An Important Question for ALL Brazilians

Boa Tarde! I have some VERY important questions I would like to have cleared up, and only Brazilians can answer them for me. First, a little background: My name is Wayne and I live in Seattle, Washington. I went to the University of Washington where I majored in International Affairs. My area of concecration was Latin America. During College I spent 6 months in Mexico, 9 in Argentina, and 1 year in.... Brazil! I lived in Sao Paulo for about 5 months before moving on to Curitiba for the remainder of my stay. I absolutlely loved Brazil. Everything from the culture, the people, the food, the lifestyle...I could go on but suffice it to say that Brazil was my favorite of the 3! Ok, on to the reason I started this thread. During my studies and travels I have noticed one striking difference between Brazil and the rest of Latin America. Currently I work for an International Corporation which specializes in South America operations and I still notice the same thing. Brazilians are very pessimistic about their own country. This sentiment is not seen in any other Latin American country, at least not to the extent as in Brazil. And Brazil out weighs those other countries by far in nearly every important category. For example, right here in the Skyscraper cities forums that is evident. I can't count the number of pictures of Brazilian slums I have seen. Nor can I count the time I've seen Brazilians talking about Brazil in a negative tone...both in English and Portuguese(falou um pouco de Portugues, mas nao sou fluente ) Yet, go to the Mexican forum for example All you see are pictures highlighting their good side, their accomplishments. Talk to a Mexican forumer and he will talk about all the great things Mexicans represent. But Brazilians seem to do a 180. That perplexes me because if any country in Latin America had any right to boast it would be Brazil. Yet it is the opposite. Please explain that to me. Why would Brazilians be that way? Is it a cultural issue? Brazil does have a history of isolationism and of playing down it's own accomplishments, could that be part of it? Or is it an inferiority complex which Brazilians acquired along the way for no good reason....no good reason because Brazilians have NOTHING to feel inferior about. Basically I would just like to find a good explanation for why Brazil-who has the largest economy, largest industrial base, largest technology sector, greatest potential etc....is always put in a bad light by it's own citizens. If we really wanted to, even us Americans could do nothing but highlight our bad side. It would be very easy for me to post millions of pictures of our ghettos and trailer parks, show parts of the US which still struggle to have proper electricity etc...but as an American I choose to show and talk about our good side. Why are Brazilians the opposite of that? Obrigado por todas as respostas e adjuda que voces podem me dar. Pois o Brasil e um pais que eu gosto muito, e gostaria de ver vencer no cenario mundial. Um grande abraco!>