[Gothmog]

I was just thinking about it after I read an interesting article in the Brazilian weekly magazine "Isto É". Our beloved ex-president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, was invited to a meeting of businessmen. It was a huge meeting, involving the most important members of Brazilian elite, in a luxury resort in the Northeast coast. Mr. Cardoso gave a lecture about "ethics and efficiency in the public sector". Well, this lecture was sponsored by HSBC, a foreign bank that bought Brazilian banks who were bankrupt during Mr. Cardoso´s government. The government borrowed money to HSBC, which was then used to buy the banks (?). Mr. Cardoso received US$50,000 for the lecture, and it´s said that he is giving many other lectures worldwide sponsored by this same bank and receiving lots of money. I found deeply promiscous this relationship between an ex president and a private bank, althought, being a Marxist, I´m not exactly surprised. What I find deeply offensive, however, is the irony that THIS president is lecturing our elite about ethics. So, I ask you, is it expected in a developed capitalist country or our elite is more bankrupt (from the moral point of view) than that of other countries. Is this kind of behaviour normal?