MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Temer moved out of the presidential palace because of “bad energy and ghosts”
Brazilian president Michel Temer confessed in an interview with the leading news magazine Veja that he and his family moved out of the nation’s Alvorada Palace, the official presidential residence, over bad energy and “ghosts” that kept him and First Lady Marcela Temer from sleeping well at night. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesLol, perfect picture of Temer. I wonder if it's Dilma's ghost that he is really afraid of? And of course she's not afraid of ghosts, she knows it's living people you really need to fear.
Mar 15th, 2017 - 01:54 pm - Link - Report abuse +2Must be the ghost of democracy..., I “Think”...
Mar 15th, 2017 - 02:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It's just the old age catching up - nothing so ghostly dramatic!
Mar 15th, 2017 - 04:51 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@Think
Mar 15th, 2017 - 07:37 pm - Link - Report abuse +2I was imagining more guilty conscience. Democracy is not dead in Brazil, there are elections due in 2018 and Temer is already forbidden from standing.
Irrespective of which party will rule; the crooks will be the same/different and so will be their methods of stealing - more sophisticated & more difficult to prove the committed crimes.
Mar 15th, 2017 - 08:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0:o))
Mar 15th, 2017 - 10:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Geeeee....
Don't you have some chemtrails to watch..., dude...?
Even if exorcised, I wouldn’t sleep in the same quarters that Lula and Dilma occupied for 14 years .
Mar 20th, 2017 - 05:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@DT
Currently, there’s nothing to prevent Temer from running in 2018, however, regardless of whether he is eventually condemned in the “Lavajato” investigation, which would then definitely remove him, he’s already stated he won’t.
Going back to the ‘BF’ & ‘school attendance’, it’s clear then, that what happens in practise is a whole lot different…besides, in many of the ‘counties’ where most of these families live, (interior of Bahia & some NE states) the school infrastructure is so poor, that it’s virtually non-existent…precarious buildings - when not of mud - no desks, no school bus, so they walk miles on dirt roads or on the back of a donkey…the mayors’ offices enforce absolutely nothing.
As to reducing poverty, it works while the handouts exist, but does nothing to prepare them to stand on their own feet. ‘Social ascension’ is just an illusion, remove the handout and they go back to square one. And the so called ‘boom’ you refer to, we all know (now) it was just a house of cards. The BF is a mere pittance, but considering the wages in that region, it’s probably significant.
Lula’s boasting, even as a semi-illiterate idiot, is as you correctly say, to cover up his inferiority complex. That is why Lula hated visiting the US or European heads of State, and frankly preferred to visit his S.American buddies and African dictators.
Ineffective or lenient, much the same - Brazilian justice is traditionally slow, taking years, even decades to judge or rule on issues which in the 1st world take weeks or months. Drug gang members and others who kill for a ton of reasons, are eventually condemned to a maximum of 30 years, but are usually out on the streets in 5 ...what sort of punishment is that ? there are dozens of examples of people who commit the horrendous crimes and are released well before the time is up.
@JB
Mar 20th, 2017 - 10:20 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Temer was already convicted of breaking election laws, and barred from running for 8 years:
http://www.conjur.com.br/2016-jun-02/temer-inelegivel-oito-anos-segundo-tre-sao-paulo
But it's true he has said he's not intending to run anyway.
I am not too surprised to hear that the BF requirements are not being enforced. But I didn't know how bad things were in the NE; building better schools should have been a priority for the government if they wanted to help the poor. Is this the responsibility of the states or of the federal government?
And whether the handouts can help long term, I think depends on what the money is spent on, and where taxes come from. If the money is spent on things made in Brazil, that helps the economy, but if they are taking the taxes from the same people than there's no net gain. On the other hand, if they could get back the money hidden abroad in tax havens, that would definitely give the economy a boost, but most of the politicians are too busy hiding it there themselves.
The boom I thought was mostly due to growth in China, as they required lots of raw materials. But booms never last forever anyway, although governments always seem to forget that whilst one is happening.
Are the other South American leaders any less educated than the European ones? I suppose Maduro counts, but Rousseff & CFK were educated weren't they?
And as for justice, the symptoms may be the same for ineffective vs lenient, but the treatment is different. There is no point sentencing gang members to 60 years instead of 30, if they are still back on the streets after 5. If they are released early due to overcrowding you need to build more prisons, if the guards are easily bribed you need to pay them more, and if the justice system is slow you need to reform it. All easier said than done, but harsher sentences without the means to carry them out are just a joke.
@DT
Mar 22nd, 2017 - 05:46 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The TRE (Reg.Elect.Ct) ruled Temer is ineligible for 8 years, (donations over the legal limit), however, his lawyer alleges the decision is wrong…maintains he wasn’t declared ineligible, but convicted for the donations…so technically, the ‘Lei Ficha Limpa’ (‘clean-slate’ law) wouldn’t be applicable…he also said that 'when/if' Temer 'were' to announce his candidacy for president (which he’s said he won’t), only then would the TSE (Supr. Elect. Ct) examine his case / decide whether he’s eligible or not, and might overturn the TRE's decision. But he’s decided not to run, so...
Public schools are run by all levels of govt - Municipal, State, Federal, so all have education responsibilities. Just fyi, yday saw on the news that in the NE (where BF is concentrated), 2.6 million kids (ages 5 to 17) live in extreme poverty, and are not in school - instead, they ‘work’…that says it all.
Handouts are fine, if well applied - but the many recipients of working age should be obliged to become productive and to move on after a certain time…o’wise it’s just premature retirement...these people only pay consumption taxes. IF public funds were well-spent, Brazil wouldn’t be in the crapper now…the stolen billions mean far less schools, no decent hospitals, inadequate infrastructure, just contributing to raise the “cost of Brazil”.
Not all S.Am. leaders are necessarily less educated than their European counterparts, but many are: Lula, Chavez, Maduro, some in Central America…Rouseff lied about her qualification, alleging she had an MBA…despite her formal education, she’s pathetic…can’t even express an idea correctly.
If sentenced to 60 years, it would take 12 to get out, for good (?) behavior..but what I’m talking about is reforming the penal code, so they get life imprisonment. New prisons need building, but our politicians are too busy stealing. Prison guards need to have background checks, be switched around constantly, and agree, get better wages.
@JB
Mar 22nd, 2017 - 11:18 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Ah, none of the articles I read mentioned that he could appeal the decision. But if he isn't going to stand again it's irrelevant.
Wow, 2.6m kids not in school. How are they ever going to become productive if they have no education? I think there are more problems with handouts in places like the UK, when a large family can get more in benefits than one person can earn in an unskilled job. Then there is no incentive to work. The BF is not so big, but how would you help the recipients become productive? Jobs won't magically appear in the countryside, and if they move the city they seem to end up in a life of crime. Can't disagree about the stolen billions though.
Why do they let prisoners out after only serving a fifth of their sentence? That's mad. But 60 years is pretty much life, so if they actually served all that you wouldn't need to reform the penal code. Either way you need enough prison space, and yeah, you would need other measures as well as better pay to stop the guards taking bribes. I would be worried that these gang members could threaten the guards or their families, to make them do what they want, if it is made harder to bribe them.
Really you need to tackle the root causes of crime: get someone to adopt Blair's slogan “Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.”
@DT
Mar 24th, 2017 - 07:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It is clear that the numbers surprise you...but the numbers in Brazil rarely translate in to anything similar to those in the civilized world....or, what you are accustomed to.
They won't become productive, and the vicious circle is perpetuated.
The BF recipients should be told - or rather, the govt should just enforce the rules - that they have 3 years to pull their finger out, and oblige them to do something about it, such as take (free) specialization courses (in line with their level of schooling), sponsored by the govt....but even that is somewhat utopian...the State Industry Federations, as well as the Commerce Federations, maintain facilities which offer such courses...but given that such facilities are nowhere near to where these people live, it is unlikely they'd be able to take advantage of them...so the BF becomes a 'way-of-life'...One way to break the trend, would be for the Federal and State govts to give industry whopping incentives to build factories and train the local populace. I know of one case, some years back, in the interior of Bahia : a textle industry built a factory, and while under construction, trained over 500 people (on the BF) to occupy the future jobs...when the factory was ready, less than 10% of the trained 'to-be-workers' showed up...the story goes that if they got a job, they'd lose the BF, so most didn't bother...
I know it's absurd, but that how it is....justice here is a bloody joke...the sentences do nothing to curb crime....To start to understand what goes on here, you have to realize that you cannot compare any social index in Brazil, to the UK's.
As you say, it comes down to zero tolerance....but most people, until they are personally affected by some serious crime, tend to be forgiving....if a drug dealer murders a few innocent people and is sentenced to 100 years in prison, there'll always be those idiots who think it's not fair - and simply forget that those killed are gone for good..
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!