PETTY RESENTMENTS
- Miguel Fernández
- Jun 30
- 4 min read
Envy (and the interests hidden in anonymity) is a sadness, a smallness. On Jan 22, 2010, it was announced in Brazil’s main newspapers that the company OGX had just found, in the Campos basin, another oil reserve.
In parallel, an anonymous campaign began circulating on the internet, entitled "eike batista: rich or a front man", to denigrate the main shareholder of OGX:
I keep thinking, why? For what? For whom?
Between curiosity and indignation, I write my musings on the matter:
Eike is an entrepreneur. He did not become rich overnight.
He did not become rich either in the Government or in the State
The banks become much richer and nobody says anything? Why do they not go after the banks, which produce nothing?
Brazil needs 10 Eikes in order to stop being underdeveloped.
I do not know Eike personally, but I would even like to. As an engineer, I have already done a few services for the X companies. One of Eike’s sisters was an intern at IESA (Internacional de Engenharia, in the 1980s) in the sector where I worked. Another brother owns a small printing shop (Editora Mergulhar) where, by chance, I made a photolith more than 10 years ago. They are middle-middle class people, who work like any other Brazilian. To those who accuse old Batista, the father, former director of Cia. Vale do Rio Doce, of having protected Eike, I ask: did their father only “protect” Eike?
My defense of him is that of an engineer and of a Brazilian who observes things.
Below is the e-mail that has been circulating (with slight nuances). The letters in italics and bold are my comments (MFF).
01_ “Who is Eike Batista? Really rich or a front man? Brazil needs to know who Eike is!!!! The company OGX - as well as all companies whose acronym ends in X - which operate in businesses linked to the government, BELONG TO EIKE BATISTA”.
MFF:: they had to belong to someone; those who did not have the competence for this, or the interests that were contradicted, seem to be extremely upset.
02- “Eike is a businessman who became rich overnight and is already the RICHEST man in Brazil, and in a recent interview, he promised with great conviction that he will soon be the richest man in the world.”
MFF: I hope so. I prefer a fellow countryman to a foreigner.
03- “Why are the deposits in shallow waters (150 m water depth, lower exploration cost) being "passed on" to OGX with 100% exploration rights, when PETROBRAS, today the third in the world, has more than enough technology so as not to have to share our riches with whomever it may be? OGX already holds 100% of the exploration rights of 4 other wells under the same conditions.”
MFF: Since the author of these lines says, later on, that Eike’s father handed him the map of the mine, insinuating that public administration is corrupt by nature, why does he defend Petrobras? I do not even know if I agree but, if that were the option, I prefer that they remain with a guy who is not afraid to say that he is rich, but who lives here, spends here and invests here.
04- “Recently, a company belonging to the same Eike had problems in Bolivia, something similar to the blow that Evo Morales’ government struck against PETROBRAS itself. Do you know “who” was the negotiator hired by Eike to deal with the matter in BOLIVIA? Be amazed, Mr. José Dirceu!”
MFF: And why this accusation? Mr. Dirceu also does “lobbying” for others, such as the Mexican Mr. Salinas, from Claro, who ended up here in the FHC government, and nobody complained. It is part of the business environment. And it is better to have Mr. José Dirceu defending Brazilians than foreigners.
05- Do you know WHO decides everything regarding PETROBRAS business? Nothing more, nothing less than counselor Mrs. Dilma Russef and another team of PT members who are specialists in scams of all specialties, including with the press, through counselor Mr. Franklin Martins! All of them also becoming millionaires.
MFF: Is the author of these Catilinarian invectives trying to create intrigue, or not, between Eike and the current government???? With what objective???? Let us think....
06- Could it be that President LULA “does not know” about this PETROBRAS scheme with OGX? Understand why the PETROBRAS CPI is being stifled by the government.
MFF: Why do they only accuse Eike? What interest is being contradicted?
07- Could Mr. Eike be the “front man” of the PT, in the organization of the greatest financial blow ever seen in this country, to keep the PT in government indefinitely and to turn its collaborators into billionaires?
MFF: If it is going to be a financial blow, do not buy Eike’s shares. I did not buy them because I am very distrustful of the financial market, but that does not prevent me from hoping that everything works out, and that an entrepreneur residing in Brazil, unafraid to “assume” and without hiding, is victorious.
08_ For the love of Brazil, forward this. History has to be made, and the actors of this enormous aggression against the Brazilian people will have to be judged and imprisoned so that this country may truly be cleaned up.
MFF: cleaned up by whom? By whoever wrote this text? Why does he not identify himself?
NOTE: at the time, first semester of 2010, I circulated this text on the INTERNET, signed by me, spontaneously and without any interest.
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