Brazil is not in crisis
01/10/2005Much has been said in the media about the crisis the country is going through.. It doesn't take much to verify headlines saying Lula's government is lost., that deputies are cornered in the face of so many scandals, or even that the Brazilian population can't stand so much neglect anymore.
On the other hand, when we close the magazine or turn off the newspaper the world seems to be quite different. The indignation of the population does not pass, as, ali & aacute; s, never went beyond small private complaints. The constant Brazilian good humor takes care to turn our tragedy into comedy: "a coisa tá dura, não veio meu mensalão".
Contrary to what the heralds of ethics say, in their comfortable positions as people exempt from responsibility for the current state of the country, Brazil is not going through a crisis. Politics continues its usual path and is doing very well., thanks. President Lula remains as lost as he was at the beginning of his term; the buying and selling of parliamentary positions remains as direct and clear as ever, even if our newest president of the Chamber of Deputies insists on saying that.
Certainly, some deputies will fall to satisfy a false demand of the population for moralization. But that doesn't change the days in Brasilia or in other Brazilian cities.. We continue our traditional path of bribing inspectors to avoid building embargoes, we will continue not to issue invoices as a way to collect less tax and, when we go for a walk on holiday, we will continue to bribe the police who insist on finding problems with our cars.
I am not making a full generalization here., not all brazilians do that. But we also cannot hide reality in politically correct speeches.. Brazilian ethics, like it or not, is strongly marked by the search for unofficial solutions to all the problems, o famoso "jeitinho".
This is the point that should be debated if we were really willing to change anything in these lands.. But that's not the way we've been. The culprit is always the other (the government, the imperialism, o FMI, o MST, the Corinthians), never me or you.
I leave here a question that should not be answered aloud., at most in thought in the most discreet part of the brain: what's the difference between you, former deputy Roberto Jeferson and soccer referee Edílson Pereira de Carvalho? to help answer, I will point out some similarities: they are all brazilian, immersed in the same culture, in the same social structure and with ambitions of the same nature.
I must agree with my reader that I am being quite radical in putting everyone in the same boat.. It is true, they tend to theatricalize more than you; they are corrupt who only think about their own interests; they are unscrupulous people. Really the issue of intensity becomes fundamental here to differentiate ourselves!
Let's forget politics for a moment. I took the liberty of putting two lines recently made in terms of the Mafia do Apito. I ask the reader to, read each quote twice: in the first consider only the main text, in the second replace the italicized term with the term in square brackets. In the first reading understand that I am commenting on the issue of football, in the second, the issue of the monthly allowance.
"A maioria dos referees [pol RIVER ticos] is upset and mourning, because a case like this stains our class. O Edilson [Deputy Roberto Jefferson] does not answer for arbitration [Chamber of Deputies] national or international, but for his actions and the path he followed" – juiz Wagner Tardelli.
"Também estamos de luto por isso. The case generated a doubt about the whole class, that from now on will work coerced. If you have to stop the championship [Congress], can paralyze. This attitude will have my full support as long as the culprits stay in their place.: the jail" – Lion coach
let's be honest, both lines work perfectly for both cases. The speech is the same because the reality is the same. Politics remains the same as always and probably this football issue will also continue. And the list doesn't stop here., our lives will probably continue at the same pace, the same modus operandi.
As long as we insist that the problem is not ours, that we are just victims of the negligence of the powerful, we will continue to be complicit in our own inability to determine the future we want.
Moral of the hist & oacute; ria: Understanding a country is more than identifying the facts that constitute its daily life.
Contrary to what the heralds of ethics say, in their comfortable positions as people exempt from responsibility for the current state of the country, Brazil is not going through a crisis. Politics continues its usual path and is doing very well., thanks. President Lula remains as lost as he was at the beginning of his term; the buying and selling of parliamentary positions remains as direct and clear as ever, even if our newest president of the Chamber of Deputies insists on saying that.
Certainly, some deputies will fall to satisfy a false demand of the population for moralization. But that doesn't change the days in Brasilia or in other Brazilian cities.. We continue our traditional path of bribing inspectors to avoid building embargoes, we will continue not to issue invoices as a way to collect less tax and, when we go for a walk on holiday, we will continue to bribe the police who insist on finding problems with our cars.
I am not making a full generalization here., not all brazilians do that. But we also cannot hide reality in politically correct speeches.. Brazilian ethics, like it or not, is strongly marked by the search for unofficial solutions to all the problems, o famoso "jeitinho".
This is the point that should be debated if we were really willing to change anything in these lands.. But that's not the way we've been. The culprit is always the other (the government, the imperialism, o FMI, o MST, the Corinthians), never me or you.
I leave here a question that should not be answered aloud., at most in thought in the most discreet part of the brain: what's the difference between you, former deputy Roberto Jeferson and soccer referee Edílson Pereira de Carvalho? to help answer, I will point out some similarities: they are all brazilian, immersed in the same culture, in the same social structure and with ambitions of the same nature.
I must agree with my reader that I am being quite radical in putting everyone in the same boat.. It is true, they tend to theatricalize more than you; they are corrupt who only think about their own interests; they are unscrupulous people. Really the issue of intensity becomes fundamental here to differentiate ourselves!
Let's forget politics for a moment. I took the liberty of putting two lines recently made in terms of the Mafia do Apito. I ask the reader to, read each quote twice: in the first consider only the main text, in the second replace the italicized term with the term in square brackets. In the first reading understand that I am commenting on the issue of football, in the second, the issue of the monthly allowance.
"A maioria dos referees [pol RIVER ticos] is upset and mourning, because a case like this stains our class. O Edilson [Deputy Roberto Jefferson] does not answer for arbitration [Chamber of Deputies] national or international, but for his actions and the path he followed" – juiz Wagner Tardelli.
"Também estamos de luto por isso. The case generated a doubt about the whole class, that from now on will work coerced. If you have to stop the championship [Congress], can paralyze. This attitude will have my full support as long as the culprits stay in their place.: the jail" – Lion coach
let's be honest, both lines work perfectly for both cases. The speech is the same because the reality is the same. Politics remains the same as always and probably this football issue will also continue. And the list doesn't stop here., our lives will probably continue at the same pace, the same modus operandi.
As long as we insist that the problem is not ours, that we are just victims of the negligence of the powerful, we will continue to be complicit in our own inability to determine the future we want.
Moral of the hist & oacute; ria: Understanding a country is more than identifying the facts that constitute its daily life.
Originally published in:
magazine Author (www.revistaautor.com.br)
Pol & iacute; tica
Yes V – N. 51 – October 2005