2012 US Presidential Election

[Alaris]

I'd like to know more about your party system, Erasculio, and where are you from again?

You probably have right/left and all that, but perhaps you call it differently, or perhaps it's not as much of a big deal as it is in the states.

[Zalis]

He's from Brazil, IIRC. Next thing you know, he'll start telling us they don't all sit around sipping mixed drinks and soaking in the nice weather.

[RD]

A friend of mine has been living in Brazil the last couple of years. Some things about it seem great, but then there's stuff like the school and police being on strike for months with no signs of it letting up any time soon. And I think she said restaurants don't open until like 3 or 4 PM or something like that, during some holiday, EVERYTHING is closed for like a week. STUFF is really expensive, like air conditioners, electronics, STUFF. But FOOD is really cheap.

[Zalis]

A friend of mine has been living in Brazil the last couple of years. Some things about it seem great, but then there's stuff like the school and police being on strike for months with no signs of it letting up any time soon. And I think she said restaurants don't open until like 3 or 4 PM or something like that, during some holiday, EVERYTHING is closed for like a week. STUFF is really expensive, like air conditioners, electronics, STUFF. But FOOD is really cheap.

Yeah, Art can chime in on this, but I think that's the case for a lot of South America. If it's electronic or imported? Expensive. If it's edible or a local activity? Super cheap.

[Alaris]

And then one has to wonder about corruption in the government anyway. Just because they don't do a circus doesn't mean they are straight.

[Erasculio]

I'd like to know more about your party system, Erasculio, and where are you from again?

Brazil. Here we have the following political parties:

• PT (don't bother with what the letters mean, they're meaningless): currently in control of the government. They are corrupt to the bone, but aligned with the poorer social classes, and so they continue to be extremely popular due to populist actions. Led by former president Lula, who will likely try to be elected again in the next election; his charisma is one of the main reasons why PT is so popular.
  
• PSDB: a bit less corrupt, but extremely inefficient. They are aligned with the richer parts of the population, and they used to be in the control of the government until PT took over. After all this time, they still have no idea of what to do as the opposition, and internal fightning has led to a political party whose major characteristic is the lack of actually doing anything. Despite this, they are the main opposition party.
  
• DEM: aligned with PSDB. Used to be powerful, it's the party of the rich farmers of old. Now extremely weak and plagued by a history filled with corruption, they are in decay.
  
• PMDB: eternally aligned with the government, no matter who's in charge. This party is made by a lot of people (really, it's one of the biggest parties) with no specific ideology. The only thing they share in common is a willingness to support whoever is in control, in exchange for money, positions in the government and power.
  
• PDS (or something along those lines): a newly created party (created irregularly, for the records), it's the same as the PMDB - a bunch of politicians whose only common trait is the willingness to support whoever offers them more.
  
• PV, PSOL: small parties (probably the most honest of them all, which means they're just a bit corrput) with little to no power and no chance of ever getting an executive position. They have representatives in the legislative chambers, though, so they manage to do something once in a while. PV is our Green Party ("Partido Verde", that's the literal translation of Green Party), and PSOL is made by people from the left. Those are pretty much the only two parties with some kind of political ideology.

The concept of ideologies such as seen in the USA doesn't really apply to our political parties (with the two exceptions mentioned above, PV and PSOL). Matters of abortion, *** marriage and etc are usually left outside political discussions. Economically speaking, almost all parties share more or less the same point of view; PT and PSDB pretty much did the same thing when they were in charge, so that's not much of a difference.

When voting, many people here vote based on the personality of each politician, not on his or her political party. People vote in candidate X because he's candidate X, not because he belongs to party Y; they may vote in candidate Z because politician X told them to and they like X, but to many people the concept of political parties is pretty much void.

In less words, our political system is a big mess.

A friend of mine has been living in Brazil the last couple of years. Some things about it seem great, but then there's stuff like the school and police being on strike for months with no signs of it letting up any time soon. And I think she said restaurants don't open until like 3 or 4 PM or something like that, during some holiday, EVERYTHING is closed for like a week. STUFF is really expensive, like air conditioners, electronics, STUFF. But FOOD is really cheap.

More or less... Meat is very cheap when compared to other countries. Imported electronics are extremely expensive (an iPhone is very expensive, for example, since it's from China). Electronics produced within the country are significantly less expensive, and thus affordable to most of the population. In most of the big cities, everything remains open during most of holidays; in many of the (really) small cities, restaurants may close for lunch (hey, the waiters and cookers have to eat, don't they?), but in that I don't think we're too different from most countries.

In most places, strikes don't last too long. In a few places, strikes last forever. There's a state in which the police was in strike for a very long time, but that state is a big mess anyway (government there is swimming in corruption).

I live in the biggest city in the country. As far as day to day goes, my life is probably pretty much the same as most people reading this (that's globalization for you). Smaller cities have their own peculiarities and there are some places that are just weird, but that's the exception, rather than the rule.

[RD]

Yeah, I kind of want to move to Rio haha One thing she told me that I thought was interesting is that Brazilian men won't go into a friend's house if his wife is home alone. I can't remember if this also applies to family, but it's a big insult to be alone with someone else's wife. She also taught me a bunch of dirty words like porra hehehe

I am on the Obama mailing list and I even donated a little money. There's some kind dinner coming up with George Clooney and if I get many more E-mails about it, I am going to donate to Romney. I seriously must have gotten like six E-mails about it. I get that they're using it to raise money (they are giving away a ticket to one donor), but it's really annoying as someone who is interested in politics, not celebrities.

[Zalis]

In most places, strikes don't last too long. In a few places, strikes last forever. There's a state in which the police was in strike for a very long time, but that state is a big mess anyway (government there is swimming in corruption).

Every time I've been to Bolivia, there's been at least one strike. They do seem to come and go often, like you say.

The first one actually affected us, since it was the people who drove the ferry boats across Lake Titicaca, which basically stranded us. My now-mother-in-law got us outta that problem, though, telling the local navy that she had U.S. visitors with her and they couldn't miss their flight. The other two strikes were this last time, on my honeymoon, and involved both students and healthcare workers. It just goes to show that the U.S. isn't the only country with people angry about healthcare changes (or lack thereof). It's pretty divided down there with the way Evo Morales rolls.

My Brazilian friends are from Sao Paolo. They're nice folks, and always make for interesting conversation. (and amazing cooking)

[RD]

Feijoada with caprinha!

[raspberry jam]

Electronics produced within the country are significantly less expensive, and thus affordable to most of the population.

Hell yeah. I'm going to buy a Zeebo if I ever go to Brazil. Or, well, can I use it in Europe?