|
 In an interview with Folha de S. Paulo, Brazil's largest-circulation daily, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that any politician who comes to Brazil will have to rule making deals according to the Brazilian reality.
"If Jesus Christ came here and Judas had the votes he had in any party, Jesus Christ would have to call him to make a deal, because that's the way the forces in the Congress work."
"In this country neither the biggest Shiite nor the biggest rightwinger will be able to set up his government outside the political reality. Between what you want and what you can do there is a difference as large as the Atlantic ocean," he stated a little later in the same interview.
For Lula, the fact that he continued backing senator José Sarney, a former president, as president of the senate despite all the charges of corruption and nepotism against the congressman is a matter of "institutional security".
He also explained as an "institutional relation" all the connections he maintains with other shady characters also involved with corruption charges, including former impeached president Fernando Collor de Mello, senator Renan Calheiros and the PT's (Worker Party) former-treasurer, Delúbio Soares.
The president reminded that he is not a friend of many of these people: "The citizen who admires Lula has to know that this person (Collor, Renan etc.) was elected democratically and that the voter of these people is as good as the voter who did not vote for them."
Talking about the global economic crisis he once again called it a "little wave" and confessed he was disappointed with the Brazilian businessmen posture during the crisis.
"One of the things that I have been telling, one of the things I don't accept in my debates with businessmen it that there was a sudden halt in some sectors of the economy during the months of November and December, which in my opinion was unnecessary."
Lula's candid declarations generated a series of rebukes from politicians, commentators and even from the Catholic Church. Responding to the commentary that Christ would have to ally himself to Judas to govern Brazil, the secretary general of the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) , Dom Dimas Lara Barbosa, reminded that "Christ did not make alliances with Pharisees."
And the bishop explained what he understands by Pharisees: "people who seem to be a thing on the outside, but are something else inside." "Without a doubt, Judas was one of the disciples of Christ. But I want to remind you that Christ didn't make alliances with Pharisees and Sadducees."
"Are things that bad?," the bishop asked reporters jokingly when he was informed about Lula's declaration."
The general secretary use the occasion to also remind that the poor in Brazil many times are maintained at the society's margin and stressed that the Catholic Church is still defending a bill that would prevent the candidacy to public post of people with problems with the Justice.
"The public service demands a minimum of ethical behavior from those who wish to serve," he argued.
Are the Pharisees mentioned by the bishop the politicians with a dirty record, a reporter wanted to know. "When I talked about Pharisees, I was not referring to political parties. But God knows people's heart,"
answered the catholic leader.
Opposition politicians harshly criticized the president. Roberto Freire, the national president of the PPS party said that Lula's popularity has made him "lose his sense of reality." Freire says that Lula "exaggerated" comparing himself to Jesus, and to boot "offended" his allies by associating them to Judas.
Senator Álvaro Dias from the PSDB accuses Lula of "supporting promiscuity" with this declaration. For senator Álvaro Dias "the president's arrogance gets worse and worse". "He shows more and more authoritarian vocation. He scorns the ethical issue and supports the promiscuity that led his the party to be charged with the Mensalão (big monthly allowance). This is a price too high for a project of power because he shows, when he says that, that he doesn't have a country project, but a power project."
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
- "Foreigners will have have to work with Congress", means...."how much are foreigners willing to pay them...personally".
Typically Brazilian Style.
- I must admit that now Robbing Hook is less pretentious that just before his re-election.
Because Now he compares himself "ONLY" to Jesus.
While before his re-election he stated publicly "No one could have done a better job than him, except GOD "
Somewhat funny because just after his re-election he changed the "methodology" for the Brazilian economic growth rate
of the PREVIOUS YEARS. New methodology...IN HIS FAVOR...OF COURSE !
iN MY VIEW----BRAZIL SHOULD MAKE A NEW BIBLE OF WHO IS REALLY GOD : INIACIO THE CROOK !
No doubt that 200 millions copies will be sold to the 200 millions Brazilians. Even to the illiterates ones !
Arabs say "INCH ALLAH "
CATHOLICS say "AMEN "
Brazilians now say "INCH LULA "
And...and...and..... BAMBU says..."IAMTHEBEST...WITH BAMBU HARDNESS ! Just ask all chidren I "seduced" and...raped "