Brazil - Not Even the PT Can Stop Nature

Associated Press is reporting that 200 have been killed and 11,000 displaced in a mudslide in Rio. A growing middle class and urban renewal projects under President Da Silva have done much for Brazil, but you can't wipe out the desperate poverty of Rio's poorly planned hill side slums over night. In this case we are looking at the collapse of buildings built on a land fill that had not been used for more than 20 years. Rio currently employs several thousand workers that travel around the city working to counter the possibility of slides - but how much can you really do for a spontaneous slum built on a landfill with no initial support or planning combined with record rain falls? On the bright side - if we can eve dare to use the phrase - perhaps some improvement in infrastructure has guaranteed that this disaster was not worse considering the region has endured over 80 slides in the last few days.