Brazzil

Maybe that's the problem! Poverty happens when a society focuses on wealth distribution instead of wealth CREATION! If the poorest can be taught self sufficency to feed and house themselves, why is it a problem if a country has lots of billionaires? The wealthy getting wealthier isn't a problem. After all, when is the last time you got a job or a large sale from a poor person?

The poster of "Unicef ideology" is correct when affirming that the focus should be on wealth creation. Although I grant that, in this article, Senator Buarque at least tries to provide some guidance, he, as a member of our democratically elect senate, should be helping to provide the leadership he says our leaders lack so much. After all, he was the creator of the Bolsa-Escola. Shouldn't he them be taking ownership of the program, and making it being implemented in the same efficient way as in Mexico (as he claims)? The politics of victimism: we cannot erradicate misery because we have this brute, ugly, and job generating entrepreneur screwing us up!

The poster of "Unicef ideology" is correct when affirming that the focus should be on wealth creation. Although I grant that, in this article, Senator Buarque at least tries to provide some guidance, he, as a member of our democratically elect senate, should be helping to provide the leadership he says our leaders lack so much. After all, he was the creator of the Bolsa-Escola. Shouldn't he them be taking ownership of the program, and making it being implemented in the same efficient way as in Mexico (as he claims)? The politics of victimism: we cannot erradicate misery because we have this brute, ugly, and job generating entrepreneur screwing us up!

We have forever been looking at this problem from the wrong angle. Uni ideology is right. How about vouchers for poor children and allowing the churches to have a more active participation in education and breaking the public school monopoly in this country M.R Buarque? Would you vote for that and upset the unions that support your party? Would you author such a bill ? Pois é ze, é dificl resolver as coisas sendo refem de uma ideologia.

First, let's be honest, even if Bolsa-Escola was not rife with corruption and criminaly administered, and it got kids to school...they would still not learn the basic skills necesary to enter the main stream. The ONLY way to get a good education is to attend Brasilian private schools, which in fact are really quite good. The problem is, that this does not create an enviroment were the poor can become active in the mainstream. The folks with enough money to send their kids to good schools continue to enjoy the benefits that come with a quality education. This model does nothing to improve the situation in Brasil, but in fact will continue to make things worse. The author, who is a member of the ruling party should be working to create good schools and good jobs for the poor. instead of trying to insure his re-election with a $R100.00 bride to the poor.

Article from a PT Governer about how Brasil keeps falling behind??!! Duh! Look in the mirror Mr. Buarque, how can you possile say this without resigning your position in good faith. Your party shares much of the blame. And as the former Minister of Education, you must have done a fine job, as the public schools provide such a great education for our poor and disadvantge. How many people on your staff are illegally participating in Bolsa-Escola?

Every one can not be wealthy it's just a fact of life which i do not have time to debate i mean who would work for the wealthy people if every one were rich. but any do you really think people are because they're lazy or they dont have an education. We all share this Earth and we are not all blessed to be born into a well-to-do social status. We are a community and wealth should be
at least trickle down from the top if the rich are getting richer thats mean the poor are not getting any thing. After all the rich control the resources. I not saying they should support the poor but try make life a little better for our fellow humans. I guess i not evil.

The notion of “who would work for the wealthy people if everyone were rich” is a widespread one, and is mostly based on the paradigm of “exploitation”. See, you don’t need to be wealthy to receive the “benefits” of the exploitation paradigm: anyone, even those who are not from the well-to-do kind, who has gone to a bathroom in a bus station (say, you’re in Sao Paulo, in the Jabaquara bus terminal), knows that there is a guy there, cleaning after you, making sure you pay your R$1.50, handing you a paper towel, and so on; that is, the “poor” have other “poor” working for them. Now, an exercise: forget about the “exploitation” part, and think of what this guy does as what it really is, that is, a job – this guy is actually working, going about his daily business. (Someone may be already thinking: “It’s not a dignified job. This guy is victim of society!”. Well, stop right there: you just went back to the exploitation point of view, to victimism). Now, let’s think: well, what we all would like to is to NOT have to have this guy standing there by the crapper, right? That is, may be he should be a teacher, or a policeman, or a lawyer. The one hundred billion dollar question now is: “How do we get this guy, and his family, out of the gutter? How do we make the resources ‘trickle down’ to him?“ Remember: we are not in the “exploitation/victimism” mode here (that is, in this scenario, we are not allowed to “redistribute wealth”). One way (and there are certainly many other ideas out there) is to actually support business creation, make the government accountable for the use of tax money, and channel this money back into education and the betterment of the workforce. “Oh, -- you might say – this is nice on paper, but you don’t know how it is like with these politicians! They will find a way to mishandle everything.” There, you slipped into the “exploitation/victimism” again. I say, you voted for them. Or, you voted for someone. It is then your responsibility, right? Independent of your status, isn’t it? Are YOU holding your representative accountable? Are YOU taking steps to better YOUR neighborhood? Are YOU being a supportive parent? Have YOU volunteered your time to a worthy cause? Suddenly, we realize that a lot of the mechanisms to transform society are already in place, but they are just not being used at all!!

Albert Einstein said that “our present problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking at which they were created”; that is, it might as well be that poverty, in general, is a product of the exploitation paradigm, but invoking the exploitation paradigm as means to mitigate poverty just won’t cut it.

I am seeing an increasing hostility in Brazil to people solving their own problems. I see too much of a mentality that if someone has to travel by foot, they get more satisfaction from vandalizing someone else's car than from buying a bicycle. The "man of the house" where I was staying in Brazil once actually got angry with me for trying to organize a picket of City Hall to get rid of the open stinking disease/mosquito ridden open sewer that winded it's way about the neighborhood. He said it would make him a "target" for harassment. Just look at the hostility from Brazil to President Bush for preventing a repeat of 9/11. Brazilians peaceful? Present yourself as a conservative Bush supporter and see how peaceful some of these people are! Maybe a dose of Fidel Castro is the only cure for these people.

Typical foriegn moron who has no idea what he is talking about, stayed here for a few weeks, could'nt get pancakes or hotdogs, and pooped his pants because he saw what the US and European economic polices had done to our country. It's not that Brasilian citizens don't want to help themeselves, most honestly do, but our failed "democracy" has been tolerent of corrupt politicans more worried about lining their own pockets than helping thier people, todays bunch is no exception...this has not changed. Government inefficency, high taxes, and banks make it virtualy impossible to solve your own problems. Short of a revolution, what is to be done? Brasilinas are sadly resigned to "Brasil being Brasil", this pathetic attitude has now created an country of apathetic citizens. It is only a matter of time before we resort to "neo-liberalism" at which time we will be cooked...done all over. The problem is "Brasilians ARE peaceful", what we really need is an active organized effort including civil unrest, but we do not have the balls necessary. As for Bush, I admire him. Instead of tackling the issues of crime and security with black and white polices including the death penalty, and the suspension or rights for criminals, and we clean out the hell holes, instead we take a European approach at passification. You can say what you want about the US President, but he takes decisive sometimes unpopular steps to lead his country. Frankly, we could use some of the same type of leadership.

So which is it? US and European economic Policies (and please elaborate) or corrupt Brasilian Politicians and a failed democracy that is too blame. You seemed to have unknowingly contradicted yourself, as well as given credibility to the poster you called a moron.

It appears that poopy pantz seems to know a helluva lot more about your country than you do.