A.A. Gill writes a stunningly concise, delight-packed précis of Brazil as a fourth power (Vanity Fair, September 2007):

Brazil is everyone’s second team. We all love Brazil…. Brazilians have the most-sought-after stolen passport in the world because it could belong to anyone. We all look Brazilian. They have the biggest population of Japanese outside Prada [sic]. There are tons of blond, blue-eyed Germans having beer festivals….

While we all look at the cunning power of China, with its ravenous, belching industrial revolution that consumes the world and pukes it back out cheaper and tackier; and India, with its 22nd-century I.T., 19th-century infrastructure, and third-century philosophy; and Russia… no one seems to pay much attention to the fourth member of the four horsemen of the future: Brazil….

Almost every precious stone and halfway-useful bit of ore is buried under Brazil…. If you don’t care much for balance sheets, just go to a Rio juice bar and look at the menu. The first 10 flavours will be familiar. The last dozen you’ll never have heard of….

There is gym equipment all over the streets the way Phoenix has park benches. Brazil looks in the mirror every morning and loves, just adores, what it sees. Imagine what that feels like.