São Luis, Maranhão, Brazil

Hi team,

I'm in São Luis, Maranhão, located in the Northeastern part of Brazil. We're on the coastal part of Brazil, where the Caribbean Sea starts to mix with the Atlantic Ocean.

Since I arrived three years ago, I've diagnosed a few things that could use some additional spin. First, the economy is entirely driven by politics. São Luis receives money from the federal government, and the state and municipal governments provide most of the jobs here. So the economy mostly runs on that money. All in all, the region here is incredibly well-positioned geographically for outstanding agricultural production but it's not happening.

As in many developing societies, everyone here is focused on trying to become “like the big guys”. They want to be like the people in Rio, Recife, São Paulo and, above all, the US and Europe. This gets youth to focus on liberal professions, such as law practice, journalism, medicine, nursing, etc. that are not productive in nature.

Here are a couple of key leverage points which, if targeted systematically, can make a huge difference in the quality of life.

1. Tourism and culture: São Luis is an amazingly attractive location, due to natural beauty, historical value, unique culinary qualities, and cultural attractions. Unfortunately, São Luis only has 1,500 beds in the city. Therefore, you can't hold conventions, huge congresses and promote tourism too heavily because of this limit.

2. Agriculture: Youth must be made aware that Maranhão has a distinctive advantage here. I recently checked out in a Rio bookstore Perricone's latest book, The Perricone Promise, where he lists “Açaí” as the number 1 anti-aging food. Well, my friends, Maranhão is where that stuff comes from. If Perricone talks about it, I'm sure millions of Americans (and others) want to buy it, and we should be happy to supply you with it.

3. Education: Youth must learn entrepreneurship and visionary skills. We're still at a blue-orange meme level here, so we need to beef up their identity. Everyone here wants a job, is worries about it, and dreams of working for the government. They must be exposed to passionate, lively, engaged and committed people who work tirelessly on a daily basis to add value to their community, whether through a business or an NGO. They need to take charge of their destiny. Everyone here thinks the problems are the government's fault. We must change that and I'll play a part in it. 

Here are my two cents on the place where I currently live. Any ideas for me on how to take a step forward?

Re: São Luis, Maranhão, Brazil

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