What's really happening in Brazil?

For all those who want to grasp what's going on in Brazil now in the view of an independent blogger, here it goes:

1 - Dilma Roussef, our president from PT (Labour Party) has often been accused of promoting a reformist government, without making substantial changes - which is considered a bad thing for those who oppose her from the left side. Those located at the right spectrum of politics state that she and Lula are communists, call her and our former president all kinds of bad names and oppose all she and her predecessor have done in favour of the poor and low middle classes, trying to threaten stability at every minute by voicing permanent concerns and heavy criticism through today's most powerful, olygopolic, traditional media.

2 - Those on the left also accuse government permanently and try to raise obstacles to every single development plan or project she presents, and even when they lose long court battles, they go on by using hundreds of blogs and NGOs to spread their views in society and even outside Brazil and create a negative image for our government. In their view, a different world is possible, but they just fail to explain how that might be achieved and where to get the necessary political support to do it. Using eletricity from hidroeletric plants is considered a high crime, for instance, even if it's renewable and cheaper than any other form of energy we have to promote the development our people need and long for. Even native people, who now share a double cultural standard, use energy. Other sources have also been developed and are getting public investment, but that will never suffice to make people who criticize happy, because the real aim seems to be permanent criticism and reproach. Well installed now in many labour unions and academic associations, they also have a high power of influencing people and interfering politicaly.

3 - All those parties which got discontented by having lost last elections, which Dilma has won by a large majority of 56.05 % of all votes, against 43.95%  given to second candidate José Serra, now want revenge and want to rebel people against Dilma, following an international pattern of uprisings in autochratic nations. That's not the case of Brazil. We had fair elections and everybody accepted that, but now some want to turn tables and corner Dilma by threatening both economic and political stability. Right wing media seeks at promoting inflation (believe me!) and left wing parties and media (mostly alternative media, using Internet) do the same by using other ways, like inducing public servers to demand salary raises and rebel too.

4 - One aditional factor are such groups which try to create an international anarchic chaos by using twitter and other fast means, hiding behind masks and things like that, under oniric pretexts that we should govern ourselves without any kind of elected government or leadership. They serve both extremists from right and from left, who in last marches used (some of them) their masks and showed signs with their vague proposals of 'direct democracy' or 'liquid democracy' or 'globalrevolution'.

5 - Marchers have a double-faced behaviour: they provoke the police to create maximum reaction, then they film someone with a 'peace' sign or injured and say the police overreacted or used unnecessary brutality. Also, they induce people to take public buildings and even break them or set them on fire, to force repression.

6 - We, the nearly 56 million people who voted for Dilma and PT, are many more, in numbers, than the 1 million people they have been able, by using intensive internet activity, to call to protest and even vandalize some of our cities. We represent the country better and have not risen yet, but I believe we may have to do this soon, to show we do not want any kind of coups in our beloved Brasil (we write it with an 's'): neither from the right, nor anarchic, nor left.

7 - Each minute of induced 'revolt' costs us much more than the 20 cents of public fare increase they wanted to force the government to reduce, which ignited this kind of rebellion, to soon after declare it was indeed a pretext. It forces inflation to go up, which is harmful especially for the poorer classes, and make investors become suspicious. With less investments and more inflation, caused by forced instability, public revenue and economic activity will diminish and government will face problems to fulfill its budget, affecting us all. Also, this will cost more than the Soccer Cups or Olympics we were honoured to house, in which we may spend something like 2 or 3/10 of our yearly budget for Education and Health, but which will create jobs, increase tourism and also benefit the country in the long run.

8 - Main motto of the marches, the self-declared 'indignation at political corruption' hides the real fact that we live in capitalism, which really tries to corrupt structures, but so far all denounces have been thouroughly investigated and condamned by the country's highest tribunal, even when they lacked any proofs ... Corruption has never been so well denounced and so severely punished, but still, both extremes say it's a major problem that has to be solved by taking power away from politicians and giving it to people and to control organs like D.A. - even if they do not explain how this power will be given and under which limits or rules it should be exercised. Mostly, they call for silly and innefective 'salary reductions' for politicians, which may bring into politics even less prepared people and which now account for a very low portion of our trillionary budget.

9 - In twelve years of PT, famine has decreased to a fraction of what it was before, to less than half, and misery too, fully recognized by FAO and other UN organs. 40 million people have been allowed some social mobility, moving from E, D and C economic classes to D, C and A. Birth mortality has highly decreased, school evasion too. Third grade education (university) has been made available to millions more by means of PROUNI, which is a government program for scholarships. 40 thousand people are studying abroad at the expense of our government, in universities like Bologna, Harvard, Sorbonne and others.

10 - Much has to be achieved and done, much has been done. Trying to use criminal and unfair methods to distabilize a government is a bad thing, a cowardly act, an irresponsible bet. I'm brazilian, I studied in public schools, I can speak four foreign languages and have a degree in Business Administration, I work for the state (Judiciaary system, as a simple clerk), I carry a reasonably good living and I see my country actually becoming better for those like me or who were born poorer than me. I lived in a twenty-eight square metter flat with my family for twenty years (five people and dogs), I improved socially even before PT getting into office, but I can see the value of public education and all what PT and Dilma are doing for those there under, even by proposing to use all revenue from Pre-sal oil reserve to Education, with the resistence of right-wing Congress.

* I'll soon translate it to other languages, too. Sorry for the long, long letter!

Flávio Prieto
RJ
Brasil