Correa is totally absurd ! These US$ 200 billion are not invested but deposited in your own accounts. Quite a difference.
and Correa is even more absurd when he constantly threatens to default, ONCE more, just 8 years after the country last default . Especially because he has the money to repay the loans. Equador is an oil producing and exporting country. Hard to say there is not enough money to repay loans.....after oil TRIPLED !!!!!!! .

Quite easy to criticize the WB and the IMF and then beg for loans.

It happens that Brazil is SILL borrowing from the World Bank to finance many of your social projects, thus criticizing them is of no value and not acknowleding how nice they are with you !

Did you know that even the Brazilians free condoms program is financed by the World Bank ??????
Easy to find out, just surf the Net !!!!

Then instead of criticizing them, why dont you reimburse them with your so great reserves, which afterall are not so great when figured on a per capita ! So that you could finance your own social projects.....instead of begging constantly, repeatedly and continually just to criticize them after you got your loans you craved for?????

Never burn your economic lines of credit. Respect is respected. The lending of money to countries that may forfeit is something Brazil has no interest at this time (in the short term). What is the capital, unless it is political capital (this may be of use) or oil or mineral rights (and we saw the capricious nationalization of oil by Boliva much to the chagrin of Petrobras). As to a domestic currency use gold. No one argues with gold (not even the Swiss) or apparently iron ore. Invest in your infrastructure, massively. Newest technology, newest equipment, employ the 9.6% unemployed. Strengthen through capital investment the national economic position.
Those who have lent money are always gladened to see the capital capacity of their clients made sound. If you owe in banking you as gentleman must honor the debt. Brazil is a nation of gentlemen, or at least hopefully governed by gentlemen. A gentleman is someone that acts like one. It is about honor. Act with honor, expecially in international banking. Act with your new found wealth, it takes money to make money.

May be, USB should pitch in too in these efforts. I dont think so,because that bank could not bail out Swissair. Of course, you being an important Swiss bank clerk and a self proclaimed economist, should know better.

BTW, have you guys outsourced Chocolate manufacturing to China?. When do you expect Swissair to take off again?. If you need any assistance,please do send us a message. We have some highly qualified Brazilian and American management consultants to fix your problems.

Hi AES, it is a good post,but I dont think that an "intelectually challenged" person like Che.G can understand. As my newley found friend "Herr.Professor", put it wisely,Che.G is one of those "USB´s". Though in my language USB means Universal Serial Bus.

I hope you are all set to celebrate the Easter week end .U take care and keep bugging everybody.

Brasil does not need this. Charity begins at home. Plus, the Brasilian government's Petrobras stock worth something like $50 - 60 billion constitute ready reserves that don't show up in the
monetary reserve figures. Plus, why associate with a bunch of crazies and deadbeats?

A good question.

I hope you are not that leftist Economist Maria Taveres de Conceição.

Joao da Silva, I try to style myself much more along the lines of that noted Brasilian rightwinger Flavio de Conceicao.

If you owe in banking you as gentleman must honor the debt. Brazil is a nation of gentlemen, or at least hopefully governed by gentlemen. A gentleman is someone that acts like one. It is about honor.

Wow, I pay attention to your posts aes, but every once in a while you come out with one that makes me wonder if you've ever stepped foot in the country, or at least spent more time in it than a two week gringo-a-thon.

A nation of gentlemen? Governed by gentlemen? What country are you talking about? Because it's certainly not where I've been living for close to the last decade.

Why should anyone help a company with a bad management ?
Better dead than alive !

As to the Swiss Banks, there is quite a fairy tale, reality being :
- banking in Switzerland represents far less than 10 % of the GDP !
- meaning what you have been told is dead....wrong !
- but still, UBS is the world largest money manager. Thus believing that bank clerks could do that is wrong for Switzerland....but correct
for Brazilians banks who just steal their clients by charging 50 % or so on their lending in a country with a SELIC rate of around 12,5 % and with inflation of below 4 % ! Unheard elsewhere....on this planet ! And if you know another country.....please name it and spell it !
- Exports : Brazil with a population of 185 millions have total exports of around US$ 150 billion, Switzerland with a population of 7,5 millions have more exports than the whole or Brazil.
- Puting numbers : Brazil exports equal to US$ 800.-- per capita annually and you feel so proud that you publish it all over the world with great fanfare.
Switzerland exports equal to over 24'000.- per capita annually, and it is hard to find the numbers in foreign medias !!!!!!
- If you the junkies readers of this site are only half idiots, you should realize that banking is NOT in the exports statistics !!!!!
- Swiss chocolate : good example of a country without the commodity but importing it, transforming it, and reselling it with big profits !
- On top of that there is also the "made in Switzerland" label, representing quality !
- And if the pretentious Brazilians find it is easy to copy what we do, why have you not started manufacturing watches, chocolates, elevators (we are a world leader), textiles machinery (a world leader too) just to name a few....with the "made in Brazil" label ???????
- In my view the "made in Brazil" label will be more of low quality products selling at big discounts, such as your ....thongs, flip flops, T shirts, and all the basic commodities such as iron ore, soyabeans and meals, coffee, sugar and ethanol, orange juice, cattles and meats, chicken and swines !!!!!!!

Just imagine the price difference between 1 ton of iron ore (around US$ 70.-) or 1 ton of soyabeans (around US$ 310.-) or 1 ton of coffee beans (around US 2000.- your most expensive crop) AGAINST....1 ton of cheap watches ( around 300'000.-/500'000.-) or 1 ton or Rolex watches (worth around Us$ 20 millions....minimum)

The difference being knowledge, technology, R&D and skills !!!!!!!!!

Yessssss Brazil be proud to have the "capacity" to export US$ 800.- per capita of mostly LOW value added products or at best semi-industrialized goods.

I already imagine your pride and your medias when in 5 or 10 years you will have doubled your exports !!!!!!!!!
Reality being that THIS WOULD STILL BE ..........VERY LOW IN QUANTITY PER CAPITA AND VERY LOW IN QUALITY !!!!!!

IDIOTS NEVER PERFORM, IDIOTS NEVER WIN, IDIOTS ALWAYS CHEAT AND LIE NOT ONLY TO OTHERS....BUT FIRST TO THEMSELVES TO APPEAR......LESS IDIOTS THAN THEY REALLY ARE !!!!!!!

VIVA BRAZIL !!!!!! We will have cheap goods for eternity and you will have uneducated and poverty for eternity too !

And nothing will ever change until you stop only going to basic schools, but to serious and quality schools !

And as to the idiots talking about the value of Petrobras not constituted in the reserves, such idiots dont realize that Petrobras value belong to its shareholders, Brazilians and Foreigners, but certainly not to the Brazilian Government.
That same idiot is the financial "expert" who recentl wrote he bought gold at US$ 270.- and sold at Us$ 820.- !!!!!

Except that gold never reached Us$ 820.-......IN THE LAST 25 years !!!!!!!

Thus when I am talking about Idiots, cheaters and liars, unskilled, uneducated, unknowledgable JUNKIES on this site, day after day I am more and more.....CORRECT !!!!!

IN 2006.....the buying power of Brazil finally surpassed the buying power of ......1980 !!!!!!!!
(inflation adjusted....of course)

YESSSSSS......26 years were needed !

IMPRESSIVELY GOOD.....OR......IMPRESSIVELY BAD ????????

To the Brazilians with high education and deep knowledge : if you know another country AS BAD....please name it !

laugh.....laugh.....laugh !!!!!!

No matter how big the theif in his own mind he consideres himself to be a gentleman. If you wish to be heard you must speak to their perception of themselves. Never besmirch the courage or manhood of a Latin American. Never accuse them of inadequacies regarding strength or integrity. You will provoke a negative response. If you wish to be heard you must mirror the higher self of the one looking into the mirror of your diatribe. You can teach through positive or negative affirmation. It is the very nature business and politics to foster deception and thievery. To take one man's ignorance and profit by it instead of teaching him to profit by it himself is a kind of theft. But it is merely business, or merely the nature of politics of nationalism. I have been in the diamond business and if you do not know you will not be told.
'A fool and his money are soon parted' or 'never give a sucker an even break' are a few axioms of self perceived gentlemen. Desculpe

Gold in 1980 was $850, I had bought between $275-450, as a jewelry manufacturer and wholesaler, melted everything and sold it at $825. Went to Hawaii and for ten years owned a jewelry store at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki. I kept one of the finest goldsmiths, a Russian Armenian that had worked in Beverly Hills. And I wore a Rolex watch (Oyster Perpetual Datejust) for ten years, because it produced a pavlovian response in people, engendering trust, and by consequence sales. I manufactured everything I sold, so that if you bought something from me you could sell it for a profit. In the end before I sold the store I grossed nearly a million dollars, and every year the same people would return, because when they had returned home and had their jewelry appraised they realized they had made a profit. I made my profit from the 'big guys' the stone dealers. I would fly to Thailand to buy Ruby and Sapphire, Hong Kong to buy pearls off the Chinese traders, and Tahiti to buy black pearls.

What is suprising about Switzerland is that its growth is only around 3%; and that the country has seen growth in the population of Hmong, Lao and Vietnamese people, and also immigrants from Mexico and South America.

I wonder if you see them as 'ruinining the purity of Switzerland itself, being a kind of invidious cancer to its culture, and thus your inherant negativity to Brazil.

After WWII made in Japan was synonomous with inferior goods, now it most assuredly is on a par with Switzerland for precision products and technology. You recall Seiko, there is more money to be made in selling Seiko than Rolex. I personally hate watches, and after ten years in the South Pacific time has a kind of irrelevency. 'Hawaiian time is a clock without hands on it'. Life is to be in the surf, it is about living not working. In Switzerland the winter will kill the ill prepared.

It only takes money to hire the best minds in the world, establish the most sophisticated manufacturing operations. Life is change, like the price of gold. The fortunes of war and peace are about natural resources. And the ability to transform them and market them are as easy as the internet.

A thing may appear to be static, buy it may infact be internally dynamic. The Age of Brazil is at hand. Added value, you underestimate the Brazilians, its kind of like 'critical mass'. It is odd how they produce such great soccer teams, do you not think they have the intellectual acumen not to apply it to economics? Time will tell. And the Swiss being time keepers will certainly tell.

You were NOT talking of your purchases and sales of the early l980's....but of your relatively recent investments, which included ethanol, steel etc etc !!!!!
I even have more doubt that you bought gold in the end of 70's to sell it at US$ 820.-........because you were either not born yet...or at best....were only a child !!!!!!!!! Laugh.....laugh.....laugh.....

Thus your statement to BO : To take one man's ignorance and profit by it instead of teaching him to profit by it himself is a kind of theft.

AES YESSSSSS YOU ARE A CROOK A JUNKIE AND A CHEATER !!!!!!!! SIMPLE AS THAT !

And wether you like it OR NOT......Switzerland is classified as the most lively country in the world....for a second time.
Switzerland has also been ranked as the most competitive country in the world.....wether it pleases you or not.
Also Switzerland is also one of the wealhiest country...on a per capita basis....even using your distorted "on PPP adjusted basis" and we are much wealthier than even the USA on a per capita basis before the PPP re-adjustment.

Also we export over 20 times more than Brazil....on a per capita basis !
Also Switzerland has more than 2 times the tourism revenues than Brazil has, despite we dont have 1 inch of sea/ocean beach, and that we are 25 times smaller in both population and country sizes than Brazil !
Also our banking industry is much larger than the banking industry of Brazil, despite you have 25 times more population !
Also that "made in Switzerland" is a quality label commanding a premium price.....contrary to "made in Brazil" label that doesnt even exist, otherwise the prices should be even more discounted...due to the poor quality !
Also interesting to know that my little country can produce and export far more chocolate than Brazil does, despite we dont produce 1 gram of cocoa while Brazil is a large producer and unable to export as much as we do.

Also of interest is our inflation rate, interests rates and unemployment rate ! Simply one of the lowest...in the world.....ON A REGULAR
BASIS.....and not only on an exceptional basis as Brazil these days...for inflation only !!!!!!!

Our poverty rate ? Of course we have poors ! By simple definition, the 10 or 20 % lowest income earners are the poorest !
Except that our poors earn 10 times...at least.....more than Brazilian poors. And our cost of living is by far NOT 10 times more expensive.
Reality being that a poor here will have his own car, the wife too, and they will go on holidays....every YEAR....OUTSIDE OF THE COUNTRY !!!!!

As to our Working poors since we have a very low unemployment rate : the recent stats showed that 2 % of the workers earn less than US$ 2500.- monthly, and 8 % between Us$ 2500.- and 3000.- ! Meaning that the other 90 % earn.....MORE !
As an example, in my city, the starting salary for a sales clerk or cashier in a food supermatket is US$ 3000.-...per month....of course !

We can also buy real estate with mortgage rate of around 3.0 - 3,5 % and that rate has been the norm for decades, sometimes slightly more, sometimes slightly less ! Rates unheard of in the whole EU, until a few years ago !

And as to the strength of our currency.....NO currency in the world has been stronger than the Swiss currency.......in the last 50 years !

It also happens that the BMWs, Mercedes or Ferraris are not only more common here than in Brazil but thes also cost less than HALF the Brazilian prices...and this despite we are many times more wealthy on a per capita basis !!!!!!
Reality being that we are the world largest buyers of Ferraris !!!!! Yessssssssss.....Dear Junkie !

By now you have some hindsights, feel free to compare your currency that has lost 99,999 % in the last 3 decades, your inflation rate that went as high as 2500 %, your actual unemployment rate of around 9 % and "low" by historical standards, your minimum wage of US$ 190.- but many millions earning less than that, your nice foreign cars prices double our price....minimum, your mortage rate or just whatever you decide to !


Ohhhh and we also have our own Bolsa Familia, called family allocations : every child, from rich or "poor" parents are entitled to it.
They start at around US$ 90.- monthly and per child, and grow with age to around US$ 200.- until children are adults or start working !!!!!!

Conclusion : Brazil is definitely a medieval and archaïc country, wether you like it or not !
Is our country Paradise ? Certainly not !
But no doubt we are closer to Paradise than Brazilians are !!!!!!!!!
That is why so many foreigners with tons of money decide to retire here, or tons of foreigners live here legally or illegally, with a dream
to continue residing here all their lives. And millions more are just dreaming to be here, but as a small country...we simply cannot accept them all !!!!!!

Even within the most wealthy brazilians, some lived or are living here !
Edmond Safra.....the Brazilian multi billionaire banker, resided here for several decades.
Jorge Lemann one of the major shareholder of INBEV with a Midas rep**ation in Brazil.......IS.....residing HERE !

Other foreign billionaires are :
- H&M (clothes) owner and founder
- Tetra Pack owner and founders
- Schumacher....F1
- Prost.....ex F1
- Ikea owner and founder
- tens of movies and singers stars
- Latsis the greek magnate
- Hariri, the son of the billionnaire ex President of Lebanon...worth a few billions !!!!!
Just to name a few !

If they chosed my country and not Brazil or elsewhere they have probably more than 1 good reason : security and quality of life being just 2 of them !!!!!!


Laugh.....laugh.....laugh......!!!!!!!!

ohhhh is your father Lula ? Thus I am not surprised of your statement :
We have some highly qualified Brazilian and American management consultants to fix your problems !

- since when are you friends with the USA ??????? If so....why criticize them....every day ?
- was Varig such a big success ???????
- Havent many of your banks been taken over by YOUR GOVERNMENT....otherwise they would have gone bankrupt ?????

Are not many of your TODAY large companies subsidized with BNDES loans ? BNDES being a government bank, lending money at WELL below the regular interest rates. Doesnt that means in plain English......SUBSIDIZES ??????????
Unable to compete otherwise.....worldwide ???????

And sorry for you but contrary to BNDES, UBS is not a government bank, it is a bank listed in several stock exchanges. It is owned by its shareholders and not by the government, contrary to BNDES.
Thus UBS as a commercial bank will invest only in companies they believe will survive and prosper. BUT NOT THE BNDES !!!!!!!!!



Ohhhhh and by the way....who took responsibility for the loan losses in VARIG ? The government.....of course.
Government money.....meaning....YOU....THE TAXPAYERS !!!!!! Right ?
Be proud then that it was re-sold at a fraction of its value. You have been taken for a ride.....JUST ONCE MORE !!!!!!!!

LAUGH....LAUGH....LAUGH !!!!!!!!

I am 63 and was teaching English in Los Angeles to Thai Chinese gem merchants in 1971. Your understanding is incorrect. You concluded I was speaking of now when gold is $667 how could you conclude that I said that I sold gold now at $825. I am invested in funds not particular stocks. You do not hear (read) what is being said. You have the number one quaity of life on the list of such things. But if you are an example of the Swiss psych it is a petty fascism, for the Aryian rich. You are theives, allied with the Nazis in banking and still possess monies that are not yours.
You are the 'ubermench' in your own minds. Your soccer team is a symbol of your future as is Brazils, (they kick your colllective asses). You are blessed to live in such a civilization, society. I have a cousin who is a dentist in Lucerne, she loves living there. she has been there thirty years. But there is just something so anal about you and your cleanliness, and aversion to mud and dirt. Your a thousands years older in history and tradition than the New World of Brazil. But in that thousand years you have never gone to the moon, launched a rocket, invented lazer technology. You are chemists, engineers, fabricators of this and that, machinists, masquerading as intellectuals. Brasil will acquire your 'secrets' of chocolate making and produce the same or better product at half the price. They already own the cocoa. Things are begining to precipitate out to Brasil's economic favor now. The world is in flux and Switzerland are bankers to the underbelly of those who have stollen the wealth of their countries. In the name of Neurtralism, you aid and abet human misery.

Bo: As to gentlemen
written by AES, 2007-04-06 12:48:40

No matter how big the theif in his own mind he consideres himself to be a gentleman. If you wish to be heard you must speak to their perception of themselves. Never besmirch the courage or manhood of a Latin American. Never accuse them of inadequacies regarding strength or integrity. You will provoke a negative response. If you wish to be heard you must mirror the higher self of the one looking into the mirror of your diatribe. You can teach through positive or negative affirmation. It is the very nature business and politics to foster deception and thievery. To take one man's ignorance and profit by it instead of teaching him to profit by it himself is a kind of theft. But it is merely business, or merely the nature of politics of nationalism. I have been in the diamond business and if you do not know you will not be told.
'A fool and his money are soon parted' or 'never give a sucker an even break' are a few axioms of self perceived gentlemen. Desculpe

Understood and agreed. Brazilian, generally speaking, would never be described by others as "gentlemen". The vast majority doesn't know the definition.

To Da Silva!
written by CH.C., 2007-04-06 16:30:31

ohhhh is your father Lula ? Thus I am not surprised of your statement :
We have some highly qualified Brazilian and American management consultants to fix your problems !

You asked me in another thread if I am the son or nephew of Lula. I am really his uncle.

Listen you mf**ker, the Americans with whom you are dealing with in this site live in this country and almost all of them are married to Brazilians and consider this country as their second adopted land. Bo is a highly succesful entrepreneur in the North of this country . AES, whom you take pleasure in calling an Idiot was a highly successful American businessman in Hawaii and currently retired and meditating in Brazil. Herr.Professor and his Brazilian wife are contributing to the high level research in several fields .Ric knows more about outsourcing than any of your dumbasses would ever know.

Then I have another bright software engineer who goes under the name of "A Brazilian",who by the way is not related to my nephew (from whom I am estranged over 2 decades). We also have an agent who goes under the name of "LVB", who is currently undergoing training in U.S.

So you dont want our team to give Consulting services to you? We really dont want your business and we are fully capable of looking towards the East.

BTW, I asked you in abother thread to "shoot of some suggestions to get us off this Tropical mud". All you said was "Accountability" and called me the "son or nephew of Lula". Just confirmed my suspecios that you are less than a bank clerk. I dont think that you have heard the word "Strategic Planning","Think Tanks", "Brain Storming", etc;

For me you are a prick.And you can call me any name you want. I think AES is more patient with arseholes like you.

It turns out Ch.c is a cyber 'Troll'. google troll and you will find Ch.c. described.

In Internet terminology, a troll is someone who intentionally posts derogatory or otherwise inflammatory messages.

please, it's difficult to compare a country of 7.5 million people to one of 300 million, as the U.S., or to one of 185 million, such as brazil. And still, per capita, a country with 300,000,000 people, 43X the population of Switzerland, and the U.S. still has a higher GDP per capita by roughly $5,000 per.

The cities of Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago all have larger populations than the entire country of Switzerland. Do you know how many billionaires there are in the United States? 269!

Do you know who is in 2nd place? Japan. Do you know how many they have? 29!

Switzerland is in 6th place, with 15.

Switzerland is in 6th place, with 15.

Che.G must be one of the 15.

The world is in flux and Switzerland are bankers to the underbelly of those who have stollen the wealth of their countries. In the name of Neurtralism, you aid and abet human misery.

This is something not many people in the world are aware or willing to talk about.While they are neutral and peace loving folks, they also make armaments and supply to the third world countries,thus stimulating civil wars and never ending conflicts. Their industries certainly do not mind corrupting the politicians who when they lose power,get asylum in their country. I can go on ranting and raving like Che.G does, but as you said he is a Troll and has nothing good to say about any other country except his and U.S.

AES, lots of us recognize the problems in this country. It is not restricted only to the foreigners who live and work here. The middle class Brazilians and small and middle class businesmen are also quite affected as well as frustrated. Corruption, nepotism,lack of leadership,etc are few of many causes for the state of affairs we are in.

Ch.c reminds me of many politicians I have come across. They complain a lot while in the oppsition and when they come to power,they continue to be clueless as how to fix the problems.One thing I can tell you. We have stop kissing the a***s of the elected and appointed officials and start demanding more action from them. There again, we do not know our rights and in the coming years, we will be learning.After all lot more Brazilians started traveling overseas from the 90´s and many of us now have access to information thanks to the Internet.

As you rightly said, where there is life,there is hope. I will be consuming your favorite "Skol" during the Easter in your honor.It may not be as good as Old Milwaukee or Bud,but it is good enough for me and less expensive too.

The information below comes from the SWISSINFO official goverment site.This is not bogus or bias information folks!

1) Poverty in Swisterland:

Invisible poverty
Brigitte Steimen, director of the SAH, says the biggest obstacle to tackling poverty in Switzerland is its invisibility.
“You don’t really see poverty when you walk the streets and you don’t see many beggars, and since being poor is considered shameful, people hide and are very reluctant to ask the state for money,” Steimen told swissinfo.
“Switzerland is not a paradise or some exotic country where there is no poverty,” she added.
Regina Aeppli, a Swiss parliamentarian who has campaigned for legislation to combat poverty, says Switzerland’s international rep**ation as a wealthy country is at the same time both accurate and misleading.
“Switzerland is of course a very rich country, but the problem is that three per cent of the inhabitants have 90 per cent of the wealth, while the remaining 97 per cent have to share the rest,” she said.
“So we have a layer of people who are not able to run their lives on their salaries and who are in need of help from the state,” she added.
Taboo subject
Steimen says poverty has been a taboo subject in Switzerland for decades, and people have only recently become aware of the extent of the problem.
“Until about two years ago it was like a taboo, and nobody really talked about it, but people are now more conscious of this problem,” explained Steimen. “It has certainly been a challenge to get the message across.”
The SAH says 18 per cent of Swiss women - many of whom are single mothers looking after two or more children - currently live beneath the poverty line, “Women are proportionally more in danger of falling into the poverty trap, so we really want to focus on this issue,” added Steimen.

2) Seven and a half percent of the population below poverty line with 250,000 homes...

More working Swiss are falling below the poverty line
swissinfo
Some 7,5 per cent of working people aged 20-59 are "working poor" (swissinfo)
The number of “working poor” – employed people who live below the poverty line – has increased sharply during the 1990s, according to a new study. Those worst affected are large families and low skilled workers.
Today, Switzerland’s “working poor” account for 7.5 per cent of the population – some 250,000 households – compared with 5.3 per cent a decade ago.Those worst affected, according to a new study by the Federal Statistical Office and canton Zurich, are large families, single parents, workers with only primary education and the self-employed.In Switzerland, the “working poor” are defined as individuals with a net income of less than SFr2,100 ($1,220) per month, or for families with three or more children, earnings of less than SFr4,000. Today, more than 500,000 people, around half of whom are children, fall into this category.And the problem is growing throughout the industrialised world. The director of the Statistical Office, Robert Fuder, told a news conference in Bern on Friday that the problem had deeply rooted economic and social causes.“The figures show that no single factor can be attributed to the problem, but that it is the adverse combination of economic and social factors that puts people most at risk,” he said.The Swiss Trades Union Federation president, Paul Rechsteiner, said the figures supported his organisation’s view that a minimum wage of SFr3,000 a month was needed.The director of the Swiss Employers’ Federation, Peter Hasler, called for a reform of family and education policies, as well as more deregulation, saying that this would lower Switzerland's living costs, which are among the highest in the world.The statistics show that 29 per cent of single parent households in Switzerland are not able to command wages high enough to lift them above the poverty line. For families with three children or more the figure is 18 per cent.By contrast, “only” six per cent of single people and three per cent of childless couples are classified as working poor.Another high-risk group is non-qualified workers who have seen their incomes fall as a result of structural changes in the economy, such as the decline of the industrial base. According to the study, 18 per cent of non-qualified workers, compared to three per cent of highly qualified people, are working poor.The economics ministry said that, although the number of working poor had increased faster in Switzerland than in Europe during the 1990s, the problem was worse in other countries.“An increase in the number of working poor by nearly 50 per cent over the 1990s is substantial by comparison to the rest of Europe,” said Aymo Brunetti, a labour market specialist at the economics ministry. “However, the ratio of working poor in the overall population is still comparatively low in the international context.”However, a separate study in Zurich concluded that a third of the total population in Switzerland is potentially at risk of joining the ranks of the working poor.A key finding of both studies was that the working poor is not a fixed group, and that more than half tend to move out of the category in a given year.Elisa Streuli, one of the authors of the main study, warned that policy measures aimed at regular income earners were unlikely to have much effect in helping to lift families and single parents out of the poverty trap.She said Switzerland’s social policy structure, which was built on the premise of one main breadwinner in each household, was “outdated".She said the statistics confirmed that the best way help couples avoid falling into poverty was to assist them to enter (or re-enter) the job market.“What we need are improved opportunities for flexible working hours and part-time work, as well as child caring structures such as crèches and day schools that provide lunches," Streuli said.by Markus Haefliger

September 19, 2006 - 5:51 PM
UN racism envoy points finger at Switzerland

UN rapporteur Diène during a visit to Switzerland in January (Keystone)

The United Nations special rapporteur on racism, Doudou Diène, has reiterated criticism of Switzerland in a speech at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
His comments were made at the council's second session, which is focusing on Lebanon and sensitive topics including racism, migration and freedom of religion and expression.

Speaking just days before the Swiss vote on tightening immigration and asylum laws, Diène levelled criticism at Switzerland for what he said were discriminatory tendencies. He further maintained that racism had become an instrument in political debate.

"In Switzerland, talk about the defence of national identity has assumed greater importance in political discussions and in the media, which shosw a political climate influenced by xenophobic tendencies," the UN envoy explained in his speech to the 47 members of the council, including Switzerland.

Diène made similar comments in January when he visited Switzerland to gather information for his report into racism in ten countries. After visiting Brazil and Japan, he chose Switzerland as it was a multicultural society that had seen numerous votes affecting foreigners.

The UN envoy's full report will be presented during a forthcoming session of the Human Rights Council in March 2007.

Anti-racism policies
In his speech to the council on Tuesday, Diène deplored what he called the weak political and legal aspects of Switzerland's anti-racism policies.
"This is particularly noticeable regarding the tendency to criminalise foreigners, immigrants and asylum-seekers, and the treatment of immigration and asylum purely from a security point of view," he noted.
He criticised "the high number of acts of racist and xenophobic violence by the police against certain groups", as well as the impunity that the police enjoy, according to their victims.
The Swiss ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Blaise Godet, told swissinfo that Switzerland would give a full reply when the rapporteur presented his complete report.
Godet said Switzerland was pleased that the UN envoy saw the usefulness of the federal authorities' anti-racism programmes.
"Over the past few years the Federal Commission against Racism and the Federal Migration Office have stepped up their collaboration with the cantons and the local authorities to boost integration and combat discrimination," he noted.
The ambassador added that the article about integration in the amended legislation on foreigners would strengthen the legal side of its integration policy.
However, Daniel Bolomey, secretary general of Amnesty International Switzerland does not agree.
"Before the Human Rights Council, Switzerland claims to be doing its utmost to improve its integration policy and fight against racism," he stated.
"But comments made by Justice Minister Christoph Blocher during the campaign for the new asylum and foreigners laws, and the regulations themselves are extremely worrying."

swissinfo with agencies

Survey exposes the reality of Swiss corruption

Transparency International is turning the spotlight on corruption (swissinfo)

On International Anti-Corruption Day, Anne Schwübel of Transparency International (TI) tells swissinfo that corruption remains a problem in Switzerland.
The Global Corruption Barometer, based on a 69-nation survey, shows that the Swiss public have the least confidence in politics, business and the media.
Just one per cent of the Swiss respondents admitted they had paid a bribe over the last 12 months. However, Schwübel complains that there have been very few criminal convictions for corruption since the law was tightened in 2000.
Political parties were perceived as by far the most corrupt institutions in society in 45 of the 69 countries surveyed, including Switzerland.
The private sector and the media are next in line for lack of Swiss public trust.
However, sectors such as the police, customs, the legal system and tax authorities are considered trustworthy in Switzerland, unlike in many other countries.
swissinfo: Judging from the results of this year's survey, do you think that corruption is a problem in Switzerland?
Anne Schwübel: Of course it is a problem. For a long time it was a taboo subject and it is still not fully recognised how grave the consequences of corruption can be. Some people even think that the economy needs a certain amount of shady dealings and that it's harmless.
swissinfo: What form does corruption take in Swiss daily life?
A.S.: We don't have the same problem of corruption in everyday life in Switzerland as you find in many developing countries, where people have to offer bribes to access essential services.
What we have is a different kind of bribery here, related to permits or surcharges for various activities, for example in the building trade.
swissinfo: The survey shows that politics is considered the most corrupt area in Switzerland. Is this surprising?
A.S.: This is an area that receives a lot of attention here and the media and the public react very strongly when they come across cases of corruption. Although there haven't been that many public scandals, the impression remains that corruption is a problem.
This is partly because so little is known about the financing of political parties. There is not enough openness and this generates a lack of trust among citizens.
swissinfo: How serious does the Swiss public perceive corruption to be?
A.S.: The barometer shows that people feel corruption has increased in the last three years but they don't expect it to get worse in future. Much more has been written about corruption in recent years and the message is out there.
We now acknowledge as a society that bribery exists in Switzerland, and that there have been scandals and that Swiss business is not free from corruption.

swissinfo-interview: Clare O'Dea

Thanks for the info. I hope Che.G is capable of reading and digesting all that you have written and henceforth concentrates on solving the problems of his beloved country. This way, he will have spare us from the ordeal of listening to his anti Brazilian tirades.

BTW, he seems to be so clever and self assured that the people of Switzerland should consider electing him as their "Der Fuherer". In no time, he will solve the problems of corruption, racism and poverty in that country.

Not a problem da Silva... that’s what we are here for!!!

There is plenty more from where that came from... Voce sabia que Swistzerland tambem tem o maior teor de contaminacao de solo e lencois freaticos por PCB's (Polychlorinated biphenyls) usados indiscriminadamente durante toda a decada de 70 e 80 como fertilizantes; E que o governo opitou pela nao informacao ao publico? Ainda hoje pode-se encontrar as mais altas concentracoes de PCB'S de toda a Europa . Have a good day Joao .

brazil is in change annd it will change

written by Anderson, 2007-04-09 23:38:21

brazil is in change annd it will change

How, Anderson? I am very curious to know your opinion. You may please express it in Portugués,if you are not comfortable in writing in English.

Thank you both.