>>Sal Masekela: Talk to me now about your
vision for the country and the work that you're
doing with music and culture as a whole with
culture points.
>>Gilberto Gil: Brazil is, of course -- I
mean, any nation somehow has the dream of
being a power -- you know? -- in the traditional
sense of the word.
I think that Brazilians -- Brazilian population
and Brazilian governments also -- and Brazilian
productive sector, you know, the industry
and everything, they want Brazil to be a power
in the traditional sense.
But more and more, step-by-step, we move into
a different feeling, a different sense that
Brazil has to be a power but not a traditional
one, has to be kind of a soft power, a cultural
power, a spiritual power. Because we are very
-- we are very much into arts, into entertainment,
into celebrating life and so and so and so
and so.
So I think that Brazil, maybe, I hope, can
give the world a contribution that is not
so classical in terms of power, you know,
not following the tradition of being a power
in the sense of the arms and, you know, and
the guns and the bombs and the -- you know,
that sort of thing. I think that Brazil can
be a cultural power provided that we also
can develop a good economy that we can occupy
a place, you know, in the culture of the nation's
-- economically, politically. But the contribution
that we actually -- I think that we are able
to give to the world is a cultural contribution,
you know, in terms of a spirit, you know?
That sense of life as something that is worth
living, the taste for life, you know, the
taste for things that we can enjoy, that we
can -- that can -- you know? -- that can entertain
us, that can give us a sense of joy.
