Brazzil

Why are you saying that slavery has been eliminated in Brazil a long time ago ?????

You perfectly know that Brazil still has slaves....TODAY !

Slavery has been eliminated, just on paper.....in your constitution...but still is alive!

So many good laws are in your Constitution....but they are NOT applied and you know it !

Examples could be : not even trials for the hnundreds of poors without land that have been killed by large landowners, corruption is illegal too, red tape too, police killings of thousand of innocents too, just to name a few !

Brazilians politicians (and you are one) should stop just talking but start to apply the rules of laws !

BRASILIAN POLITICIANS SHOULD STOP com a conversinha fiada,e meter as maos na obra....Parar de so falar e fazer mais para o nosso tao lindo mas tao corrupido pais.
Gil de FL

Slow progress in Brazil is the result of years of apathy, intitutionalized corruption,poor economical strategies and willful neglect of this country on a whole.

It is time that Brazilian Politicians stop playing these political games. look at the broader picture.... and start listening to the voice of its people.

What a shame that a country with so much potential has descended into this social disaster.

Buarque, the author of the article, was Governor, Senator and Minister of Education.

All his articles are in fact critcizing...what HE DID !!!!!!

And Buarque is also a junkie, because he still has time to write regular articles in this site.....despite HE is a candiate for the next Presidential elections.

So everyone can guess that in Brazil, presidential candidates dont have much to do, except negotiating the price of their next corruptions !

This will always be a problem, until Brazilians can learn to stop at a red light, even when no one is looking. There has to be some internalization of the notion that by doing things for the common good of all, you are doing something for yourself, by participating in the creation of a civil society. Otherwise it is every man for himself, and you see at best a rudimentary quasi-feudalism operating, as in the favelas.

Brazil's problems seem to go much deeper than a problem of insufficient investment in infrastructure, though that is a a pretty bad problem right there. It's at a much deeper, more fundamental level. How do people act when they think no one is looking, when they think they can get away with something? Just look at the roads. There's your answer right there.

Lots of things would have to change for Brazil to change, it is not just like in Mexico, where basically good people are trapped in a rotten system, although Brazilians are also trapped in a rotten system. But, for example, people need to feel free to say that they don't know the answer to a question without fearing any loss of face. They need to read more than two books a year, and need to value education, and be willing to make great sacrifices for it. They need to have a universal system of free public libraries, one which they support with their own monetary donations and not just waiting for the government to do everything. Above all, they need to be nice to each other, and not stab each other in the backs whenever they think they can get away with it. They need to be considerate of each other. Or at least learn to do a good job of pretending to do so.

I totally agree with you. People have to hold themselves accountable for their own actions and then they can collectively hold their governments accountable. All literate Brazilians should be required to read the Autobiography of Malcolm X. That is the universal moral lesson of how one learns to stop blaming and change their lives to reap the benefits of their own action. X was imprisoned partly because of racism the sentence was increased from 2 years for armed burglary to 10 years for being with a white woman. Sure at first he was completely bitter and cursed everyone from the government to God. But then he stopped feeling sorry for himself and made the most out of a bad situation. He turned an obstacle into his biggest stepping stone. He was a self-taught reader, writer, debater, public speaker, and religious leader.

He became a reverse racist. Typical of minorities within countries, oppressed majorities in "market-dominant minority"-run countries, and non-US citizens in other parts of the world he casted dispersions on the usual suspects: Christianity, The US government, Western civilization, (possibly) Jews, the wealthy, and puppet leaders. After all of the credibility and publicity in his favor, he still took the liberty of completely recanting all of these dispersions by realizing there was never a clear-cut "us versus them". If a person imprisoned and upset over routine slights can do this why not a free person who hasn't been directly slighted by the government?

I'm not saying this as some American braggart who wants to impose her frame of reference on other places. I'm a Liberian. We felt dismayed about the lack of historical respect for Liberia's ties to America through slave repatriation. We could have cursed our tyrant Taylor or neglectful US. But instead we have produced documentaries for PBS, casted historical plays, writing music, and produced textbooks and websites.

It's amazing that in a country that is 70% illiterate a literate citizen would not take advantage of that precious gift of learning to expand their horizon and give back. With or without the government, there must be respect for the rule of law, for education, for civic duty, and for the general populous. Because if one blames and balks, then what can they expect of others in worse situations than they who give up on themselves?

Yesssss...and Lula, at the end of 2005, freed Reais 400 millions to repair and fill ALL the potholes in Brazil. AND HE SAID THE JOB WOULD BE FINISHED IN....6 MONTHS !!!!!!

A TRUE JOKE......AGAIN !!!!!

The allocated amount will just cover the costs of filling the millions of potholes (some as large as small lagoons) with sand, that will last just until the start of the next heavy rains.

But anyway, some potholes will be filled with sand, just on time for the elections !

Lula is a real CLOWN, a JUNKIE, that doesnt know what HE is talking about !

He lies through his teeth, day after day !

He was born to lie until he will die !!!!!

WHY AMERICANS DON'T TALK ABOUT THE SLAVES OF AMERICA?????? AND ALSO TREIR BEGGERS????? I SAW HUNDREDS IN SAN FRANCISCO...NEW YORK....
I KNOW LOTS OF BRASILIANS WHO DON'T WANT LIVE IN U.S.

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