Brazil And The Cliff Analogy Essay

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As request by Prof. Stephen I will talk a little bit about health in Brazil and the “cliff analogy”. I don’t want to bother you too much, so I will try to do it in a nutshell, but eventually I will need to go back to our colonial history and race miscegenation for a better understanding.
Brazil had some particularities among the European colonies, in 1808, as Napoleon invaded Portugal, the King John VI run away along the Portuguese Court to Brazil from where the Royal family reigned Portugal until 1821. Thus, at some point in history we became more than a “settler colony” getting the status of a “new Europe colony” alike. During that time there was a huge influx of Portuguese immigrants and African imported slaves, and a great deal of hierarchy and
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There is no governmental program to keep people away from the cliff, there are few fences in some parts of the cliff, but they are out of date and rusty; even when the government pays for brand new safety nets and trampolines the delivered ones are worn, with holes or problems in bouncing, idem for the ambulances at the bottom.
This scenario is quite a shame for a country that designed a great Universal Health System (UHS) in its first Constitution after the end of the military dictatorship. In 1988, after 20 years of dictatorship, Brazil approved a new Democratic Constitution; and the UHS was included. The UHS was designed using the Canadian and Cuban health systems as models. Although, after Soviet Union collapse and the fall of communism there was a shake in Cuba’s health indicators, as did the neoliberalism in Canada; at that time both countries were among the best worldwide regarding social justice and health indicators (life expectancy, mortality rates, immunization, etc.)1. In my opinion a few major factors undermined the true potential of the initial

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