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Honestly Lula didn't do much but add more PR campaigns over programs that have been started in the FHC government or at least unify them in a single program, since poverty and hunger reduction were already in motion before he assumed the presidency. But it was a stable economic policy program, started in the Itamar Franco's government combined with an economic expansion driven by exports and the consolidation of the internal markets, that really put people out of the poverty line, that happened despite of Lula, not because of Lula.
Increasing universities is debatable since while he promoted for the construction of new colleges he did very little to improve basic schooling. Which is something specialists, pardon the pun, left and right have been arguing it is the main issue regarding education. Which is an issue I am seeing in my college, with a lot of teachers complaining about students endorsing without knowing the basics and by consequence either suffering major delays to catch up or dropping from college altogether, trust me on this one some courses at my college have a drop rate superior to 60% after the fist semester and I know it because I worked with the people processing the data . Besides, having a degree is hardly guaranteeing you a job nowadays.
There is hardly any decent alternative, I usually have a more sympathetic view of the Marina Silva's PV but I wouldn't trust them to do a decent economic policy. PSDB economic policies usually tend to be sound but don't have much public support over the fears of privatization and rather founded crony capitalism accusations, even though most of the accusations are done by PT and PMDB, which is nothing but the pot calling the kettle black since PT and PMDB surely did a fine job using BNDES to fund companies belonging to the parties friends and close associates. Most parties aren't as a whole good options, some might have some saving throws here and there like social policies or environmental platforms but alone can't provide a policy good and clear enough to actually govern by themselves.
Not quite. Fome Zero (Zero Hunger) and Bolsa Familia (Family Allowance, I assume), the two absolute juggernauts of social programs which really changed the balance, were both pretty much created by his government (Bolsa Familia was based on smalller-scale programs of similar nature, but none was as extensive as thorough as Bolsa Familia was, while Zero Hunger was a entirely on his government).The recent "housing for everyone" program is also Worker's Party program. One should also acknowledge the implementation of the quotas for the disfavored, blacks, Indians, and the llike (which I was very skeptical at first, but now I can see it seems to have evidently worked). Not to mention Science Without Borders, new universities, the works. I live in the universitarian world, and people seem vastly terrified of a non worker's party government only because of the sheer amount of things they brought to universities (including new universities). In terms of social programs, the Lula government truly did an astounding job as far as governments go.
Evidently, there are areas where they basically sidestepped the problem and let it be (Public Health and Basic Education being the chief issues), but it was still a massive improvement that future governments should really pay attention and follow. That, from my experience, actually seems to be the greatest fear of a PSDB government for example. That they will stop the social aid programs (which the PSDB make worse by saying things like Family Allowance is "Alms Allowance")
The Worker's Party as of its own is crumbling apart and I don't think it will come back to power any time soon, and judging by the level of corruption perhaps it shouldn't, but I do want whoever succeeds them take lessons in the social regard and improve from there. What the country needs is a strong economic government, but also one that can turns its aims to basic education and public health.
About PV, honestly, Marina Silva seemed to be really undecided about everything. That made me lose faith in everything she said, because she couldn't make up her mind about anything.
I end up on the same boat as Wehrmacht. Everyone here sucks.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."
Before the Bolsa familia programs like Bolsa Escola, Vale Gas and Bolsa Alimentação were already being implemented, Lula ended up putting them under the same umbrella and calling it his own. The reasons why Lula managed to expand his social programs was because he was lucky enough to take over right after the economy was stabilized and the world enjoying a major economic boom in which Brazil was ridding on. As it is evident since those same programs took a major blow during Dilma's budget cuts due to the recession and budget constrains.
I wouldn't outright call My House My Life program a success, the housing itself wasn't free and relied on credit to give people their houses, the interest rates were high enough back then to ensure people receiving the financing for their homes would spend too many years paying for the interests. Virtually most of the popular programs under Lula relied on providing easy credit, which is great for short term but on the long run it helped creating an inflationary and credit bubbles that would send back a lot of people back to poverty but now with debt. Something to consider when you account that Brazil has the highers interest rates in the world for credit and loans. Which is something my own mother is struggling through when she financed our house through the program.
While the construction of several universities was a good thing, the quality of the education was something that was cast aside for quantity over quality. The best colleges in the country are still the traditional ones that are between 50 to 100 years old and the quotas are hardly providing access to the underprivileged students to those.
The quota programs aren't that effective either, the college school population is around 3 million students, of which a small minority is the minority and under privileged groups. Even if they are getting scholarships reservations, the drop out rates and conclusion rates aren't good. There are a lot of people that even if they are smart enough to pass through college they also can't stay because their families can't afford keeping them on college.
The quotas also didn't change my college's demography that much, most students either drop out because they can't pass calculus 0, which is high school math, and calculus I. That is if they don't go back home because they either got in because it was the college they passed and figured out they didn't want it or because the cost of living is too high.
I hardly saw the quotas working, as I've worked on the department that handled all the college's data and my directors were noticing the drop out rates were increasing every year, specially with the quota students.
They aren't going to do much to change the poverty scenario when the major issues are related to getting into college are due to poor basic education keeping high school students out rather than the number of available colleges. As it is evident due to the stagnant growth on the education index
and still scoring with the worst performing countries when it comes to education
, an index that barely moved over the years.
Science without borders is a mixed bag in results, not only the program send abroad thousands of students who barely spoke English or another language abroad, more often than not it was called Vacations Without Borders, this was due to the lack of oversight over student activities, where the program was more concerned with sending student abroad than it was concerned with their activities. The intentions were good but the execution was very poor and expensive.
My University is almost entirely focused on STEM fields, the voting pools were massively skewed towards the PSDB candidates, around 70+% over the election year because they were more concerned with finding employment after graduating than cuts. IIRC PSDB usually scores higher with STEM students than it does with Liberal Arts and Humanities students.
If more than anything Lula's government made life bearable for the poor but not overall better for the whole.
Inter arma enim silent legesI'm keeping any final decisions on the matter of my opinions about parties for when the next elections come around and I vote for the first time. That said, here are a few comments regarding the ongoing discussion:
It's important to note that "right" and "left" definitions for a party can be a very debatable subject. As left-leaning as the Worker's Party is, especially when comparing to the United States, for example, I believe it's closer to the center than anything else. To use João Goulart as an example, it's a phenomenon in which the far-right considers you a communist and the far-left considers you too conservative
Another issue is when you agree with some of a party's politics and/or points out a few of the positive benefits that came out of their administration and the response is to point out the problems with that party as if you disagreed with them. And vice-versa, I suppose. I guess I'm just annoyed when I argue in favor of quotas and the response is "but you have to improve Basic Education too!" as if that was an argument against quotas, and similar responses to other issues. I think what Gaon said can be applied to many governments, really, although I'd consider the Worker's Party far less controversial than Vargas'.
These are just a few trends I've noticed, maybe you think they're obvious and I'm being redundant and pointless. Sorry if that's the case :S
Generally, my opinion on the parties is the same as Gaon's and Wehrmacht's. However it's to be expected there isn't a perfect party. Specifically, let me see... I don't think I'd see myself voting for the Worker's Party unless, just like in the previous presidential election (which I didn't vote for), they go to the second round of voting with an unreasonable option. That segways into my opinion of PSDB, which despite of having "social democracy" in the name is quite neoliberal, and I have a negative view of enough of its members I feel safe dissing all of it (more on this later). PMDB is just a catch-all party
, and similarly to PSDB I have a negative view on multiple of its members. I think Marina Silva's candidacy proved that there are too many conflicting interests going on PV for them to have an effective and non-corrupt government (effective =/= non-corrupt, in case one'd think differently). PSOL is one of the parties I would take a deeper look at and consider voting for, if the requirements for me to decide to vote for someone are met. Currently they are alone in that list. Before the recent scandal with Romário I was considering prematurely adding PSD to that list despite the fact I don't think socialism works, but said scandals, plus other stuff I have yet to mention, made me decide to wait until the next elections come around.
An issue with Brazilian society that I've discussed in high school sociology classes is the strenght of the private sphere and the weakness of the public sphere. It's related to Sérgio Buarque de Holanda's homem cordial and the Brazilian jeitinho. In more practical terms, one of the ways it manifests is through people voting for people persons instead of parties and ideologies. "I like him, he's a charismatic person", "He promised he'd improve my region", "He was the one who paved my street after I and our neighbors complained" (although here there's also not realizing the people, not the politician, were the ones responsible), "My friend said they're voting for him, so...", etc. It's a big issue when someone votes for both Jair Bolsonaro and Jean Wyllys in the same election, and it's usually due to caring about specific persons.
By that reasoning, I couldn't comment on PSD by Romário's merits as a politician alone. No, I couldn't give less of a shit about soccer. On one hand I'd at first find hard to believe he'd be a good politician, on another it'd be prejudice on my part, just because he used to be a soccer player. Thus, not knowing too much else about the party I can't argue it's better or worse for having Romário in it. Regarding PV, I think that Marina Silva was a symptom of a bigger issue with it, which is why I lowered my opinion on the party.
Bolsonaro is one of the most contemptible and unabashedly terrible human beings I've ever seen. He's racist, mysogynistic, elitist, bigoted, ignorant, and pro-dictatorship, and seems to be completely sincere in all of those positions. He basically embodies every single prejudice and rotten attitude in this country, and the fact that he has any support at all proves how much there is still wrong with us. I'd rather have PT in office for 2 more decades than see anyone like him holding any power in the country.
edited 29th Feb '16 10:12:56 AM by wehrmacht
Yeah, it's not like the party doesn't have any redeeming features. Although I don't remember my opinion on their environmental policies.
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Indeed. However, of every prejudice I've seen him exhibit, racism specifically isn't one I have any examples of. I've seen examples of sexism and homophobia, but racism? Uh, actually not, so I don't call him racist. Nor I say he isn't racist either. I know he opposes racial quotas, but I don't think doing so is inherently racist.
In one of his interviews, he was asked what he would do if his son dated a black woman. He said he "wouldn't talk promiscuity" and that he had simply educated his children to be better than that. I can't fetch the link rn, but I should have it edited in a few hours during my break from studying.
Basically he claims to have misunderstood the question, but that seems to be a pretty deliberate attempt on his part at avoiding the accusation of racism.
On top of that he has made extremely racist comments about native indian populations, calling them "smelly and uneducated".
http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/brasil/ult96u401933.shtml
The fact that this man still has a career in politics after all this shit is an embarrassment to our country.
edited 29th Feb '16 1:03:12 PM by wehrmacht
Luckily enough it seems a documentary made by a teacher at my school and other students is up on You Tube. It's about the 2014 elections, Brazilian democracy in general and notions of "right" and "left". Watch it here and for free!
Thank you for the links.
As the article said, even if Evo dosent have a third period, we will go out as standar president without much fanfare and a lot of public suport, while the chavista goverment is pretty much sunking in their own flith, is a shame that one of the biggest critic agaisnt corruption and elitism become exactly that.
A big, damn shame....
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"I don't know yet but my cheeks are sore from the grin stuck on my face.
I am sure he will walk but after this one he can kiss his presidency candidacy goodbye.
They could throw Bolsonario with Cunha and my hopes for this country will be renewed.
edited 4th Mar '16 12:36:29 PM by AngelusNox
Inter arma enim silent legesThe Supreme Federal Court also accused President of the Chamber of Deputies Eduardo Cunha, 10 votes in favor out of 10. My legal jargon is weak, forgive me if that sentence made no sense.
I'm glad these politicians are being investigated, even if it's all due to parties attacking one another. And, well, I can't be glad about anything else, because since I'm not a detective nor have access to the arguments of both sides' lawyers, I can't know for sure anyone is guilty as much as I think they are or would like if they (were guilty and) were properly punished for it :<
@Video: Did anyone watch it? If yes, what's your opinion on it?
Link in Portuguese.
edited 8th Mar '16 7:09:40 AM by AngelusNox
Inter arma enim silent legesI wonder how much more crap will be exposed if he decided to plea bargain.
@Victin: I watched the whole thing and I'm not impressed. They did a fantastic job on exposing their ideas, but those ideas are just common sense (and I love how Portuguese we can use two words for "common sense", being "senso comum" and "bom senso", and I used the former meaning). They did pretty good as high school students, but just as high school students. I also applaud them for actually giving Bolsonaro a chance to speak (most interviews with him are just attempts to further accuse him of everything that's bad), too bad his rhetoric is terrible.
I could discuss for hours on how this common sense is far from the truth, but that would be an entirely different discussion.
edited 8th Mar '16 10:08:37 AM by NEO
No regret shall pass over the threshold![[rant]]
So after the demonstrations and protests against the governments, there are a bunch of pro government pages, trying their best to disqualify the protests as being a "white rich" only protests with a few memetic images with the most famous one being the black nanny pushing two toddlers behind her white employers being used as a mean to compare the protesters with slavers and over privileged classes more concerned with their own benefit. Including calling the protesters fascists and coupists.
While at the same time they leave out that the government has barely 9% of approval rate, the rising unemployment is reaching double digits and the most affected are exactly the people the government claims to protect, how the Workers Party main politicians claimed they'd put their own "army" on the streets to defend the party, how the National Development Bank has spent more money on private contractors and major companies tied to the government and their cronies in 2015 alone than the government spent on social programs in the last 5 years, rising taxes and the interest rates during a major recession thus increasing the cost of living and making debts more difficult to pay, how the government is spending an increasing amount of money on propaganda while bringing diminishing results, the cuts in education among several other broken campaign promises like cuts in social welfare programs, the rising inflation corroding the acquisitive power of the poorest classes, the massive shrinking of the middle class combined with the increased inequality during 14 years of a government that swore to make things more equal and the complete incompetence of a government that is more concerned with their own political image than the country itself as seen with how long the president took to manifest over the Mariana's disaster compared to how fast she was to manifest support for Lula when he got accused of being involved in corruption schemes.
But no, it is the millions who took the streets to protest against the government are the problem, they are the main cause of all this countries woes. Not the noble politicians fighting against the power elites they are totally no in bed with, not the useful idiots who receive thousands from the government to spew apologist propaganda, not the corruption schemes that result in the embezzlement of billions of R$ that could have been spent elsewhere, not the failed economic policies brought by Guido Mantega who destroyed the principles of fiscal responsibility, not how the government used cheap credit and stimulated the creation of a debt bubble after raising the interests rates from 7% to 14% and totally it isn't the use of the state run companies and the ministries as a political bargain tool for the governists to buy political support from other parties.
[[/rant]]
edited 15th Mar '16 6:04:36 AM by AngelusNox
Inter arma enim silent legesPeople have been complaining about the economy here for as long as i've been alive, but this is the worst I remember it ever being.
For just one example present in my everyday life, the usual exchange rate for the Dollar here was 1 dollar = 2 reais, sometimes 3 when I was growing up. We're down to around 1 dollar = 4~ reais at the moment.
edited 14th Mar '16 2:27:14 PM by wehrmacht
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Already in motion.
With the economic down run pushing the unemployment to near 10% specially among the youth and women, the economic production dropping to the same level it was during the 60's and the stagnation on the consumer goods sector due to the economic uncertainty, unemployment and rising prices are definitely pushing people away from the in name only left parties in Brazil.
Don't even mention about it, I am struggling with finding employment and most of my friends who graduated in the engineering fields are either being laid out of trying to find a job.
edited 14th Mar '16 2:40:42 PM by AngelusNox
Inter arma enim silent legesIf they weren't sustainable, they weren't much of a social gain in the first place.
And that's how I ended up in the wardrobe. It Just Bugs Me!

I haven't been given any reason to think the other parties in the country are much better than the Workers' Party, honestly.