In my experience, this particular generalization is almost always correct. The many excuses as lack of reliable transportation does not really apply because I

In my experience, this particular generalization is almost always correct. The many excuses as lack of reliable transportation does not really apply because I see the same behavior when Brazilians are in countries that have said infrastructure. To be on time is a developed skill and as I Brazilian myself I surely had to develop that skill late in life. However being on time among Brazilians costed me dearly. I had many problems, fights, and arguments because I expect some degree of punctuality of others Brazilians. I have countless personal accounts of that. For someone not used to it, let me quantify it: I'm talking lateness from 30 minutes to 4 hours. The root cause is that lateness is highly tolerated in Brazil, and is inherently contagious. If someone is always 10 minutes late to an appointment, someone else, who values their own time, will be not less than 10 minutes late. Next one will be not less than that, incrementally, each more late than the other. The more people, the worst, and we are more than 200 millions. For people who think that being late is not a big deal, imagine being 10 minutes late for a meeting with 6 other people. That's 6 times 10 minutes, 60 minutes of people's time waiting you. Wasted time. Then there is the time lost due context switching, pinging you to see where you are, and being late to other appointments. It's disrespectful and selfish to be late. You are showing that you care only about yourself and not about other people's time. Yes, I know that anyone can be late, but please without false symmetries. It's an endemic problem among Brazilians and we need to fix it. Please, if you know you have this problem, stop making excuses and do something about it. Buy a watch, use Google Calendar, it's not even that hard.