Competing, For Everything, In Brazil

IN BRAZIL, there is a common phrase concerning effective political leaders. "He's a crook, but he gets things done." What's a little embezzlement, if the streets get paved? This translates well from Portuguese to American, from south to north. The applicable term is "Brazilionaire", the title of a new book detailing economic and political corruption. The two are inextricably intertwined there, here, and everywhere. The wealthiest Brazilian is worth roughly thirty billion American dollars, aided and abetted by American corporate investment, he has controlling interest in several carpetbagging businesses, Burger King, Budweiser, and two or three others. Your average Brazilian earns several hundred dollars a month, and lives in a closet sized hovel slinging to the edge of a slope, below which sluggishly flows a creek clogged with stinking sewage. The olympic masters are finding it difficult to sell tickets. Few can afford them, and foreigners are afraid of mosquitoes. The regular hordes of urban criminals have kindly consented to vacation for two weeks while legions of imported police officers patrol the streets of Rio, armed with automatic weapons. In another few days the torch will be extinguished, the yankees will go home, and once again the cut throats will own the night. Grotesque economic inequality has consequences, everywhere. Recommended recommended reading: "Brazil", by John Updike. Street urchin from the slopeside slums of Rio escapes dire poverty in a one room family abode by befriending then bedding wealthy heiress, achieves the good life, replete with status and luxury, then comes full circle, as he is knived to death by a new generation of young rampaging thugs on a beach, just after he flings his golden watch into the water. Do not allow this spoiler to deter you; Updike has Brazil and the rest of us, down pat..........PLEASE SHARE THIS WEBSITE WITH YOUR FRIENDS.WE WISH TO PROMOTE ORIGINAL EXPRESSION.