White people with blue eyes caused the credit crunch: Brazilian President

28 March 2009

The global financial crisis has thrown up insights as to what the emerging and developing nations think of the financial crisis sweeping the globe, with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva saying ''White people with blue eyes caused the credit crunch.''

This is not the first time that a leader from the emerging nations is saying aloud what is often spoken in hush tones by other world leaders, but from Russia and China to Brazil and, of late, Czechoslovakia, the emerging economies  have been voicing their irritation on the state of the global economy that has hit their own respective countries for no fault of theirs.

Speaking at a press conference in the Brazilian capital city of Brazilla along with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown ahead of the G20 summit, Lula's statement, seen by many as a flamboyant comment, has a deeper echo for many from impoverished nations.

Standing next to Gordon Brown at the news conference, Lula came down heavily on the world's top economies and put the blame squarely on them for manufacturing this global financial crisis.

"This crisis was caused by no black man or woman or by no indigenous person or by no poor person." he said.

"This crisis was fostered and boosted by irrational behaviour of some people that are white, blue-eyed. Before the crisis they looked like they knew everything about economics, and they have demonstrated they know nothing about economics," he added, much to the discomfiture of Gordon Brown.