So, about Rio...

[BeBMan]

Olympic favela - the world gets to learn how it is to live in Rio for majority.

What's wrong with that?

We also need moar Olympia in Venezuela and/or North Korea.

[The Mad Monk]

"The system failed. Water came down walls, there was a strong smell of gas in some apartments and there was "shorting" in the electrical wiring. "

To which an acquaintance on another site remarked,

Every apartment in Rio smells like gas due to the nature of their stove pilots. It's why they require one window to be un-closeable in every apartment so it doesn't accumulate.

To which I responded,

Were they designed by lethally incompetent engineers, or simply built by lethally sloppy workers?

And he said,

They were designed for uneducated maids to cook for untrained-in-using-the-stove middle class fools. Between the fact that middle class people usually don't know a thing about how to cook or clean for themselves in Rio, and the fact that the people they hire to do it are often illiterate and incapable of complex thought processes, they just figured it was better to legislate that every apartment have a kitchen (and bathroom if that has gas instead of electric showers) window that doesn't close. To keep the whole building from taking damage.

...but I can also see a Brazilian engineer thinking "well if we don't light the pilot light all the time we aren't burning all that gas!"

One time a building super tried to fix our clogged toilet by putting a wooden board over the bowl and flushing it. Imagining the board would push the water down thru the hole.

To which I posted

If you're not going to have a pilot light on all the time, why have a pilot light at all?

[Bereta_Eder]

The inequality in Brazil seems huge.

There needs to be an equality program.

Also, who was the person who thought it'd be a good idea to have the torch cross these neighborhoods?

He should be given a medal for raising awareness.

[C0ckney]

If they opened up to free trade they could begin building modern places where everything actually worked thus improving living standards. Granted they would have to compete and those highly inefficient businesses would either have to get efficient fast or they would go out of business but living standards on the whole would rise.

this is just silly nonsense.

[C0ckney]

The inequality in Brazil seems huge.

There needs to be an equality program.

Also, who was the person who thought it'd be a good idea to have the torch cross these neighborhoods?

He should be given a medal for raising awareness.

duque de caxias is not a slum, although of course it contains many slums; it's a city with close to a million inhabitants. what you saw in the video was a pretty normal place.

[Dinner]

this is just silly nonsense.

I guess it is no surprise that a communist is against free trafe and does don't understand its benefits.

[Dinner]

To which I responded,



And he said,





To which I posted

Those quotes are really an indictment of public education in Brazil being abysmal. I mean adults who can't read and handymen who don't understand the function of a plunger?

[C0ckney]

I guess it is no surprise that a communist is against free trafe and does don't understand its benefits.

your post made absolutely no sense. you can't just apply your dogma to a situation that you simply do not understand and say 'this is the solution!'.

[Dinner]

Yes it does make sense. With free trade international standards would end up getting adopted because that is what would be most abundantly available at the most competitive price. So you wouldn't see new construction without leaking gas systems or dangerous electric powered shower heads any more. Hell, the price of just about everything would come down including the price to build basic infrastructure and housing and that really would improve development across the country. This is factually true even if you want to pretend it is not.

Brazil might actually be able to build decent public schools, sewage treatment plants, and more modern housing built to 1st world standards on the same budget while regular people would benefit from access to cheaper goods instead of Brazil's famous high prices which keep millions poor. Yes, that would be a net beneficial thing.

[C0ckney]

leaving aside the amusing mistake in the third sentence which makes it say they exact opposite of what you mean, i repeat that you are being silly and that you know nothing about brazil. most brazilians live in houses without leaking gas systems or dangerous showers.

brazil's major problem with public projects is not an inability to produce quality materials, it is corruption and graft.

please try to understand the problem before proposing a solution to it.

[The Mad Monk]

leaving aside the amusing mistake in the third sentence which makes it say they exact opposite of what you mean, i repeat that you are being silly and that you know nothing about brazil. most brazilians live in houses without leaking gas systems or dangerous showers.

brazil's major problem with public projects is not an inability to produce quality materials, it is corruption and graft.

please try to understand the problem before proposing a solution to it.

So the problem does lie in the public sector, i.e. the government?

[Giancarlo]

Yes it does make sense. With free trade international standards would end up getting adopted because that is what would be most abundantly available at the most competitive price. So you wouldn't see new construction without leaking gas systems or dangerous electric powered shower heads any more. Hell, the price of just about everything would come down including the price to build basic infrastructure and housing and that really would improve development across the country. This is factually true even if you want to pretend it is not.

Brazil might actually be able to build decent public schools, sewage treatment plants, and more modern housing built to 1st world standards on the same budget while regular people would benefit from access to cheaper goods instead of Brazil's famous high prices which keep millions poor. Yes, that would be a net beneficial thing.

Brazil was making progress before, but it's main party succumbed to corruption. Stop acting as if capitalism will solve everything. It's pretty much one of the reasons why Brazil fell into bad governance once again.

The economy was growing for years, but then slid into a major recession and that was quite a shame... again that is tied to ineffective leadership and corruption of the Rousseff government. The sooner she can be replaced the better. And the opposition conservatives are also implicated deeply in the corruption so they aren't any better.

Free trade doesn't do **** for people in slums. It only enriches a few living in the wealthiest part of cities.

[Giancarlo]

I guess it is no surprise that a communist is against free trafe and does don't understand its benefits.

What are its benefits, besides from making the poor even more poor? You think free trade will help those living in slums? Are you blind?

Brazil's problem is its private sector and public sector. It does need to clean up corruption, but to act as if free trade and more capitalist bull**** is the answer is downright wrong. Free trade is immoral and only lines up the pockets of the elite. Again, it doesn't actually create meaningful jobs or long term growth.

[Berzerker]

heart breaking, Mara Abbott was leading the women's road race by 40 secs and 3 went by her (the Dane won?) at the end and took all 3 metals

[The Mad Monk]

I guess rugged individualism ain't all it's cracked up to be.