Proverbial

Following on Paulo’s meme, Cisco asks me 10 things I’d do if I were king. To which I respond: I’d call a general election, get all the Crown’s money and move to Switzerland.

True spectator sport:

At the blog next door, Rico - also this blog’s landlord - posted some very cool pictures of Sao Paulo then and now. Curiously, he passed the chance to talk about how the “Clean City” billboard ban, which he detests on moral grounds, is affecting the city’s landscape.

A friend of mine was there recently (.br) and said the difference was remarkable, and made the city much nicer. Now a kind soul has been taking photographs of Sao Paulo’s mutating landscape and posting them on Flickr. It gives a good idea of how much stuff has been taken down. I’ve said what I think about the ban before, and seeing this pictures just reinforces my notion that, in a city like Sao Paulo, this is a necessary and welcome move.

Sure, it bothers me to read some purely anti-trade remarks, such as the guy who said that where once was a huge billboard on the side of a decadent building, people should “go grab those local ‘hooligan’ graffiti artists, teach them how to use climbing equipment, and have them spruce it up a bit“, as if graffiti was somehow morally superior to advertising. But on the whole, seeing as how it would be impossible to enforce any sort of rational regulation on these things, an outright ban still seems to me like the only feasible option.

UPDATE: this sunday’s Folha de S. Paulo brings a very interesting piece (only for subscribers, though) on how the ban, which also regulates how much space of its facade a store can use to display its logo, is forcing store owners, designers and architects to use different colors and forms to differentiate its brand. It also has some very cool pictures of “before” and “after”, showing how the city’s landscape looks cleaner and more pleasant, and also what the same place would look like without telephone and energy cables - which, to me, are THE greatest source of visual pollution in big cities like Sao Paulo.

Guilherme Fiuza wrote a great book on the FHC administration and how much we owe them, and has been one of my favorite Brazilian conservative pundits for quite a while. Lately, though, he seems to have joined ranks with the most reactionary right-wing bloggers in just being against anything the government proposes or the society asks for, regardless of its merits.

His take (.br) on the demilitarization of air traffic control in Brazil, for example, is just plain crazy:

Just as it was evident that the Armed Forces would be an excelent agent for the Amazon zoning, there’s no reason to believe the military are the problem with Cindacta. The Aeronautic, just as the Army and the Navy, is an institution founded on the search for technical excellence and on discipline. In an activity where there can be no failure, as in air traffic control, the conduct rigidity of military codes is an asset.

It’s curious how, in a government where public service underwent a severe political parceling, with crucial organs such as the regulatory agencies being handed over to party cronies, could such an idea of handing the air traffic control to civilians prosper.

On first reading, it seems very reasonable. But when you stop and think about it, you realize it’s just plain nonsense. For starters, the military ARE public servants. And they’re just as prone to political favoring and such games as civilians, with the only (and terrible) difference that any sort of public scrutiny is impossible.

Anyone who had some contact with the aeronautical field when it was regulated by the military knows it was no different than it is today, with a crony running the National Civil Aviation Agency. The main difference is that, now, all blunders are splattered on the front pages of newspapers, where in those days civilian pilots and entrepreneurs had to suffer all by themselves.

Were they civilians, air traffic controllers would be able to publicly denounce their work conditions without fearing reprimand for breaking rank, while society would be better suited to more closely follow the government’s response to the situation. Also, it is impossible for the government to act quickly on situations like last month’s strike when it has to go through the whole chain of command to deal with sergeants.

If people were quick - and right - to cry “military crisis” when Lula said the strikers were not to be punished, last month, can anyone think what would happen if he went over the Aeronautical Command to do something like Reagan did in ‘81? And, in the end, it’s just weird to see someone who’s always defending free trade, competition and capitalism, suddenly lauding “military excellence” and management.

With growing concerns over the economical impact of corn-based biofuel, I would think this NEC corn-based plastic is not such a good idea.

According to logic, a close basketball game should be more exciting than one where some team dominates the field from the get go. But at least in today’s NBA, where the last 3 minutes or so of a close game are dragged on indefinitely by intentional fouls and timeouts, that’s not the case at all. What you get is people being excited about the way this or that team plays, rather than enjoying the match-up on the court.

Today’s F1 grand prix, in Kuala Lumpur, reminded me of how that’s also the case with the race these days. Due to the efficiency of today’s cars’ brakes, and the ridiculous loss of control when riding on someone else’s vacuum, when you have two similarly capable pilots with similarly capable cars, you get a race where no one can overtake the next guy, and it all ends up being decided on the pit.

Which is why I was more than happy to see Felipe Massa’s first six laps, today. Instead of being patient and using some magical strategy to win, after dropping to third place at the start, the Brazilian pilot decided his only shot was to overtake Hamilton as quickly as possible and not let Alonso open too wide a distance.

The British rookie again showed impressive skills and was able to hold Massa off long enough for him to make a mistake and end up on the grass, now dropping to fifth, in which spot he would end the race. Some will say that proves what a stupid decision it was, and I won’t disagree. But the thing is, that was the most exciting race I’ve watched since Schumacher threw his car at Damon Hill’s in 1994.

Being only a spectator seeking entertainment, I can only hope for things like that to happen at every race. After all, who doesn’t have fond memories of Nigel Mansell?

Diplomacy, when used as a means of resolving political conflicts, is “a pointed humiliation“. And a congresswoman who opposes the President’s political views should never engage in public conversations with someone said President disagrees with and has decided not to talk to.

Yeah, the whole problem with the US these days is really that there are not enough conservatives in power.

Romario keeps looking for that elusive 1000th goal. But since Vasco was eliminated from the Copa do Brasil by underdog Gama, and with presidential elections coming up, his quest not only may be postponed for a month - ’till the beggining of the Campeonato Brasileiro -, but is annoying (.br) people in the club.

The thing is, a good deal of his (so far) 999 goals were scored in friendly matches recognized by Fifa. So if Vasco is gonna stay a month without playing any tournament, and Romario’s desperation is such that it’s bothering people so much, what’s keeping the club from scheduling some friendly match in Maracanã (he says that’s where he wants to score the historical goal), with some half decent team? It would seem like a win/win situation, to me.

If I got this right, Tokyo’s election comission is asking Youtube to delete political advertising videos related to the local governor’s race. Their claim, it seems, is that one of the candidates’ video was too popular, receiving much more views than his competitors, which would go against the “fairness” demanded in the country’s legislation.

What I would like to know is how is it unfair to post a video to Youtube when any candidate can do it. Just because not all candidates were popular enough for people to spread their videos around? In that case I think the whole concept of election is not fair, and maybe all candidates should be elected, and receive equal time to run the city.

Last friday, president Lula promised rebellious air traffic controllers they wouldn’t be punished for striking, and that the government would have a solution to their problem by tuesday, when it was supposed to send a Provisory Measure (.br) to Congress demilitarizing the sector. On monday, back from Washington and after talks with military advisors and commanders, he pulled a Crazy Ivan and said the Air Force* could install an inquiry on strikers and punish them as they saw fit. Not surprisingly (.br):

Moments ago, in an interview to CBN radio, Fabio Fernandes, district attorney at Sao Paulo’s Work Justice, said controllers are working under Air Force Police surveillance and dressed in different uniforms to be more easily identified.

They suffer all sorts of embarrassments. Some talk about becoming reservists. Others have crying fits.

Now the question is whether we’ll see another strike during the Passover holiday, when airports will certainly be crowded. Some say controllers have stated it won’t happen, while other say one shouldn’t be too sure about it. The government says it won’t tolerate any funny business during the holidays. And just in case, it says it won’t be caught with its guard down again, that a contingency plan has already been made in case of a new strike. Is it any good?

The Air Force says it has a plan B: it guarantees only a few controllers stopped (those who were on call) and all it takes is to isolate and arrest them for the large majority to be dissuaded of following them, with the invaluable convincing power of the military inquiries currently running in the Public Military Ministry, a government-independent court. Punishments for mutiny are heavy (4 to 8 years imprisonment, with a veto over ever working on a public service again). That way, calling those who would be at home and don’t want to play with fire would be enough to replace the insubordinate.

The controllers’ leaders, on the other hand, say they’re underpaid, have no working conditions and aren’t giving a damn about inquiries or being expelled from the corporation and public service. If arrested, convicted and expelled, they’ll end up heroes. They say they have little to lose.

The result of this tug of war will most likely be known next Monday, after the holidays. In any case, what everybody understands is that the government had all the time in the world to make whatever provisions it saw fit to prevent this sort of thing, and chose to do nothing but undermine the military commanders power over their subordinates (air traffic controllers are sergeants). Now they don’t have the money or the time to quicly demilitarize the sector, nor the political and hierarquical power to squash the rebellious.

It would be a stalemate, except for the fact that controllers seem willing to give up the game instead of negotiating a draw. Their demands seem legitimate, even though it seems somewhat damning that it took the death of 154 people for them to act upon it. And even worse that their course of action was to inconvenience millions of people (even leading to the death of one passenger from stress, while waiting for a flight to go home).

The government, on the other hand, seems to understand it needs to demilitarize the sector as soon as possible, but it doesn’t have the money or the political power to make it anytime soon, and so decided it’s better to wash its hands and leave the problem to the military, instead of risking some sort of retaliation from high ranking officials.

Let’s just hope someone knows what they’re doing. This sort of thing doesn’t inspire much confidence, though:

Frightened with the crisis’ unraveling, a controller sought a congressman. He wanted to know if, by working under a civilian agency, he’d lose his (state funded) integral retirement, home and health plan. With a positive answer, said he didn’t know whether he wanted to be “demilitarized” anymore.

*The Air Force (or FAB - Forca Aerea Brasileira), itself, is only a part of what is called the Aeronautic, which is the whole military body responsible for overseeing anything related to air traffic in Brazil, which in turn exists under the Defense Ministry, along with the other forces. I only decided to use the term “Air Force” to mean the whole Aeronautic Command because it seems to make more sense in English.