I can’t find words to express my frustration with this country. Brazil is in bad, bad shape and each day we are presented with more outrageous news. The corruption and chaos are widespread, in all sectors of society: politics, economy, law enforcement, health, education, and at all levels.
Our minister of economy said that the country would be willing to pay more taxes to help the country out of the crisis, well, not me! Over the last couple of years I’ve seen my money lose its value every time I go to the supermarket to buy food. I’ve been working hard and putting in more hours at work comparing to last year but somehow I can’t afford to buy the same stuff I used to. Everybody expects some inflation, but the price hike is so unbelievable that I have to take a deep breath before taking a product from the shelf. So, now the minister says that on top of that I need to cough up more money that will end up getting into politicians’ pockets anyway?
Just in the past month I’ve read and watched pieces about infrastructure projects that were supposed to be finished BEFORE the World Cup! Oh, did I mention that the World Cup was in 2014??? Perhaps the new deadline has been postpone to Russia 2018… Also, federal, state, and municipal legislatures around the country just laughing it up when evidence of fraud had been exposed. The governor of my state paying civil servants’ salaries in installments, the last one having been divided in four payments with the first payment consisting of just R$ 600.00!! Imagine if you earned, say, around R$ 3,500.00, which is NOT a lot of money in Brazil, expecting to pay your bills — utilities, rent/mortgage, home maintenance fee, maybe children’s school (because public schools? Forget about it…) or your own college/university tuition, supermarket, health plan, car insurance, credit card — and MAYBE after all that try to put some money away for extra expenses. You check your bank statement and you have already exceeded your overdraft limit without having a chance to say “Hey, that doesn’t seem right…” And the companies that bill you aren’t concerned at all. Do you think the university will generously postpone your payments until the crisis is over? Or the credit card companies would be willing to take only a reduced amount to be compatible with your salary? Well, they DO accept a percentage of the total bill, but it is called minimum payment and they will get your arm and your leg with the interest rates, which in Brazil hovers around 300% p.a.!!!
Don’t get me started with the problem of violence… As a person that doesn’t own a car and has to walk and use public transportation every day, I confess I dread every time I need to leave for work, especially at night. I have a number of students that come to my place for the classes, but some of them have classes at their homes. Just a few days ago I went to a student who lives in the north zone and I left her place at 10:05 p.m. Unfortunately, when I got to the corner I saw in despair my bus passing… That meant some 20 minutes standing by myself in a poorly-lit residential area. Not to mention that I need to take two buses home, even though I could actually take just one (T1). A few months ago a student was stabbed in front of a school near my house, where there is a high level of theft and armed robbery, and on that particular day I was supposed to take T1 but decided to try a new route home. Well, the new route has become the official one…
A few weeks ago the owner of a bakery in the neighbourhood was shot in the middle of the street while he was walking the dog; he died a few days later. Some car robbers were running away from the police and the business owner was at the wrong place at the wrong time and became just one more number in the statistics.
And by seeing the authorities’ inability to control the situation, the population is getting frustrated, angry and at times becoming vigilantes. I saw this unbelievable thing in São Paulo where a driver ran over a potential car robber in order to protect himself. He knocked the person down! The robber flew into the air! On the one hand I understand the driver’s position, I believe it could actually be perceived as self-defence because the crime was imminent. On the other hand, I baffle at the level we have reached as a society, where running over a person is just another event of the day.
Or the case of a guy who was a domestic abuser that was lynched by neighbours and later died. This happens because the population doesn’t believe in the institutions, the justice system cannot keep robbers/murderers in jail because the laws are very lenient. If a person gets a sentence of 30 years in jail, the “well-behaviour” system will get him/her out in a third of the time. People that are arrested multiple times for what are considered petty crimes (until they become a tragedy) are out of jail in less than 24 hours afterwards. What do think they are going to do? Go to church and repent? Going back to the same area to rob again would be my bet.
And this window into the admittedly sad reality couldn’t be shut without the cherry on top: the federal department that regulates transportation has just made the fire extinguisher in the car an optional item, as opposed to making people go buy a new type of extinguisher until a few days ago, which made the item sell out in many stores. Late last year and early this year people could actually get fined for not carrying the item in their cars even though there was a shortage on the market, and guess what? Cars were being broken into so thieves could get the extinguisher and resell.
After all that, I think I need a drink…
-- Never too many beers -- 