The Other Side of The Story

Logos of Brazil's political parties

In class this past Wednesday we gave our final presentations on a theme related to our experience here in Brazil over the past several weeks.  Our group decided to look into the “why” behind the civil unrest surrounding the World Cup.  There has been an enormous disparity in living standards in Brazil for centuries.  Why are people so upset now?  We delivered a well-researched address highlighting the inefficiencies in the Brazilian bureaucracy (they spent billions on stadiums that will most likely stand empty after the tournament), corruption, and failed promises. I thought we’d done a decent job of portraying the reality of the situation.  However, after our presentation I had conversations with a couple of the Brazilian students that made me think twice.  The most prominent and oft repeated theme of our course has been to think critically about any information that is presented to us.  I failed to do so with my own presentation.  Therefore, I’d like to try to represent another perspective on the same issues here.

Dilma Rousseff - President of Brazil

It’s an election year here in Brazil.  The current governing party in Brazil is headed by Dilma [i].  Dilma’s current cabinet was not indicted.  After I had quite scathingly blamed this government for the civil unrest in the country a Brazilian friend of mine gently corrected me.  She told me that, while the party is clearly fallible (a concept we must remember any time humanity is involved in an endeavor), they have done a lot for the country especially in terms of helping lift people from poverty.  She said that 30 million people have been raised from extreme poverty to a better quality of life under this government.   That’s a hefty achievement.  That got me thinking, if this government is for the poor here in Brazil, why are the poor upset?  I posed the query to another friend of mine who made an interesting observation.  Is it the poor who are upset?  At the opening ceremonies to the World Cup the crowd loudly and publicly (the entire world witnessed this) cussed out their president.  Who was in attendance at the opening ceremonies?  Not many of Brazil’s lower classes. 

Rousseff.  She leads the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Worker’s Party) which has been in power since 2002.  She was elected President in 2010 and succeeded the very poplar Lula Da Silva.  The socialist party had attempted to redistribute income through programs such as the Bolsa Familia (Family Grant) and Fome Zero (Zero Hunger).  The party was rocked by a corruption scandal in 2005

In Brazil, ties to broadcast technologies can bring a candidate about twelve percentage points of the vote.  It is also common for voters to “punish” incumbents by changing their vote when corruption scandals are revealed[ii].  So who benefits from painting a picture of the governing party as corrupt and inefficient?  I think I was quite heavily influenced in my presentation by my host family who tend to be very right-wing.  I could have been more objective and portrayed both sides of the story.  The World Cup provides the opportunity for many voices to be heard.  I think a conclusion I have to reach is that without more time and a greater grasp of the Portuguese language, I will probably never completely understand all of the forces in play here.

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[i] Q&A: Brazil's 'big monthly' corruption trial, BBC News, November 2013, June 20, 2014

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19081519

[ii] Boas, Taylor C., Media Barons and Electoral Politics: Politically-Controlled Broadcasting in Brazil, March 18, 2013 http://www.bu.edu/polisci/files/2010/10/media_boss_politics.pdf