IF YOU LIE

If you lie, you have consequences. It does not matter if the lie is big or small. If comes from a person or the establishment. You will have to deal with it, one way or another, just wait.

South of the border, past Mexico way, there is a country, a continent.

There, when it was discovered, more than 500 years ago, it started with a lie.

Christopher Columbus discovered America. Back then, the kings of Spain were eager to expand their empire, expel moors, be faithful to the church and other “cositas mas”. Portugal was in the same mood, so they decided to sign a treaty (Tordesillas) that among many things established that land east of the imaginary line, yet to be discovered, belonged to Portugal, west to Spain.

During those days lies were also in play. The Pope was Alexander VI, a Borgia, known for his flexibility regarding affairs, in the other hand, Isabel was pious, but a determined ruler. The Italians played an interesting role in financing discoveries without doing so.

Officially Brazil was discovered in 1500 and there lies the first lie. It was not. At least not in accordance with the documents found in Lisbon which I had the chance to read in the year of 2000.

Brazil was discovered a few years earlier by Diego Pacheco that landed in the Marajó island, west of the Tordesillas. Well, if the news became official, he had discovered for Spain and not Portugal. Not a good deal for the king of that country.

Knowing then, that there was land east of that discovery, the king sent an expedition of colonization, led by Cabral in 1500. It landed in what is Bahia, today.

It became the first lie taught to the Brazilian people. The date of discovery and who officially did it.

I guess, since that moment lying, in that part of the world, became common.

Years later, during the war against Paraguay an episode was told to Brazilians of all ages remembering a military retreat from the Laguna. Since the country is not in the list of world’s warmongers their military wanted to rely on heroic episodes. So, they decided to call it “The Heroic Retreat from the Laguna”, obviously the first retreat to be called heroic, in history. Just another small lie, harmless in a way…

They also said, in school, that the Portuguese killed all the Indians in Brazil. I don’t know if it is true, but I can say that I never saw so many Indians as I see today. May be the few left multiplied in geometric proportions, or was another generic lie.

The fact is: politicians saw in lies a form of getting elected. They also saw in it, a manner of dishing off all scandals, malfeasance, blunt robbery, etc... Just lie. “I never did it”. “I know nothing”. “I never heard of it”. “I never did anything wrong”. “It is the press, they lie all the time” ...

The pile of lies became big. It will be impossible to list them all. So, this brings us to the present. The biggest festival of lies ever created by men.

There is a country, in the southern hemisphere, a democracy, with a so called very advanced constitution. In fact, good, this constitution is a bit forward thinking for people that are not educated to have it. Then, the first conflict arises…rights vs duties. There everybody has rights, few duties. The lack of clear definition generated an economy with more than 17,000 syndicates. All of them wanting more rights, none asking for duties. Even teachers prefer to strike for more rights than exercise their duty of educating children, so they strike.

Somebody wants a new passage way in front of their homes…they immediately strike to demand its construction, normally by impeding everybody else to move about. The supposed rights of a few supersede the ones of others. Their rights don’t stop where the others’ start. Consider it another constitutional lie, of the light kind.

An elected President lied to be elected. Normally a common thing when dealing with politicians, but this one was a master in his devious skills. He not only lied about everything, he was also capable of making his successor, another liar of immense proportions. The people? Well, they like lies, are accustomed to the system, so, they vote, repeatedly for whoever lies the best.

Caught in immense shady deals, scandalous thievery, with stolen money inside their undies, they deny everything. After all, a denial can be just another lie. And they are good at it!

They invented the biggest money laundering scheme in the world. As Brazilians like to be mentioned as biggest in many things, they are now, in fact, the biggest thieves of the planet, or, as in another way of saying, they harbor the best of the world in that trade.

Not flattering but true. Opps. This word should not be here!

So now, stealing is a thing of billions on its way to trillions. Hungry politicians, from presidents to governors, from senators to deputies, from house representatives to city councils, from directors to assistants, from civil servants to bus boys, no one escapes. It’s the first kleptocracy of the world.

The scandal is huge. If the country would not be so rich it would have bankrupted in days. It has tentacles that extend through South and Central Americas. Even Africa! It reflected in the stock exchange in N.Y., the FBI is investigating, Swiss officials are doing the same. Nobody knows when it will stop.

And the answer is the same…lies, lies and more lies.

Maybe if they continue to lie it will become true. Like Goebbels? Hitler?

Well, if the Mafia did not accomplish so well in the States or in Italy, it performed wonders in Brazil.

If you lie…