How big is the mess in Brazil?

It is said every four years that the Olympic Games brings the world together. With less than four months before the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, it looks as if it wont even succeed in bringing Brazil together.

There's a lot of news coming out of Brazil at the moment, and none of it seems to be good. Between the economic troubles, political scandals and the zika virus there are a lot of concerns about the future of the country.

The political situation is making Brazilians all over the world embarrassed and angry with around 60% of the national elected officials facing some sort of corruption charges, mostly related to kickbacks from the state run energy company Petrobras.

Finding out that politicians aren’t the beacon of virtue they often describe themselves as is not surprising. There are politicians all over the world who've left office in disgrace after being found doing the wrong thing. Australian politics was hit by it's own series of scandals in the last few years, with members of parliament found to be abusing their travel privileges to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Brazil, however, is on another level right now. And what seems to be make it even bigger, is that these kinds of allegations and charges don’t seem to have a negative impact on their political careers. Former president Fernando Collor de Mello left the position in disgrace in 1992 – resigning only when impeachment was an absolute certainty. Yet in 2006, Collor (as he is known) was elected to national office once again as a senator.

What exactly does it take for a Brazilian politician to be considered unelectable?

President Dilma Rousseff (known simply as Dilma) is facing impeachment in the coming weeks, and with her base of allies shrinking it looks as if that motion may be successful and that the mud will stick. The problem being, however, is that with so many of the people bringing these motions facing their own corruption allegations, how can their calls for impeachment carry weight?

If the old saying is, people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, then it seems the whole political system here in Brazil is one giant glass house.

It is so easy to see why so many people in the country are angry and disillusioned with the whole process. Every day there are protests against president Dilma, but also in support of her and her new chief of staff, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) - who, of course, is currently fighting his own corruption charges from his time in office. By becoming part of the government, Lula is now unable to be charged in all but the highest court in the country, making his appointment nothing short of suspect.

All of this political turmoil is happening while much of the country is suffering from the worst economic downturn in a generation – which many predict will turn into a full blown depression. Unemployment is at around 10%, the currency is about half of what it was a few years ago and yet the politicians are arguing over which of them is the most corrupt. In a country where income and wealth inequality is already so large, it is easy to see why so many are fed up with the ruling classes spending so much of their time battling for their own futures, rather than that of the people.

Adding to the list of problems in Brazil is been the outbreak of the zika virus. While scientists have yet to clinically prove that the virus causes the issues in new born babies that many suspect, research suggests that it is only a matter of time. At this stage the best that authorities have been able to do is warn Brazilian women to not get pregnant and for pregnant foreigners to consider not coming to the country.

All of these issues are leading to a feeling of the whole country falling apart and it appears to be having an affect on the year's big event – the Olympics in Rio. With under 120 days until the opening, less than half of the tickets for the Games have been sold, leading some to suggest that another disaster is looming.

As I said earlier, these problems are far from unique to this country it is just that they seem to be the biggest here right now. I don't want it to seem like I'm hating on Brazil. I do love it here. The people are genuinely friendly (almost too friendly!) and so much of the culture here has been great to discover. I just feel that the people aren't getting a fair deal by the people who they've elected to run the country.

Knowing Brazil though, the biggest looming disaster will be if their football team fails to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. They're struggling at the moment only just managed to pull of a draw against lowly Paraguay last week.

Brazilians appear to be able to put up with corrupt politicians, but I'm pretty sure they draw the line at a failed football team.

*I promise I wont do any more political blogs