August 24, 2007– Vol.5 –
No.11
LulaWatch Focusing on the Latin American
Left
Brazil: Booing Lula, Lethargy
and Healthy Reactions
Up until now, most Brazilians have
been discouraged by their inability to do something against
the mounting problems that overwhelm them. Such paralysis
has served as a protective shield for President Lula and
prevented healthy reactions
On July 13 and 17, two events shook Brazil. The
first was the booing of President Luiz Inácio Lula
da Silva at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro which
was filled with 90,000 people for the inauguration of the
Pan-American Games. The second was the crash and explosion
of an Airbus of the Brazilian airline TAM at Congonhas Airport
in downtown São Paulo. With the death of 199 persons,
it was the worst accident in the history of Brazilian aviation.
Both facts have led important sectors of the population,
particularly the middle class, to vent their pent-up anger
at the Lula government.
In spite of a healthy economy from both national and international
perspectives, many problems without likely solutions in
the short and medium term cloud the horizon. Among these
are: Corruption scandals left unpunished in all three branches
of government, the rise in crime now dominating whole areas
of the big cities and coordinated by cell phone from inside
prisons; a stifling tax burden impoverishing the middle
classes; and a ten-month-old air traffic control crisis
wreaking havoc with the lives of countless Brazilians.
Until now, the reaction of the general populace has been
apathetic or, at best, weak for problems of this magnitude.
Attorney Luiz Borges D'Urso, president of São Paulo's
Bar Association, placed his finger in the wound: "We
want people to become indignant once again in face of problems,
for Brazilian society has entered a state of lethargy.”
The booing of Lula at Maracanã stadium, and the
anti-government reactions to the fall of TAM’s jetliner
related to the government’s inability to solve the
air traffic control chaos, appears to indicate that the
lethargy is subsiding.
Indeed, up until now, Brazilians have been paralyzed and
discouraged by the mounting problems that overwhelm them.
Such a paralysis has served as protective shield for President
Lula and has prevented healthy reactions from being manifested
with clarity. This impression of insurmountable problems
explains although does not justify the above-mentioned lethargy.
At any rate, one must employ the language of reason and
not just fleeting emotion to shake this lethargy profoundly
and not only in an episodic fashion. In the recent accident
with the TAM airplane, for example, some hastened to emphasize
a possible responsibility of the government in the tragic
episode by echoing rumors.
A few days later, when the report on the content of the
plane’s black boxes indicated human errors that could
not be blamed on the government, those superficial opponents
fell into discredit and, even worse, hurt the cause they
were claiming to defend. Journalist Luis Nassif warned:
"When criticism of Lula extrapolates and assumes airs
of a systematic campaign, it disarms all the relevant critiques
that should be made about the real problems that exist in
the administration."
The fundamental question that Brazilians now need to answer
is how to recover fully their capacity to react. Undoubtedly,
that recovery will have to be a fruit of rational thought
and not rumors or emotional hyperbole. Being aware of this
lethargy and the need to shake it off is already a good
part of the way toward finding a solution.
Lula
Fooling the World Lula's party covered up its
historic radicalism during the
elections, but now in power is
gradually re-nationalizing formerly
privatized assets.
Brazil
says NO to Gun Control - October 27, 2005
The international left was monitoring with great expectations the results
of Brazil’s weekend referendum on a nationwide ban on the sale of
guns and ammunition. A Yes vote would have been celebrated as a victory
for gun control not only in Brazil but worldwide.
