An anti-globalist, in a globalist organization?

Brazil’s former Education Minister Abraham Weintraub is the antithesis of “do your best, forget the rest” — at the least the “do your best” part. However, despite having racked up a laundry list of controversial flashpoints during his time in office — such as racial slurs against China, verbally abusing members of the public on Twitter, receiving a BRL 2,000 fine for not wearing a mask during a protest calling for a military coup, and calling the members of the Supreme Court “bums” — he could now walk out of the cabinet with a seven-figure income. 

After being removed from his post and flying to the U.S. in ‘political exile’ — potentially the first case of someone being ‘exiled’ despite having the full support of the sitting government — Mr. Weintraub is now awaiting the approval of eight countries to take on his new job at the World Bank, his gift for a disastrous job at the head of Brazil’s education system. 

However, despite being nominated, he will also have to overcome the opposition of the World Bank’s staff association, which said offering him a job goes against the organization’s code of ethics, especially due to Mr. Weintraub’s several racist comments. 

Mr. Weintraub is far from being a popular figure, even in Brazil. According to a conservative blog linked to President Bolsonaro’s ideological guru Olavo de Carvalho — where Mr. Weintraub is adored — only 70 scholars in the country’s entire academic community expressed their support for the outgoing Education Minister. 

Seeing Brazil has 2.5 million professors, according to the Anísio Teixeira National Institute of Educational Studies and Research, the support of the former minister represents just 0.028 percent. Thankfully, the lion’s share of academia knows that this is not how the head of the education should behave. 

• Read more: An anti-globalist to the World Bank?
• And: Meet Brazil’s new Education Minister, economist Abraham Weintraub

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