Brazzil

A mayor in Venezuela spends 20 days in jail for speaking against Chavez. Speaking against Castro can mean extradition to Cuba. Dissident beating in Venezuela can no longer be televised. I hope I never have to live in this "other world"

Leia no link abaixo: Encontro de imbecis

http://www.midiasemmascara.org/artigo.php?sid=3287

http://www.midiasemmascara.org/artigo.php?sid=3261

To "A mayor in Venezuela spends 20 days in jail for speaking against Chavez"
An Australian citizen "Mamdum Habib"spent 3years in guantanabo concentration camp in Cuba for doing nothing wrong not even speaking against anybody. 12year old children in the US are behind bar for petty crimes.Millions of poltical dissidents are in jails around the world because they speak out against US policies around the world. The concentration camps are controlled by the US Govt. and they are in such places like pakistan Egypt Jordan Cuba Israel and many other undemocratic countries that the US props up

Globalisation trashed in Brazil

Feb 1st 2001 | SAO PAULO
From The Economist print edition



“BOVÉ is my friend—mess with him and you mess with me!” activists chanted this week at the World Social Forum, held in Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil, as an anti-globalisation counterpoint to the World Economic Forum’s traditional gathering of fatcats in the Swiss resort of Davos. José Bové, a French farmer famed for wrecking his local McDonald’s, was the star turn at “anti-Davos”, especially after he joined leaders of Brazil’s Landless Movement on an excursion to destroy a plantation of genetically modified soya owned by Monsanto, an American company. He was briefly arrested and threatened with deportation, but was later allowed to stay. Protesters trashed a nearby McDonald’s in his honour.

No matter that many Brazilians might ask why a gathering supposedly dedicated to ending poverty and inequality should champion a defender of Europe’s farm protectionism, which hinders exports from Brazil and other poor countries. The forum had other priorities. These were to promote alternatives to the “neoliberal” orthodoxy of free trade, free markets and privatisation: a familiar wish-list, such as cancelling third-world debt, a worldwide tax on financial transactions, workers’ rights and more care for the environment in trade accords.

In the lecture halls, an international cast of leftish intellectuals trotted out phrases like “cultural Fordism” and “social fascism”, while outside protest groups—feminists, anti-racists, gays—threw tantrums at not getting enough space on the agenda.

The meeting also agreed that big protests should be organised at the 34-country Summit of the Americas in Quebec in April, in opposition to the proposed Free-Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). That should challenge governments, such as Brazil’s, which say they favour regional free trade, but have done little to persuade their voters that it will bring higher growth and thus less poverty.

The forum was the brainchild of Bernard Cassen, the editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, a French journal. It was co-sponsored (at taxpayers’ expense) by Olivio Dutra, the local state governor, from the left-wing Workers’ Party (PT). Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the party’s leader and likely candidate in next year’s presidential election, was a guest of honour.

The protesters’ antics for the cameras will have done Mr da Silva no good. Brazilian voters increasingly like the PT as a party of honest local government. But when it portrays itself as a bunch of radicals with a taste for a punch-up, it does little to convince voters that it can be trusted to run the country.

Globalisation trashed in Brazil

Feb 1st 2001 | SAO PAULO
From The Economist print edition



“BOVÉ is my friend—mess with him and you mess with me!” activists chanted this week at the World Social Forum, held in Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil, as an anti-globalisation counterpoint to the World Economic Forum’s traditional gathering of fatcats in the Swiss resort of Davos. José Bové, a French farmer famed for wrecking his local McDonald’s, was the star turn at “anti-Davos”, especially after he joined leaders of Brazil’s Landless Movement on an excursion to destroy a plantation of genetically modified soya owned by Monsanto, an American company. He was briefly arrested and threatened with deportation, but was later allowed to stay. Protesters trashed a nearby McDonald’s in his honour.

No matter that many Brazilians might ask why a gathering supposedly dedicated to ending poverty and inequality should champion a defender of Europe’s farm protectionism, which hinders exports from Brazil and other poor countries. The forum had other priorities. These were to promote alternatives to the “neoliberal” orthodoxy of free trade, free markets and privatisation: a familiar wish-list, such as cancelling third-world debt, a worldwide tax on financial transactions, workers’ rights and more care for the environment in trade accords.

In the lecture halls, an international cast of leftish intellectuals trotted out phrases like “cultural Fordism” and “social fascism”, while outside protest groups—feminists, anti-racists, gays—threw tantrums at not getting enough space on the agenda.

The meeting also agreed that big protests should be organised at the 34-country Summit of the Americas in Quebec in April, in opposition to the proposed Free-Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). That should challenge governments, such as Brazil’s, which say they favour regional free trade, but have done little to persuade their voters that it will bring higher growth and thus less poverty.

The forum was the brainchild of Bernard Cassen, the editor of Le Monde Diplomatique, a French journal. It was co-sponsored (at taxpayers’ expense) by Olivio Dutra, the local state governor, from the left-wing Workers’ Party (PT). Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the party’s leader and likely candidate in next year’s presidential election, was a guest of honour.

The protesters’ antics for the cameras will have done Mr da Silva no good. Brazilian voters increasingly like the PT as a party of honest local government. But when it portrays itself as a bunch of radicals with a taste for a punch-up, it does little to convince voters that it can be trusted to run the country.

I was at the WSF, and must admit I was disillusioned. The camps were filled with litter, there were rapes and robberies - even in the press room, everything that wasn´t nailed down was pinched. Most of the 120,000 that registered probably didn´t attend one seminar or symposium - they spent their nights drinking and smoking dope, their days stumbling about brain dead.

Everything there is for sale - capitalism is alive and well with the left (as long is it´s made by a hippy and not a US corporation - of course).

Mixed messeges and missed opportunies should be the official slogan, and not "a better world is possile" because if they are offering what took place at the forum as snap shot of this "better world" I´ll stick to what we have now.

As anyone informed the left about the use of SOAP??????????

What do you call a "petty" crime? You don't have to worry about being robbed at gunpoint here by a minor like you do in Brazil. Here in Georgia, the seven deadly sins where minors get treated like adults are:

murder, rape, armed robbery (with a firearm), aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and voluntary manslaughter

These are hardly petty crimes!

I've recently read about Chavez in national American media. He was denounced as a dictator, and accused of dissolving democracy while consolidating his own power. Despite this, he encourages the redistribution of land and wealth to the lower classes.

Although I am an American, I disagree with my country, and I am a strong believer in socialism. But what do Venezuelans (or other south americans) really think of Chavez?

I have a Cuban friend who, since coming to the US, has had to retrain himself not to eat so fast - this habit developed while growing up in a country where food was so scarce that you wolfed down whatever you had.
I'm guessing that we have a bit less poverty here than in Venezuela or Cuba...