Even a visitor who detests shopping can admire the building's quirkiness, a semi-arch that seems almost to fall on to the pavement, embodying the modernist curves which define architecture in Brazil's capital.
This is a city that was constructed virtually from scratch in the 1950s and which is supposed to proclaim the new, progressive side of the country.
Yet the man I had come to meet at the mall had a story as old as his country's creation: "When you bid for a government contract in Brazil, they usually say 'what can you do for us? What can you do to make this contract a win-win for all of us?' They want a percentage of the contract…which means bribes."
His company designed software, successfully by all accounts. Yet the compromises required to win that all-important government business had driven him to despair and he eventually quit the industry altogether.
"I didn't want to play the game, but I knew the game would always be there."
Corruption has been in Brazil for a long time. Some historians trace it back to dodgy dealing during the slave trade, a business often conducted illicitly as well as immorally.
There is even a phrase in the local Portuguese dialect "Jeitinho Brasileiro" which loosely translates as "the Brazilian way of doing things".
This can be said admiringly to suggest an ability to solve problems creatively.
Underlying the phrase, however, is a sense that if a problem does have to be solved, it is OK to cut corners and perhaps break the law just to get things done.
And here have been an awful lot of corruption laws broken in Brazil, it seems.
Congress recently voted to proceed with impeachment of the President, Dilma Rousseff, following allegations that members of her ruling Workers' Party had siphoned cash from the state oil company, Petrobas.
However, many of those accusing the president are themselves being investigated for embezzlement, money laundering or other financial skulduggery.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar