Brazilian Elections: Lula's Legacy

From the Amazonian state of Acre all the way down to the German settlements in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil is a nation of contradictions and paradoxes. 


The world's fifth largest nation in terms of both geography and population, Brazil has been a wonderment for those around the world, with images of Ipanema Beach and Carnival.  But there is more to this sprawling country that takes up more than two thirds of South America than meets the eye.


Brazil is currently in the midst of it's national elections and looking for a new face to continue to lead the country in the direction that current President Lula ( Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva) managed to put it in during his eight year term. Lula, as he is affectionally called, is so loved that if it were constitutionally possible, Brazilians would reelect him for a third term.


Within his two terms, Lula helped bolster a bourgeoning middle class as well as tackle his country's several challenges. Before his presidency, Brazil was a country with an enormous disparity between the rich and the poor which prevented it's economic growth. In just this decade, thanks to Lula, 27 million Brazilians managed to "move on up" in the social ladder to the middle class. 


The country was also able to narrowly escape the world financial crisis and even see it's economy grow by six percent. Education became a primary concern for Lula's administration with the Bolsa Familia being enacted to encourage poor families to send their children to school for monthly monetary cheques from the government.


All of Lula's work has paid off, Brazil's Gini coefficient on inequality has dropped dramatically in the last decade, making Brazil a success story.


So now that Lula's time is sadly drawing to a close, who will be his best successor?


Three main candidates have come to the forefront but no one has seemed to resonate with the public as well as the current president initially did. Perhaps, it has something to do with his extremely humble beginnings in the Brazilian Nord-Este state of Pernambuco. 


In tomorrow's post, I will explore the candidates that have been drawing the most attention and comparing their backgrounds and their presidential promises. 


I haven't seen or heard anything convincing as yet from the candidates, but I could be biased because as far as I'm concerned, whoever is going to replace Lula has some big shoes to fill.


V.K.L

Economics According to Rachida Dati: To Inflate or To Fellate?

Keep up with world news, France just continues to pop up on my radar recently, hence this little mishap surely would not go unnoticed. 

Ex-justice minister turned European Minister of Parliament, Rachida Dati is no stranger to the press, but the gaffe she made on French television network Canal Plus has thrust her back into the limelight for an embarrassing fifteen seconds. 

Dati, known for her lavish living, was talking strictly business in an interview with Canal Plus this past weekend when she accidentally used "fellatio" instead of "inflation"  in a sentence discussing French economics,

"When I see some of them looking for returns of 20 or 25 percent, at a time when fellatio is close to zero, and in particular in a slump, that means we are destroying businesses," Dati said. 

The saving grace for Dati is that, according to Agence France Presse, the word for "fellatio" in French is "fellation", which can easily be confused with "inflation."

Dati has laughed off the situation, claiming she spoke too quickly.

I, on the other hand, am convinced that French politics and economics could not be any sexier. 


V.K.L

Lapsus: Dati confond "inflation" et... "fellation"
Uploaded by LePostfr. - News videos hot off the press.

The Sarkozy's: The Sexed Up, Less Amicable Version of the Obamas

Roma expatriation. Retirement age strikes. These ongoing issues in France are likely to occasionally flash across your television screen, granted you are watching the BBC or in your newspaper, if you're reading Financial Times or Wall Street Journal.

France always seems to have some of the hardest news stories to come out of Europe, and I find myself addicted to them. Yet, I can't help but notice that more and more, it's not necessarily the political and social news that North Americans are being informed of from the "Hexagon" but rather, the inside life of the Sarkozy's. 

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, supermodel/singer turned First Lady to the often and rightfully so, vilified president Nicolas Sarkozy , always seems to be in the news. During the spring, she and her husband were rumoured to be having extramarital affairs. Last week, she was reported to have said in her new biography that Michelle Obama called life in the White House "hell". Now, she is being slammed in Germany for attempting to use her celebrity status as a "charity plea" to the Bundestag. Never mind the fact that she is obviously going to come out with a new CD at some point. 

Her huband, Nicolas. on the other hand, is apparently losing allies within his own government. Just this week, French prime minister Francois Fillon claimed Sarkozy was never his "mentor" and that their relationship is a political alliance while allegedly "distancing" himself from the president  This coincidentally comes at the time that Sarkozy's government is seeing it's approval rating decrease to 49 percent in August, with Roma deportations and the plan to raise the national retirement age to 62 as obvious concerns. 

I'd like to parallel the image of Nicolas and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy with that of the Obama's. While Sarkozy's presidental campaign and entrance to the Palais d'Elysee was not a red carpet walk like it was for Obama, he still has received rock-star like press coverage, from quickly divorcing his former wife at the beginning of his term to his union to Carla. The only difference is Sarkozy never had as many people as Obama in his camp to begin with, and now, right at the same time of Tea Partiers and Republican rhetoric, he is starting to look like a single term president. 

All Eyes on Toronto for G8 and G20 Summit: Typical Canadian Overkill?

When I first found out that Toronto would hold the G20 summit in June, I was ecstatic. I thought, "this will be a great way to put the city back in the public eye." Now, with the summit already under way, I'm beginning to revoke what I had said weeks and months before hand.

G8 and G20 summits always tend to be very chaotic events, particularly on the outside, with protestors hurling insults, stones, garbage and pretty much anything else that can inflict damage at police and those in authority. Having seen the pandemonium that ensues with protestors from past news coverage of summits in years gone by, I can understand some of the fears that Toronto has over security issues.

A relatively "peaceful" city, Toronto is  looking to protect it's citizens as well as these world leaders that will be here to draft up future decisions that ultimately decide the fate of the world. But this has become just too much for me. Although I'm based out of New York, I keep updated on Canadian news at all times- particularly now through Twitter. "National Post" and CBC have their own Twitter accounts and they have perfectly captured the ridiculousness of this G20 overkill that is taking place.

Upon reading on CBC's website about the removal small trees from the downtown core so that protestors could not use the branches as weapons, I had to laugh. Canadians, always portraying themselves as ardent "environmentalists" and preaching all things "green", now removing trees? I'm not downplaying what could escalate into serious violence, but that seemed a bit outlandish and contradictory.

Canadians, particularly Torontonians, have also found their civil rights imposed upon, thanks to the G20 summit. According to the New York Times, anyone who went within 16 feet of the security fences set up all throughout downtown Toronto would be forced to provide identification and if they could not, they could would be issued a $500 fine or two months in jail. What lovely choices.

This "law" which Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair says is not "secret", is apparently just new regulations added to a 1939 law that was created in the infancy of World War II. These regulations should expire by Monday, however.

I, for one, am grateful to be away from the contrived calamity that has beset itself upon the city for the last month. Even my Toronto based employment, as far back as in May, was issuing statements to its' employees to avoid coming into the city at all costs for that weekend. People were even being encouraged to not come into work, if they could help it.

So far, according to CBC, tent cities have already been erected downtown by protestors and on Friday, more than 2,000 protestors took to the streets of Toronto. Some how that amount seems to pale in comparison to what I'm sure was a larger number in London in April 2009. Could all these fears be typical Canadian over-excitement?

I wonder if past G20 summit cities such as London and Pittsburgh went through such strenuous and impractical efforts to protect their citizens' security as Toronto is doing this time around. Knowing how nothing is fool-proof if it's Canadian, it won't be a surprise if something does go off at the summit. Then the event planners and security would have a real event on their hands.

Apolo Ohno, Greatest American Winter Olympian, Whatever the Outcome

He might not have given the results that many Americans were looking for, like a gold medal, but one thing Apolo Ohno did do was make himself the Michael Phelps of the Winter Olympics.

Saturday night, the Seattle-born 27 year old speedskater skated to his seventh Olympic medal and while it may have been a bronze, he surpassed long track speedskater Bonnie Blair as the most decorated American winter Olympic athlete. Taking the backseat to two Koreans, Lee Jung-Su and Lee Ho-Suk and coming in before Canada's Hamelin brothers in the 1,000 metres, Ohno did not look entirely settled.

In a quick interview with NBC after the skate, Ohno said that he would do the race again if he could. What he probably would do over was the footing "mistake" he made which caused him to appear to trail the pack for a few gruelling seconds and lose his momentum.

Ohno has a silver from this Olympics already, in the 1,500 metre where another American, 19 year old J.R Celski capture a bronze. And this was not the last event for the soul-patch sporting speedskater. Ohno fans do not fret - he still has two more events coming up, the 500 metre and the 5,000 metre final relay.

Having been an Ohno fan since he hit the Olympic scene in 2002, I would be thrilled to see him bring home the gold in his two final events.

Seven's a lucky number, we'll see what fate has in store for him.

V.K.L

'Super Sunday', the day Canada stands still...

Oh I do pity the Canadian men's Olympic hockey team.


I, just like the rest of Canadians, no matter where we are to be found, are expecting our boys to draw blood on the ice Sunday and show no mercy to the opposing American team. 

Apparently, the Vancouver locals have dubbed Sunday "Super Sunday", making the day seem like a Canadian version of the Super Bowl, substituting the sport with ice and a little black puck. This is the day that  "Newfies" as far east as St. John's, Newfoundland will be united with those cosmopolitan, tree-hugging Vancouverites for a few hours in the pursuit of a national victory.

The headlining event is compared to the 2002 Salt Lake City upset where Canada bashed the U.S to win the gold, even though it didn't do so much as cause a flinch to Americans' egos to lose as it would have hurt Canadians had they been the losers. I only pray that we don't get our own upset on home soil when the whole country is only concerned with one thing - can Sid the Kid, Brodeur and the rest of the gang knock the Americans out of their way in their pursuit of gold?

The Canadians have shown their dominance on the ice in the last two preliminary games where they beat the Norwegians 8 to 0 and the Swiss 3 to 0, although the Swiss put up a bit more of a fight. Of course, they lead their pool. The Americans have made themselves convincing contenders as well, beating the Swiss 3 to 1 and those poor, helpless Norwegians 6 to 1. 

Sunday's game will prove to be more than a war of the two neighbours, it will be a war of NHL teams. Between the two national teams, there are ten different NHL teams being represented among the players. It must be a bit disorienting to play against your regular teammate - I can only imagine. But there's no time to get sentimental and emotional now, especially for the Canadians. Not when a country's pride and identity seems to be at stake.

All niceness should be pushed aside Sunday at 4:30 Pacific Standard Time and the war face should be put on in what has been the most anticipated event for Canadians at the Vancouver Games. 

Let the better country win.

V.K.L

Cold War on Ice?

One can only imagine the agony that Evan Lysacek went through in 2006, falling ill to a bacterial infection and placing 10th at the Torino Games.

Well, Tuesday night he got his vindication four years later at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum. In an almost flawless short program performance , the feathered figure skater from Illinois, skated his heart out with an emotional end where he could not stop the tears from falling.

Always the quieter one between himself and rival AmericanJohnny Weir, Lysacek scored an amazing 90.30, second to Evgeny Plushenko's 90.85, with almost a Cinderella like ending.

I'm tempted to root solely for him during the upcoming free skate, but Patrick Chan being on home soil and the underdog tugs at my heart strings and so once again, I'M ON THE FENCE!

V.K.L