Brasília at Midnight

There was a study a few years back showing how most Brazilians have a high distrust of each other, save for family and friends, meaning there's an individualism that prevails in regards to the former and an extreme cohesiveness with the latter (something I found to be true in my several years living there).

On another note, most Brazilians aren't patriotic [read: proud] -- something that, according to Brazilian anthropologist Roberto DaMatta, requires a coming-together of positive feelings regarding culture and the State (imagine a Venn Diagram where the middle section is patriotism and then imagine one where the two circles don't even intersect -- the latter is Brazil, according to DaMatta). There are countless reasons to be proud of their cultural diversity and output, but seemingly very few reasons to be proud of the State.

Brazilian economist Eduardo Giannetti, who recently published his book Trópicos Utópicos (Utopic Tropics), had the following to say about the current climate in Brazil in a recent El Pais article (from which I'm translating):

"Brazilians society is very individualistic, we have a lot of difficulty with anything related to collective action and organization. These protest movements, for example, are eruptions. They don't have any consistency or continuity, they are emotional explosions without any kind of commitment to unfolding or to [be made into a] project. In addition, Brazil has as an abstract aspirational reference to attain American affluence, but they are not prepared in their daily lives for the degree of commitment, dedication and discipline of work. It's like the Greeks wanting to live at a German standard without having German productivity. This doesn't add up. For a while cash transfers allowed this trick, but at some point it stops working. The new element in the world we are in now is that what was an ethical critique has now become an objective, biological question of survival. Reality has been imposed. Nature has limits. And not only external nature, but also the inner nature of man. This calculative civilizing, aggressively competitive, process based on the permanent logic of productivity attacks something very deep in the archaic psyche of the human being. He does not accept this well. There is a widespread malaise, a discontent with some valuable thing in life that is lost in this model. And Brazil, even with its slowness, maintains an even less damaging relationship with this deep psyche of our evolutionary past. Our emotional celebration of life is something we have to know how to cherish. It is a gift. We must recognize that Brazilian potential, to seek out a path that is ours and that reflects our values. We are fully capable of living at their level. In art and popular music we already attain this expression. What's missing is to translate it into practical life."

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If anyone wants to see one of Niemeyer's rather abstract Brasília in Ruins paintings, it's here http://i.imgur.com/uY2gzKk.jpg

The "coup" allegations are nothing but ridiculous. What kind of coups is done with ample defense opportunity and full validation of the Supreme Court? There's nothing flimsy about the fiscal fraud committed by the soon to be former president. And while this is not being considered for the impeachment process (because it happened after it had began), she is under investigation for obstruction of justice (for nominating Lula a minister in the hopes of escaping the corruption investigations), and people who worked for her party and who are now in jail have confirmed she was fully aware of the corruption scheme and money laundering in the form of campaign donations.

It's funny because in 92 the same politicians who are now claiming a coup is going on have voted in favor of impeachment on much lighter claims against the president at the time (including the same nonsense speeches as house members voted in congress).

The part about the outrage for the the end of the Ministry of Culture shows a lot of what's wrong with Brazil: everyone wants their own government tit to suck from. As if culture can be created by government bureocrats.

No wonder the previous government's cabinet had 38 ministries, including the Ministry of Fishing. At least it didn't come to a point where we had a Ministry of Happiness like in Venezuela.