All the politicians are corrupt.
If 5% of the budget is missing, that is tolerated.
People were asking why I keep coming to the forum although I am no longer a permanent resident of Argentina and visit the country just a few times a year now.
The quote above is your answer.
You see, Brazil is going through a really rough patch right now. And even though I live in the USA, the challenges that Brazil face today do cause me distress and pain.
However, quotes like this one kind of uplift me, because it shows me that despite all the challenges we face as a country, we have come a long ways. 30 years ago in Brazil, what Bajo just wrote would have been acceptable. We had a saying back then that went more or less like this: "This politician steals, but at least he does something". Today such a phrase is no longer socially acceptable in Brazil. Being bombarded every day by the news of the discovery of another corruption scheme, and having no other point of reference, we Brazilians tend to fall in despair and hopelessness. Until we get a phrase like that, written by a highly educated person, from a supposedly much more educated neighboring country. And all of a sudden, everything comes back into perspective, and we get to see that despite everything, we as a country progressed A LOT over the past 30 years.
The picture bellow was taken last week. It was the arrest of the CEOs of the largest construction companies in Brazil. They are all multi-billionaires that were involved on the Petrobras scandal. I never thought I'd see people of this caliber, with this much political and economical power, being handcuffed and treated like common criminals by the Brazilian police. What a transformation! And where does it all starts? it starts when a population decides that stealing "just" 5% is not excusable.
We still have a long, long ways to go. But thank you Bajo, for reminding me of how far we have come already.