Brazil's Congressional Inquiry Committees resumed their work yesterday. The Ethics Board, the Control Office of the Lower House as well as the Public Defense Ministry and the Federal Police have done the same - everybody investigating corruption charges against the government, the ruling Workers' Party (PT) and their allies. The problem is that these investigations have been dragging for five months now. As for something concrete, zip.

No penalty for the thieves. A House Representative was sacked, but, ironically, he was the first one to tip off about the plunder. Two resigned, 18 were named as having received irregular money and there were dozens of testimonies from the scoundrels, but, up to now, not even one was put behind bars.

However, nobody doubts, thanks to the declarations of the involved themselves, that there was double accountancy (caixa dois) in the PT. The Workers' Party possessed millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts. The mensalão (big monthly allowance) was a reality. There was distribution in Congress of public and private irregular money.

Thundering parties were held to seal the dirty tricks. Suitcases filled with money and checks passed through Belo Horizonte, São Paulo and Brasília to supply the accounts of congressmen willing to sell their votes.

Overbilled contracts for services rendered to state-run companies were plenty. Kickbacks were handed over to the directors of public companies and pocketed or passed along to the several parties.

There was a boss or coordinator in the cabinet of the presidential Chief of Staff authorizing and maneuvering the gang of Valérios, Delúbios, Silvinhos, Waldomiros, Buratis and so many others.

The society already knows about all of this. It is all in the depositions and in the air we breathe. Why nobody has been punished? The oregano smell remains unbearable.

Theological Enigma

Has a human being the right to knowingly take his own life? It's true that martyrs from the old Rome practiced a kind of suicide, whey they did not renounce the Christian faith even when facing lions, but there was in the doctrine, as it still does, a higher reason: the preservation of the faith.

This is not the case concerning the brave bishop from Barra, in Bahia state, Dom Luís Flávio Cappio. He is on a hunger strike not exactly to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the son of God, but to force president Lula to overturn the decree that regulates the transposition of the São Francisco river waters.

He is killing himself, day by day. For the masses he's a saint to whom miracles have already been attributed. For politicians, he is a source for exploring and getting votes. Representatives, senators and governors have been paying visits to the bishop, always with an eye to have their names mentioned in the newspaper. All are profiting from it even the acarajé (fried black-eyed pea balls) vendors.

President Lula went as far as writing a letter to Dom Luís Flávio Cappio inviting him to Brasília, where they would talk about the river transposition, something, by the way, that's mere rhetoric for now. Of course, the bishop did not accept the invitation, and kept his decision to starve to death. It would be the failure of the public power if the government gave way. Imagine if the government levied a tax on banks profits and bankers decided to go on a hunger strike.

In the end, it falls to the CNBB (National Conference of Brazilian Bishops) to decide theologically the matter. The bishops owe blind obedience to their superiors. An order that Dom Luís start eating again could not be disobeyed, or he could just be excommunicated. Will the Church's doctors let him kill himself and support it? But how can you restrain free-will?

Sorcerer's Apprentice

Sorcerer's Apprentice (Aprendiz de Feiticeiro) is senator Renan Calheiros's new nickname. In Florianópolis, during the weekend, most PMDB congressmen reacted forcefully against the Senate's president intervention, blocking Representative Michel Temer's ambition to become Speaker of the House. With the party united, he might have beaten the candidacies of Aldo Rebelo and José Thomaz Nonô.

The party's president did not lack the qualities for a post that he once occupied. Being not pro-government or oppositionist, he wouldn't have opponents and he had the necessary stature to succeed with advantage Severino Cavalcanti.

The retreat of Temer from the dispute was due to Renan's influence. The Alagoas senator was called a traitor and even a document signed by governors and congressmen ended up being sent to the Executive Committee.

We would like to know whether Renan needed to be so acerbic in his condemnation of Temer. If not,  wouldn't it suffice that he kept his distance from a dispute occurring in another legislative house? He unleashed a tempest. If his intention was to maintain the PMDB in the government's shadow, backing Aldo Rebelo, he was dead wrong. His actions only served to split the party even more.

Carlos Chagas writes for the Rio’s daily Tribuna da Imprensa and is a representative of the Brazilian Press Association, in Brasília. He welcomes your comments at carloschagas@hotmail.com.

Translated from the Portuguese by Arlindo Silva.

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