Brazzil

Mr. Fitzpatrick's meandering personal musings on the fate of Mr. da Silva are really confused and useless. Mr. da Silva is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't in the eyes of this persifleur. In the end, why should anyone care what he thinks (even if you could figure it out)? His conclusions (in every article I'ver read by him) are often unsupported by anything other than his guess and his bigoted notions about the "typical" Brazilian. I think he's about as close to the heartbeat of Brazilian politics as he is to the heartbeat and soul of the Brazilian people, which is clearly on an astronomic scale in spite of his physical proximity as a resident of the country.

As much as I want to defend the Scot, his comments on politics are less than exciting.
What happened to the good old days when he would describe his daily life in oppositeland? Those articles are what made him who he is today. People could relate to the fact that he would complain about things that Brazilians accepted as being normal.
And that was funny.
Brazilians don't have a clue that their worldview is alien to the rest of the world.

Reality is, most people, Brasilian or American have short memories and are very foregiving. There is not a question in anyone's mind that Bill Clinton could have won a 3rd term if it was allowed. People vote with their wallets!!! If the economy is progressing then Lula will be re-elected.


James H.

i find John's articles to be very much accurate. there's nothing exagerated i think about his own slant on our political/social situation. he seems to just state the facts. it

oh yes, and it's up to us brazilians to clean up the mess we have been creating all these years. its time we came together and protested publicly against the special treatment political wrongdoers get in our country. getting maluf's ass to the funny place may be a good sign. we must to keep on full alert though and debate all this online or take it to the streets. no one is gonna do that job for us, we should know that.

what problem did you have with Clinton? A third term of Clinton sure would have been better than the mess Bush has us in.

What's your problem with Lula?

"i find John's articles to be very much accurate." Well, I don't.

"Those articles are what made him who he is today." Really? I thought it must have been a failed marriage or something like that.

Lula will survive. He still has the support of the main population. I believe he knew something was going on but may have not known the scale of the problem, after all corruption in Brazil is part of the 'culture'. It is not right but Brazilians are apathetic to it.

The economy is doing well, outside investment is happening and Brazil is being marketed as a global brand.

More heads will role and Lula will win the next election. After all where is the opposition and what will they have to hide?

"I believe he knew something was going . . ." What do you think he knew was "going on"? Why is that?

Someone give me a list of the people who's heads have rolled so far and tell me 1) the facts and 2) what party each belonged to.

The Calvacanti matter is a funny one for example. Of course, he was an extreme right-wing a*****e who is alleged to have shaken down a luncheonette vendor. But the press hardly ever mention his political affiliations. The press ties him to Lula by mentioning his alleged corruption in the same story dealing with the allegations against the PT and say that he was an "important ally" of Lula's. Give me a break.

This whole thing started with what ABC News described as allegations of a "disgruntled congressman." Right. Jefferson was caught red-handed in corrupt acts. He's a criminal, not "disgruntled." Oh, and he's not PT either. Oh, and he also said that his allegations didn't implicate Lula in any way.

The reporting of the "corruption scandal" in Brazil has been really terrible. First, to call it a "scandal" is silly. Jefferson claimed there was a mensalao paid by the PT to buy votes. If that were proven, that would be a scandal. Instead, numerous acts of corruption have been divulged involving many political parties. I haven't seen the mensalao proven at all. So, there isn't so much a "corruption scandal" in Brazil as much as "corruption as per usual politics" in Brazil.

Yeah, heads should roll in Brasilia, but it's most likely a sort of democratic kind of purge that should take place with most heads belonging to non-PT politicians.