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Brazilian president makes fun of Japanese politics

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva mentions his rivals at a press conference celebrating the victory of Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic bid:

“I have a message to my close friend, the Prime Minister of Spain Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, to Barack Obama for whom I have high hopes, he’s a great fellow, and to the Prime Minister of Japan who I don’t know because it’s like that in Japan – you say ‘good morning to one Prime Minister and ‘good afternoon’ to a different one!”

[hat tip to Isaac]

Why did Tokyo fail so spectacularly in the IOC vote? The Japan Times quotes claims that Tokyo just didn’t have enough flair.

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37 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - October 4, 2009 at 4:41 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags: olympics, Rio, tokyo

http://dimesfornickels.wordpress.com/ William George

The Jay Leno of the UN, ladies and gentlemen.
Mr. USA

I doubt very many people in America know who the leaders of Brazil, Spain, and Japan are. It’s not a popularity contest, and he should know who the PM of Japan is, since the two met last week in Pittsburgh.
http://guido.demelo.de Guido

You totally made my day by illustrating “flair” with a picture from Office Space!
http://www.hobbymedia.it Frankie

LULA badula… If they got this kind of policiticians (who can’t even understand when another Country presidend is part of his own party) it’s clear why Brazil is so poor…

Mario

Actually, Brazil is the 10th biggest economy in the world.

Mario

Oh, I see you’re from Italy, land of a very smart and respected president. Not.

samurainbob

A: Knock Knock
B: Who’s there?
A: Lula
B: Lula whos?
A: It’s me, President Lula of Brazil.
B: Who?
Chinko

But he is absolutely right.

aussie

too right. we’ll see if his words ring true.

pixel_bomber

This is ridiculous. How much flair do we need? I thought flair was optional anyway. If they just tell us what flair we need we will get it, what’s the problem?

Yea his remarks were kind of funny, but it seems a little odd and inappropriate to say nice things to the other three candidates and make fun of the Japanese. Would have been better if he had taken a jab at all of the representatives.
Mt.

The joke was totally inappropriate coming from the president of a nation. But then again, Lula is totally inappropriate!
Kyrie

What a DICK. I mean really. Really? Just cos he’s old and seen many and experienced some things he can say that?
Smoothy

He should know who the PM. Since Japan invest plenty in to Brazil to his people can eat and survive.

hahahaha

Oh, of course! It’s Japan that sustains Brazil!
Give me a break! ¬¬’

Mr. USA

Japan should boycott Brazil.
Kyle M.

He does have a point, although he made it in a rathe sophomoric way. This is something I’d expect from Berlusconi, although that would really be the pot calling the kettle black.

The IOC apparently wanted a city that was more violent than even Chicago, and in picking Rio de Janiero it’s hard to disagree with the choice.

binsentokun

I was also wondering about their choice. I usually hear bad things about Brazil, such as their crime rates and poverty. I know that is something that is common just about everywhere but news reports also highlight terrible things about Brazil. In short, it seems like a place tourists would want to stay away from unless they want to be kidnapped or mugged. Still, if the IOC picked it, then it should be safe, right?

Rich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela

You thunk?
The Overthinker

The idea might be that this will spur Brazil on to fix this, though it’ll probably just get a very big carpet.

k

true, I would never want to go to Rio de Janiero, I’ve seen City of God way too many times. It’s a shame that Japan lost, I would have loved to go down to Tokyo for it, would have been an awesome party. Too bad Japan’s only good at negotiating if it evolves a nomihoudai and a titty bar.

Chicago isn’t one of the most dangerous cities though, theres about 20 more dangerous cities in the USA. I’d say st.Louis Missouri is probably one of the most dangerous cities. Its funny though, I looked up most dangerous cities in the world on google, and Rio always makes the list! haha

http://www.cachorrosolitario.com Diogo C. Scooby

It has only o joke, you don’t have sense of humors.

@k – You think that rio is like city of god..well I see Ultraman and I think that tokio are destroyed every week for a diferent giant monster.

k

no its not just like city of god….its like city of men too.

supercoolmanchu

“You know what, Stan, if you want me to wear 37 pieces of flair, like your pretty boy over there, Brian, why don’t you just make the minimum — 37 pieces of flair?!”

I’m excited, curious, and worried all at the same time of the thought the Olympics are going to be held in Rio. Despite the fact the drug lords literally run the entire city of Rio, I have a feeling they wouldn’t interfere due to the eminent pride they have in their own country being globally recognized. The dumb bandidos on the other hand are another story — they just may have their heyday. It’ll be very interesting to see what the government will do in attempt to start cleaning up the city.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDzOy0ZcpjQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLMkBq–M_A

Mario

WHAT THE FUCK?

do you seriously think drug lords literally run the city?

OH MY GOD, i’m speechless how fucking dumb people can be.

Shrimpy

They can’t help it
supercoolmanchu

You obviously know nothing about Brazil… My guess is that you’ve never lived in Rio, and probably have never been. Or, if you’re a proud Brazilian, you’re in serious denial. Rio in particular has been on a steep decline since the 70′s due to the eminent presence of Comando Vermelho. The entire city, mostly Zona Norte/Oeste and areas near the favelas fear and loathe the CV like the plague. It’s common knowledge they’ve bribed and bought out a lot of the local cops under their control.

Several years ago when the leader of CV got arrested by the state and put into prison, he demonstrated his power over the people of the city to the rest of the country by threatening to order a bombing to any commercial business that stayed open after a certain date. Sure enough — the entire city shut down. Nearly every business in the city closed its doors until they were given permission to reopen. If that isn’t running the city I don’t know what is. And how exactly did the leader of CV make that order from prison? For some “undisclosed” reason he just happened to have access to a cell phone in a very heavily guarded federal prison system.

With a city that has an average of over 2000 murder victims every year, a lot of them innocent civilians, and gangs stopping traffic along the main airport road to steal money and other valuables at gun point — it isn’t the most ideal city to hold the Olympics. It’s estimated over 70 kidnapped Americans are still held ransom in Rio, where “flash-kidnappings” — where victims are taken to ATMs to withdraw cash — occur every single day.

Like I said, it’ll be very interesting to see what the government will do to clean up the city.

http://aonghascrowe.wordpress.com Aonghas Crowe

Bravo, Lula!

I’ve been in Japan now almost 18 years and until Koizumi came around, I was witnessing a new PM take office on average of once a year. And Japan wonders why it doesn’t have more political clout in the world.
hushpuppies

GO RIO GO…Come on guys, Tokyo had their chance…it has never been held on this entire continent before. BTW, I love Brazilians and I think they are warm and friendly. More friendly thank your average Japanese..YEAH RIO
kage

I’m in brazil and we are thinking about create the bullet-proof medal^^.
I’m just making fun of my country, but this is the best country in the world, the only problem is the governants that are corruptous and dumb. But with all the international media looking for us, there will need to think in his people.
Ret

While not particularly statesman-like, I did find it amusing. There’s even a bit of truth to it.
adsasdfdfddfsd

Well at least japanese kick out bad prime ministers, here in Finland ours haven’t yet realized no one likes him.
Marcello

*ba-da-bum*

Funny but true. Lula is just showing off because he’s the most popular president Brazil has had in a long time, and he’s been in power for while.

But what a legend he is. From street shoe-shiner to president of Brazil!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lula

I’m personally worried there is going to be a huge war between the cops and the drug gangs in the whole clean up process. Rio’s cops are responsible for 1/5 murders. http://tinyurl.com/ydzzed3

The City of God movie is a true depiction on a segment of life in Rio. But Rio is a beautiful city, the people are amazing, the music is awesome, the atmosphere is electric, the food is delicious, the people love sport, and the women are so sexy! A true party city, perfect for the Olympics.

I’m the sure the tourist cops will be out in force, but the petty street thieves and the drug lords alike are going to see this as an opportunity for business.
anti

Who cares if he makes fun of Japanese politics. Japan is one of the wealthiest countries on this planet always among the top 10 in the UN´s human development index 2009. Japan has hosted the Olympics 2 times already. Brush his remarks, seems more like a complex to me.
Bruno

the people here in Brazil and very silly, stupid and overly patriotic, so that the Brazilians think that Brazil and the best country in the world, even though I was also a Brazilian not make friends with anyone here prefer to be alone.
http://www.twitter.com/shoyu_u Ben-Hur

É DO BRASIL!!!!! CAMBADA!
YES WE CAN
HAI WATASHI GANBATE (I DON’T SPEAK IN JAPANESE ._.)
THIS IS THE TIME OF BRAZILIAN PEOPLE
Gabriel

C’mon, he was just kidding. Brazilian people are joker, very happy and funny. And the japoneses, hm, they’re so “cold”, they look like robots… I think that’s why a lot of japoneses commit suicide. I have to agree with you that Japan is a very developed and rich country, but there’s no more space, there’s no “green”. Our candidature was great, we’ve shown our real feeling, our will to win… Olympics isn’t just “money”! And I didn’t mention Rio de Janeiro will be the first city in South America to host the Olympics and Japan has already hosted one.
Karim

Yes BraZil!! and Lula… my Presidente, my favorit President!
I love BraZil, and Rio de Janeiro (The best city of the world)

Brazilian president makes fun of Japanese politics

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