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Re-election day

This weekend the second round of brazilian elections is going to take place to decide who will be president for the next four years. In Brazil that decides candidates for executive branch in two rounds, unless a candidate achieves more than 50% of votes in the first round.
Lula failed by less than 1% to reach that tally.
Now electoral campaigns put him at over 20% margin over his opponent Alckmin.
I fail to see how can people sympathize with him. It's true, I did vote for him the last time. But that was before the sheer number of scandals that have taken place during his four year term. Practically all the members of his high echelon have resigned or stepped down (José Dirceu, Palocci, Genoíno, Gushiken, Berzoini, and the list goes on and on...)
And Lula's support only grows!
Imagine if he openly assaulted a bank, people would still applaud him!

That doesn't mean I'd be very happy voting for Alckmin either. Fernando Henrique 2 terms before Lula had me very unhappy.

Which is why I've decide the vote null.

Not because it will nullify the elections. I know that null votes are counted as if you made a mistake. But it's still the only way to show some discontent at the prospect of brazilian politics.

Different perspecitve

This little blue dot through seen through saturn´s rings, this insignificant blue dot, it´s earth.
Credit:Ciclops

Random Country

I´m gonna choose some random country to compare that probably has a lousy health system... uhm... how about Brazil

I don´t know what kind of information Matthew Holt has on Brazil´s health system, but it is definitely untrue. Despite disparities between the states with the state of São Paulo where I live offering perhaps the best public health system in the country, there are some positive points overall. For example we offer all AIDS patients antiretroviral drugs for free, (of course they are seen, admitted , and have CD4 checks performed as needed)!
I work at the public hospital in my city and we have practically the state of the art. When a patient becomes too costly for the private hospitals they will usually send them to us. I think Matthew Holt should use another random example other than Brazil if he doesn´t really know the facts. Or even better, not use any random example at all.
http://www.hcrp.fmrp.usp.br/gxpsites/hgxpp001

Money and winners

Nothing else to be said.