Brazilian Government To Monitor Social Media To Counter Recent Riots 126
First time accepted submitter prxp writes "Recent riots in Brazil have taken the Brazilian Government completely by surprise, since most of its intelligence personnel have been assigned to work on the security of Fifa's Confederations Cup, according to 'O Estado de São Paulo' (Google translation), one of Brazil's major newspapers. This is particularly ironic, since protesting against the way Fifa has managed Confederations Cup in Brazil accompanied with overspending by the Brazilian Government is in the heart of these riots. Because of that, ABIN (the Brazilian equivalent to CIA) "has assembled a last minute operation to monitor the Internet" where intelligence officials have been tasked to monitor protesters' every move 'though Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp' in order to "anticipate itineraries and size of riots" among other intel. The legality of such action is unknown, since Brazilian laws prohibit this kind of wiretapping."
BR huehuehue (Score:2, Informative)
Damn!!! I AM A BRAZILIAN.. and our government is FUCKING with us!!
What the hell is a " Fifa's Confederations Cup"? (Score:3)
The google translation didn't come up for me...
One of many currency war protests. (Score:5, Interesting)
If you do not get what the problem is, see: Stop bankers betting on food - What is the problem?. [wdm.org.uk]
Also on Brazil: Currency War Rattles Brazil, Wakes Up the People [testosteronepit.com]:
The spark that lit it – after price and asset inflation had made life too expensive for the middle class – was an increase in bus fares.
[Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega] taken aim at the Fed’s “bold” efforts to hand trillions to the big players – the hot money – who didn’t invest it in production and jobs in the US but plowed it into every conceivable “asset class,” such as commodity and currency speculation and similar productive uses. It hit prices in Brazil and drove up the Real.
Brazil counterattacked last year. The Real plunged 24% against the buck. Prices of imported goods soared – adding to the inflation that had already been zigzagging up from 3.7% in 2007. In May, it hit a red-hot 6.45%.
It was just too much for the 40 million people who’d made the transition from poverty into (barely) the middle class since the turn of the millennium. Products they buy on a daily basis have jumped: tomatoes are up 96% over last year, onions 70%, rice 20%, chicken 23%. Since 2008, rents are up 118%.
Of course, bankers do what they like, own the politicians and sit on the board directly or indirectly of nearly ever major news source out there - so move along, no currency war to see here...
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There's a lot more going on besides food and currency. Mass corruption is the name of the game. The irony of course is they recently held a international "anti-corruption" gathering. Brazil is one small step, a very small step above China in terms of throwing money at someone to make "things" happen.
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Except... Brazil has a corrupt culture. Just like Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.
What I'm saying is, although people all over the world would do whatever they can get away with, in those countries, lack of an expectation of ethics, lack of others shaming those who don't bother to even try to pretend they're ethical beings, that throws the whole game down the tubes.
But at least those four countries I mentioned above don't have extreme poverty in large scale.
Brazil is riddled with politicians that hire the
Re: One of many currency war protests. (Score:1)
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Said an ANONYMOUS COWARD ! Funny !
We have been fucked for a while, what we're doing is rising against that.
Anyhow, ANONYMOUS COWARD, I'm not going to curse you. I pity you.
O que? ("what?" in Portuguese) (Score:5, Informative)
I'm sorry...you'll have to repeat that once more. I couldn't quite hear you over the sound of my brain cells committing suicide one by one.
Re:O que? ("what?" in Portuguese) (Score:5, Insightful)
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Well, presumably it is legal to look at public web content (Twitter, public Facebook events). Monitoring private communication by analysing data streams would clearly be illegal (not just in Brazil). Joining the events with a fake profile to follow communication would presumably be ok for the police to do.
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If they do that to arrest the less than 1% of thiefs and violent bullies that mix amongst our ranks, than it's all good.
As long as they don't hack into people's e-mail accounts without court order.
So far the govt has only reacted when things got violent. Disproportional responses but only after it got violent.
Those events are an interesting opportunity to catch criminals that are hard to find.
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It probably means there are no laws specifically addressing this situation.
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The situation of reading public posts on Facebook? I sure hope there aren't any laws on that situation.
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"The legality of such action is unknown, since Brazilian laws prohibit this kind of wiretapping."
This caught my eye too. Poster needs to make up his mind. If Brazilian laws prohibit this then the legality is not "unknown" it's illegal. I have no idea what the relevant Brazilian law says, and I am guessing the submitter doesnt either.
Re:O que? ("what?" in Portuguese) (Score:5, Informative)
No, the poster is correct. Obviously, the Brazilian government holds to the same school of thought as the US government. It's not unlawful/un-Constitutional if we do it because of the current scary and propaganda-hyped boogeyman-du-jour.
Civil rights are taking a beating everywhere these days along with those advocating for them, it seems. All the recent US government "scandals" are actually just symptoms of the government attacking and violating civil rights in general. Every one of the so-called "scandals" are actually the government violating/ignoring/abusing/attacking/denying the civil rights of all the people, not just a particular group.
We need *real* civil rights leaders. Not the current jokes that bill themselves as such. It's time for another civil rights movement (NOT some "Arab Spring" violent revolution based on hate). Everywhere.
Strat
Re:O que? ("what?" in Portuguese) (Score:4, Informative)
No, the poster is correct. Obviously, the Brazilian government holds to the same school of thought as the US government. It's not unlawful/un-Constitutional if we do it because of the current scary and propaganda-hyped boogeyman-du-jour.
Civil rights are taking a beating everywhere these days along with those advocating for them, it seems.
Without talking about what the US government is doing, I would just point out that what is nonsensical in the original post is that monitoring what people say on Twitter isn't "wiretapping" any more than reading what you chose to post on this forum is "wiretapping".
Civil rights may well be under attack, but not by people looking at a Twitter or Instagram stream, looking for comments about where protests are being held.
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My kingdom for mod points...
This is exactly right. Sure, Brazilian laws might outlaw some kinds of wiretapping, but I'm going to need a bit more than a Google translation of a news article before I form an opinion on whether this specific action is illegal, when done by these specific agents, in this specific country, at this specific time.
I know it's cool for Slashdotters to shoehorn every kind of observation into "wiretapping", then assume that all wiretapping laws prohibit it, but that's just not the cas
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If Brazilian laws prohibit this then the legality is not "unknown" it's illegal.
That proves you know nothing about Brazil, Jon Snow!
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I'm sorry...you'll have to repeat that once more. I couldn't quite hear you over the sound of my brain cells committing suicide one by one.
Horrid sentence structure aside, the issue is no longer questioning what is legal. The issue is what the hell are you going to do about it when you find the activity...isn't.
Legality smegality...doesn't really matter when as a citizen you no longer maintain control or have a say in the matter.
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They Aren't Already Doing That? (Score:2)
Re:They Aren't Already Doing That? (Score:5, Informative)
You also have a generation of young people who grew up in democratic Brazil with the internet and they still cling to the idea they have rights and freedoms.
In the old days technical help for the USA would ensure a few government-sponsored political assassinations and disappearances would find the trouble makers and solve any issues before they got any support.
Their intelligence agencies will be doing what any intelligence agencies do, make lists and wait for the political cover for targeted or mass arrests.
The last thing intelligence agencies want is a "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerzy_Popieuszko" ie some priest/press/student is beaten and murdered for the gov-
Suddenly the intelligence agents are in a very public court after just doing their 'jobs'.
Expect to see a lot of tear gas, spray, small tanks, rubber/live rounds at any protests but a long slow hidden harassment of protesters by every gov department.
Tax problems, university problems, press card is not valid, banking issues - just until a protest leader gets the message to stay home.
If that fails, active surveillance until the person does something wrong. Then a very legal night raid that the individual may or may not survive.
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I, for one... (Score:5, Funny)
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Since this is becoming a global trend
Agreed. Earlier someone wrote about India that people shouldn't be too US-centric in thinking about the motivation for their wire tapping. But now? Two countries doing the same thing is a coincidence, three is a trend. On the bright side, the USA still leads the way! Oh, hold it ...
Not FIFA (Score:1)
As corrupt as FIFA might be with its match-fixes, the root of the problem in Brazil is the dishonesty of the politicians (who would sell their mothers/wives/daughters for a quick buck) and the complacency of the population (who whine, but vote for the same politicians every year).
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The root of our problem isn't in the politicians, it's in ourselves.
Brazil has a corrupt culture. Our lack of peaceful activism, extreme tolerance for what's wrong, indifference to crime, our habit of skirting the law instead of changing, of thinking the law is good until we're affected by it, of wanting the govt to take care of things that should be up to us, specially lack of political activism.
The politicians are just a consequence of that.
Go around the world the Latin world (Latin America and Latin Euro
"Monitoring" or "Wiretapping"? (Score:5, Insightful)
Monitoring and wiretapping aren't the same thing. I expect any decent state intelligence agency to have the ability to go on Twitter and read public tweets.
Re:"Monitoring" or "Wiretapping"? (Score:5, Insightful)
> Monitoring and wiretapping aren't the same thing. I expect any decent state intelligence agency to have the ability to go on Twitter and read public tweets.
Exactly -- making the argument that monitoring public information is somehow 'eavesdropping' or 'wiretapping' just because you don't want the authorities to see it is pretty weak. I question the relevance of this article full stop -- it's simple prudence to assume that if you post something in a public feed, anyone -- including the government, cops, whoever -- could be reading / watching / listening.
Suggesting that is somehow 'illegal' is just childish and silly.
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Yeah but the story mentions wiretapping of WhatsApp, which is not "open" like Facebook or Instagram
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Ah so the NSA is merely monitoring the whole world's communications. Got it.
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In this case, they are "wiretapping" in much the same way that I am "wiretapping" the comments on this forum.
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If all the NSA was doing was monitoring public posts to Facebook & Twitter no one would care. You might want to glance at the news to see what they are really doing.
legality shmegality (Score:4, Insightful)
Didn't you know? We must destroy democracy and civil liberties in order to save them. One life saved is worth all our civil liberties. Our voters expect no less (and sadly, they really don't).
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Didn't you know? We must destroy democracy and civil liberties in order to save them. One dollar made is worth all our civil liberties. Our voters expect no less (and sadly, they really don't).
Fixed it for you...
The lesson to learn (Score:3, Insightful)
Why can't people learn from past mistakes? Do not under any circumstance let your city or country host one of these once every 4 year politically charged sporting events. They are way too expensive for the average citizen, and they're just a get rich quick scheme for a few and a way for politicians to make the naive feel good about them and re-elect them. These events funnel way too much money into building infrastructure that rarely gets used again after the event, and wrecks the local culture by taking away sponsorship money.
You're much better off getting on a regular championship circuit where you can invest in the infrastructure once and profit from it annually. And the championship circuits are much less politically charged, so the politicians don't gain much from meddling with the events.
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Dark Web: Where anyone can host a hidden forum! (Score:1)
Might want to include "dark web" forums, too, like:
HackBB
http://www.tinyurl.com/hackbbonion [tinyurl.com]
Above tinyurl requires Tor as it's a link to a Tor hidden service .onion discussion forums site.
just some background (Score:1, Troll)
I think the causes and the protesters are interesting:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/19/us-brazil-protests-impact-analysis-idUSBRE95I1LQ20130619 [reuters.com]
Causes:
Karma karma karm karma karmawhoring (Score:2, Interesting)
Has blockquotes: CHECK
Has blatant stab at Lefties: CHECK
You, sir, will have +5 in mere seconds. You've been paying attention.
Re:just some background (Score:4, Insightful)
So, it's educated middle class people in the city protesting that politicians aren't giving them stuff cheaper and that politicians are wasting their money. Remember that Brazil is under a left-wing government headed by the PT (Worker's Party). At least it's not Venezuela, where the left wing government managed to produce a shortage of toilet paper; you really don't want to have riots involving large numbers of people lacking toilet paper; it's likely to be smelly.
Of course, if Brazil had a free market kind of government, some people would be protesting against that as well because they think they aren't getting their "fair share". They'd want a left wing government that gives them "free stuff", until that left wing government predictably fails to be able to deliver, and then they protest against that. Well, as long as the stay away from fascist or theocratic government and don't run out of toilet paper, the Brazilians should still be mostly OK.
Silly question: do you actually know much about Brazilian politics and economics, or did you just use a sound bite statistic from one article to justify your generic ideological rant?
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Silly question: do you actually have a better explanation of what is going on, or do you just jump on anybody who mentions the words "left wing"?
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The latter. He clearly is against it, or not. He sounds just like the common brazilian "educated middle class" he refers at the beginning, ignoring real politics and economics and focusing on his navel gazing views.
* And when I say "He", you know, could be a "She". Doesn't matter.
Your "background" and conclusions are wrong (Score:5, Interesting)
stenvar says:
If you had done some proper research, you would have discovered that the "middle class" did not support the protest, it started off peacefully and only gained traction after abusive police crackdowns. [nydailynews.com]
There's even a eyewitness report, together with pictures and videos of the police brutality by the poster "Canslli" here [abovetopsecret.com] .
So while you sit safely at home smugly spinning lies to support your ideological war against the left, understand that there are real people with real issues who are bleeding and dying in the riots. At least respect that.
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So you say it's a "lie" that the protests started the way Reuters says they started? They didn't start because of bus ticket hikes? They aren't occurring among more educated groups, as opposed to among the poorest of the poor?
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So you say it's a "lie" that the protests started the way Reuters says they started? They didn't start because of bus ticket hikes? They aren't occurring among more educated groups, as opposed to among the poorest of the poor?
You need to be pay more attention to the situation. To find out what's really going down in Brazil, you need to watch Hillbilly Mutt 20's reaction to your comment. This protest is not happening because people want free stuff.
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Oh, and knock off the self-righteous indignation. No, you are not morally superior because you weave feigned compassion into your ideology.
Fucking sociopath..
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I think you're wrong.
The lower middle class started the protest. Then most liberal elements of the upper middle class got involved to some extent.
If the poor actually got involved, there wouldn't be enough space in those venues to hold them, it would have been 10x the people.
Most protesting earn 2-5x minimum wage. That's middle class.
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Actually, PT is centrist - the name only means that it has roots in "trabalhismo" (labour movement).
I'll just mention that a right-wing or a left-wing party in this circumstance would have the same kind of trouble, as long as it was so incompetent and dishonest as PT (PSDB, center-right, I'm looking at you).
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In what way? They are generally described as "center-left" or "social democratic", which makes them a left-wing party.
Well, yes, it would have the same kind of trouble, as I said in my message: "if Brazi
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Actually, PT is centrist - the name only means that it has roots in "trabalhismo" (labour movement).
Incorrect. If you read PT's internal documentation you see references to left wing intellectuals for everything, and nothing from right wing ones. It goes from Marx, Lenin and Trotsky to Gramsci, passing through Frankfurtians and a few others. To be very technical, PT is a middle-left party composed of internal tendencies that range from the extreme left to center left.
I'll just mention that a right-wing or a left-wing party in this circumstance would have the same kind of trouble, as long as it was so incompetent and dishonest as PT (PSDB, center-right, I'm looking at you).
And that's incorrect too. PSDB's intellectual references range from Fabianism to contemporaneous social democracy and a range of 3rd ways. N
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I'd definitely classify DEM as right-wing. Also PSC (whacko evangelical right-wing).
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I'd definitely classify DEM as right-wing. Also PSC (whacko evangelical right-wing).
You'd because we lack what to compare them to. If you compare the DEM or PSC side-by-side to the US GOP or UK Tory parties, both fit squarely in the center of the political spectrum. This is easy to see when you also consider that for a party to really be "in the right" it must have clear political goals based on clear right-wing political theories. DEM has none, literally. Many years ago they had a small tendency towards adopting some libertarian ideals, but they gave up on that. PSC, on the other hand, ha
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PT used to be left-wing. When they figured out a left wing party need to ally with corrupt/populist center parties, in order to win presidency, they slowly moved to the center, actually left center.
But kept all of their commie ideology at heart. They kept most of the dictatorial side of communism, plus the irresponsible populism. But kept the private property and wealth as a fountain of money to feast from. And all you can eat corruption.
If Brazil had more oil money, they would very likely at least tried to
MOD PARENT UP! (Score:2)
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When are people like you going to learn that the "free market" is a fucking lie. There will never be such a thing. Once one company gets big enough it will starve out every other company and then you will just have that one monopoly.It will charge whatever it likes and pay off / sue whomever it needs to in order to maintain its positions. Advocating any extreme position is stupid. You can't have a perfect free market just like you can't have a perfect socialist government. The answer is always somewhere in
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Where did I say anything about a "perfect free market"? In fact, I said:
When are people like you going to learn to read? And when are you going to stop seeing the world in black and white? I'm not the blind ideologue here, you are.
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Here in Brazil he have lots of oligopolies, 5 to 10 companies that share the bulk of any given market, pretending to compete against each other, but they only compete for big and huge customers, like banks that bend over backwards for companies that generate tens of thousands of "boletos" per month, that in the US was handled as mailing a check to pay a bill. But charge individual and small business customers almost exactly the same thing for their services.
Being a Brazilian and having lived in the US throu
solving a problem by... burying your head (Score:2)
There are two ways to deal with civil protest.
The first, is to put down any protest with violence. Let the peons know who's boss.
The second way, and the one more likely not to get you murdered, is to find out what the problem is and sort that out.
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There's a third, pretend you're working on it, and let it die down, try to use violence only when they have an excuse.
Typical Brazilian way of doing things. Avoid confrontation, pretend to care, do as little as possible, because they expect the people to give up and forget. And continue to be the fox in the hound, collecting bribes everywhere, and doing a fair amount of money siphoning as quietly as possible.
a local look (Score:5, Informative)
brazilian here:
The main problem, as far as I see, it's not the federal government: are the states and municipal ones.
The main riots begun against the price of the bus in the main cities (first in Porto Alegre in April, and took a big shape after Sao Paulo tried to raise the price of the bus ticket in may-june). People are beat by the local polices without clear reason (plus rubber bullets and moral gas) and lots of arrests are being made without a reason (in Sao Paulo the local police arrested hundreds of people with possession of VINEGAR*).
But look how crazy this sounds: the mayor of Sao Paulo (the city) is a left-wing (or center-left) workers party. The governor of Sao Paulo (the state) is a right-wing almost tea-party-look-a-like. The riots were against the mayor, but the state used its force (police). In porto alegre, the mayor is a center-right-wing and the state government is a left-wing workers party. The same: the riots were against the mayor, and the police (controled by the governor) was used in a brutal way (not so hard as sao paulo, but brutal) against the rioters.
Now that the main cities agreed to lower the price of the bus ticket (porto alegre in May and several other cities in the last few days), the riots looks more like french 68 riots than anything else. It's not about the price of the bus ticket anymore, but about the political and social culture in Brazil (corruption, a lack of social control, etc).
*Vinegar is used to decrease the effects of tear gas.
** One last thing: be careful with brazilian newspapers. Most of them will stand for its own agenda and they are part of the problem, not the solution.
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What is outside always look worst, isn't? ;)
But back to reality: Alckmin is a religious political figure from the right-wing sector of a right-wing party. Maybe he don't act like the tea party - and of course, he isn't so dumb as Sarah Palin - but at the end, it's not so different.
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You're delusional. Alckmin is right-wing for Brazilian standards, but his social programs would be considered borderline socialist in the USA.
Just look at how Obama is accused of being socialist for Obamacare, which is not even universal healthcare.
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You should know that Alckmin have a program to create vouchers insted of public healthcare.
This is EXACTLY what Friedman suggests (a right-wing intellectual, even for USA standards).
Otherwise, Alckmin several times said He is against welfare - the 'bolsa-família' - (that even the right-wing governments in USA keep as 'food-stamps').
So, as you see, he IS right-wing for brazilian standards and he is right-wing even by american standards.
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Don't think everyone in USA thinks the same. Lots of people there support universal healthcare (including co-ops of New York Times, for instance).
The american right-wing-bat-shit-crazy thinks universal healthcare is socialism. And, yes, they have lots of voice there - but still, it's not the 'country'.
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A right winger will viciously attack all social programs the left implements.
Those politicians in Brazil don't get elected.
We have essentially nothing to the right of center.
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I guess he means that people see Alckmin as a "religious" solution for the problems.
(At least, from what I see, only for Paulistas.)
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The problem is they're all corrupt, they're there to get as rich as possible.
Major scandals documenting incompetence, passive corruption (taking bribes), influence trafficking (a political gatekeeper inside the govt that gets paid to open doors for others), the good parties ask for 3-5% bribes on contracts, the bad ones is 15% and up.
The problem is the people first needs to educate itself on the larger issues, then protest on those, with just three fundamental changes, the situation will improve hugely.
1 -
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** One last thing: be careful with brazilian newspapers. Most of them will stand for its own agenda and they are part of the problem, not the solution.
Agreed. AND TVS, SPECIALLY GLOBO. That... thing manages to distort news even worse than newspapers.
Piá, at least us Southerners have some [small] hope with the possibility of independence (although O Sul é meu País is lazy as fuck), but what worries me most are the others...
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I don't think the south-Brazil will become independent. Maybe is even more possible that other countries will merge Brazil (not now, of course, but in the long term).
As I see, in 50 years, all the Mercosul will be one country. And maybe that's when this country will be trully federal. (Actually, I think the main hope for south-Brazil it's not the independence, but the real federalization of the country).
Just guessing.
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I disagree, since I've seen more often larger countries breaking into smaller ones (Yugoslavia, South Sudan, etc.) than countries merging, thus seeing an Araucárias Federation of sorts or even three Republics spawning from former South wouldn't be improbable. Also, economic blocs aren't replacing the countries, but making countries matter less and less.
But my point is more along those lines: worst hypothesis, if shit hits the fan that bad, we still have this possibility, and enough political power to d
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I think the main problem of the north and northeast is exactly the budget help they receive from the south and southeast.
The owners of the northeast (oligarchies) steal money exactly because this money came from elsewere. If it come from the pockets of their own people, probably this people will be very pissed off.
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The problem with the north and north east isn't the money they get, it's the even lazier people that live there.
Poor chums. Need to stop complaining and start working. Parts of Ceara, Pernambuco are showing heat and dry land is no excuse for not working. Go learn a thing or two from Israel.
Brazil needs a lot more hard work.
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The main problem, as far as I see, it's not the federal government: are the states and municipal ones.
No, it is not, and the President's speech being booed at the opening of the world cup is a good example. The problem with the bus ticket price, by the other side, is a municipal and state problem ** I am not sure that left/center/right still exists. There are the ones that control (more), and the ones that want to control (more), and somehow they got scared together this time.
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I don't like anedoctes to understand the reality - Statistics are always better. So, let's see:
The personal aproval rating of the president is 71% - yes, it was 79% one year ago, but is still a very high aproval rating.
In the government aproval rating, ONLY 13% thinks it's 'bad' or 'terrible' (in pt-br: ruim ou péssimo). It was 7% at the beggining of the year, but is still a aproval.
If you want to look by yourself: http://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2013/06/aprovacao-do-governo-dilma-vai-55-aponta-pe [globo.com]
Point (Score:1)
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Yet another case of a government Missing. The. Point.
Latin American governments more often than not miss completely the point. And this goes beyond the old right vs. center vs. left discussion - it's about competence.
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That's right. Very few states have elected a governor that ran on efficiency, hard work, a MANAGEMENT CULTURE SHOCK.
Minas Gerais is kicking ass.
In most states running for governor with a motto like that will get you nowhere.
Minas went from being below average from almost everything, even with lots of industries and natural resources, to being much higher than average, on just 10 years.
We need a MANAGEMENT CULTURE SHOCK at the Federal level.
I say Brazil is not a developing country, it's a country stuck in be
Equivalent to the CIA? (Score:1)
I'm sorry, but the CIA is not supposed to collect intelligence to operate against its own citizens. Since that sounds like what ABIN is doing, it is therefore not the "Brazilian version of the CIA".
Unless ABIN is also not supposed to spy on their citizens, but is doing it *anyway* and doesn't give a fuck, in which case they are exactly equivalent to the CIA.
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Like CIA, NSA, FBI bullshit.
They also don't have budget to have several and need to optimise resources.
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In Brazil it's unfortunately common to pay telco employees with access to the legal wiretapping gear and get illegal wiretaps without bothering with the subject's phone or home. You don't need ABIN to spy on Brazilians.
Just this week Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a two term ex-president criticized the habit of those in power leaking legal wiretaps fom political gains, that happens often.
ABIN is sort of a laughing stock here. We never hear of them doing anything good or important.
While the CIA and NSA can be bl
make it a non issue (Score:1)
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If people think their government is fair and acting in their best interest, there is no reason to riot.
The problem is that some people's idea of "fair" is "getting free stuff paid for by other people." When the taxpayers are out of cash to buy the free stuff, the people used to getting the free stuff get mad and burn the town they live in to show how upset they are. Quick! Give get some money from the guy whose store is being trashed, and use it to give the people who are smashing his windows some more free stuff! Whew. Crisis averted.
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If it were only that easy.
The biggest problem of the Brazilian govt isn't corruption, it's massive incompetence, it's massive laziness.
Ok, here is an account from someone from the riots (Score:3, Interesting)
Look, there are two things that must be kept in mind about how things works in Brazil.
1. The police _really_ doesn't know better. They are ill trained and scared of riots. This means it is rather easy to start a major mess unless specific pressure against the use of rubber shots/tear gas is issued. That explains what happened in the first days.
2. We have quite a large amount of bandits that are just waiting for an opportunity to strike. And I don't mean the government (although the description fits all the *four* "powers" in Brazil just fine: press, judiciary, executive and legislative).
Yesterday, there were hundreds of thousands protesting in my city. It was peaceful, it was beatifull, and the police was prepared ahead of time to NOT go bonkers. After the main body of people went home, malcontents and bandits decided to start destroying public buildings in order to create a diversion. Their objective is only to destroy in order to create enough of a mess to be able to pillage stores. The bus fare was ALREADY reduced from R$ 3.30 to R$ 3.00 in the previous day, so there really wasn't much of a reason to protest[1]
The end result? People injured, lots of property destruction, and the city I live in is a major mess. The police was told to not shot the criminals dead just in case there were decent people caught in the middle. In Rio de Janeiro, it was MUCH worse yesterday.
It will get worse.
Re: (Score:2)
The Summer of Riots has only begun. (Score:4, Interesting)
Doesn't everybody remember last year, when multiple reports came out from sociologists saying that food prices cause riots, and that food prices worldwide were expected to peak in the summer of 2013? Headlines like 'We have until August 2013 before riots sweep the globe', and 'We have one year before everything explodes' -- that doesn't ring a bell for anyone else?
Social unrest is correlated to the price of necessary commodities. When the poor cannot afford basic necessities, they have no choice but to get violent. Because of crop failures last year, this year is primed for social unrest EVERYWHERE.
The Arxiv paper demonstrating the correlation, based on data from the 2008 food riots. [arxiv.org]
An article warning us from last year. [technologyreview.com] And another. [inhabitat.com] And another. [aljazeera.com]
Sociologists have known this was coming. Governments should have known this was coming. It's going to be a brutal, bloody summer. Get ready.
smart move there, Brazil (Score:2)
Its legality is unknown ... (Score:2)
But it is specifically illegal by Brazilian law?
So where does the unknown come in? Is it unknown if Brazilian law applies to the Brazilian CIA?
Re: (Score:3)
Because they have nukes?
Next question please.
Re: (Score:1)
If the Brazilian law was followed to the letter, half of our issues with govt would be solved.
I wish we could worry about what the law says.
Those in power (political and economical) disregard our laws left and right.
Re: (Score:1)
We're always protesting about the small things.
Not to diminish the effect of a bus fare hike over people's life.
But even ending corruption is the wrong protest. Corruption is the result of a lazy, passive, go along, way too peaceful Brazilian culture (the sum of that is a permissive environment to corruption).
1 - District voting, that's one change that would be tectonic over the Brazilian political establishment.
That's the thing worth protesting (not that half baked, for show sugestion the Brazilian Bar Ass