No Man's land: or why Brazil is a dump

People being robbed and murdered in broad daylight, people being kidnapped and mutilated for small sums of money, people being forced to change the way they live their lives, trying to dodge an ever increasing mob of criminals that feasts on this scared, powerless population. No, I am not talking about Iraq, or some remote place in Africa that is being decimated by civil wars. I am talking about some other No man's land, I'm talking about Brazil.

Brazil has been going through a long process of decay. There are many things happening, and no single issue is responsible by itself. I will not pretend to understand this process in its full complexity, but there are some things I *do* understand, and those are the ones I intend to share with you here.

The majority of the population no longer has access to education, or public health care. Public schools have underpaid, under qualified teachers. The few good teachers that are left live in constant fear because of the criminals that ride our schools, and have no authority in the classroom, being unable to educate. In fact, the authorities in our schools cannot deal with the kind of violent characters that are infiltrated in there, making our teaching environments as a No man's land as the rest of this country. How can we expect anything good to flourish?

What about our government? What measures are being taken to counter that situation? Well, a few weeks ago I heard that a lobbyist named Cláudio Gontijo has been financing the mistress of the president of our senate, Mr. Renan Calheiros -- in fact, everything points to their relationship being way deeper than that. Now, why do you think this lobbyist would do anything for Mr. Calheiros? Because he looks so good? No, it's because Mr. Calheiros sold our senate to this lobbyist in exchange for personal favors. Now that ought to improve things.

This small story (believe me, that one is nothing compared to what we hear every day) tells what kind of politicians we have in Brazil -- selfish pricks who have no regard whatsoever for what's happening to the rest of the country, and who have no shame in selling the soul of our country to the benefit of no other than themselves.

What about our president, Mr. Lula, the "people's voice"? Oh, he has already expressed his support to Mr. Calheiros during these "difficult times" he must be going through. Mr. Calheiros is an important ally for the government, you know. This mutual "ass covering" points to the fact that our authorities are no longer authorities, they are as criminals as the criminal population they are raising.

This country is a No man's land, and the prognostics do not look good. Looks like non-criminal brazillians will have to accept the fact that their families are going to be murdered while their tax money is used to finance the private endeavors of our politicians.

I love this country.