signs of a democratic government

A few weeks back I was sitting watching the news in the evening. Every once in a while, usually close to election times, the airwaves get taken over by political messages that last anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour long. Not like the typical 30 second spot in the USA, these things consist of set up interviews with people in the street, the talking head politician, "public service announcements" and any other typical political propaganda you can think of. When these things come on, there does not seem to be any way to escape them - they take over every channel (at least on the free antena fed stations, as I am too cheap/busy to pay for things like satellite here), as this video demonstrates. Right in the middle of the usual news casts, suddenly PPS took over with their message about how worried the public is about the government confiscating their savings from the bank to deal with the country's debt. It went on for half an hour on every channel, even MTV. Not what I wanted to watch, but I did learn a new word "Popança."

Yes, as I flip through the channels, you will notice there are only like 5 or 6 (I watch so little TV, I am not even sure). Still, the effect is nice, a little like brainwashing.

Rain showers don't bring mayflowers, they bring floods

The rainy season has arrived fast and furious. Despite the fact that heavy rains plague us at least 3 months out of the year here, engineers cannot be troubled to deal with adequate drainage when designing roads and city spaces. Sometimes it seems they cannot even be troubled by trying to address traffic flow. Today it began raining heavily around 10 AM. A normal 5 minute drive took more than 2 hours. Some parts of the city were completely under water. Where I work people were out digging canals around the building to try to get the water directed somewhere other than inside the building.



Streets like this one, which are so numerous around the city, become waterfalls of rushing water carrying with it all manner of crap from the surrounding areas above. It all pools at the bottom, some low laying area, sometimes inside a parking area, or worse someone or several people's homes, and more often than not, also a busy street. People try to escape the rising waters, driving the wrong way down one way streets, coming head to head with motorists trying to go the opposite direction trying to do the same thing and bringing everyone to a complete stand still.

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Our mayor, or someone, declared a state of emergency (again) and advised everyone to stay home so as to not float away in their cars. Here I am at home, despite not having a car.