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Brazil Anti
Will Corruption Continue To Hold Back Brazil's Economic Growth?
Corruption has long been an unfortunate characteristic of Brazil and a concern of international business people and investors. With the most prominent forms appearing in the country's political system, below are some short descriptions of the most publicised cases:
- Fernando Collor (president from 1990 to 1992) was exposed as having undertaken a number of corrupt extortions in a fairly unsubtle manner and subsequently resigned to avoid impeachment. In 1994, he was acquitted of corruption on the grounds of inadequate evidence and is now back in the Brazilian Senate.
- In 2002, $BRL 1.3 million was discovered during a police raid at presidential hopeful Roseana Sarney´s husbands office. Despite the controversy at the time, she reentered politics and is now back serving as state governor of Maranhão.
- The 'Mensalão' affair of 2005 saw the chairman of the Brazilian Labour Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, PTB) - Roberto Jefferson - being implicated in a bribery case. A Parliamentary Commission was set up where Jefferson stated that there were several MPs receiving money to vote for specific legislation. In the same period, campaign manager Duda Mendonça admitted that undeclared and illegal funds (derived from private sources and laundered money through an advertising agency) were used to finance the PTB electoral victory of 2002.
- In 2009 Federal District governor, José Roberto Arruda, was caught handing bags of money to his legislator allies. What made this case particularly notable was the fact that that when Arruda's behaviour was exposed - the news was made widespread throughout the country and the politician was publically arrested and placed in custody: an unprecedented event in Brazil's history.
Whilst a 2010 study by German NGO Transparency International pointed to Brazil leading ahead of its BRIC counterparts (Russia, India and China), the recent Index of Economic Freedom stated that uncontrolled corruption amongst the political elite remains one of the main factors impeding the country´s excelled growth. Many of the Brazilian public believe that it is one of the main problems that the country faces.
According to Levy Brandão, leader of the campaign to oust José Arruda, the root causes of the problem are a lack of whistle-blowers and public transparency. He believes that, for Brazil to truly be able to grow sustainably, the political system needs to instill higher ethical standards than currently exist which, in turn, will filter into the economy and business world. Many campaigners also state that the punishment for corrupt politicians needs to be greater - many cases continue to go unnoticed and trials can take long periods of time within which corrupt politicians can renew their careers.
Nevertheless, several Brazilian commentators and industry leaders debate that modern day principles of decency, avoidance of greed and abuse of power are emerging. According to Jorge Gerdau, chairman of Grupo Gerdau, one of Brazil's largest steelmakers: "There is a historical, cultural problem of a certain backwardness which is very hard to overcome but there is also increasing public demand for transparency and respect for the electorate."
Transparência, a São Paulo based NGO, claims that although political bribery does occur, some of the money is in fact used to fund election campaigns. Politicians often feel the need to bypass Brazil's orthodox campaign finance laws to further their chances of gaining seats in the Senate.
In late 2009, President Lula signed a bill encouraging members of the public to report acts of corruption whilst, at the same time, offering support and protection for those that do. Indeed, most of Brazilians want to see corrupt politicians and people in power exposed and, in turn, more grass roots organisations are appearing across the country. The 'Arruda Out' campaign (run by student groups) was an excellent example of the power of self-creating groups taking to the streets to call for a more ethical Brazilian political system (the ´Arruda Out´ campaign attracted over 30,000 members). The leader of the campaign believes that the country is moving in the right direction - particularly with regards to media exposure as well as the internet allowing news to be spread quicker and easier. The fact that Arruda was placed in public custody should leave an impression on future generations of politicians to not impeach the law for their own gains.
In business and commerce, there are more companies wishing to decrease the level of corruption - one particularly successful organisation is the Pacto Empresarial pela Integridade e Contra a Corrupção (the Business Pact for Integrity and Anti-Corruption) which has over 1,300 members and rising, including most of Brazil´s major companies.
About the Author
Access our interview with Levy Brandão, leader of the successful campaign to oust José Arruda by clicking on the link below: http://www.brazilinvestmentguide.com/blog/2010/03/eliminating-corruption-in-brazil/ . We are specialist providers of FREE resources for real estate and land investors in Brazil, please click on the following link for more information: http://www.brazilinvestmentguide.com/
Was Brazil 2008 the best Formula 1 race you have seen in a while?
It had me on the edge of my seat!
What was your highlight?
I am so glad Lewis won the World Championship!
P.S. Please leave out any anti-Lewis answers, they are becoming a bit of a bore!
As a Hamilton fan, the entire races was very nerve-wracking. It was almost as if the gods were conspiring to confound Lewis, the rain before the start was just a precursor to the drama ahead.
I got the impression from qualifying that Lewis had a lot of fuel on board and low downforce (his sector times indicated this) and so to have a wet start took away his main advantage of having a lot of fuel, everyone had to pit for dry tyres early on. That early Safety Car also didn’t help as it had the effect of keeping the field bunched up.
The middle of the race was fairly uneventful and Lewis looked to be heading for a fairly comfortable 4th place and then the rain came!
He’d driven conservatively all race, trying to look after the car and avoiding incidents but had to pit early for wet tyres to be on the safe side. However, it then didn’t rain hard enough for Inters to work properly and he lost a place to Glock.
He was then 5th which was fine but Vettel looked quicker as the track was starting to get wetter, the lack of downforce on the McLaren was key. Then Kubica turned up on dry tyres, the track was still best on dry tyres and he got past Vettel easily. I got the impression that Hamilton saw Kubica coming fast and jumped out of the way to avoid any chance of a collision, this let Vettel through with barely a lap to go.
Suddenly I was utterly devastated, it looked like Hamilton would lose the title with a lap to go just due to the weather, Glock was on dry tyres and his times were fine, 15 seconds up the road, it was all over. I almost turned the TV off there and then but decided to watch as maybe someone would spin off on the damp track.
Then amazingly it started to rain heavily, but surely too late?
My heart was in my mouth as I watched Lewis struggle with the car, desperately trying to catch Vettel, fighting with it to stop it spinning on several occasions – one mistake here and it would be over.
Then I couldn’t believe it when I saw that Toyota, is that Glock, surely it can’t be? I spotted him before the commentators who confirmed it was Glock! On the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season, Hamilton moved into championship winning position.
This is undoubtedly the greatest moment of any sporting event in history and will go down as such in the fullness of time. People will ask “where were you when Hamilton won his first championship” and fans will remember it.
I went from total desolation to total jubilation in the space of a few seconds, incredible, in 30 years of watching F1, I’ve never witnessed the like of it.
To those who claim F1 is dull – I pity you, you've missed a very special event.
Brazilian anti-logging activist shot dead