Obama says Brazil’s successful transition to democracy is an example to the Middle East

[alp227]

Source: Associated Press

RIO DE JANEIRO — As U.S. warplanes pounded faraway Libya, President Barack Obama praised Brazil’s transition from dictatorship to democracy as a model for the Arab world where decades of stability enforced by strongmen are giving way to an uncertain but potentially brighter future.

The president spoke from a theater in a historic Rio de Janeiro square where a 1984 protest set the stage for the eventual end of a 20-year military dictatorship.

He said those protesters showed how a popular revolt could produce a thriving democracy. And without specifically mentioning the military action he authorized just a day ago in Libya, the president drew a connection to the events there and throughout the Middle East.

“We’ve seen the people of Libya take a courageous stand against a regime determined to brutalize its own citizens. Across the region, we have seen young people rise up - a new generation demanding the right to determine their own future,” the president said.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/obama_says_brazils_successful_transition_to_democracy_is_an_example_to_the_middle_east/2011/03/20/ABjITPz_story.html

[EFerrari]

1. Speaking of regimes that brutalize their own people,

there is a big demonstration at Quantico today in support of Bradley Manning.

[marasinghe]

14. not to mention war criminals from former US govts. strutting around pontificating -

like they were reincarnations of Mahatma Gandhi, or Dr. Martin Luther King.
though, i guess, they fall largely into the category of regimes that brutalize people other than their own.
the hypocrisy is so palpable, the very atmosphere reeks of it.

[Aerows]

2. Brazil is nothing like the middle east...

...and they are not remotely the same. I have friends in Brazil, and my girlfriend is from Brazil.

Brazil has an economy that protects itself, invests in its citizens, and has a high priority on education.

They also don't get involved in every bullshit war that gets suggested.

WE would do well to model ourselves after Brazil, and bring our war criminals to justice. Since we don't, I can only conclude that this is so much bullshit coming from a mouthpiece for those who are attempting to revert our own nation to colonial status.

[rabs]

6. Well said

Just finished glancing at JB online, O Globo and O Estado. They do not report the same, one-sided rosy picture the AP is foisting on readers in the United States.

There was an anti-Obama protest a couple of hundred meters from where Obama spoke at the Teatro Municipal today.

One of the main bitches was that Obama had announced the U.S. attacks on Libya while he was on Brazilian soil. That did not sit well with the protesters, because, as you say, Brazil is not a warlike nation.

You may have seen that Lula da Silva turned down an invitation to sit at the same table with Obama at a fancy luncheon at Itamaraty in Brasilia on Saturday. Talk about a snub to a U.S. president.

(I lived and worked in Rio for two years (three decades ago) so still keep up with what happens there. Daughter graduated Universidade de Sao Paulo.)

[Catherina]

7. Sad ain't it? Wish I could rec your post. n/t

[rabs]

10. Obama will be heading to Santiago tomorrow

and there could be demonstrations against him there too. Guess who will not be attending a gala dinner in Obama's honor at La Moneda. The recent resident -- fromer President Michelle Bachelet.

Some of the news the AP and the other death watch vultures are not reporting from Rio:

Obama said the U.S. is very interested in helping to develop the huge oil deposits discovered off the Brazilian Atlantic coast. (That pesky oil thingie again)

Obama did not clearly support Brazil's inclusion in the U.N. Security Council.

Dilma asked Obama to tear down the U.S. barriers against Brazilian products.

Meantime, meet Rinaldo Gaudencio. He showed up where Obama spoke today at the Teatro Municipal.



---------------------

Good to see you again. What is sad is the the Libya trauma. Too bad the "colonel" we talked about failed to show up. Events now (maybe) could have been avoided.

[Aerows]

13. One quick thing between Brazil and US imports

I wish BOTH would be a little more lenient. Brazil has a horrific VAT - with good reason, and I know it is to contribute to industry - but it could be less ugly :D.

[Catherina]

16. Oil again!

The remarks in Guatemala are that he must want something bad to go to Brazil instead of having them come to DC. Now I know what it was.

All this could have been avoided. They don't want to. They're going to divide the country.

Good to see you again too.

[Aerows]

11. Brazil is an up and coming nation

They are progressive, and have good ideals, along with the resources to accomplish them. They protect free speech better than the US does in many cases.

It does not surprise me that Brazil rejected a luncheon to gin up support for imperialism. I love my country, the US, but I am getting extremely discouraged by where we are headed.

Right wingers are taking over, and it's all about defunding, corporate control and propaganda. I, personally, can't fight it. I can move someplace else, and take my wealth along with me.

[Auntie Bush]

27. Brazil doesn't import much of anything. They have their own raw materials,

their own cheap labor force, they use mostly ethanol but have their own Oil and construction is BOOMING...so is the economy...the rich keep getting richer and the poor ( working class)stay poor.

I think women have more rights than we do. In a divorce they get half...even long time girlfriends can sue for a sizable amount if not half.

[Aerows]

12. That is a main bitch

and one I can understand. They have had enough wars, and want to move forward. I have that same bitch about the US, and wonder when we are going to say "enough" and move forward, ourselves.

[Bacchus39]

15. O Estadao reporting about 200 protesters, O Globo reporting 400

in the other protest about 20 people.

http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/nacional,visita-de-obama-motiva-protestos-no-rio,694692,0.htm?p=1

http://oglobo.globo.com/mundo/mat/2011/03/20/protestos-chamam-atencao-durante-visita-de-obama-ao-rio-924048952.asp

[freshwest]

21. Great insight, thanks

[Aerows]

3. Let me add...

...Gay marriage is legal in Brazil, as are gays serving in the military. They are a lot further along than the US is in many ways on social issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Brazil

Since 2004.

[Angry Dragon]

4. The mirror is a very powerful tool

[Aerows]

5. Indeed it is...

...and it should be us looking into it.

I'm sorry, this irritates me considering how the right wing has hindered gay marriage, and the Obama administration has hindered gay marriage.

[dipsydoodle]

8. His history's not up to much

Brazil 1964.

A democratically-elected government headed by President João Goulart was successfully overthrown by a CIA-supported coup in March 1964. On March 30, the American military attaché in Brazil, Colonel Vernon A. Walters, telegraphed the State Department. In that telegraph, he confirmed that Brazilian army generals, independently of the US, had committed themselves to acting against Goulart within a week of the meeting, but no date was set.<32>

Declassified transcripts of communications between Lincoln Gordon and the US government show that, predicting an all-out civil war, President Johnson authorized logistical materials to be in place to support the coup-side of the rebellion as part of U.S. Operation Brother Sam.<33>

In the telegraphs, Gordon also acknowledges US involvement in "covert support for pro-democracy street rallies…and encouragement democratic and anti-communist sentiment in Congress, armed forces, friendly labor and student groups, church, and business" and that he "may be requesting modest supplementary funds for other covert action programs in the near future."<34>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covert_United_States_foreign_regime_change_actions

Shall I start again.....A democratically-elected government......

[Maineman]

9. Based on what little I know about Brazil, I have more respect for Brazil than my own country.

USA is my own country. It is the land of greed, guns, and corporate owned politicians. On the other hand, I guess not everyone in the US is a Republican or a Corporate Democrat.

[The Backlash Cometh]

17. Maybe we should follow Brazil's example?

[sasha031]

18. k/r rec.

[VermeerLives]

19. Let's see, Brazil

Lula the previous president is a Marxist socialist union guy who speaks favorably of Iran all the time. His hand-chosen successor Dilma Rousseff is a ''former'' Marxist guerrilla who has no regrets about her past and has the same feelings about Iran and the Palestinians. Yeah, that's a real model for progress.

[RedCloud]

23. Brasil! Not BraZil. Do I have to correct you guys one brazilian times?

[LeftishBrit]

25. A socialist union guy! Horrors!

I suppose you'd prefer the military dictators of the past? That's what Dilma Roussef was fighting against - and was imprisoned and tortured by the regime.

[WatsonT]

20. Radically different history, culture, etc

[marasinghe]

22. really AP? "as US warplanes pounded Libya" is all?

how about: "as US drones kill civilians in Afghanistan & Pakistan" - just for starters.

[LeftishBrit]

24. Indeed

I know people from Brazil, who remember the horrific conditions there in the early 19th century, I mean the early 1980s - it comes to the same thing. It is far from perfect even now, and there is still far too much pverty - but they have made 150 years of political and social progress in 25 years of real time.

[Courtesy Flush]

26. If it works in Brazil, maybe we'll try it here.