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“Dilma: Agony Aunt to the European Union".

O termo "agony aunt" se refere, em inglês, a colunistas especializados em conselhos sentimentais --em geral, uma senhora mais velha, daí o "aunt" ("tia"). Daí, também, a ironia do texto.

O que me impressiona neste episódio e nas fanfarronices do “homo garanhunensis” é a cara de pau (audacity) dos protagonistas.

A expressão “cara de pau” geralmente funciona como substantivo e eventualmente como adjetivo. Como substantivo um bom equivalente em inglês seria o substantivo AUDACITY. Como adjetivo podemos escolher impudent ou cynical.

O texto abaixo foi publicado no jornal FINANCIALTIMES.

“REUTERS – Brazil’s Rousseff warns EU against restrictive taxes”. Yes, you read that right. The country that is ranked 152nd (classificado em 152º lugar) by the World Bank for its unwieldy [ãn.uildi] (heavy, awkward) and heavy (pesado) tax system is advising (está dando conselhos) against restrictive taxes (impostos restritivos).

Dilma Rousseff issued the warning on Monday as she kicked off (to kick significa “chutar”, mas to kick off é um phrasal verb e significa “dar início) her first visit to Europe as Brazilian president.

“In our case, extremely restrictive fiscal measures only deepened the process of stagnation and loss of opportunity,” she said, in reference to Latin America’s debt crisis during the 1980s. “It is difficult to exit crisis without increasing consumption and growth.”
Brazilian politicians have recently taken it upon themselves to solve the global financial crisis, doling out (advice to the developed world.

O verbo to dole significa “distribuir alguma coisa”.
Já o phrasal verb “to dole out” significa to distribute in small amounts (esp. money); give out freely, dish out.

Como substantivo dole é sinônimo de alms (esmola). Note que alms termina em S e apropriadamente funciona no plural.

Guido Mantega, Brazil’s finance minister, has been one of the pioneers in this regard. After rising to fame thanks to his ‘currency war’ discourse, Mantega last month proposed a slightly wacky ‘Bric’ rescue package for the euro zone.

WACKY: adjective (wackier, wackiest) informal funny or amusing in a slightly odd or peculiar way.

The problem was that he had failed to consult the other Bric countries such as China, which holds the majority of the bloc’s foreign exchange reserves. Even many of his fellow countrymen were a little surprised by the suggestion that Brazil should bail out countries such as Italy, whose GDP per head is three times higher than their own.

To bail significa “saltar de paraquedas”.

A bailout is an act of giving capital to an entity (a company, a country, or an individual) in danger of failing in an attempt to save it from bankruptcy, insolvency, or total liquidation and ruin; or (less frequently) to allow a failing entity to fail gracefully without spreading contagion.

Aside from unrealistic, the advice coming from Brazil has also sounded somewhat hypocritical.

Dilma recently spoke out about the need to combat protectionism only a week after increasing the tax on foreign-built cars by a whopping (whopping = extremely large) 30 percentage points. Even the complaints over currency manipulation are rather rich given that Brazil’s central bank has intervened in its spot currency market nearly every day since the crisis by buying dollars (the reason behind its impressive foreign exchange reserves).

But while it is all too easy to mock, Brazil’s newfound global voice is, in itself, a sign of greater economic stability at home. After all, in the wake of the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers, the country was too busy trying to prop up its own finances to worry about anyone else’s.

With one of the world’s most sound banking systems, a huge capacity for counter-cyclical stimulus measures, and those hefty foreign exchange reserves, no wonder Brazil now feels it has the right to dole out so much advice — however wacky.

HEFTY: adjective
1. a hefty young man: BURLY, heavy, sturdy, strapping, bulky, brawny, husky, strong, muscular, large, big, solid, well built; portly, stout; informal hulking, hunky, beefy.
2. a hefty kick: POWERFUL, violent, hard, forceful, heavy, mighty.
3. hefty loads of timber: HEAVY, weighty, bulky, big, large, substantial, massive, ponderous; unwieldy, cumbersome, burdensome; informal hulking.
4. a hefty fine: SUBSTANTIAL, sizeable, considerable, stiff, extortionate, large, excessive; informal steep, astronomical, whopping.

Related reading:
Brazilian mission to attract European investors, FT
Private sector education booms in Brazil, FT
Brazil reverses policy in real defense, FT

Como podemos ver, começamos a nos tornar (novamente) motivo de chacota no hemisfério norte.

Os gregos já tinham um provérbio para essa síndrome de falso poder que o nosso sábio Roberto Campos gostava muito de mencionar: NE SUTOR ULTRA CREPIDAM. (Não suba o sapateiro além da chinela).

Se quiser algum esclarecimento adicional, mande-me um e-mail para roberto@henrys.com.br

Para que já está atingindo o nível de fluência, a melhor opção para avançar é ler as newsletters dos principais jornais americanos e, especialmente, da revista THE ECONOMIST. They are free.

Have an excellent weekend.

Roberto Henry Ebelt é professor, escritor, produz uma coluna semanal para o Jornal do Comércio de Porto Alegre deste 2001 e é diretor do curso HENRY'S BUSINESS ENGLISH desde 1971.

Seu mais recente livro, O QUE VOCÊ DEVE SABER ANTES DE ESTUDAR INGLÊS, pode ser encontrado nas livrarias Disal, Cultura e SBS ou à rua Hoffmann, 728 em Porto Alegre.

E-mail: roberto@henrys.com.br
Fone (51) 3222-3144
www.henrys.com.br