The bewildering way in which Brazilian politics work was evident during the election for the chairmanship of the House of Representatives on February 1st when the new Congressional session started. The election was narrowly won by the Workers Party (PT) candidate against the wishes of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who founded the PT.
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Hi john, I praise Lula for his commitment to the democracy. I think he is handling quite well. I am not saying that his administration performance has been impeccable or fautless specially on the party's ethical conduct as you mentioned. My point is I see him as a mediator between the left and right. As we all know Latin America is flirting with populism again. Social democracy is one thing, and populism mixing up with socialism is something else.(I really admire Chile's social democracy, even more so their president Michelle Bachelet.) What I don't like is the approach a la Hugo Chaves, and his desire to rule by decree and remove the constitutional term limits of it, and also implement socialism. I just hope Lula can keep his party and the left parties' middle ages ideologies away from the Brazilian Constitution.
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Trying to play the middle written by GTY,
February 05, 2007
I see Lula as an incompetent slob and joke who has failed in everyway. The current direction of Brazils interest rates and shrinking export market ensures an economical trainwreck on the horizen, that is why he is now in Davos and talking to the US about new trade deals when his position is now weakend . Say what you want about Chavez, Morales, Kirchner or Ortega, they have delivered what their citizens have asked for, bold socilaist change that is directed at helping their less fortunate citizens. The rich in the North, South and Paulista's continue to pull Brazil's strings. In the cases or Chavez and Kirchner, their respective economies are lapping Brazil's. The murder rate keeps leading the world, the poor remain uneducated and hungry, human trafficing is still rampat, Brazil is a destination of choice for the worlds pedophiles, corruption is still a way of life at the highest ranks...Yeah, Lula is doing a wonderful job.
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This is politics and you know it written by Adriana a.,
February 05, 2007
What you want? Things are bad and if Lula don't play this game well, things will get worse. These leftist parties and Lula's party are already thinking about 2010. They know Lula can't be re elected (unless, you know, and I don't want to even think about that, not in Brazil, not again) and they will do whatever they can to pave their way to 2010. I read in Veja online that they want Marta Suplicy to be in the Education, she is one of their choice for 2010 also. Now my question, what the hack is she going to do there? What does she know about Education? Even her term in SP was quite dubious. I also read they want Lula to give as many positions to the PT members in the second mandate as they can get. (Something that Jonh points out in the 10th paragraph in the article above. Lula is saying no to them, if you read it again you'll see.) And want the members in the party to "work" in order to absolve the old Jose Dirceu. why do they want him back, I don't know (doens't smell good.) As for Chavez I wouldn't be so sure, the latest articles I read tells me the opposite on the country's economy. Maybe this is the only thing I praise in Lula, he is trying to be the mediator; in politics, whether you like or not that's how things work.
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... written by A brazilian,
February 05, 2007
I am not sure what is wrong with the americans that come here, they seem to have some rabid anti-Brazil ideas that border the fanaticism. Your comments are really funny:
1- Chavez only does charity with petro-dollars, if the oil price goes down so does he. And he is the most lunatic of all promoting the "socialist of the 21st century", as if this region weren't backwards enough; 2- Morales faces problems despite nationalizing international companies; 3- Kirchner is only trying to fix the big damage Argentina passed a few years ago. His success in renegociating Argentina's debts is nice, but remember that their economy shrinked 11%; 4- Ortega? What has he done?
If you had any clue of what you are talking about you would know that Lula is a president, not a King, and as such his powers are limited.
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A Brazilian written by me,
February 05, 2007
You probably won't like this, but for once, I agree with everything that you wrote!
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Brazilian written by PPALL,
February 05, 2007
The American's see it for what it is. It is not anti-Brazil. How can anyone be anti anything about a country as irelevant internationaly as Brazil, nor as f**ked up. Your defense of the in-defensible is comic.
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... written by A brazilian,
February 05, 2007
Americans can't even tell where Iraq is in a map.
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Map written by GTY,
February 05, 2007
Yeah, and I am sure those uneducated poor Brazilians that make up 70% of your population could point out iraq on a map right off. What an idiot.
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... written by A brazilian,
February 05, 2007
70%? Where did you take this from?
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Brazilian written by GTY,
February 05, 2007
You are right, I included the middle class in the 70%. The middle class in Brazil is R$3000 or around US$1500 a month, which is considered poverty in the United States. Wow, you guys are in style now...maybe you can run out and buy a Honda Fit!
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... written by A brazilian,
February 06, 2007
This is nonsense, in Brazil with R$ 3000,00 you can have a nice middle class life (nice apartment, a car, internet, cable, stereo, nice TV, etc) and this is by no means poverty. Converting it to dollars is simply ridiculous since you pay US$ 1000,00 the rent in some places, US$ 50 a (cheap) t-shirt, US$ 10 a (very cheap) meal, and so on. Things you can get for much lower in here.
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... written by A brazilian,
February 06, 2007
BTW, the level of education of the middle is generally college at the very minimum, speaking fluenty at least one more language. People with higher degrees and speaking 3 or 4 languages aren't that uncommon.
The average american idiot can barely speak english.
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... written by GTY,
February 06, 2007
Brazilian...you crack me up.
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... written by Ana P,
February 06, 2007
Most Brazilians are very educated even the poor ones. They have common sense, sometimes that is even more important than formal education. I have met many college educated idiots...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hp4iI59BfpQ
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... written by Ric,
February 06, 2007
One time a guy asked me, How wide is the Amazon River in America where you come from?
Such things are not limited to the US and Brazil... written by me,
February 06, 2007
I once met some Frenchmen in Central France that didn't even know the names of any of the planets.
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... written by bo,
February 06, 2007
... written by A brazilian, 2007-02-04 23:11:06
I am not sure what is wrong with the americans that come here, they seem to have some rabid anti-Brazil ideas that border the fanaticism. Your comments are really funny:
1- Chavez only does charity with petro-dollars, if the oil price goes down so does he. And he is the most lunatic of all promoting the "socialist of the 21st century", as if this region weren't backwards enough; 2- Morales faces problems despite nationalizing international companies; 3- Kirchner is only trying to fix the big damage Argentina passed a few years ago. His success in renegociating Argentina's debts is nice, but remember that their economy shrinked 11%; 4- Ortega? What has he done?
If you had any clue of what you are talking about you would know that Lula is a president, not a King, and as such his powers are limited.
Wow, although I may not agree 100% on everything you wrote Baghdad Bob, that was the FIRST post I've seen from you that was actually fairly accurate. But then again, I know this is "A brazilian II".
... written by A brazilian, 2007-02-05 18:05:22
This is nonsense, in Brazil with R$ 3000,00 you can have a nice middle class life
You once said that those working here in brazil doing internships make 3.000 reais per month, but I know that was "A brazilian I", as he/she doesn't write english nearly as good as yourself.
... written by Ana P, 2007-02-05 20:00:00
Most Brazilians are very educated even the poor ones.
Are you familiar with the northeast of brazil???? Don't think I need to comment any further!
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... written by Ric,
February 06, 2007
Bob doesn´t think that the NE is Brazil. He doesn´t think that Bahia is Brazil. What he may have meant is that Brazil cannot be characterized by individual states. What I am afraid he means is that since most of the people and money are in the south the rest doesn´t matter. Fine, so let Chavez have Roraima and the north border.
Bob talks about the "poors". Cracks me up. Pity the poor in the states who were not able to get a new plasma TV for the superbowl because their credit cards were maxed out. Workers of the world, chill out!
I just hope Lula can keep his party and the left parties' middle ages ideologies away from the Brazilian Constitution.