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| "Entre outras mil, és tu Brasil, ó Pátria amada" |
Actually I wanted to start today's post showing more information about the
Amazon State, following as usual, but I decided to talk about the great civic
movement that is happening right now in Brazil.
Young people (yes, the movement was started by the fearless new generation)
were to the streets protesting for a better country. Enough of so much
corruption!
The people want a country that respects its citizens, provides an
excellent public education, as in European countries and the United States, or
at least close to that level. The people want public health as it should be:
with well-equipped hospitals and doctors having decent wages and decent working
conditions. The people want social equality, because today politicians approve
their own salaries, let us say in passing, millionaire wages while many
Brazilians have minimum wages lower than four hundreds dollars monthly and the
annual cost of living adjustment of millions of retired people sets them below
the index for the minimum wage.
We want quality national highway systems to
transport our products. We want a better standard of education for our country,
and schools equipped, retain qualified teachers with reasonable compensation. We want a
decent transportation system: subways that work well with peripheral bus lines
to serve the population; why not a system of trains and trams as in European
cities? IS there money for this? yes, of course we have it! Many billions of Reais
that collected in taxes are not used to benefit the citizens. Where does all
this money go? Who pays the millionaire salaries of
congressmen and politicians of the municipal, state and federal governments? Who
finances the perks of these same politicians as housing allowances, travel
allowances, assistance of this and that? It is easy to deduce.
The President was on national TV to say that the money spent on renovations
of the soccer arenas was funded and was not made using public money but was borrowed.
But who will pay for this funding? Surely, with so much corruption, money
collected with ticket sales probably will not be enough to repay the debt ...
and so, out of whose pocket will it come?
And what about of a big "package" that is coming around, that will be sent to the
National Congress? This "package" is a proposed constitutional amendment (known
as PEC 37), disempowers criminal investigation of State and Federal Prosecutors
modifying the Brazilian Constitution. In practice, if passed, the amendment will
preclude almost investigations against organized crime, embezzlement,
corruption, abuses committed by state agents, as well as human rights
violations.
The major scandals have always been investigated and reported by the
prosecutor, who acts in defense of citizenship independently. The PEC 37
undermines the democratic regime, citizenship and the rule of law and can also
prevent other agencies conduct investigations such as the IRS (Receita Federal), the COAF (Council
for Financial Activities Control), TCU (Court of Audit) the CPIs (Parliamentary
Commissions of Inquiry), among others.
Worldwide, only three countries prohibit the investigation of MP: Kenya,
Indonesia and Uganda.
The people going to the streets is also against this arbitrariness.
The movement is called: "the giant woke up"! We are a beautiful country with so many natural resources, why all this has to happen?
The press did distort facts and was showing a minority, who always takes advantage of these situations to practice vandalism, wanting to induce the viewer to see the move as an act of violence, which is not true! The protesters were on the streets for the purpose civic urged nonviolence, but unfortunately, there were small groups of rioters infiltrated and were the ones who vandalized the public assets.
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| Brazilians abroad manifesting in the streets (Colonia, Germany) |
So even living outside my country, I am part of the millions of Brazilians
who want a fairer Brazil, more honest and more developed. Since I can not be on
the streets, I speak through this blog here ... maybe someone else will
join me in this chain?... I am hopeful that after this "tsunami", things will
change... something needs to happen! Changes do not happen overnight, but small
steps here and there, just need to start! It all began with a protest against
increase in bus fares, but that was just an isolated act ... the tip of the
iceberg!
