Protests Continue In Brazil
“As olvelhas feliz” start to wake up
(Reuters) – Brazil’s biggest protests in two decades intensified on Thursday despite government concessions meant to quell the demonstrations, as 300,000 people took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro and hundreds of thousands more flooded other cities.
Undeterred by the reversal of transport fare hikes that sparked the protests, and promises of better public services, marchers demonstrated around two international soccer matches and in locales as diverse as the Amazon capital of Manaus and the prosperous southern city of Florianopolis.
..The targets of the protests, now in their second week, have broadened to include high taxes, inflation, corruption and poor public services ranging from hospitals and schools to roads and police forces.
With an international soccer tournament as a backdrop, demonstrators are also denouncing the more than $26 billion of public money that will be spent on the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, two events meant to showcase a modern, developed Brazil.
Good for them to start demanding that their “Betters” actually give them some steak for once instead of simply another whiff of sizzle.
With little more than a year to go before presidential and gubernatorial elections, the unrest is forcing incumbents and traditional political parties to reconsider their strategies.
The decision to cut transportation fares illustrates what many analysts consider a reactive and contradictory response by a ruling class caught off guard.
“Were they wrong before or are they wrong now?” asked Carlos Melo, a political scientist at Insper, a business school in Sao Paulo, noting what had been a steadfast refusal to reverse a fare hike.
The answer is “yes.”
Life, Media, Morality, Nanny State, People, Politics | Mr. Bingley | 
June 21, 2013 6:23 am
Subscribe
At the risk of perpetuating an urban legend (she never said that). Let them eat cake! 😛
My dear fellow, I think they want you to come back.