Brazzil

We are all abandoned, we come naked into the world and so shall we leave. We are all slaves, we drive cars to our bondage. It is only a matter of degree. The man that wakes under the bridge wakes free. The trouble with freedom is the responsibility of taking care of your own needs. We fear freedom, we know nothing about it. We are taught dependecy like so many sheep.

You need some Robin Hood policies in Brazil because the situation has really gone out of hand: urban centers have turned into criminal infernos with favelas and golden ghettos with vigilantes and peasants in the countryside live like slaves while landowners smoke their cigars at the local country clubs. Yet there can be no wealth redestribution through progressive taxation if corruption is so rampant. It's like the snake biting its tale. It becomes very difficult to fight poverty as long as there's corruption and ....it's hard to eradicate poverty in a situation such as Brazil where political life is one of the few ways to become rich. Politicians are more corrupted in poor countries than in rich ones, it's a world rule, it's nothing linked with Brazilian culture.

Luca, Roma wrote: "Politicians are more corrupted in poor countries than in rich ones, it's a world rule, it's nothing linked with Brazilian culture."

No, No, No, Luca. Politicians in general are corrupt. There is no difference between poor or rich countries with the exception of the degree and how far some are willing to push the line before actually crossing it. In other words, some will cross the line, and some will push up against it. The out come however is the same, corruption.

In the USA corruption is called lobbying. "Democrats who campaigned successfully last year (2006) against a “culture of corruption” in the Republican-controlled Congress found themselves one-upped today when more than 30 of their own members voted for a GOP (Republican) motion to strengthen the package."
Lobbying has very little to do with the people whom the politicians were elected to serve and more to do with themselves. The Democrats won the last election partly by campaigning on corruption and now that they are in power the will to pass laws effecting meaningful change is an inconvience. Guess why.

In Italy, your country Berlusconi, "An Italian judge has thrown out some tax fraud and false accounting charges against former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi because the statute of limitations has expired."

In France Chirac's, " ambitious search for funds for his party is at the heart of corruption allegations, involving illegal party financing."

In England Blair, "The facts are simple and undisputed. At least four of Britain's richest men made loans worth millions to the Labour Party before the last election. The loans were kept secret and shortly afterwards Tony Blair recommended those same four men for peerages."

The above are but a few examples in the so called developed world. Please do not fool yourself, some may escape the long arms of the law but corruption is corruption. If it smells like a rat, looks like a rat, then it is a rat.

Most honest and trustworthy people do not get elected as polititicians. They are usually the ones who stay on the outside and effect change through agitation and protest. They are the one who are willing to give their lives, and NO, they do not use violence. Violence is however visited upon them by the corrupters and their hench-men.

The true success of these people is dependent upon the maturity of the people whom they try to serve and how badly they want change. In Brazil this is a problem since quite a number of the electorate continually elect politicians whom they know are corrupt.

Just listen, read and swallow what Alencar your Vice President said : THERE IS NOOOOOOO SLAVERY IN BRAZIL !!!

Then why wonder that if there is no slavery.....why is there a government dept......against slavery ?
And if there is no slavery, why on a regular basis just a few slaves are....FREED..... ?????

HMMMMM...something stinks a great lie.....somewhat....somewhere !

If there is no slavery how can slaves be freed ?????

Only an idiot such as Alencar have NOOOOO explanation....curiously !

Smile

I agree that education is a point that should be in the first place.
With education, people would be more attractive when looking for a job. This way we would reduce unemployment.
With education, people would acquire more knowledge and would realize that some politicians are only taking advantages of their slavery, changing food or another things for votes. This way, people would pay attention to the politics and would vote with conscience.
It seems like some politicians don´t want to invest in education because they want to continue plundering the brasilians.
We need more serious people to govern our country...
Yes, this process of making a revolution in education will spend time, but it´s necessary.

Review the history of slavery in every other country. The great United States of America abolished slavery generations ago and American favelas were abound.

mermo aki na Rocinha tein muita ikravidaun, DURA ISKRAVADURA
mia fia fujiu pra Sum Paulu, foi trabaliar comu dansarina, sum paulo eh mais justo ki o Rio, a cidadi vergonhosa

If you're going to criticize in English, at least get it right. "Favelas abound"or "are abounding" in the US. Though that's not exactly true. There are projects, ghettos, hollers, trailer parks, and lots of other places in the US where poor people of all races (are forced to) live. Some even live in homes,which they can barely afford, or which are part of government housing and thus kept in very shoddy shape. But they are still in better shape than most of the favelas I've seen in Brazil.

Why hasn't Brazil ever stressed better urbanization policies? Even Curitiba, the jewel of the country, has "invasões" now and favelas. Why could the state of Paraná and the city of Curitiba, the conurbation of Curitiba, work things out to provide housing for the thousands who don't have it? Why do so few, especially in São Paulo, Rio, Paraná, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Pernambuco, etc., own SO much? Why isn't there better land distribution as in the far south of the country, or is it because only the "whites" gets the best options to buy and own land from the government and landowners, while the others must resort to the "Sem Terra" actions? Doesn't Brazil realize it will be stronger if all its people have the basics, including food, health care, old age pensions, a decent place to live, and an education?

But hey, the US still doesn't realize this, or its lousy right-wing and center-left politicians don't.

It wasn't until the Watts riots, Martin Luther King, the Black Panthers, the burning of the American ghettos of the 60's that things began to change in the U.S.

Johnson's War On Poverty. Food Stamps, Meicaid.

Maybe if the people in the Favela's burned the Favela's down their would be a massive change.

Jim Crow in the South, integration in the South '59 National Guard called up to enforce integration, Kennedy calling in Federal Troops to enforce integration law, voting law. (Of course he got his head blown off in Dallas, the South, the very place he told people what they were going to do.)

Are things better, yes and no. The city scape doesn't quite look the same, the slums are different. Education is better, but there is access to free food, medicine. Blacks are now police, governors, mayors, Secretarys of State, Supreme Court Justices, but still there are problems, crime, drugs. And all this is forty years ago.

One mans ghetto is another man's house. FDR's New Deal was the beginning of solution, hell slavery didn't end but a 100 years ago at the end of the Civil War.

Everybody wants a Mercedez ergo everyone should have one.

Everybody wants the best dentist, ergo everyone should have one.

There is no Utopia, only approximations of it, degrees of it. You in the U.S. can work your way out of the ghetto, there is schooling for everyone. Many choose the Seven Deadly Sins, it is human nature.

Things improve. Different races in the U.S. adapt differently. There are few Japenese ghettos or Chinese ghettos, things evolve. Took a million years to make a dinosaur, probably take a million years to make a decent Civilization.

The race factor exists for Europe & America since their inception as nations and since their their early forays into the world in the 16th century. Islamic civilization at that time underrestimated the degree of fanatical racism and supremacy seeds they carried in their belly. This was for lack of a Mass Media to inform at that time and also, from a general disinterest in such a people and their practice. This time around, with the islamic Ascent underway, and the Greater Awakening across the globe, the issue of racism and oppression against african peoples and their descendents will be an issue to account for.

This time around, with the islamic Ascent underway, and the Greater Awakening across the globe, the issue of racism and oppression against african peoples and their descendents will be an issue to account for.

As a person who has studied all the relgions (not profoundly though), I discovered something interesting. The relgions were born to teach the people how to evolve in a civilized way. To my knowledge no relgion preaches violence,including yours. The problem is that some idiots use the religions as tools to attain power. The examples are the Mullahs in Iran, the Evangelical churches in U.S. and South America, the Orthodax Rabbis in Israel, the fanatical Hindus in India and other small sects spread all over the world.These fnatics have a way of interpreting their own religions for their own benefits.

I differ from you when you say that Islamic ascent is under way and the great global awakening is going to happen. I doubt it, as there are more non Muslims in this planet. I know a little bit of Koran and I think good Muslims will eventually shun violence and integrate into the Global Order.I really do not believe in Theocracy practised in Iran and it does oppress people in the name of religion.

As for me, I am happy to live in a secular country like ours, where nobody asks what relgion I belong to. We are tolerant to all the relgions and that is where our greatness lies.

Ok. Say you live in a favela. Disease, dirt, NOISE, poverty... and the local psycho can ruin your life in two seconds if you offend him. WHY WHY WHY would you conceive and raise a child (sorry, ten children) under those circumstances?

Get out of the favela - THEN have children. Can't get out of the favela? Ok, but WHY bring a screaming kid into that hellhole? Do you hate your kids that much that you have to put them through that horrible life?

OO senor, thee south amerrrrican music sooo sexy just got to make love, you know??????

Brazil above everything else should avoid "learning" from Americans. As a European who travels quite often to the States, I always wonder what this "American dream" is all about. I am not impressed by their cities, their education, their loudness, their girth and their TV. And now that the American twin evils of Political Correctness (Roberta Aschenberg forcing banks to give mortgages to hundreds of thousnds of black non-hopers creating the notorious "toxic" assets) and uncontrolled Capitalist Greed have caused the Great American Blight everywhere I hope that the Americans (blacks, whites, Jews) have learned not to preach at other countries.

And if the people in the favelas want to improve their lot, they should like the Chinese, put their children's education above everything else. And perhaps the Brazilian Government can adopt the Chinese one-child policy.

As for Islam, it is incompatible with the cultures/religions of everybody who is not Muslim, be it in India, China, Thailand, Philipines, Spain, Britain, the U.S., France, Holland wherever. It is no wonder that most Muslim states are mired in poverty, corruption and even wars, and that so many Muslims have emigrated to Europe in spite of the fact that we don't want them.