Obama thrills Brazil slum residents with visit

[Bacchus39]

Source: AP


By JULIANA BARBASSA, Associated Press Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press – 2 hrs 14 mins ago
RIO DE JANEIRO – President Barack Obama didn't just take in Rio's famous tourist sites during his visit Sunday, instead making his first stop a notorious slum where police recently wrested control from a violent drug gang.

Residents crowded sidewalks, rooftops and balconies to wave as Obama's shining black limousine rolled through the narrow streets. The luxurious vehicle contrasted sharply with the poverty in Cidade de Deus, or City of God, made famous by an Oscar-nominated movie of the same name.

At a community center, the president shed his coat and tie, rolled up his sleeves and dribbled a soccer ball one-on-one with a delighted boy. Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia also kicked a ball around with the kids.

Obama then walked out to the street and waved to throngs of cheering residents. Dozens of young children pressed up against a chain-link fence trying to get a glimpse of the U.S. president, as armed guards stood watch on the metal roofs of jumbled shacks.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110320/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_obama_slum_tour

[Scurrilous]

1. K & R

:thumbsup:

[grahamhgreen]

2. Does he know they all have health care?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_in_Brazil

[Avant Guardian]

50. I was in Sao Paulo last month

We saw a teenager with a gangrenous leg limping through downtown. I heard they all have healthcare available, but all we ever saw were private hospitals with guards keeping people out. I have a feeling the actual availability of public healthcare in Brazil there is minimal. There were many people in Rio with incorrectly healed broken limbs, or really amateurish amputation jobs. Mostly street people, they were.

Of course that is just gleaned from what I saw personally, Sao Paulo is a mind bogglingly huge metropolis and it would take years to see it all. Rio was just too dangerous to see much outside of the downtown or the tourist areas.

[Hannah Bell]

3. i don't get why obama is in brazil with everything else going on.

what is the purpose of this visit?

[EFerrari]

4. Maybe Haiti and maybe a temp check on the new president. n/t

[Hannah Bell]

6. haiti? what's the connection?

[Bacchus39]

7. there is none, the Brazil trip has been planned for months n/t

s

[EFerrari]

8. Brazil has been backing US policy in Haiti,

from putting pressure on South Africa to keep Aristide to the fake election today. In exchange, Brazil wants on to the Security Council. Iirc, Brazil is leading the occupation there, too.

[Hannah Bell]

9. gotcha, thanks.

[EFerrari]

12. There are wikileaks in cablegate that underpin this

but I'm too sleep deprived to dig them up right now.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

18. Obama "hater" here.

Because it was scheduled?

:shrug:

[BenzoDia]

20. He's trying to increase exports to the area

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPHIHTLBPFs

imo, jobs is top priority until we get out of this funk.

edit:
Oh and for oil apparently:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014546915_obamasa20.html

[JDPriestly]

25. What a joke, BenzoDia. Our trade deals ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS

cost us jobs. Before getting us into another one of these deals, he should try to sell more of our products to countries like China, India, and the rest of the world from whom we buy stuff based on these giveaway trade deals.

[BenzoDia]

28. Do to you have a good link for more info about trade between US and Brazil?

I thought we had a large surplus with them, though I should brush up on the details.

[JDPriestly]

30. BenzoDia, you are right. Thanks for correcting me on this.

Brazil was the United States' 10th largest goods export market in 2009.

U.S. goods exports to Brazil in 2009 were $26.2 billion, down 18.9% ($6.1 billion) from 2008, but up 223% from 1994 (the year prior to Uruguay Round). U.S. exports to Brazil accounted for 2.5% of overall U.S. exports in 2009, up from 1.6% in 1994.

The top export categories (2-digit HS) in 2009 were: Machinery ($5.7 billion), Aircraft ($4.7 billion), Electrical Machinery ($3.0 billion), Mineral Fuel ($1.9 billion), and Optic and Medical Instruments ($1.4 billion).

U.S. exports of agricultural products to Brazil totaled $387 million in 2009. Leading categories include: wheat ($40 million), sugars and sweeteners ($21 million), processed fruits and vegetables ($17 million), and snack foods ($16 million).

http://www.ustr.gov/countries-regions/americas/brazil

In the beginning of the article, the author states that we have a trade surplus with Brazil. I am amazed and happy to hear this. Changes a lot for me. Live and learn on DU. That is why I come here.

[BenzoDia]

34. Good link, thanks for sharing.

And I love DU as well. There's so much info all over it.

[SkyDaddy7]

23. The purpose is to visit Latin America...What is wrong with that?

The President is plenty capable of doing more than one thing at a time.

[CTyankee]

32. Brazil has an emerging economy that is important.

I don't know that much about econ but I do know that Brazil is on the upswing economically and we are not. I think he is trying to be both a goodwill ambassador and a pitch man for jobs/the economy in the U.S.

He'd be nuts not to....

[jefferson_dem]

41. Why does he hate 'merca?

[CakeGrrl]

45. Relationship/economy building. Why does he have to be tethered to the WH?

It's not as if he'll miss an important call because he's away from home.

:eyes:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

48. Why not go to Brazil? The trip was planned.

Is there something he can do in Washington that he can't do from Rio? I don't think the invasion of Libya was done without his approval. And the Navy can handle aid to Japan without being micro-managed from the Oval Office.

"Quick, while the boss is out of town, let's start a war"
"Great! I'm in"
"Quick, while the prez is gone, let's break some unions"
"Swell! Let's roll!"

Big things are happening, and Obama is still in command. For what it's worth.

[ProSense]

5. Transcript of the

President's speech today.

[dipsydoodle]

13. Did he remind them of this

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

[ProSense]

17. His speech

appeared to focused on Brazil today. The country is making great progress:


To Beat Back Poverty, Pay the Poor

The city of Rio de Janeiro is infamous for the fact that one can look out from a precarious shack on a hill in a miserable favela and see practically into the window of a luxury high-rise condominium. Parts of Brazil look like southern California. Parts of it look like Haiti. Many countries display great wealth side by side with great poverty. But until recently, Brazil was the most unequal country in the world.

Today, however, Brazil’s level of economic inequality is dropping at a faster rate than that of almost any other country. Between 2003 and 2009, the income of poor Brazilians has grown seven times as much as the income of rich Brazilians. Poverty has fallen during that time from 22 percent of the population to 7 percent.

Contrast this with the United States, where from 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the increase in Americans’ income went to the top 1 percent of earners. (see this great series in Slate by Timothy Noah on American inequality) Productivity among low and middle-income American workers increased, but their incomes did not. If current trends continue, the United States may soon be more unequal than Brazil.

Several factors contribute to Brazil’s astounding feat. But a major part of Brazil’s achievement is due to a single social program that is now transforming how countries all over the world help their poor.

<...>

[JDPriestly]

27. Is Obama propagandizing for building a dam across the Amazon?

I trust Obama about as far as (I read this expression somewhere) you can throw a bank.

In other words, is Obama playing the role of an Economic Hit Man in Brazil?

[jefferson_dem]

33. Exactly!

I hope one of the foremost items on the agenda was a solid scolding about this half century old collusive conspiracy! Damn straight!

[struggle4progress]

29. "People have to look at favelas not with pity, but as a source of presidents and lawyers and

doctors"

He's not aiming at the usual crowd

[rabs]

10. What the AP fluff pieces do not tell you.

Out with the troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Haiti!
No to the free trade commercial accords.
Get your hands off our oil!
No to the imperialist intervention in Libya.
Get out Kadaffi!
All support the Arab revolution.


Too much war for someone who claims to promote peace.


Dilma, do not hand over our oil.

(Translation mine)

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

Obama will be in Santiago tomorrow, where more ot the same awaits him from Chileans.

[emilyg]

11. Thank you.

[rabs]

19. You're very welcome and fyi ...

... in Santiago today, at the La Moneda Palace where Obama will be hosted.


GET OUT OBAMA
Assassin of
Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan

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

Chileans plan to protest an agreement signed last week whereby the U.S. will help Chile plan/construct a nuclear plant in that nation, notorious for its massive earthquakes. (Nice timing for Obama, huh?)

Others are going to demand that the United States government apologize for the U.S. role in the violent overthrow of Allende and the ensuing bloody Pinochet dictatorship. The United States has never issued an apology for the Kissinger/Nixon plot to topple the democratically-elected Allende.

[Arkana]

26. Yes, because the Obama administration was responsible for Allende's overthrow.

[rabs]

36. What a lame post

What some Chileans are asking for is an apology.

They did not get it from

Nixon
Ford
Carter
Reagan (2)
Bush 41
Clinton (2)
Bush 43 (@)

So Obama has an opportunity to win some points. It would surprise me if he did.

Meantime, this and more awaits him tomorrow.

[Bacchus39]

39. lets hope Chile can handle a protest of 300 or 400 as well as Brazil did

maybe call in for reinforcements.

[dipsydoodle]

14. I wonder if Chile will have 9/11 banners

for 9/11/73 - the original 9/11 the aftermath of which dwarfed the latter day event in terms of deaths.

Or maybe something as simple as Democracy ? Get Real.

[Bacchus39]

16. O Globo and O Estadao estimated protests at up to 400, I don't see that many in the pics n/t

s

[Robb]

21. 50 people, but over 300 port-a-potties. (nt)

[jefferson_dem]

35. Goodness.

That looks like around two dozen "protesters". :wow: I'll bet the line at the espresso counter was longer.

[Scurrilous]

46. LOL

:thumbsup:

[dipsydoodle]

15. Unrec'd for broadcasting propaganda

.

[ProSense]

22. Here are

some photos.

[The_Casual_Observer]

24. Good for him

[humbled_opinion]

31. Unrec'd because

The word thrill is not an adjective that I would use to describe the post 2010 election Obama....

[jefferson_dem]

37. K/R.

Because it's good to feel proud of a president again...and because it freaks out our resident "Obama can do no right"ers.

[AnneD]

38. So when will he visit....

Some FEMAVILLES, plenty of locations across the USA.

[hayu_lol]

40. The DVD City Of God...

is quite interesting and worth getting.

[AnneD]

42. I already have a copy.....

Of the DVD. It is great.

[rabs]

43. FEMAVILLES -- very clever. n/t

[AnneD]

51. I have heard them called Bushvilles.....

but since so much of this is disaster capatilism anymore.....FEMAVILLE is what they call them on Ca. per daughter.

[jwirr]

44. K&R

[Javaman]

47. I'm glad Obama visits the impovished neighborhoods in other countries...

maybe he will do the same here some day, right? Right around election time when he needs those votes.

[RedCloud]

49. Just give them hope! That's all capitalism can do for them. Hope!