Is Brazil 'shedding its skin'?
| Rio de Janeiro
鈥⑻�A version of this post ran on the author's blog,听riorealblog.com.听The views expressed are the author's own.
鈥淗ow do we dialogue with a cynic?鈥� two young people asked during a , at the Casa do Saber. Others, also university students who live in favelas, echoed the question.
Luiz Eduardo Soares, anthropologist, activist, public safety specialist, and state public safety coordinator from 1999 to 2000,听was the speaker. The title of the gathering, 鈥淗ow to make dialogue in the city feasible?鈥� assumed such dialogue was possible in the first place.
But the young people in attendance had doubts. 颁铆苍颈肠辞, cynic,听is the word they use to describe those听who maintain the traditional power structure in Rio. The kids are rappers, journalists, human rights activists, artists, community organizers. Many are critical of pacification.
One asked Mr. Soares, a student himself听during the military dictatorship, if we鈥檙e living in a dictatorship now (Soares said no).
Harking back to the punishments of slavery
鈥淲hy are people taking justice into their own hands?鈥� asked one audience member, referring to the emblematic case of a group of听justiceiros听who last听month听tripped and chained a robbery suspect to a post, using a bike lock. Soares believes that beyond the knee-jerk response of cariocas [people from Rio] who feel neglected听by their public safety and justice systems, something else may be going on. He says that on another, more symbolic level, the traditional middle class could be responding to what they see as the encroachment of those emerging from poverty.
鈥淭he听rolezinhos听(social media-coordinated occupations of shopping malls, often by lower-class youth) are evidence of a redefined geopolitics of society,鈥� he explained. 鈥淟ynching is a reaction to this. [The] poor and blacks are starting听to inhabit new spaces.鈥�
It鈥檚 impossible to prove this theory, just as it鈥檚 impossible to prove that street protest violence is a reaction to decades of top-down violence in Brazilian society, Sores noted. To many observers on the left, these ideas are intuitively correct. Whether or not they truly are, living with such听phenomena is not a tenable national proposition. And so we must move to strengthen our institutions and values, rather than rely on ad-hoc听violence听or justice to make a point or solve a problem.
One aspect of daily life here that needs no proving听is听a听pervasive top-down attitude. Soares, a , said that this attitude is听largely to blame for the difficulties that pacification now faces in Rio. Police, he explained, need to help manage public safety, not simply follow orders from above. 鈥淧rofessional pride is the the biggest obstacle to police corruption,鈥� he added.
Speaking up and out
How to engage? Is it worth even trying? Is Rio spinning its wheels, putting on a show? Huge questions for all of us, but particularly for those starting out in life. Disillusioned middle- and upper-class cariocas can always take their skills and dreams elsewhere, but what about the kids in the public university quota system, kids on听ProUni scholarships at private universities, kids whose parents never dreamed of higher education?
Brazil鈥檚听biggest issues arise from inequality and the uneven application听of democratic values. Over centuries, weak institutions with spotty access led to the creation of a parallel authoritarian system of networks of favors and payoffs, of justice and retribution, of lawmaking and information flows.
鈥淚t鈥檚 depressing,听to keep on making the same old errors,鈥� noted Soares. But then he went on to point out that, twenty or thirty years ago, 鈥渢his auditorium would be unlikely.鈥�
On the one hand, he said, many people blame an unspecified eles, 鈥渢丑别尘,鈥�听for all that鈥檚 wrong. 鈥淭his speaks of impotence, there鈥檚 no 鈥榳e.鈥� It鈥檚 about a corrosive individualism, victimization. People say, 鈥楧amn 鈥榚m, I鈥檓 just gonna look out for number one鈥�.鈥�
On the other hand, last winter鈥檚 street听protests didn鈥檛 follow the traditional pattern of preparatory meetings to determine demands and activities, then听a march with protestors behind a single banner. 鈥淓ach person made his own sign, with his own message. We鈥檙e weaving the 鈥榳e,鈥� it鈥檚 a moment of collective reinvention.鈥� Soares听added that听Rio鈥檚 collectives, such as , are key to the process.
In a sense then, the answer to the young people鈥檚 question is to simply keep on making art, communicating, organizing. Soares says even cynics have their weak moments:听鈥漀o one is a rock鈥�. Yet,听in the midst of growing urban violence and misunderstandings, the personal investment involved听is arguable.
What remains to be seen, with a mounting dose of patience, is if Soares is correct when he says Brazil is 鈥渟hedding its skin.鈥�
鈥� Julia Michaels, a long-time resident of Brazil, writes the blog听, which she describes as a constructive and critical view of Rio de Janeiro鈥檚 ongoing transformation.
