Middle-aged, middle class, socialist and statist -- that is the way forward for a new presence who battled cancer to navigate Brazil's ship of state, postulates Gamal Nkrumah A former guerrilla's quest for cool pays off. In its new social composition, Brazil is a country that is redefining itself at a defining moment in its history. In its contemporary social composition, this great, politically weighty nation that dominates the South American political and economic scene, attests to the mind-boggling transformations enveloping the continent. The development of modern Brazil is isomorphic with IT. Brazil's social history during the days of dictatorship was narrated along the lines of a tale of two countries -- one prosperous, and predominantly of Portuguese and other European extraction, the other impoverished and with pronounced African roots. Extended into the contemporary period, this tale of two countries incorporates fast shifting spaces. The rich are becoming richer and less white, and the poor, less disadvantaged and more racially indeterminate. Brazil, after all, has added the "B" into the BRIC -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- giant nation states that are making their mark on the international scene. The modern tale is upbeat and the sprawling country less dichotomised. Black is not so African anymore, and white is not so European, if anything it is off-white. This is where the genius of Dilma Rousseff comes into play. She embodies the new Brazil in a way that her mentor and predecessor did, but she is a middle class, left-leaning woman to boot. She personifies the breaking of traditional barriers of race and class, the superimposed dichotomies of yesteryear. Rousseff made history on Monday when she was elected the first female president of Brazil, South America's largest and most populous nation. Former Brazilian president Luiz Inàcio Lula da Silva's public protégée, Rousseff has a winning smile, she is the daughter of a well-to- do middle class immigrant of Bulgarian extraction, who lacks her predecessor's common touch, or so they say. Perhaps Rousseff is precisely the right person to woo Brazil's fast growing middle class. The fact that she dauntlessly fought off cancer is symbolic in more ways than one. First, her resolve to overpower her personal challenge and her utilisation of both spiritual means and the highest forms of IT to conquer her cancer has endeared her to her people. Brazilians have demonstrated a strong faith in Rousseff's capacity to take a closer look at the dynamics of governance. Rousseff personifies Brazil's determination to pay closer attention to using a multiplicity of strategies to achieve its development goals. Moreover, she is a strong woman who does not manipulate her femininity, but rather draws attention to the kind of issues that ordinary women the world over are forced to face. The different patterns of economic growth have put women in Brazil, as elsewhere, in the epicentre of the struggle against economic neo- liberalism and the relocation of welfare. The political changeover highlights the rising role of women as honest individuals spearheading the struggle against deteriorating public services. Brazilians are wealthier today than they have ever been, and women are trusted to fight corruption, blurring the formal and informal prerogatives of good governance. The ruling Worker's Party (PT) is the hope of a better, even more prosperous Brazilian future. Rousseff was born in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, and she rose to the highest echelons of power. She is an admirer of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela while her opponent Jose Serra was vociferously opposed to Chavez, claiming that Columbia's leftist guerrilla group FARC seeks refuge in Brazil's Amazonian regions adjacent to Venezuela. Rousseff has no time for such mundane controversies, political antics and sideshows. She is more concerned with the politics of security -- seriously combating the root causes of urban crime, rather than prevaricating about national security. Opposition Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) party leader Serra was mayor of Sao Paulo, South America's largest metropolis from 2005 to 2006. He was also governor of the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous and the country's economic powerhouse from 2007 to March 2010. During the run-off he too claimed to be a socialist, but his socialism is such a watered-down pink that it is considered anything but rosy for the Brazilian masses. Serra is now confusedly fighting for political survival navigating his way carefully between submission to market forces and rebellion against big business. He is also nursing a bruised ego along with his bruised head after being hit unceremoniously with a roll of duct tape during the neck-and- neck campaign, allegedly hurled at him by a diehard supporter of the ruling PT. Rousseff, on the other hand, has more solid credentials. Her fellow socialists in South America applauded her triumph in securing the Brazilian presidency. Although this would mark a gain for the leftist forces in Brazil, it has not been sufficient to keep them in the forefront of the socialist revolution sweeping South America. Brazilian socialists have a reputation for feebleness and inconsistency. The rightist elements in the Brazilian political arena are concerned about the turn of events. In any event South America has leaned leftwards since it discarded dictatorship and embraced democracy. Brazil is no exception. However, they are even more fearful of Lula's possible return to power in the 2014 and 2018 presidential polls. This is on the cards, as constitutionally there is nothing to bar him from doing so if the Brazilian electorate votes him into office. Rousseff, who has played down hegemonic masculinity in Brazilian society and has focussed instead on marginalised masculinities and femininities alike, favours a bigger state and bigger role for the state in personal affairs. The personal is political, as the old cliché goes, but the focus is social. Like Lula, Rousseff is opposed to trimming public spending and is tempted, like her predecessor, to use off-budget schemes to meet fiscal targets. Dilma is the darling of Brazil's left. The PSDB purports to be socialist, yet it embraces a pro-market plan of economic reform. Yet with the Brazilian economy booming, most Brazilians are not too keen on market reforms at this particular historical juncture. The PSDB leader Serra personifies such ideological indecisiveness and that is precisely why he lost. He is a socialist who is a firm believer in the efficacy of the market forces. The lacklustre Serra was incapable of cajoling and seducing his party's coalition partners. On the political level, Rousseff has a better chance of courting coalition partners that will help the Workers' Party in the years to come. She has just recovered from cancer, and yet she fought a formidable political battle. She will not accept state disengagement from welfare provision. Washington and most Western powers firmly believed that Serra was the better choice for Brazil. The country's electorate obviously does not agree. Over the past few weeks, Brazil engaged in an exercise of introspection and retrospection. The country has rejected passivity and inaction. Serra stands for the half-hearted embrace of socialism while Rousseff represents positive action. Brazil's presidential election was the litmus test, and those in Brazil and South America who want to shake off the yoke of Pax Americana prevailed. In drawing a composite picture of the new Brazil, it is perhaps a functional pastime to compare it with other BRICs. There are those who predict that Rousseff and Lula will become a sort of Medvedev-Putin duo. Brazil is lucky to have two such fine leaders.
