Brazzil

"http://www.brazilpoliticalcomment.com.br"
A new addition to my daily reference bookmarks.
Go John!

Really Brazil has too many parties and it is very easy to create a new one. In a real democracy that should be the case but John has a point here when he mentions the state of affair of the Brazil's political health.

"The large number of parties and pressure from vested interests make it difficult for a government to win a majority in either house of Congress and set a political agenda."

I also agree when him about the immaturity of our political parties. This crisis is to show us how much we still have to learn on how to run democracy in our country. Many Brazilians will yell at me here because we all know how bad democracy is is also in other "democratic" countries, but at least they try hard to keep things down, to be reserved. “Roupa suja se lava em casa”.

Anyway it does not matter really how things are out there, what is really important is that in Brazil our politicians act like a bunch of ‘panicked horses”, or more like a media oriented show house, looking more like a circus than a CPI; a very pitiable show for the cameras and reporters.

And at the end all the politicians will get together for pizza and beer.

Great move John, I will be checking your site!

I think Brazil with all the political problems mentioned in this article in its history is still going to be the leader of democracy in Latin America. That said, it should move away from this presidential style democracy and adopt a parliamentary democracy, where only a few parties will exist and the party with the clear majority in the lower house will make their party president the Prime Minister. Under such a situation, their is no need to make alliances with other interests etc. Also, the party in power will be responsible for almost everything that goes rigth or wrong in the country. The second largest power in the Congress will be the party that forms a shadow government and keeps a close eye on the government in case they try to pass a law that society overwhelming rejects (like the PT with the plan to regulate, movies, media etc.)
Well, I think that a prime minister position based on parliamentary rules is taking shape throughout Asia with some countries already talking about change (Manila, Jakarta)....seriously, this democratic model is flawed and dangerous and Brazil's needs to quickly pass a law alternating the political system...that said maybe things will change in 2006 when for the first time, if a political party does not have 5 percent of the vote they will not get their seats in the COngresss! FInally, something is changing for the better, hopefully

Welcome back John. Many of us background readers have missed your posts. I only hope you post back here regularly again…….and to the immature, irritating idiot above who is lowering the standards of debate…..if you cannot pass any constructive remarks then f**k off to another part of the net.

Listen here AAA...If I want any s**t out of you, I will squeeze your melon shaped head...

keol

I could use the word "whore" here, but that would be insulting a lot of women who have higher morales than this bunch of scum bag politicians we have in politics. The only way to fix these people is to starve them out of tax revenue that they feed on for corruption. LOWER TAXES por favor!

Another change I would make is once you are elected, and in office, if you decide to leave the party and join another party, your seat becomes vacant and calls for a re-election. You vote for the party, not the person.
This would strenghen party politics and weaken the politics of the person.
Also this Presidential style Parliament is proving to be a weaker form of parliament & government than the Prime Ministerial style all over the world. Role on Westminster style government in Brasil. Save the Presidency only for symbolic and ceremonial roles only.

Finally, I say role on Service Level Agreements & Contracts of Engagement for Politicians. Politicians should have to sign the same sort of agreements that happen every day in Private Enterprise; you sign a contract when you get elected for your promises, if you fail to implement your promises, you dont get a chance to be re-elected. If you do get through your promises, then ok, some form of bonus for achievement if the policy is properly and well implemented(ie delivers the results specified)!

Keep up the good writing, enjoy immensely. I was missing my diet of Scottish Brasilian hagglish!!

Dear Brazzil Magazine

This site is one of the premier English/ Brazilian websites on the net (as far as I am aware). I am probably one of the many people who read on a daily basis but rarely comments.

Personally I wish to thank Mr Fitzpatrick for generously contributing his fine articles over the years. Similar to many others on here I enjoy reading his articles and I hope he will continue contributing here in the future.

However the one thing that has become a major irritation to me and clearly many others on this site, including authors such as Mr Fitzpatrick is to be bombarded by irrational, immature and offensive drivel from people like the poster above.

He/she clearly has no mature or reasonable comment to contribute to this site.

He/she is a major irritation and lowers the tone and quality of this news discussion site and chases away would be authors like Mr Fitzpatrick from posting and participating in these article discussions.

Please consider a proper registered news forum so that individual(s) like this can be extinguished without delay. They are a damned nuisance and I for one wish to read sensible commentary on the issues at hand.

Best regards

Are you haters dreaming or in drugs? I don't see this on John writings "hating Brazil" He at least is being professional, polite and showing something...I'm sure most of you haters never tought and knew something about the politics in Brazil! Not to say that this site shows, or should show that Brazilians are caring to discuss problems, solutions or anything about Brazil. but don't forget when one Brazilian writes about Brazilians on the net, how they behave and write the most haters bulls**t with no sense at all, make think they not lose time no even to read what John in exemple wrote about Brazil! These people live in a drwam land, and i'm in shame to be a Brazilian and may have this people as a cousin! god save me!!

I think john is more Brazilian than myself, a exemple of how we should be professional...if I was a newspaper owner or TV, I would get him to write. Brazil a continental size country need sthis kind of people, we need more immigration again, so new ideias and people like John who wants to work, be professional and maybe find his eldorado in Brazil, whatever the reason, is the same reason that 2000 million Brazilians have too...What Brazil need is new blood! I wish more and more people from others countries would come to Brazil and open it mind and frontiers to a better future. Right on John!!

His article originally appeard on his own website, since no one else give a damn what he has to say, and was picked up by the Fitzpatrick fan club here. The guy came to Brazil chasing tail and is now just a carpet bagging has been.

The people who put up vapid praise of articles like this one are the damn annoyance on this site. What's with this Fitzpatrick fan club? One big circle jerk going on here. Yawn…

Oh, here we go again. Negative comments removed from the site. How nice. Does Fitzpatrick run this site. I guess he's free to write vile and stupid comments himself in other discussion forums here, but no one can say anything negative about him. Just the above sycophantic nonesense about "dulcet tones" (?) and whatnot. Pathetic.

"There are no extreme right-wing parties in the European or American sense since the racism associated with these parties does not make sense in a country like Brazil where about half the country is of mixed race or black(5)."

And that's a bad thing?

This article makes a decent observation that it's difficult for a Brazilian leader to get things done. Look at Lula. Extremely popular, elected with a definite madate and hamstrung the whole time. Some reform is warranted, but it doesn't have to do with the number of parties that exist. That's just sophistry. But the silliness of this article doesn't stop there. It is a lot of sour grapes from a right-wing ideologue. But, Fitzpatrick is a carpetbagger. So, really, who cares? I also have formed the opinion of this writer that he truely hates Brazil and Brazilans. Why he lives in Brazil is a mystery. Perhaps he's a spook of some sort. Or, after a failed marriage, he is a masochist. At any rate, I find his writing to be superficial at best and not very insightful.

It is complete nonsense to say that Mr Fitzpatrick is some right wing Brazilian hater. I simply don’t understand where these people dream this up from.

John is merely passing constructive criticism and questioning issues as anybody would if they lived in any country where such social extremes exist.

I have also noticed some vile comments about his Scottish Heritage which just goes to show how petty, personal and ignorant some of these posters are.

The Scottish are an honest, proud and intelligent people who have a history of fierce resistance when fighting for their freedoms.

Perhaps there are some lessons to be learned from the Scots here…..as they say actions are better than words……

Perhaps if Brazilians spent less time arguing about the merits of a particular brand of politics and spent more time actually changing the system then Brazil will become a fairer and better country for all?

Mr. Rodney de mello,
I wish if possible, anybody who like to post a comment should sign a menbership on Brazzil.com. I would like to send some e-mail to or friend Keol, asking how in hell, reading someone articles can he tell anybody had a marriage problems? What this nonsense has to do with Brazilians Politics?
Keol, Take it easy man. I know you live alone, jerking off. Life is hard for a immigrante in the USA. But please, find another meaning for your life!

Comparing Fitzpatrick to haggis is pretty right-on. There's enough of a "paper trail" on Fitzpatrick to lead to all sorts of conclusions. He also, perhaps after tying one on, occasionally posts rude comments on these message boards that display his contempt for Brazil and Brazilians. Perhaps they are meant to be funny. They aren't. His particular vitriol in regards to Brazilian women is credibly explained by a failed marriage to a Brazilian woman (he is on record saying they should come with a label warning that they are harmful to your health), but I really don't know or care. On the whole, I have to say that he makes some legitimate observations about Brazil and of Brazilians, including in this article. However, I am led to believe from his articles and postings that he's a bitter and strange man. It's all speculation as to what's inside, as one might do when sampling that strange saussage from Scotland.

Good article and balanced

Don't worry about the adhoc dribble from others. They are execising their God-given right and clearly confirming that there are many faces of Brasil.... On one side those of us who appreciate good balanced articles and those others whose only contribution is criticsm without any thought process....(i.e. basically clueless)

"dribble"? "God-given"? Etc.…Whew, talk about clueless!

I'll add: don't take any solice in the illiterate comments of those who purport praise you.

Sorry, solice => solace. That was a typo, as opposed to malapropism like "dribble."

i never did like politics......

The power is in the hands of the people. They only need rise up.

is a pink butterfly