazil!

The Brazilian Election is ON!

Brazil is a democratic republic where one citizen, one vote is the RULE! We have 141.824.607 votes on dispute! It may sound incredible but the election results in Brazil takes less than 12 hours to be known! This is due to an electronic voting apparatus (see image) and counting system. The apparatus is quite simple with a screen to show the face of the candidate and his election number. A keyboard with number and 3 special button, to vote "White" (no candidate, valid vote to parties in a very complex mathematical calculus!), a red button to cancel and restart the voting and a green button to "Confirm" the vote. All an person has to do to cast a vote is to type in the candidate number and confirm the vote! DONE in lass than 10 seconds! On this year election, the casting vote time shall be 40 seconds due to the fact that there are State and Federal Deputies, Senator, Governor and Presidential votes to cast! 

This electronic voting system has serious defenders and attackers! Accusations of fraud and vote manipulation has pop-up since the system was introduced, but so far no one has come with solid proves that the system is corrupted in any way! On the contrary, the system has proven solid and democratic! 

On the side of Parties, well I can only say that this is done by our politicians! So we have parties for rent and serious ones! Parties for rent are just that! A party has no fundamental moral or guidelines (even that they published it and says they follow it! In true, it is just a JOKE!!) that they follow and defend! They exist to confuse an illiterate voter and get paid to do so! Our elections has a funny, free ads campaign on TV that makes each second very valuable! So parties for rent get to sell his little time! I really mean SELL IT!

Brazilian Parties as found on Wikipedia

(http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Lista_de_partidos_pol%C3%ADticos_no_Brasil#Partidos_ativos)

Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) 21 Far Left, Socialism, Communism, Marxism-Leninism, Khrushchevismo

(LWA) 19 Centrism National Labour Party, Labour, Nationalism

14 center-left Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), Nationalism, Labour,

Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) 40 Left, Democratic Socialism,

65 Far-Communist left, Market Socialism, Communism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, Reformism, Party of Brazil (PC do B)

Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB) 15 Centrism, Democracy, political syncretism, patronage.

Democratic Labor Party (PDT) 12 center-left Social-Democracy, Humanism, Labour, patronage

Workers Party (PT) 13 Left, democratic socialism, reformism, Marxism

National Mobilization Party (PMN) 33 center-left, Mobilization

Democrats (DEM) 25 center-right, liberal conservatism, economic liberalism, neoliberalism, Christian Democracy

Social Christian Party (PSC) 20 center-right Conservative, Christian Democracy

Centre-right Christian Labor Party (PTC), 36 Conservative, Christian Democracy

Social Green Party (PV) 43 center-left, Environmentalism, Liberalism

Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB) 45 center right, Third Way, parliamentarism, Social-Democracy

Labour Party of Brazil (PTdoB) 70 Centrism, Labour, Nationalism

Republican Progressive Party (PRP) 44 Centrism, Republicanism, Progressivism

Popular Socialist Party (PPS) 23 center-left Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism

Unified Socialist Party of Workers (PSTU) 16 Far Left, Socialism, Communism, Marxism-Leninism, Trotskyism (Morenoite)

Social Liberal Party (PSL) 17 Centrism, social liberalism, economic liberalism

Brazilian Labour Renewal Party (PRTB) 28 Centrism, Labour, Participatismo, Conservatism, patronage

Social Christian Democratic Party (CSDP) 27 center-right Christian Democracy

Humanist Party of Solidarity (PHS) 31 Centrism, Monarchism, patronage

Progressive Party (PP) 11 Centrism, Progressivism, liberal democracy, patronage

Workers' Cause Party (PCO) 29 Far Left, Socialism, Communism, Marxism-Leninism, Trotskyism (altamirista)

Brazilian Republican Party (PRB) 10 Centrism, Christian Democracy, patronage

Socialism and Freedom Party (PSoL) 50 Left, Socialism, Marxism, Trotskyism (Morenoite, Mandelite and grantista), Ecosocialism

Party of the Republic (PR) 22 Centrism, Republicanism, social liberalism, protectionism, patronage

Free Fatherland Party (PPL) 54 Left, Marxism, scientific socialism,

Republican Party of Social Order (PROS) 90 center-left Social-Democracy, Republicanism, patronage

Social Democratic Party (PSD) 55 Centrism, political syncretism, patronage

(PEN) National Green Party 51 Centrism, Sustainability, Christian Democracy, patronage

Solidarity (SDD) 77

As you can see, Brazil has a long way to refine its political system! This is no surprise since our education system was systematically destroyed by the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985!

The election this year has 3 Presidential Candidates, President Dilma for re-electing, Aécio Neves for the PSDB and Eduardo Campos for PSB parties! All three parties are serious parties, even that the approaches to solve Brazilian problems are quite different!

Next publication I will write about these parties approaches to solve Brazilian Problems, as I see it!

All the best,

My Thoughts : Mobile in the Brazilian Universal Health System!

My Thoughts : Mobile in the Brazilian Universal Health System!: Mobile App and a 165 million health users! Is it a good opportunity? The Brazilian universal health system is very, very large and a...

Mobile in the Brazilian Universal Health System!

Mobile App and a 165 million health users! Is it a good opportunity?

The Brazilian universal health system is very, very large and as most of very large organizations, it needs urgent improvements and innovations. A simple 1% improvement means hundreds of millions of US dollars in savings per year! There are several characteristics of the Brazilian SUS that will be virtually impossible for me to explain simply because I can’t understand myself! My explanation lays on corruption and illiterate! But I know the problem is quite complex! But a system this big has great opportunities to offer in Mobile App. So let´s focus on our Mobile solution!

In Brazil several solutions are being developed aimed at the high end, rich customers! There is a good reason for it! They are 20% of the Brazilian population or 40 million potential customers!

I prefer to develop a solution that embraces the 165 million SUS users and the 40 million rich will follow! As in all my Mobile App that I develop, this must be FREE for users and monetization solutions must come from innovative solutions, which does not cost my users a cent! In a post doctor visit health solutions! There are at least two classes of users in our solotion, patient and doctors! I know the more users’ class you have, the bigger nightmare you are entering! But before seeing Fred Kruger, let´s read a bit more!

So first question: What value must I bring to these 165 million SUS users in my Mobile App? If you ask this simple question: “Would you like to buy good quality drugs as cheap as possible?” I bet you are thinking this cannot be asked in a validation since it is obvious that everybody wants cheap and quality drugs! But don’t forget that for these 165 million SUS users this IS CRITICAL! So I got the very first thing that would bring value to customer, finding cheaper and good quality drugs!

If my Mobile App can find cheaper drugs, why does it cannot find everything else that a patient needs after seeing his doctor? Exams, Glasses, Hospital exams, Laboratory services, etc. This took my brain power for quite a while, but I got it! IT CAN!!

So if value to patients is solve with several improvements, What about doctors? Accordingly to IHO, if you take 9 or more drugs you have 100% of having a drug interaction problem! OK, 9 drugs?? Wait until you get to 70 plus years and lived a poor life and 9 drugs is nothing! Our solution will help doctors when prescribing and it will check on real time if what has been prescribed has bad drug interaction with anything that patient is taking! There is more added values to doctors in our solution! One of the most innovative is a virtual nurse on your smartphone! This virtual nurse will reminds you automatically which drugs to take, when and how often! This nurse will help doctors to know if you are following the prescribed treatment or not!

So value to patients and doctors we had covered! How do we get users? That is the magic of a health system! People go to hospitals, health center, pharmacies, etc. So all we need is to set up a marketing campaign based on banners and flyers located at the entrance of these places! The places will be our partners, so they will allow us to do it!

A significant number of potential users are elderly citizens that most do not like or know how to use a mobile App! How to reach them? Proxy care taker! An elderly citizen, in most cases in Brazil, has a young parent (grandson, nephew, etc.) that has a smartphone and can help in the health care of his elderly parent!

So, values and getting users are covered! Even that I am not saying all! So let´s move to the real issue, MAKING MONEY!  Like I said before, FREE for Doctors and Patients!

Our Mobile App will truly take the patient from where he/she is to the pharmacy entrance with the best prices for the same drug! So we will charge a fee to the pharmacy for the service done! We will do the same to all companies in the health sector that join the service! Why would they join? In Brazil, like most countries, certain drugs can only be sold with a prescription! Our solution puts the prescription on the cloud! So as the pharmacy sells the drugs, it needs to access our system to link the cloud prescription to link it to the sales invoice, thus ensuring all involved that the sell was done correctly! Our system will know the value of the sell and charge the pharmacy accordingly! In Brazil, very large pharmacies companies have e-commerce solutions, BUT they cannot sell controlled drugs on line due to lack of a prescription! Our solution solves this problem!

So what is the monetization and scalability potential of it? Brazil’s health system is about 9% of our GNP which makes over 200 billion dollars per year! Drugs alone represent over 30 billion dollars!

By the way, I was forgetting, I have a patent! So IP is also covered! I am setting up the team and in the near future our PharmaNet will be starting at Alagoas to grow to Brazil and other countries! 

My next post will in relation elections in Brazil! This year we elect the President, 1/3 of Senate, Federal and State Deputies and 27 Governors! God help us!!!

All the best,

My Thoughts : Brazilian Universal Health Care System.

My Thoughts : Brazilian Universal Health Care System.: What is the Brazilian SUS (Universal Public Health)? Brazil has the largest universal public health system in the world. Sure China, ...

Brazilian Universal Health Care System.

What is the Brazilian SUS (Universal Public Health)?

Brazil has the largest universal public health system in the world. Sure China, India, USA and Indonesia have larger populations but none has a universal health system. By universal, Brazil means that anyone shall have health service regardless its social, economical, cultural, religion, color or origin (Brazilian or foreigner)! Brazil has one of the worse social differences in the world, we have several persons with a wealth into billion of US dollars and we still have millions into misery to take care! Our SUS has 165 million customers and an infrastructure that is not near enough but it has been improving in the last 12 years. These are the present number as found on the Health Ministry site: (http://cnes.datasus.gov.br/Mod_Ind_Unidade.asp?VEstado=00).

Some names may be confusing but it is due to bureaucracy and corruption that we have so many names!!

DISPENSARY	10.643
HEALTH CENTRE / UNIT BASIC	34.703
POLYCLINIC	6.229
GENERAL HOSPITAL	5.218
SPECIALIZED HOSPITAL	1.088
MIXED UNIT	726
PRONTO SOCORRO GENERAL	399
FIRST AID SPECIALIST	124
CONSULTORIO ISOLATED	134.921
MOBILE RIVER UNIT (Amazonian region)	23
CLINIC / CENTER SPECIALTY	36.235
SUPPORT UNIT DIAGNOSIS AND THERAPY (SADT ISOLATED)	20.870
LAND MOBILE UNIT	956
MOBILE UNIT LEVEL OF PRE-HOSPITAL IN THE AREA OF URGENT	3.518
PHARMACY	1.533
HEALTH SURVEILLANCE UNIT	1.851
COOPERATIVE	329
NORMAL CHILDBIRTH CENTER - ISOLATED	13
HOSPITAL / DAY - ISOLATED	525
CENTRAL REGULATION OF HEALTH SERVICES	296
CENTRAL PUBLIC HEALTH LABORATORY LACEN	64
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH	5.539
CENTER OF ATTENTION AND OR HEMOTHERAPY (HAEMATOLOGICAL)	255
CENTER OF PSYCHOSOCIAL ATTENTION	2.444
CENTER SUPPORT FOR FAMILY HEALTH	778
UNIT OF INDIGENOUS HEALTH CARE	396
READY CALL	825
POLO ACADEMY OF HEALTH	941
TELEHEALTH	54
CENTRAL REGULATION MEDICAL EMERGENCY ROOM	215
DESK HOUSEHOLD ISOLATED (HOME CARE)	208
UNIT  UNDER ATTENTION RESIDENTIAL	12
WORKSHOP ORTOPEDICA	12
PUBLIC HEALTH LABORATORY	142
REGULATING ACCESS CENTRAL	545
TOTAL	272.630

Sure some numbers are quite short from what the IHO suggests as minimal or standard for such a large population but it has been improving steadily in the last 12 years! The entire Brazilian health system is much larger than these numbers because there is the private system which share or overlaps some of the above numbers! Remember that the top and upper middle classes in Brazil represents more than 45 million customers to a private health system! So you can imagine the level of services we have in Brazil if you have the money to pay for it!

Our middle class has systematically denigrated the SUS system on the local and international media. SUS is used by politicians to get elected and punish adversaries! Politicians themselves don't use SUS, preferring to use the first world class private health system. Surely it is immoral, but this is just one of many immoral behaviours of all Brazilian Politicians! (Here I will discuss the education in Brazil in the near future!).

The most incredible aspect of this systematic denigration of SUS is the fact that regardless of your social status YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON SUS! You may be wondering How? If I have the best privet health insurance money can buy, How my life do depend on the public health system? Brazil is not USA, UK or Germany, so you may be driving alone on São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro and you have a heart attack! You crash unconscious and people call SAMU (the public ambulance service, first public health service saving your sorry ass!!) SAMU will take you to the nearest public health hospital (your health insurance card may be in your pocket but Who checks it??). You get into the public hospital and the emergency services kickin and stabilizes you! Now a nurse/hospital staff will look for ID and contacts on your mobile phone (if you put the first number on your contacts as AA emergency (Brother, sister, wife or someone that will know what to do in case of emergency) they will call using your mobile and tell what happened!). As you open your eyes, you are on a public hospital! SAVED! 

So all that bad thing you sad about SUS are not confirm because SUS has just save your sorry ass! You may be thinking that this scenery will only happen if you are alone! True! But how much time do you drive alone or with someone that knows what is your private health insurance and what to call in the case of an emergency? I bet this person will call the SAMU ambulance service and may say to take you to a private hospital! So public service still save your sorry ass! If you are driving on the countryside, there is no hope! All there is SUS or you are as dead as a Dudle!!!

So don't ask what SUS can do for you, but what you can do for SUS!

Middle class in Brazil has this strange behavior of denigrate all that is public or government related, but do not participate in the actual improvement of it! Middle class prefers to pay a private health insurance than to help to improve the SUS! It is personal choice, but I think it is time to review this position!

My next post will be on Health System in Brazil looking into mobile opportunities within SUS!

All the best,