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Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

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Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#81
post #71

Disclaimer: I am a former Brazilian. I am what in Brazil is called in pejorative terms "vira-lata" (stray dog), someone that fell out of love for his native country. Because a lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes. This project is nothing more than a sharper and better diagnosis of topical symptoms. Unfortunately, the underlying disease remains without treatment. And if…

I am also a vira-lata, and couldn't agree more. Brazil, like other 3rd world countries, has an endemic cultural problem that hinders economic, social or technological progress. You can "fight" corruption, but if it's part of your culture, it will always find a way back. Congrats for the project, but you'd really need to rewrite 500 years of history to make Brazil a livable place.

Yeah, there is a saying that “Politics is downstream from culture”, the Brazilian culture does not help.

I don't have much hope.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#82
post #39

This project is interesting, but real corruption doesn't happen with receipts. Corrupt politicians will receive funds in offshore accounts and then work for foreigners, such as the foreign oil companies that are now taking vast amounts of Brazilian oil contracts for next to nothing. The corruption cases presented by the Brazilian media are peanuts compared to these shady deals involving big foreign investments.

This is the excuse of the impeached Workers Party ex-government. With a touch of fascism - "the foreigners are the real danger!!!!!11111". The other excuse was that "corruption is small compared to the GDP". (And what about the chilling effects?)

> The other excuse was that "corruption is small compared to the GDP".

Well, we already know as a fact that at least in Brazil the excuse is wrong. There's a long time that I don't hear it, so I guess people can't even deny anymore.

The new excuse is "but look, the people that inherited the power do it too, and nothing is happening to them". So, back to good old whataboutism.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#83
post #33

Brazil is currently overly excited with fighting corruption when its greatest problems lie unperturbed. Income is too concentrated, taxes are highly regressive, and half the federal budget goes into servicing the debt. All spheres of brazilian government have achieved a good level of transparency. But the national debate is always skewed by the current scandal cooked up by the media (that's another serious issue: the…

hmn, do you mean corruption is not as bad as income inequality?

Because one can argue that corruption foster inequality, where government workers steal money from the people, they give favor to rich "friends" making them richer.

I can guess your solution is to give more power to the state to solve the inequality issue, which actually worsens the corruption caused inequality.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#84

On the topic of corruption, my Spanish teacher said that countries where corruption is endemic and part of the culture almost always started out as "extraction colonies". That is, the natural resources were plundered by the colonizers (the Spaniards or the British or the French). What present day politicians are doing is simply continuing the strong historical precedent of taking out riches/prosperity/profits/resourc…

> countries where corruption is endemic and part of the culture almost always started out as "extraction colonies".

This is an overly simplified, albeit correct, way to explain it.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#85

Disclaimer: I am a former Brazilian. I am what in Brazil is called in pejorative terms "vira-lata" (stray dog), someone that fell out of love for his native country. Because a lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes. This project is nothing more than a sharper and better diagnosis of topical symptoms. Unfortunately, the underlying disease remains without treatment. And if…

Pode explicar a tradução ou conexão para as palavras, vira e lita. Não significam "look" e "can"? Não sou brasileiro.

[deleted]

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#86
In Brazil, federal, state and some local governments publish what is called "Diário Oficial". It's a daily ledger of official hirings, firings, payments, votes on legislative chambers and even criminal indictments. The Brazilian Congress also post all the laws and amendments proposed and approved on its website http://www2.camara.leg.br/.

While AI is no solution for corruption, it could create a more transparent system with a lot more accountability highlighting the potential misuse of money.

Actually, even without sophisticated technology, whoever decides to read the free and available content, will quickly find many things that jump the eyes. For instance, I remember seeing that my city, under the new mayor, was paying for school buses while the school was off, in the month of January and three times the amount the previous administration used to pay (while kids were in school). My city also had even a helicopter for the local security force, which was not actually police and was not able to even carry guns. The helicopter was paid, faithfull, for many years. But seen in public only once, in a parade.

At the time (many years ago), I tipped newspapers and nobody cared.

A few years ago I created a simple script that to download all the public available law proposals from the Congress (https://github.com/pablomelo/baixa_camara) and downloaded 300GB of data.

I wanted to create an app where voters could see where and what was the allegiance of their representatives (In Brazil there's no district division and a candidate for Congress can get votes from anywhere in the state. While it prevent's gerrymandering, it also allows politicians to have little commitment to their constituents).

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#87

Disclaimer: I am a former Brazilian. I am what in Brazil is called in pejorative terms "vira-lata" (stray dog), someone that fell out of love for his native country. Because a lot of people in this thread are patriotic Brazilians I anticipate a lot of downvotes. This project is nothing more than a sharper and better diagnosis of topical symptoms. Unfortunately, the underlying disease remains without treatment. And if…

Pode explicar a tradução ou conexão para as palavras, vira e lita. Não significam "look" e "can"? Não sou brasileiro.

Like the others already explained, "vira-latas" is a portuguese term for a stray dog and the idea that they need to flip trash cans to try to find food.

However, there is also an expression (whose origin was also explained) that means "Mongrel complex (Complexo de vira-Lata in Portuguese), which is an expression used to refer to a collective inferiority complex felt by some Brazilian people in comparison to Europe or the United States."[0]

Contrary to what was said here, the term coined by Nelson Rodrigues was not exclusive related to soccer. According to him: "By "Mongrel Complex" I mean the inferiority in which Brazilians put themselves, voluntarily, in comparison to the rest of the world. Brazilians are the reverse Narcissus, who spit in their own image. Here is the truth: we can't find personal or historical pretexts for self-esteem."[0]

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongrel_complex

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#88
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world's largest economic power and largest democracy, aka United States, elected a Western movie actor and a Reality TV star as presidents. The clown pales in comparison.

Sorry, but there is no comparison. None of them were elected by saying: "Vote Reagan (or Trump). It can't get worse than this".

Context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiririca#2010_elections

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#89
post #33

Brazil is currently overly excited with fighting corruption when its greatest problems lie unperturbed. Income is too concentrated, taxes are highly regressive, and half the federal budget goes into servicing the debt. All spheres of brazilian government have achieved a good level of transparency. But the national debate is always skewed by the current scandal cooked up by the media (that's another serious issue: the…

hmn, do you mean corruption is not as bad as income inequality? Because one can argue that corruption foster inequality, where government workers steal money from the people, they give favor to rich "friends" making them richer. I can guess your solution is to give more power to the state to solve the inequality issue, which actually worsens the corruption caused inequality.

I don't think cutting corruption to zero would impact people's lives as much as having a progressive tax system.

If you look at overall tax burden, the lowest tier pays close to 50%. The highest tier, a bit over 25%. Trump tried to lower corporate tax to 15% and not even his party thought it was reasonable. In Brazil, corporate tax is zero.

One of the richest people in Brazil, Steinbruch, was caught trying to evade an estate tax of only 4%, when food is taxed at near 20%.

Re: Operation Serenata de Amor – An AI project to analyze public spending in Brazil

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pode explicar a tradução ou conexão para as palavras, vira e lita. Não significam "look" e "can"? Não sou brasileiro.

Like the others already explained, "vira-latas" is a portuguese term for a stray dog and the idea that they need to flip trash cans to try to find food. However, there is also an expression (whose origin was also explained) that means "Mongrel complex (Complexo de vira-Lata in Portuguese), which is an expression used to refer to a collective inferiority complex felt by some Brazilian people in comparison to Europe or…

Interesting concept, the "reverse Narcissus", especially in this case. Because you see, in the same breath as they complain about their country, Brazilians will tell you that "God is a Brazilian".

Perhaps jingoism and mongrelism are two sides of the same coin. It would certainly explain how Trump got elected after a campaign based on complaining about his own country.

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