MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Lula da Silva: forget biblical nonsense, the poor are entitled to heaven now and here
Former president Lula da Silva described as ‘nonsense’ the biblical statement that the poor will be “blessed with treasure in heaven” and strongly supported the policies of his government (2003/2010) which helped millions in Brazil lift from poverty. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesLula says that a second-hand message from the Middle East,
Jul 24th, 2011 - 10:34 am - Link - Report abuse 0from 2000 years ago,
translated in the Middle Ages, and
mutated by many sects and branches of just one of the world's religions,
is the guiding premise for today's Brasilians!
And he says that this unacceptible because his rich political friends have 'Heaven here on Earth'.
As a 'true Socialist' he is saying that his rich political friends should be stripped of their wealth to give their money to the poor.
How is this going down in Brasilia? Poorly, I guess.
Or is he saying ”My rich political friends must be allowed to keep their (ill)-gotten gains, and the rump-middle-class must be stripped of their 'surplus income'?
Lula, the ex-President, says that the “developed world must learn that the solution is for the poor to consume more”.
He must be forgiven in his belief that the solution to the world's problem of over-population and under-resource is for the poorer billions of the world to use its remaining resources to exhaustion.
Forgive him, he knows not what he does.
Forgive him, he knows not what he says;
and he is but a rich, uneducated sinner.
He said none of those things, Geoff. These are all the by-products of your bilious imagination.
Jul 26th, 2011 - 02:15 am - Link - Report abuse 0And yeah, let's stop consuming. Let's all go back living in caves, huts or wherever else we don't have to 'exhaust' the planet's metal resources. Let's also stop investing in industries, let's all ground our nations' economies on financial speculation UK- and US-style.
“He must be forgiven in his belief that the solution to the world's problem of over-population and under-resource is for the poorer billions of the world to use its remaining resources to exhaustion.”
Jul 26th, 2011 - 06:41 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What an absolute BS theory here from an uneducated ex government worker from the UK. Keep your darwinist crap for yourself will ya. If there is over-population than they should get rid of over-populated clowns like you.
So, it's OK to exhaust the world's resources rapidly and beyond the global carrying capacity? (Rhetorical)
Jul 27th, 2011 - 09:20 am - Link - Report abuse 0Each nation is no longer an island, and if Brasil moves to massive over-consumption - Lula's statement - then others in the world WILL die.
How to manage the dilemmas posed by over-population and over-consumption is a circle yet to be squared by ANY nation - if indeed it is possible in a democracy;
and uneducated statements by Lula do not help to educate his countrymen to the realities of the dilemma.
He should leave these statements to those who know what they are talking about - and there are many such people in Brasil, including Marina da Silva - and give his backing to these experts.
If you're so concerned about the world's resources, go lecture at your countrymen. Poor people who can't, or can only barely, afford to buy modern consumer goods aren't to blame for whatever fears you may have concerning the environment. It's mainly the middle-classes in the Northern Hemisphere who are “overconsuming”. So let's see if THEY agree on downgrading their life-standards in the name of environmental sustainability. As for the poor people, in Brazil and elsewhere in the Third World: they aren't the ones who need a Marina Silva or other such Virgem Maria-like figure to preach them the virtues of a frugal lifestyle, and neither can they prescind much further from consuming without generating a humanitarian crisis.
Jul 27th, 2011 - 09:40 pm - Link - Report abuse 0You, by the way, can do your part in leading a sustainable lifestyle. Cut your energy consumption. You can do that by no longer using a computer. Are you willing to do that? If you're not, then don't ask poorer people not to aspire to have the same consumtpion level as you do.
Forgetit,
Jul 28th, 2011 - 09:48 am - Link - Report abuse 0can't you see that Lula saying “Consume your way out of poverty” is sending totally the wrong message to the millions who have the capacity to move Brasil from a production excess to a consumption excess.
NB Lula was speaking to a business audience who speak the language of consumption=profits, so, to this extent, his comment is understandable, however wrong.
Well, all he's saying, in my view, is that for people to emerge from poverty they need to have access to modern services and goods. In a captalist economy, that, of course, means cosuming. I see nothing wrong or absurd in that.
Jul 28th, 2011 - 08:10 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Oh, and you failed to answer my last question, so I'll repeat it:
Jul 28th, 2011 - 09:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0- Are you willing to live the “enrivonmentally-sustainable lifestyle” that you preach to those poorer than yourself?
Re #8,
Jul 29th, 2011 - 11:42 am - Link - Report abuse 02 suitcases, a cabin bag and a pension.
OK, then.
Jul 30th, 2011 - 08:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0Just a little bit of social comment on the Brasilian condition - as seen frm those with the perspective of comparison with a different country:
Jul 30th, 2011 - 10:32 am - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.imil.org.br/artigos/um-suico-brasil/
Much fun, but many a true word is said in jest.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!