Using food to steal from the starving
They say that anyone who actively wants to be a politician should be prevented from being one on principle. It’s a cynical way of looking at things, but then it’s not exactly breaking news that politics attracts its fair share of dishonest characters. If we take the example of the UK over the last decade, scandal after scandal has emerged with depressing regularity – politicians accepting money to ask questions in parliament, widespread cheating of expense allowances (i.e. stealing), and over-cosy relationships with evil media moguls to name just a few.
Despite the regularity of political scandals back home, since coming to Brazil I have been shocked not only by how widespread the corruption here seems to be, but also by the sheer audacity and greed with which it is perpetrated.
Sadly it is all too easy to become desensitised to all this dishonesty, but even against this background, every once in a while a story comes along that takes my breath away.
