you know there's a debate in the united states about the quality of education, but those are the topics. what it requires, what will happen, it takes leadership here, it takes leadership there to make those interests that this is completely out of order. i am not supposed to be saying any of this. >> ambassador shannon, a pleasure to have you with us and a pleasure to hear you talk. you give such a coherent presentation. i know you choose your words very carefully so i want to address this phrase of the disclosure problem which you refer to repeatedly. probably being one of the only

people in rome that sued the u.s. government for what was wiretapping and countersuit actually rejected by the supreme court on the grounds the we couldn't prove standing, two months before the ed snowden disclosures which makes me wonder if we could have proved standing two months later, choosing the phrase the disclosure problem makes it seem less serious than i think it really is and it is not just on its human rights levelland the right to privacy but on a commercial and political level. it fundamentally has to do with trust. i understand it is corporate as well as domestic, but i would like to hear you respond to that because i do think it discounts the seriousness of what is happening. the second is with respect to education and the number of brazilian students coming to the

united states which is enormous how has it gone from the u.s. to brazil. i have a sense it is much less but i don't know the numbers and what you see as the future and that side? >> i will address the last one first. it is less. i don't have the exact figure, but over time. to begin with, historically when americans have done overseas university since it has been focused on europe, largely the u.k. spain and italy with some friends thrown in. but that is starting to unchanged. we are seeing more americans going to mexico, more going to argentina and it is our hope that especially as we build out our component of education in the americas, 100,000 strong, is that we will be able to build a larger u.s. presence in

brazilian universities. in order to do that successfully we need the help of brazilian universities because many brazilian universities are not equipped to take international students easily. they don't have dormitories or international student program so it tends to fall to the student to find a place to live, support networks and some students are very good at that but others aren't, others want a package deal and there are a few that are beginning to understand this and try to fashion mechanisms that will allow them to attract foreign students more easily but from elsewhere. and with the science without borders program.

and between universities, and the movement of faculty and services and to break down the closed shop nature of universities when it comes to things like credit. this is our hope over time, just about exchanging students. and educational systems and laboratories research institutes, that are going to provide a much more vigorous and productive in both countries. and crises and out rage, you pick the word. i choose my words carefully. you can just call it reason.

>> that focuses on ed snowden. >> i agree. what i want to be able to do here is recognize the seriousness of the issue, recognize the impact on the relationship and especially on brazil's understanding of that relationship but put it into a context in which it doesn't overwhelm that relationship because i think it should. it raises issues and imagery is different. it casts a dark shadow on the relationship and others have used like trust and respect. at the same time, i believe the brazil end of this has been

exaggerated for political purposes. i believe much of it is taken out of context and i believe ultimately we are in a position with the brazilians because of this to rethink our intelligence committees on relationships because that is something brazil does very poorly largely because of their own internal history and the relative smallness of its intelligence services. the recognition that brazil does not have an intelligence service that matches its global ambitions and in order to do that it needs to build liaison relationships with global intelligence services that are capable of helping it do the kinds of things and the kinds of services to its own government that ultimately it is going to

need. brazil is in a privileged place, it does not have external enemies, it does have adversaries and people who are interested in what is happening in brazil. and the subject and the object of cyberassaults every day. so they are looking for ways to build capacity as they build out their economy. and recognize they have a useful partner in us, and beyond the immediate concerns by ed snowden to build out the partnership. and as you acknowledge this is much bigger than intelligence issues. it is about how modern society manages the kind of data flowing

through our telecommunications system and information hubs, and it is going to require a response, at least a thought process much larger than the one we have going now. >> alex watson from hills and company. thank you for a brilliant exposition. i anticipate what i would like to ask you about, indications in brazil, feeling a little isolated in international congress and the trade issues with the pacific alliance and others and comments in denver reflect some of that. on the other hand the

brazilians, and barriers to protectionist society to make a breakthrough, talking with the e.u. for many years, haven't gotten very far on that but that is one of the points that will be most important for strengthening the overall bilateral relationship between us and the brazilians and say a few words about that. >> we have a lot more trade. a lot more investment. that is why brazil is one of the focuses on the president's national export initiative and one of the focuses of the select usa initiative to bring investment from overseas to the united states and prepared to go to great lengths to achieve that and it is heartening that as tony mentioned, the very strong push from large industrial confederations on the bilateral trade relationship and trying to

find ways to overcome aspects of brazilian trading, especially the historic market reserve policies that have limited our ability to penetrate certain markets and in this regard the negotiations that are ongoing between brazil and the european union are an interesting bellwether because i think it is increasingly clear to brazilians they have large opportunities in europe but are being held back for a variety of reasons, some domestic and some related to the american relationships. we are not calling on anybody to abandon their alliances or relationships or trading structures. it is the delete country to make those decisions. relationship between brazil and the european union put someone in positions that you could imagine a triangulation as the united states builds its

trans-atlantic trade partnership triangulating into south america or into the free-trade agreement that exist in the agreements one might fashion with brazil would be a very interesting possibility and one that i think would create a fascinating grouping of markets as we look across into africa and also into asia, but brazil has come a long way in a short time. i was there, first time around, 1989-1992, the thought that brazil, the home of major global companies, growing investor in the united states and the company -- numerous subsidiaries operating in the united states was a major supplier of regional aircraft.

really didn't cross many people's mind. in a short period of time they covered a lot of ground and have a lot more ground to cover. >> i was recently at a council of foreign relations conference in new york where the development was speaking, he said something meaningful to me. it hopes the contexts. over the last several years or so faced basic -- three major challenges and the first was democracy followed by the challenge and stabilization. and tried inflation, because you will lose and the third --

achieved a lot. and the time to face the challenge of competitiveness. the name of it, and then open economy. and a closed economy that you cannot, innovation issues are more innovative. >> and what paolo sofero marques was talking about is how does the recent decrease in gdp or the increase in economic concern affect this relationship, and

help us understand. >> it is indicative of what is going on that brazil paces. and they did a lot of this on consumer driven growth model. that model has run its course. and the growth model based on productivity and competitiveness. as we look out, it was striking to me, the challenge of the brazilian economy, are several. and the most pressing is infrastructure. and the railways, and telecommunications and goods and

services, and in time refashion. brazil is the second-largest food exporter in the world and get its product to market and product support. and huge infrastructure needs to be addressed. it has significant human resource needs that need to be addressed, the managerial corps and the worker core that it needs to fashion a 20% 3 economy. then of course it has regulatory drag on it whether it be in its labor regime, tax structures or the other regulations and rules that determine how you start businesses and how you close businesses. these are not problems that are hidden or unknown.

brazilians understand this well and have an advance dialogue how to address some. in many ways the infrastructure issues and human resource issues are the easiest ones to resolve because they involve investments whereas the regulatory drag is the hardest because it is political and it involves taking on significant interests with in brazilian society and in some ways president rousseff has inherited the toughest part of brazil's economic transformation. those cleared the space fiscally and monetarily for long-term positive growth path. and through social programs to inject capital into the system so brazilians could take advantage of the long-term growth path and profit from it and drive growth rates that were quite high but president

rousseff took over the model just as it was hitting a wall so it is up to her to find a new way to address the challenges to the brazilian economy. her challenge, the toughest of the three. but the good thing is as brazil has worked through these different parts of economic development it has globalized and has become elsewhere in the world and so i do think brazil is up to the challenges. the question is how fast? in this regard brazil is uniquely positioned because there are very few countries in the world is economic well-being is entirely in their own hands and for the most part that is true for brazil. the decision on infrastructure development, education and human resources and regulatory reform will determine how fast grows.

if it makes the right decisions quickly it will close faster and stronger curbs. if it makes the more slowly or in a haphazard fashion, it doesn't stop growing and it doesn't stop -- it continues to be attractive to american business. >> to this side of the room. >> i am a former representative of the organization of american states. ambassador, the u.n. solution of a general assembly taken yesterday presented by germany and also by many other countries on the right of digital privacy related to human rights. how do you see the implementation of every solution, something that brazil has fought a lot for, a direct

impact in the state of the relationship? >> as i noted, we'd turn consensus on that which means we are fine with it. and the joint consensus is the original text proposed by by the initial convene ears or those who offered the text which included brazil had to change some aspects of the text to broadly address our concerns but recognize as the revolution does the importance of privacy, and the importance of an internet which is seen as a global public good and one that needs to be protected. like the un resolutions, these are designed to capture a sense of the members of the un and to help provide protection but not

binding and have aspects that implemented. and the critical moments, a purpose that needs to be understood and respected, and the we were able to work with other partners and also with brazil to fashion a text that we could accept and was important and it showed that whatever brazil's intentions might have been before starting the process it recognized early on it wasn't going to achieve everything it wanted to in the process and had to make concessions that created a better environment for the kind of dialogue we are having. >> thank you very much for your remarks. my question has to do with

brazil's relationship with other countries in the hemisphere whether south america or more broadly. i think we have worked on some of this together, there is broad respect for strength of the economy and what brazil accomplished. and to brazil even if brazil as a base for global projection. and for brazil to have a permanent seat on the u.n. security council you see it in the reaction of the hemisphere to the position brazil took a piece of the reform of the human rights system so i was wondering, in your time as ambassador if you could comment on al you perceive brazil's leadership in other parts of the

region. >> that is a great question. my own experience is brazil tries to be very careful in terms of how it deals with its neighbors, it recognizeds it's bigger ambitions which are expressed to a certain extent -- larger south american ambition, has to be managed with respect and understanding for the concerns of other countries and it consistently tries to present itself not as a hegemonic force but as the coalescing force in the region. this is not easy when you are as big as brazil a new border every country except chile and ecuador. brazilians like to point out the border on france through french

equity oriel guinea. it is a complicated diplomatic dance and it is made more complicated by american relationships and the trade challenges brazil faces with argentina because they tend to overload circuits in their relationship, in the structures that they have. the brazilians work very hard at this but in many ways -- the efforts to fashion regional integration units from our point of view are positive weather is it is in the sewer or in central america or the caribbean community, these are all efforts that facilitate dialogue and exchanges for the well-being of the subregions and the broader hemispheric. actually the biggest impediment to a brazil that dominates south america is largely its inability

to open its markets. of brazil could open its markets the andean countries never would have done free trade agreements with the united states or at least not with the speed they did them. they would have done agreements with brazil. and when the mexicans realized they were organized out of latin america and were not part of the caribbean community, launched their own initiatives, that was all about putting themselves back into the region but in some ways the most daring and interesting diplomatic move of recent times has been mexico's joining the pacific alliance because it put mexico into south america in a way that many never anticipated and created the possibility of a connected series of free markets along the

pacific coast facing asia without driving purpose that i think ultimately, challenge is the wrong word because brazil tends to address problems by embracing them and this is not a challenge to brazil so much as it is something that it has to understand and address in a way that reflects the interests and concerns of members of the alliance. >> i am here on behalf of the u.s. travel association and thank you for your opening remarks about booming demand in both directions for both business travel and leisure travel. in that context it should be mentioned how commendable it is, the enormous effort over the

last year or two to bring down alarming delays in wait times for brazilian applicants for u.s. visas. remarkable progress has been made. those wait times are down and it makes a big difference. that demand, we all hope and expect, will continue to rise and in that context i want to bring up the visa waiver program. as i am sure you are aware, the south american country, chile will be admitted to the program. year-and-a-half ago after president obama was in brazil, working group's between the two state department's were established to set up so-called road maps, up 3 discussions knowing the conditions are not yet in place for an actual

agreement to lay the groundwork for that. it is not clear to many of us where that stands, particularly after october and the islanders if in the spirit of looking forward and consensus you have described here describe what the path forward may be. >> happy to that. >> reporter: the growth of the middle class was seen immediately as one of the reasons why we were seeing such a sharp rise. as we look at the issue more closely, we realize that wasn't really true because many of the new middle class and trends were not traveling to the united states the travelling inside brazil and what we were seeing

was increased travel by upper-middle-class, and they have more disposable income and had developed an interest in travel and even though we had to run really hard as we mentioned in order to fashion a process that reduced wait times from 120 day to two days and accommodated many brazilians travelling to united states we recognized there is a whole new group of entrants into the middle class that have yet to lead him to travel to the united states but are coming and it is the roadway out there. it is somewhere in the middle of the ocean and it is not stopping. we have through new conflicts and expanding our sections and the number of officers we have in building out the interviewing windows we have we are building

a capacity to produce 1.8 to 2 million visas a year and we are doing 3.9 million year. i don't think that is enough. if this roadway keep coming at us. we could find ourselves in a near crisis situation in the next couple years especially if the brazilian economy picks up in terms of growth and if the new entrants into the middle class are able to consolidate themselves in the middle class and that is where a visa waiver program becomes important and is one of the reasons both countries have to keep working at it. there was hesitancy on the part of the brazilian government to address visa waiver program. because their experience in spain and portugal is not happy one and they have people turnaround in ports of entry and it is much better to have people to receive -- to have them be told in miami or los angeles or new york they're not coming in with their family but had to

turn back so they are there, the brazilians are looking for assurances they won't repeat the experiences they had in lisbon and madrid but also these the waiver programs like global entry programs and other measures designed to facilitate travel have a security component to them. it is not that we ask people for information on travelers, but we want the thumbs-up or thumbs down, whether there are risks or not based on information available to national governments and to dig through databases right now. to share risk assessments, they doubt they are legally allowed

to do but we think there is a way forward on this. we think we can solve these problems but it is going to take some hard work on both sides but we think there is a region see to it. >> thanks. i work with many multinationals operated in brazil and for many of them the cost of doing business is quite high and can be higher than brazilian firm due to a lot of the cheap credit available. and other measures like local tax regimes and where to set up local production. which way the u.s. plans to advocate? i am making it easier to facilitate the process of doing business in brazil so the return on investment is not a 5 or 7 year time frame or ten years plus? >> this affects everybody. not just people coming in from

the outside. one of the striking things is they are american companies it based in brazil. without a doubt as i mentioned there is an overhang in the economy that needs to be addressed to promote not just brazilian companies from helping generate increased growth but also the growing presence of global companies and global investors and some of this has to do with regulatory costs and legal costs and to the extent possible, we have a very large foreign commercial presence in brazil and very skilled one that operates out of all our constants in the embassy and prepared to help all-american companies that are interested. many of the multinationals come down with their own resources and can manage their way through all of this but many companies are coming in french but we are

especially seeing with companies that come down with state delegations run by governor is a great interest selling into the market or being present but understanding how to do it is where we can play an important role to facilitate context and try to look for brazilian partners because ultimately brazil is the country where the extent to which you have brazilian partners working with you is going to make a lot easier but the advice we give american companies when they come down is first and foremost but take on the dictum that brazil is not for beginners, it is a complex and complicated country and in many ways like an archaeological dig in the sense that its laws and regulations and codes build one on top of another and navigating that can be challenging for some

businesses but also, this is from tom shannon, brazil is not for a short time is, not for people go in and come out. it is for people who are prepared to make a long-term commitment simply because it does take a long time to establish and identify and find a way forward and we believe that given the direction brazil is going and the size of the domestic market and given the platform that it could be fur exports into the region and beyond it is attractive to american industries but again, we have clear instructions from the president and the secretary of state and secretary of commerce that the number one priority is commercial diplomacy. this was my priority. and the new ambassador to brazil. all i am not there now i

recommend you work closely with the embassy because we will provide all the help we can. >> paul johnson, thank you for putting this together, ambassador shannon, always a pleasure to hear you talk. we have heard over the years about opportunities for trilateral cooperation between the united states and brazil and africa and sub-saharan africa. what are the prospects for some beach on bones in terms of trade investment, financing, industries like agriculture, infrastructure, help? wanted to hear your thoughts on that. >> it is great seeing you. there are lots of possibilities. on the foreign assistance side we began our trilateral

cooperation in an effort to eradicate malaria but have extended that to mozambique where we are doing important work on the public health side and agricultural productivity side. we are also working with the brazilians in honduras and in haiti on agricultural productivity and some other projects and this is brand new for us and for the brazilians and working through the brazilian cooperation agency has really been an interesting and fruitful experience. is a small agency, staffed largely, brazil does not have the cadres of development professionals that one would imagine but it is building them over time and we created an interesting relationship where we exchanged officers in usaid,

and as we get a better feel for how both sides work and where there might be synergy and connections, we are quite interested and excited about extending that possibility because we think that brazil especially on the agricultural side and public health care side has interesting things to offer, countries in effort and elsewhere. brazil does have some legal restraints for constraints on how far it goes in this kind of cooperation especially related to how money flows back and forth between the federal government and abc and how it does development assistance abroad and in some instances it is aid paying for brazilian services in some of these countries but we think overtime as brazil builds out its development assistance program, it is going to begin removing

barriers or streamlining them in a way in which abc and the brazilian government can do more and on the trilateral assistance around businesses, there have been discussions about joint financing or projects especially where there is the u.s. and brazilian partner and although again it is complicated to certain extent by legal structures and rules and regulations we continue to find a way forward because the potential is huge. >> i might just add that in the outside of the private-sector and government, the bill gates foundation has been gauged with the brazilian government, the ministry of agriculture, abc and program, ambitious program to send retired, distinguished agricultural scientists and

economists to develop small farms from practices, very promising effort. margaret. >> thank you very much. i was one of those brazilians brought up along time ago. when i first went to brazil in the 1970s, one point of attrition between the united states and brazil was the nuclear question and more recently you mentioned the careful with iran -- my question is have we gotten over that previous, that last irritation? and is the south american tree be possibly a model for the kind

of weapons non-proliferation regime that we are looking at in the middle east and other areas? is this an area where we might see more cooperation? >> we are way over iran. we got over that one pretty quickly actually. and i think brazil has been a useful partner although brazil has never happy with sanction regime miss, it complies with them and faithfully. more importantly, especially under president rousseff, the brazilians have made clear that iran had a lot of explaining to do and if it wanted to have normal relationships was going to have to be respectful of u.n. security council resolutions and

the desire expressed repeatedly by the security council that iraq and address the concerns related to which nuclear program, and brazil has been supportive publicly, most recently of the agreement at the p 5 plus one to fashion with iran and brazil sees this as a positive development so that is helpful so in that regard we are in a very good place right now. with regard -- obviously the latin american experience around nuclear proliferation and especially the agreement between brazil and argentina to end the weatherization programs and create mutual verification capabilities was an innovative and important agreement and one that could be useful. as we look at how we manage

verification regime is elsewhere. ultimately the challenge we are going to face whether it is in iran or north korea is really going to be about verification. in that regard, by the enough, this is where intelligence is going to play a very important role. what we have seen over time is especially in a non proliferation side, intelligence is central to how we do our verification because while much of it can be done publicly and much of it can be done by inspectors not all of it can be. as we think about the issues raised pie ed snowden, we need to understand that not all of it is about spying on countries for immediate benefit.

much of it has to do with supporting larger international agreements. >> right there, the lady there. yes? >> fbn thank you for taking so many questions. if you could shed some light on why president obama apologized to angela merkel but not president rousseff for the spying and secondly, an expected counterintuitive magnanimous gestures have worked extremely well for the pope for example and president putin reportedly considering a pardon for the riot girls, also of the arctic sun rise crew. would you consider recommending

to the government a pardon for ed snowden given he is such a thorn in our relations with so many countries particularly brazil? >> thank you for both of those questions. when these issues first appeared, but especially when the allegations of government surveillance appeared, we treated the brazilians in the same way we treated the germans which is quite remarkable given what other allegations were out there. the brazilians understood this and appreciate in their own way because it was indicative of the importance of the relationship. although our intelligence community on relationships with those countries are different.

germany has much more equity in our intelligence community than brazil does. especially with troops participating in sef i. much participation is from u.s. forces. i don't want to characterize the conversation president obama had with the chancellor. i will leave that to the white house. the germans have characterized it in one fashion, i am not sure the white house would agree with that but what is important is there has been communication in several times between president obama and president rousseff about this and there will be communication in the future that addresses that specific issue.

given the circumstances, we are in as good a position as we could be, we do needed to be in engagement and country to country engagement. in terms of the unexpected actions, but this was raised briefly in at 60 minutes piece on the nsa and i think it is clear both from what the white house has said but especially from what the department of justice has said that you should not expect an unexpected gesture. >> let me collect a few questions because we are coming to an end. we have two and that is it. >> i served twice in brazil with u.s. aid and you talk a little bit about bilateral cooperation

and opportunities and trilateral. we mentioned the opportunities in education and had major successeses in the early 70s building project with brazil, making american and brazilian universities, sending dozens of brazilians masters in ph.d. training and they are running those institutions in agriculture and health and other areas. you alluded to agriculture, wondering about energy, environment, both infectious and endemic diseases. what opportunities for bilateral cooperation do you see? >> let's move to the next question? >> in bali, we saw great success at the wto lead very ably by a brazilian director-general. up until right before that

success was singed, it looked as though some of the wto players with which brazil most aligned itself over the years would be the reason for the failure of the bali discussions. to what degree coming out of bali do you think that in fact brazil's view of its own deal economic and trade leadership is changing from one in which it is leader of the developing world to one in which it is a broker between the developing world and the developed world? >> let's start with this. >> thank you very much, for your remarks. you mention that you hope to build up a constructive

relationship promoting common values like democracy and human rights. what makes you feel hopeful, optimistic that that kind of partnership could be developed and be effectively developed in that region specifically in south america where there is a group of countries, particularly if the other countries that i don't think they share the same views and the same values in terms of promotional democracy and human rights, a that brazil plays a more visible role, more effective role. how do you see that will developing in terms of working together constructively with the u.s. government in south america? >> last question please. >> i don't think you will have time to answer my question so i will oppose it as a comment. wonderful to hear your remarks

on a whole range of subject across the breadth of brazil issues but brazil as you said is a continental country. i was wanting to ask if you could comment on tensions within the country that come with improvements in social inclusion and growth and improvements across the country, within the country. instead of treating members elisa single country doing remarkable things what is happening in different regions that are affected differently and have differential opportunity. >> all good questions. in regard to u.s. aid, something remarkable with our u.s. aid mission. it was on the chopping block and has been several times in our history but we were able to convince our colleagues at usaid in washington and elsewhere that now is the time to move from what u.s. aid mission that was

development to policy engagement mission. the idea being that as brazil's economy expands and build its own foreign assistance programs that we need to work with them and engage with them on a daily basis with the hope of helping to influence and shape how they'd do assistance work so it is more compatible with what we are trying to accomplish, recognizing the other major economies out their bread together leave the chinese economy have different understanding what foreign assistance is and so far the dialogue has been really positive and as i have noted we have been able to fashion a third country assistance programs where we are able to share expertise and funding to accomplish common goals and i think if we are able to do this right, it could create new kind of development assistance

diplomacy that we could deploy in other countries that have emerging or strong economies and playing an increasingly important role in some regions. as we have done this we have to pull back on some of our historic development roles in brazil and largely our u.s. aid program today is focused on by a diversity issues and climate change issues. we still do some small public health issues, we have a few alternative energy programs, but this does not represent the future of our development assistance program but it does represent the future of commercial engagement and investment engagement and what is striking for me in the area of public health is the degree to which pharmaceutical companies are prepared to come to brazil and are prepared to do agreements with brazilian companies to transfer significant technologies and build out a capacity for brazilian pharmaceutical

companies and this is largely driven by the emerging middle class and a demand for high-quality health care in brazil. i do feel that the synergies are there but moving from the development world into a commercial investment world. in regard to the wto in bali congratulations, he did wonderful job in managing what could have been a disastrous event for the wto and it was in everybody's interest to make sure that the ball event was successful to the extent possible because having a failed wto at this point in time would not have been in any one's best interests. i think the brazilians felt a special needs to play as much of a role as broker as they did. historically brazil has approached these negotiations with tweet to mentalities. one is to get the best deal possible, but if that is not

going to work, try to assert leadership in some fashion and use the event as a way to assert leadership but i think in this regard they recognize they can do both. they could act as a leader of a particular group of countries while at the same time brokering and they found a way to bridge that divide and with what they can maintain that overtime. in terms of human rights is a great question and one of the big troubles that brazil faces as it tries to find a way to express through foreign policy what it means to be a democracy in the region and in the world because historically brazil has been adhering to principles of nonintervention and non-interference and self-determination of peoples and has been reluctant to criticize countries no matter what they are doing because at

one level it doesn't believe it should but on another level it recognizes it is vulnerable to criticism and does not want to open the door to reciprocal attacks and wants to build a protection within inside institutional and regional organizations. i don't think that is a stance that it will be able to maintain in the long term simply because as brazil globalizes and society globalizes brazilian themselves will wonder what it means to be a democracy in the world and how does brazil address that democracy? the fact that internally you have such a strong commitment to an open society, such a strong commitment to individual rights is a very positive thing to work from so this will be an evolutionary process over time which we can't give up on, just have to keep focused and pushing on it and with regard to tensions in the country brazil is a huge country but of all of

the colonial entities established in the region is the only one held together. i am sure are all kinds of linguistic and cultural reasons for that and demographic reasons. although it is a big country, and a diverse country in terms of its linguistics and accents and traditions and the ethnicity of its immigrants. at the same time there is something that makes everyone a brazilian and that in many ways is what is remarkable about brazil and volvo even today people in the southern part of brazil will be dismissive of the northern part of brazil in the northeastern will be dismissive in the southern part of brazil

one can find the same thing in the united states and i think what is remarkable about brazil is like the united states, it is able through its diversity to present an image of itself everybody seems to understand. everybody knows what a brazilian is. that is a tremendous accomplishment. >> thank you. i would like before we close to remind you of something, this was the last event of our program this year and i am grateful to ambassador shannon and ambassador anthony harrington for being here to participate in this. this sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the assassination of chico mendez. he was not known in brazil when he was killed. today he is honored in brazil,

the international institute for study of policymaking in the amazon. he is one of the 26 national heroes of brazil and named by the brazilian congress. we have associated ourselves, the brazil institute has, to a group of institutions that will have, will post a memorial service this sunday at 4:00 at the holy name catholic church, the announcement at our web site, i hope that those that are interested can join as fair. with that, i would like to thank ambassador shannon for being here with us. i would like to thank you for having with us throughout the

year attempting at closing now. we are very grateful to you. i wanted to recognize two people that have been working with me, michael barton was overworked and left town yesterday. and also working with us, thank you very much. had been new year. and please, i would like to recognize with gratitude the presence of ambassador thomas shannon here today. thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

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