Rio, November 21, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, declared yesterday that the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was not a revolution, but a democratic choice, placing another great president in office to follow Fernando Henrique Cardoso. He said Lula will have to find solutions for the same problems that haunt Latin America, such as social justice, hunger, inequality, poverty and the gap between the rich and the poor.

Wolfensohn, who has visited Brazil for a period of 40 years, said there was no reason for pessimism, adding that a country cannot be judged only by economic numbers. "You judge a country by its social content, and the way the people think and see things," he said. (AB)