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
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