MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brazilian Transport ministry suspends four top officials on corruption claims
Four of the top officials in Brazil's Transportation Ministry have been temporarily suspended from their posts after a magazine reported on fraud they allegedly committed in several bidding contests on public works. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesYesterday hospital corruption,
Jul 04th, 2011 - 11:59 am - Link - Report abuse 0today transport corruption,
tomorrow . . . . . corruption
Nothing changes;
Brasilian life is a constant, never-changing ronde of criminality,
at all levels and in all spheres of life.
There is no serious desire or attempt at the level of the State or at Federal level to change this state of affairs.
Destined to remain culturally Third World.
Geoff, it's similar like the UK. culturally third world mentality is from folks like you who live in a foreing country, believe to know it all and truly believe their own crap that they are so much better.
Jul 04th, 2011 - 05:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Unfortunately, Fido, you are only 95% wrong.
Jul 04th, 2011 - 06:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Geoff's bitter about the treatment he's been getting, so he's lashing out randomly in ALL Brazil threads he can post to vent his anger using self-righteous, tired, unoriginal commonplaces he's repeated for months by now. It's even hard to take it seriously anymore. What is it, Geoff, are you not getting enough attention from Mrs Ward?
Jul 04th, 2011 - 08:16 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The link below would be of interest in putting into context Geoff's views of his wife's country. Compare how Brazil stands on levels of common corruption vis-à-vis countries in similar development stages such as Turkey, Mexico and the other BRICS.
Jul 04th, 2011 - 08:42 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/12/bribery
No Geoff, we both know that I'm right and we both know you're to cowardly to admit that. Why? It damage your bogus supremacy what you have in your head. I understand where you're coming from, because I've seen it many times here in the US and outside. Folks like that (you) are pathetic, and I'm glad you're happy with it of how you are.
Jul 04th, 2011 - 10:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0(4) Forgetit87
Jul 04th, 2011 - 11:48 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Mrs Ward should seriously consider to increase the dose of rat poison in Mr. Ward's Feijoada.........
She could spare all of us some discomfort :-)
Be careful, Geoff, they all want to shoot the messenger.
Jul 05th, 2011 - 08:46 am - Link - Report abuse 0Isolde, you know nothing about what we're discussing, so you can't know what we're doing. Go back to your FI threads and your bellicist declarations of hope that one day the UK will take over south Argentina. You're already amusing enough when you're debating issues that do pertain to you.
Jul 05th, 2011 - 09:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0Forgetit87,
Jul 06th, 2011 - 08:46 am - Link - Report abuse 0cranky little man aren't we?
You have no idea of my hopes.
Geoff merely pointed out the endemic corruption in Brazil.
You reacted strongly to that. Are you saying that Geoff is wrong & there is no corruption in Brazil?
lf you are then one of you is either misled or(dare l say it?), a liar!
Like the malvinistas on here, you seem to be very touchy & insecure.
Why?
Anyway l know the UK will never even try to take over south Argentina, but when the Antarctic war starts, some big power will look at it.
So you go back to your corruption & crime-free Brazil & l'll be happy here & watch from the sidelines.
@lsolde
Jul 06th, 2011 - 10:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Yes, I do have an idea on what you want. Didn't you say once that you hope your country takes over parts of Argentina and the Argentinian Antarctica?
“Geoff merely pointed out the endemic corruption in Brazil.
You reacted strongly to that. Are you saying that Geoff is wrong & there is no corruption in Brazil?”
Why do you have to put things in such a way? Yes, there's corruption in my country - mainly in the highest levels of public administration. As the link I pointed to above shows, however, corruption doesn't quite applies to the common people.
(Mistakenly I clocked the submit button before finishing my message, so here's the continuation.)
Jul 06th, 2011 - 10:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0As the link I pointed to above shows, however, corruption doesn't quite applies to the common people. It contradicts Geoff's provocative, demeaning, dehumanizing, and racist assertion that the life of my people is “a constant, never-changing ronde of criminality,
at all levels and in all spheres of life.”
As you see, he wasn't just pointing the existence of corruption. That is an understatement. He was making a clearly resentful, scandalous assertion on a whole nation's character. That, I won't admit, specially from someone as intellectually trivial as he is. I'll feel like putting him in his place whenever he tries to engage in the sort of crass condescension you saw above.
As for you, again you should, as I said, get back to your endless, tiresome FI discussions. You know nothing about us, so you have no place taking positions in here.
“Yesterday corruption, today corruption, tomorrow . . . . . corruption.
Jul 06th, 2011 - 11:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There is no serious desire or attempt at the level of the State or at Federal level to change this.
Brasilian life is a constant, never-changing ronde of criminality,
at all levels and in all spheres of life.”
Corruption is most impacting at the higher levels - wherever large sums of money are involved - eg. logging, Olympics & World Cup, big industrial contracts, nepotism in governance, etc, etc;
but common criminality is throughout society - it does not only originate and have its base in the favelas,
it involves taking the food out of children's mouths via the schools meals budgets, skimming off the health service budgets;
common criminality is one thing but this is evil exploitation of the support systems of their fellow man.
But in my dealings with Bahian tradesmen, I find them (almost naively) honest - though they do work to 'Bahian time' and with 'Bahian skills'.
This is the culture and we accept it as part of the package of living in Bahia.
What I will never accept is exploitative behaviour, harsh criminality, and the all-pervasive and criminally corrupt management of this huge country.
And please do not try to convince that, or pretend that, this is no more and no less than is found in the UK - it is massively, far and away, more extensive, more damaging, and inbuilt into the national management of Brasil (and probably in many other countries striving to develop). I only speak for/of/against Brasil, because I experience it every day of my life, at first hand.
I won't even waste my time reading you.
Jul 06th, 2011 - 11:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Thanks, Isolde.
Jul 07th, 2011 - 08:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0There are, I think, few people here with first hand knowledge of Brasil; I try to temper the enthusiasm in people's postings when they go overboard on the speed with which we in South America are become First World Developed.
The Curate's Egg is the size of that of the Brontosaurus; and the good bits are very good, the bad bits extremely bad.
@87Forgetit,
Jul 07th, 2011 - 09:28 am - Link - Report abuse 0You say it all clearly when you say“Argentinean Antarctica”.
Argentina does not own ANY part of Antarctica. The British were there first just as we were the first in the Falklands & in southern Argentina.
Of course l say we should have those territories back. The best means of defence is attack, the Argentines continue to spread their lies about the Falklands & if not for the British military deterent would be here in a blink of an eye.
When talking about corruption in Brazil, l was not gloating or even agreeing with Geoff as, l, personally do not know. All l was saying is that a number of you didn't even try to answer him. You all just immeadiately attacked him personally.
One idiot wanted his wife to poison him! ls that rational debate or just trying to silence someone who's opinion you don't like?
And as for me getting back to my tiresome FI discussions & having no place taking a position, well l will discuss whatever l like & its got nothing to do with you.
l do know some of you, l have met Brazilians before.
But thank you for calling our country FI! You didn't go all the way & say Falkland lslands but at least you didn't use that ridiculous “m”word.!
Finally, Forgetit, why won't you read Geoff's answer & refute or agree with it?
l'd hoped you were more mature than these malvinistas.
But anyway, l have no quarrel with you or your country.
Peace?
@lsolde
Jul 07th, 2011 - 12:32 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And does the UK own Argentinian Antarctica? Does the UK own southern Argentina? No and no. What place do you have in there? As for your re-stated hopes that the UK invade Argentina - get this: NATO has been unable to secure stablity and thus victory against some barbarian militias in Iraq and Afghanistan. So don't be too sure that your country wouldn't be humiliated in an attempt to take over Argentinian territories - for this has happened repeatedly in invasion campaigns led by great powers since at least the Vietnam War. That the UK has better equipped forces doesn't mean very much in asymmetical warfare.
As for Geoff, it's clear why I didn't answer him: he didn't say anything worthy discussing, he didn't state any fact, he didn't produce any argument. He just hurled some smears in his typically theatrical self-righteous posturing. This is what he does most of the time, and that's why I won't discuss whatever “arguments” he brought about his overly long post #13.
(16) Isolde
Jul 07th, 2011 - 05:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You say:
”One idiot wanted his wife to poison him!”
I say:
Cranky little woman aren't we?
But, of course, you don’t have the chance (or will) to comprehend the ironic context of my message to Geoff’s Brazilian wife.
Her and I go a long way back…..... As you can read below, Geoff gave me once a clue about her finding him as insufferable as I do:
94 Think Apr 09th, 2011
You say:
”We encompass a Trotskyist family (grandfather and sister, her children, plus her partners family ) and our relative is Scottish representative of Charter 88, now called Unlock Democracy - and son of the British Communist Party.”
I say:
With such a pedigree and constructive environment around you………. How did you end being such an insufferable old douche? ;-)))
95 GeoffWard Apr 09th, 2011
I guess some of us have seen more of the world than others and evolve our understandings as the world changes .
. ….. . but I do thank you for your parting comment - you made my wife lol and set us up for A Good Day.”
http://en.mercopress.com/2011/04/04/london-and-new-york-two-biggest-laundries-of-criminal-and-drug-money
Besides, I never instigated his wife to poison him ……….
Just to increase the dose :-)))
Isolde….. Be a good girl…… Go to your kitchen and make Mr. Forgetit87 and me a nice cup of tea…
Will ya?
Hi, Isolde,
Jul 07th, 2011 - 06:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I think the boys are just having a 'boys' night out with the posting' - you know, one too many loud lagers with the vindaloo.
But I do notice a change in tenor of Forgetit's postings. It may be that a different individual is using one of his aliases to be more vicious than the well-mannered real Forgetit.
And Think and I understand 'Grouchy'. Once I realised how old he is too, I make a lot of allowances.
As for the Bachelor Herd, I tend to avoid locking antlers; it is not a fair fight.
I trust you had a good day, and I will call in tomorrow - from the sunny but sulphurous slopes of Etna :-)
@17Forgetit,
Jul 08th, 2011 - 08:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0Re Antarctica, its not Argentine Antarctica. l don't know who owns it. The British were there long long before the Argentines. The same as Patagonia. l presume the British did not settle Patagonia because at that time we had a huge empire to run & populate & just did not have the manpower. Pity, we could have met them at the Chubut river & stopped their southern expansion. Then they would be no where near Antarctica. l guess we would have hade to share the land with Chile though. That would be a small price to pay!Do you deny that the British were here first or have they also changed their history books? l wouldn't be surprised.
Geoff said plenty worth discussing, you just didn't want to hear it.
Thats a cowards way out. lf Geoff is wrong then why don't you refute it? Are you worried that he is right & you will“lose face”?
Running out of space, will return to you Herr Think later.
(20) Cher Isolde
Jul 08th, 2011 - 01:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0When you return, please remember: A cloud of milk, two sugars and some shortbreads.
Thanks.............
“Geoff said plenty worth discussing”
Jul 09th, 2011 - 04:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0No please, Lady Common Sense, point me where, in his post #1, Geoff said a single thing worth discussing. I re-read the message, and my opinion of it is the same: broad insults - no fact, no argument one can deal with.
“lf Geoff is wrong then why don't you refute it?”
Wrong in what? Facts can be wrong, and thus be debated. Insults cannot. And the sole point that he made - that Brazilians are corrupt and criminally oriented - I guess I've refuted it showing DATA that common corruption is as rare in Brazil as it is in the First World - that Brazil is in fact the best developing nation when it comes to population involvement in corruption of the public bureaucracy. Corruption does exist - but as I said, at the highest levels. Is it fair to tag a whole population, as Geoff was undeniably doing, for the behavior of, for example, a fat cat Senator? Then perhaps it is not wrong to blame the British people, you included, for the 100,000 Iraqis killed in the invasion your country coordinated with the US less than a decade ago.
Ooooooops...........
Jul 09th, 2011 - 04:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I guess that means no tea or biscuits for us, corrupt and criminal South-Americans, from our British squaterette..........
No tea and shortbread for us South-Americans from our British guests, I guess ..........
@21&23,Think,
Jul 10th, 2011 - 07:39 am - Link - Report abuse 0Boy, bring me a sundowner on the verandah,now!
Make it snappy or you'll get your rear end walloped!
@22Forgetit,
So you did read it afterall?(raised eyebrow). You said that you wouldn't even waste your time reading what Geoff wrote, now you say you did? Make your mind up senhor. lf you think that l am partly to blame for the death of 100,000 lraqis because of my nationality then you are partly to blame for the untold thousands of Amazon lndians killed over the last 2 centuries & for the destruction of the rainforest because of your nationality. lsn't it so?
@19Geoff,
l love crossing swords with these type of people, so “holier than thou” “do as l say, not do as l do” hypocrites all.
Hi, Isolde,
Jul 10th, 2011 - 09:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0re #19 holiday in Sicily -
there was an eruption on 'our' southern slopes of Etna whilst we were up the mountain.
Explosions and lava bombs but no 'big' lava flows yet.
Photos but not postable here, just a web-link from the village's monitor camera.
http://www.ct.ingv.it/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=202&lang=it
Keep the bears at bay whilst I'm away.
Geoff.
(24)Isolde
Jul 10th, 2011 - 03:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Well……………………
That sums up nicely the difference between an authentic Patagonian gentleman asking nicely for a cup op tea & shortbread and thanking in advance against and an alcoholized British squaterette, commanding her imaginary colonial “boy” and fantasizing about walloping his over-mature (but still firm) behind………………
Chuckle chuckle ™
@lsolde
Jul 10th, 2011 - 04:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I think it's quite clear that I did read post his #1. It was it that provoked my responses to Geoff. What I didn't read, and won't, was post #13, which is probably an attempt by Geoff's to whitewash his faux pas in #1. As for me being responsible for the deaths of Amerindians during the colonization - well, at least part of my ancestors weren't even in Brazil before the XX century. They have no responsibility over what happened during the colonization years. Moreover, I wasn't talking about retroactive guilt, I'm talking about guilt by association. If one can say of us Brazilians that we're corrupt and criminal because of our congressmen and cabinet ministers, then nothing much better could be said of the British, whose public leaders are responsible for the invasion and subsequent killing tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
Come on, Forgetit, grit your teeth and read my subversive comments at #13.
Jul 10th, 2011 - 09:46 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You know you will (and you know you did ;)
@26Think,
Jul 10th, 2011 - 10:23 pm - Link - Report abuse 0l only have your word that you are a gentleman. You said yourself that you have been married three times. That speaks for itself.
To me you are nothing more than a squatter in Patagonia on land that was brutaly taken from the native peoples.
You seem to pride yourself on your urbanity & worldliness but you are as insulting as the other Argentines on here. lt seems that you don't have much time for women either.
You are as bad as the worst of the fascists by wanting to deport us all.
What God given right have you got to disrupt people's lives in this way?
My attempt at a joke in ordering you around was in reply to your condescending “request” for tea & biscuits.
lf you want to make something of it in a master/servant situation then l hope you get something out of it.
Don't kid yourself re the walloping. As much as you want me to do it to you, that is not my scene.
But apart from all this, enjoy your day.
@27Forgetit,
l think it's quite clear that you didn't read his second post.
Or you won't admit that you did.
Brazil has corruption. ALL countries have corruption. There is no use getting all uptight & angry because someone has pointed out Brazil's(blatent?)corruption.
And you don't have to descend to insults, although l admit it does make one feel better!
Finally l'm being distracted from arguing with malvinistas & l have no quarrel with your country so l will not continue this discusion about Brazil with anyone else.
To you too, enjoy your day
@28Geoff,
lmpressive pictures Geoff. Man is nothing against nature.
Don't get too close!
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