Logos of Brazil's political parties |
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.
[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