'White, blue-eyed bankers have brought world economy to its knees': What the Brazilian President told Gordon Brown
By
James Chapman
Last updated at 9:41 AM on 27th March 2009
Gordon Brown’s efforts to broker an £80billion bailout for world trade on a trip to Brazil hit a stumbling block tonight when the country’s president lashed out at ‘white, blue-eyed’ bankers for bringing the world economy to its knees.
Mr Brown watched on uneasily as his host, President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, launched a bizarre tirade in which he warned that next week’s G20 summit in London would be a ‘spicy’ affair.
President Lula said it was completely unfair that the poorest people in the world were suffering most for the mistakes of wealthy, Western financiers.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva embraces Gordon Brown after the press conference where the Brazilian president made the comments about 'a crisis that was caused by people, white with blue eyes'
‘This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by irrational behaviour of people that are white, blue-eyed, that before the crisis looked like they knew everything about economics,’ he declared.
‘Now they have demonstrated that they don’t know anything about economics.’
President Lula, head of Brazil’s main left-wing party, said that ‘no black man or woman, no indigenous person, no poor person’ had been in any way culpable for the global banking crisis.
‘I’m not acquainted with any black banker,’ he said. ‘The part of humanity that’s responsible should pay for the crisis.’
