A squid, a mini trump, and lots of other crazy people.
I'm gonna interrupt the normal movie review schedule to talk a little bit about Brazilian politics.
On October 7th, Brazilians are going to choose a new president. For the past two months my Facebook feed was hell. Fake news everywhere, and so much hate I felt overwhelmed.
Yes, I know it sounds boring, and I'm sorry, but next Sunday might define Brazilian History and I won't be able to vote. So I have to rant instead.
For you to understand this year's elections, I have to go back a few years and give you some background. I'll try to be as unbiased as possible, but I can't guarantee it, you'll see why. And be ready, cause this is gonna have a House of Cards level of complexity.
This is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a.k.a Lula.
He was elected President of the Republic of Brazil back in 2002, being the creator of the "Partido dos Trabalhadores" - PT (Workers' Party). I was five when he took over, and I don't really remember much of it. But he did take people out of poverty.
Income and social inequality have always been issues in Brazil, and Lula managed to create and approve projects that helped the less fortunate. Just to name a few:
Fome Zero was a project that aimed to end hunger and lower the sub-nutrition rates all over the country by 2015.
ProUni was the biggest education program in Brazilian history. It provides scholarships for students who can't afford to pay for a private University education. Between 2005 and 2009 it awarded about 600.000 scholarships all around the country.
And, the most famous program: Bolsa Família. It's a social program that helps approx. 12.4 millions of Brazilians, providing families with incomes lower than R$137,00 (approx. 30,00 euros) a month, with money.
(Out of all the social programs mentioned, only Fome Zero is no longer active.)
You can imagine why he was reelected in 2006. And why, in 2010, Dilma Rousseff, his former Chief of Staff and indication for office, also won.
Now, when Dilma was elected, I already had some sense of what was going on. And I was fully aware that PT (Workers' Party) was involved in some serious vote-buying scandal, the Mensalão.
On October 7th, Brazilians are going to choose a new president. For the past two months my Facebook feed was hell. Fake news everywhere, and so much hate I felt overwhelmed.
Yes, I know it sounds boring, and I'm sorry, but next Sunday might define Brazilian History and I won't be able to vote. So I have to rant instead.
This is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a.k.a Lula.
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| Lula means squid in Portuguese, btw |
He was elected President of the Republic of Brazil back in 2002, being the creator of the "Partido dos Trabalhadores" - PT (Workers' Party). I was five when he took over, and I don't really remember much of it. But he did take people out of poverty.
Income and social inequality have always been issues in Brazil, and Lula managed to create and approve projects that helped the less fortunate. Just to name a few:
Fome Zero was a project that aimed to end hunger and lower the sub-nutrition rates all over the country by 2015.
ProUni was the biggest education program in Brazilian history. It provides scholarships for students who can't afford to pay for a private University education. Between 2005 and 2009 it awarded about 600.000 scholarships all around the country.
And, the most famous program: Bolsa Família. It's a social program that helps approx. 12.4 millions of Brazilians, providing families with incomes lower than R$137,00 (approx. 30,00 euros) a month, with money.
(Out of all the social programs mentioned, only Fome Zero is no longer active.)
You can imagine why he was reelected in 2006. And why, in 2010, Dilma Rousseff, his former Chief of Staff and indication for office, also won.
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| that's Dilma smiling like she's not about to ruin the country |
Now, when Dilma was elected, I already had some sense of what was going on. And I was fully aware that PT (Workers' Party) was involved in some serious vote-buying scandal, the Mensalão.
The Mensalão scandal surfaced back when Lula was still president, and it actually threatened to bring his government down.
To sum it up in a few words:
The Workers' Party paid a number of deputies about R$30.000,00 (approx 6.700,00 euros) monthly to make sure they voted legislation in favor of the ruling party. The funds allegedly came from state-owned companies' budgets, and many other Brazilian political parties were found to be a part of the scheme.
Dilma also had her share of scandals while in office. And by "scandals" I mean the biggest money laundering and corruption scandal in Brazilian history.
March 7th 2014, the federal police starts an operation called Lava-Jato (Car Wash). They find out that executives from Petrobras (Brazil's biggest oil company) accepted bribes in return for awarding contracts to construction firms at inflated prices. All this happening with both Dilma's and Lula's consent. Yes, Dilma helped bankrupt Petrobras, which was thought to be almost impossible.
I won't get too much into this, cause there's a very good Netflix series based on the events that led the on-going (yes, Lava-Jato is still happening) investigation - and I seriously recommend it. If you wanna be entertained (and also learn some curse words in Portuguese) watch The Mechanism. One season, 8 episodes, and it only covers the start of the investigation, but it's worth it.
Spoiler (but not really, because it's all over the news): Every. Single. Politician. Was. Involved.
They all benefited from either the bribe or the embezzled money from the contracts.
They all benefited from either the bribe or the embezzled money from the contracts.
All this led to Dilma's impeachment in 2016, which could be an entire media diary post in itself because of the influence media and social media had on the protests (and riots) that made it happen.
Keep in mind that by the time Dilma stepped out, the Workers' Party had been governing Brazil for fourteen years. I had no recollection of what the last non-PT government had been like, and I - like most people-, was tired of all the corruption that party had been involved in.
So when Dilma's vice president, Michel Temer, from PMDB (Brazilian's Democratic Movement Party) assumed office, we all thought it was gonna be a breath of fresh air.
So naïve.
So naïve.
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| he looks like Emperor Palpatine, we should've known |
The man is sexist, and incredibly traditional. He's made reforms that the public didn't want, and approved things that he shouldn't have. And on top of everything, he's also being investigated by Lava-Jato.
Since he took over, Temer has had the highest rejection rate in Brazilian history, even higher than former President Fernando Collor, the crazy guy that froze all our money and ended up impeached, back in 1992.
Thankfully, Temer's presidential term is over.
All this brings us to the 2018 elections. This is where things get complicated.
With Lava-Jato almost monthly updating their list of investigated figures, and increasing the list of people on trial by the Supreme Court, most of the politicians turned out to be thieves. There is no real enemy. PT is not the only scandal-related party anymore, and most Brazilians feel there's no way out.
That's when Jair Bolsonaro comes as a "saviour" for the country, but with hate speech.
This is a guy that feels the military should take over and establish another dictatorship. This is a deputy that before voting in favour of Dilma's impeachment, paid homage to Ustra, a known torturer of those who opposed the dictatorship Brazil was under 30 years ago. This is a man that once told a fellow congresswoman that he wouldn't rape her because she wasn't good looking enough. This is a person that said on live TV that women shouldn't make as much as men because they get pregnant. A human that stated LGBT people weren't beaten up enough at home.
Scared, women on social media organised a protest against him last weekend, and it was beautiful.
They also started #elenão (translates to "not him"), and celebrities all over the world are using the hashtag to support Brazilians against him.
Bolsonaro's supporters actually tried to make the parade in his favour seem bigger by using a picture from when the Pope visited Rio:
Like I said, fake news everywhere.
Some of Bolsonaro's supporters are only voting for him for fear of having PT ruling the country again. Their other main reason for voting in his favour is that he's got a clean name. No investigations whatsoever. So far.
Originally, Lula planned to be elected President again this year. But you can't actually run if you're in prison, so he'll have to sit this one out.
He tried though, but even with lawyers appealing to the Supreme Courts' decision, he couldn't get himself out.
Just to be clear: Lula was trialed this year for money laundering, and embezzlement.
But he made a martyr of himself, and it worked.
All the people that benefited from Lula's government, and all who still believe he's innocent, follow him blindly. So he picked someone else from PT to do his bidding: Fernando Haddad. And all those people will vote for him.
The other opposition Bolsonaro faces are: Ciro Gomes, Marina Silva, Geraldo Alckmin, Cabo Daciolo, Álvaro Dias, and Henrique Meirelles.
Not one of them is President-material.
Ciro Gomes publicly stated that he'll set Lula free first thing if he's elected, so he might as well just burn our Constitution.
Marina Silva has been running from President ever since I can remember, and although I really admire her strength and backstory, she's not eloquent or convincing enough.
Geraldo Alckmin is deep in Lava-Jato investigation. I'm actually surprised he's allowed to run, considering all the money he allegedly stole.
Cabo Daciolo is a joke. He believes in 20 different conspiracy theories, and uses Christianity as his excuse for everything.
Álvaro Dias is another joke. He wasted his questions on a TV debate just to lash at PT.
Henrique Meirelles was Temer's former Minister of Finance. And Brazil is currently broke. I guess that's self-explanatory.
Brazil's future might not be definitely decided on Sunday, though. If the most voted candidate doesn't have more than 50% of the total amount of valid votes, there's a second round. And the second round is only between the top two. In that case, Brazil's future will be decided on the 28th of October.
I have to admit, I'm a little glad I can't vote from Finland, cause I have no idea who's the lesser evil.
I just know that #elenão.
And on Sunday I'll hold my breath like all Brazilians, and hope for the best.
Since he took over, Temer has had the highest rejection rate in Brazilian history, even higher than former President Fernando Collor, the crazy guy that froze all our money and ended up impeached, back in 1992.
Thankfully, Temer's presidential term is over.
All this brings us to the 2018 elections. This is where things get complicated.
With Lava-Jato almost monthly updating their list of investigated figures, and increasing the list of people on trial by the Supreme Court, most of the politicians turned out to be thieves. There is no real enemy. PT is not the only scandal-related party anymore, and most Brazilians feel there's no way out.
That's when Jair Bolsonaro comes as a "saviour" for the country, but with hate speech.
 |
| this is what a fascist looks like |
This is a guy that feels the military should take over and establish another dictatorship. This is a deputy that before voting in favour of Dilma's impeachment, paid homage to Ustra, a known torturer of those who opposed the dictatorship Brazil was under 30 years ago. This is a man that once told a fellow congresswoman that he wouldn't rape her because she wasn't good looking enough. This is a person that said on live TV that women shouldn't make as much as men because they get pregnant. A human that stated LGBT people weren't beaten up enough at home.
Scared, women on social media organised a protest against him last weekend, and it was beautiful.
They also started #elenão (translates to "not him"), and celebrities all over the world are using the hashtag to support Brazilians against him.
 |
| Bolsonaro's supporters stated that this picture was from before 2012, but the fake news backfired |
Bolsonaro's supporters actually tried to make the parade in his favour seem bigger by using a picture from when the Pope visited Rio:
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| Pope visiting Rio |
 |
| what the parade was actually like |
Like I said, fake news everywhere.
Some of Bolsonaro's supporters are only voting for him for fear of having PT ruling the country again. Their other main reason for voting in his favour is that he's got a clean name. No investigations whatsoever. So far.
Originally, Lula planned to be elected President again this year. But you can't actually run if you're in prison, so he'll have to sit this one out.
He tried though, but even with lawyers appealing to the Supreme Courts' decision, he couldn't get himself out.
Just to be clear: Lula was trialed this year for money laundering, and embezzlement.
But he made a martyr of himself, and it worked.
All the people that benefited from Lula's government, and all who still believe he's innocent, follow him blindly. So he picked someone else from PT to do his bidding: Fernando Haddad. And all those people will vote for him.
The other opposition Bolsonaro faces are: Ciro Gomes, Marina Silva, Geraldo Alckmin, Cabo Daciolo, Álvaro Dias, and Henrique Meirelles.
Not one of them is President-material.
Ciro Gomes publicly stated that he'll set Lula free first thing if he's elected, so he might as well just burn our Constitution.
Marina Silva has been running from President ever since I can remember, and although I really admire her strength and backstory, she's not eloquent or convincing enough.
Geraldo Alckmin is deep in Lava-Jato investigation. I'm actually surprised he's allowed to run, considering all the money he allegedly stole.
Cabo Daciolo is a joke. He believes in 20 different conspiracy theories, and uses Christianity as his excuse for everything.
Álvaro Dias is another joke. He wasted his questions on a TV debate just to lash at PT.
Henrique Meirelles was Temer's former Minister of Finance. And Brazil is currently broke. I guess that's self-explanatory.
Brazil's future might not be definitely decided on Sunday, though. If the most voted candidate doesn't have more than 50% of the total amount of valid votes, there's a second round. And the second round is only between the top two. In that case, Brazil's future will be decided on the 28th of October.
I have to admit, I'm a little glad I can't vote from Finland, cause I have no idea who's the lesser evil.
I just know that #elenão.
And on Sunday I'll hold my breath like all Brazilians, and hope for the best.
Damn, this is grim. I can totally understand the feeling of being overwhelmed with all of this corruption going on, and with seemingly no good choice in sight for anyone. From what I gather from this single post, it would seem like Haddad, or Lula-by-proxy, would do the least amount of damage (basing this on the fact that Lula seemed to do some good despite doing some wrong). Though you shouldn't make the decision on so little information, understandably :D
ReplyDeleteFrom a Finnish point of view, it's also interesting how little I have been informed about these kinds of situations around the world, due to our own media being focused on the US situation for the last 2 years.
I wish you peace of mind in the fact that you are here and not there at the moment.
I am not aware unfortunately about Brasilian politics ,but your post qiite surprised me about the situation in there. It's kind of depressing that people don't have choice to elect someone "clean" to run their country. And I am sure that it is depressing for you as well. To me it seems like a big Russian roulette honestly. I feel that with this candidature the things won't go better so soon. However I hope that whoever gets elected will be the least evil for the country.
ReplyDeleteI read this when you posted it, but now it feels even more sadder after the elections. I read about Jair Bolsonaro after the results and he really gives me the chills. Having to choose the least crappy candidate from a pool of crappy candidates can really make you lose hope. I didn't know that the situation is like this there, but I wish that things will change quickly in the future.
ReplyDelete