How's the level of service in your country?

comparison is ther between where u live n where u go but u have to adapt

Normal.

crenvy wrote:

... Which brings up the question: how do you feel the level of service where you are compares to where you were?

Level of service is substandard but it improves. 

John C. wrote:

crenvy wrote:

... Which brings up the question: how do you feel the level of service where you are compares to where you were?

Level of service is substandard but it improves. 

By whose standards yours or theirs?  The level is probably normal for your new adopted country.  Too many expats where I am are constantly trying to change things that really can't be changed. Yes standards may be different from what you are used to but that is part of living in a different country.

To bastardize a famous quote: "change what you can, leave alone what you can't and by gosh know the difference"

Bob K

Unfortunately Brazilians are one of the most highly taxed populations on the face of the earth. In terms of any kind of services they get almost nothing in return but more suffering. Public services such as education, healthcare and public security are in chaos even though they are sub-standard by any yardstick you want to use. Of the trillions in tax revenues raked in each year by the Receita Federal almost none of that comes back to the people who need it most.

People die in waiting lines in hospitals and emergency clinics in major metropolitan areas, yet more die in remote areas of this country simply because Brazilian doctors won't work there. This scandalous situation has forced the government to resort to bringing in foreign doctors and the Brazilian medics who couldn't care less about saving human lives cry foul.

Public schools, aside from the teaching material devoid of any real substance, only offer students about half of the classroom hours per day that North American and European schools do. Then too they have to put up with the fact that teachers simply don't show up for a whole host of reasons.... my cousin's girlfriend's mother died; my dog is sick and I had to take him to the vet; it's garbage day and I have to take out the garbage bags now. It's pathetic.

For the twelve plus years I've been living here the lawmakers have been making hollow promises of significant reforms to the antiquated Penal Code (from 1940) and a set of juvenile laws that create nothing but a training ground for hardened criminals because they give young offenders almost absolute impunity. Still, nothing gets done and the violence that's spread across this entire country goes unchecked. The (intentional) homicide rate here is 21.8 as opposed to Canada at 1.6, the USA at 4.7 and the UK at 1.2. In the Americas only Columbia, Mexico and Venezuela have higher homicide rates.

Infrastructure in this country is virtually non-existant, there are only two kinds of highways; those with massive tolls and those with massive pot holes everywhere. Sanitary systems are antiquated and sub-standard. In many places they don't even exist. In São Paulo, South America's largest and wealthiest city, fully one household in six doesn't even have a bathroom or running water. Secondary sewage treatment is rare, Hell primary treatment doesn't even exist in many areas of Brazil. Rio Tietê, which is pristine from its headwaters to very close to Greater São Paulo has been turned into nothing more than an open-air sewer once it reaches the São Paulo metropolitan area, raw sewage is dumped into both Rio Tietê and Rio Pinheiros by various outfalls. The stench is insupportable.

So, one a scale of one to ten, with ONE being the best; I'd rate Brazil's level of service at about 84. Can't expect much more than this from a country where the greater portion of tax revenues goes straight into the pockets of corrupt politicians or gets wasted on facilities for mega-events like the World Cup or Olympic Games that this country isn't even capable of hosting in the first place.

Cheers,
William James Woodward, Expat-blog Experts Team

Bob K wrote:

John C. wrote:

crenvy wrote:

... Which brings up the question: how do you feel the level of service where you are compares to where you were?

Level of service is substandard but it improves. 

By whose standards yours or theirs?  The level is probably normal for your new adopted country.  Too many expats where I am are constantly trying to change things that really can't be changed. Yes standards may be different from what you are used to but that is part of living in a different country.

To bastardize a famous quote: "change what you can, leave alone what you can't and by gosh know the difference"

Bob K

Hi Bob,
1): By my standards, St. Lucia was far worse than Austria in 1991 when I arrived here.

2). By St. Lucians' standards, it was bad too.
New foreigners settle here every year and many St. Lucians return home for retirement.
They bring a wave of change and the level of service now has improved compared to 1991, which is just in the nature of things.