Lula's Spending Spree Catches Up To Brazil

Rousseff 's & Lula's Big Secret

Over the past couple of years President Lula been active on a farewell tour of the world proclaiming new social programs he sponsored in the name of international charity and goodwill. Lula hopes the history books will be kind to him.

Subsequently, he lent Fidel Castro billions of Reals to rebuild Cuba’s crumbling cities. Lula gave Reals to build roads in Bolivia and spent billions more in Venezuela so Hugo Chavez could rebuild the transportation system. Lula also forgave 700 billion in defaulted loans to several African states.

While he was on his multiple worldwide tours he was also brokering trade agreements, including business deals to bring nuclear energy to Brazil, as well as creating more hydroelectric dams in the Amazon. He made an agreement with the Russian space program for future space exploration. In all of these agreements, Lula rarely disclosed the amount or terms of these deals to his government.

Claiming national security reasons for his fiscal privacy, Lula invoked medidas provisórias, a measure which would allow him to act on behalf of the government without Congressional approval. Yet, legislators were concerned, because medidas provisórias was mandated by the Constitution only to be used as a tool by the executive branch to assist in making quick decisions in times of emergencies.

Yet, while Lula was traveling and proclaiming Brazil’s bright economic future, he never spoke about any “economic emergency” in Brazil. In fact, Lula was presenting Brazil’s economic miracle to the world in the best possible light. He even used the measure to improve the publicity concerning a Formula One race being held in Sao Paulo.

In the past, medidas provisórias was used by former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in his first term just three times. The Real was under stress and devaluing during a time of high inflation. President Cardoso used the measure to bypass Congress to stabilize the Real using medidas provisórias. His quick actions eventually created the bedrock that would lift Brazil into prominence as a world economic power.

 Former President Cardoso

Lula, who led the opposition against Cardoso at the time, charges that Cardoso was becoming a dictator. Years later, Lula adopted Cardoso's economic framework himself and used the controversial measure 16 times in his first term. Since then, as president, Lula has used the measure on average of four times a month.

As much as Lula tried to hide his government’s fiscal management, it eventually came to the surface near the beginning of Lula’s second term on April 7, 2006. Minister Dilma Rousseff, acting on behalf of Lula’s government, made a decision not to loan VARIG, the beleaguered national airline, any more money to operate. Lula was busy telling everyone else in the world about Brazil’s economic muscle while Rousseff was secretly telling VARIG Lula could no longer support the company because the government did not have the money. VARIG, a respected airline, which dates back to the origins of aviation, was out of business, and 11,000 jobs were lost in Brazil. At the same time, Lula came up with $R 170 million to pay to international bankers as interest on overdue loans.

Of course, much of this information is conjecture and based on rumors and speculation. This is because the Lula government was operating in violation of the government’s own fiscal transparency laws. The media never complained and few judges would go against Lula in the courts and investigate these claims of corruption. And nothing changed. To Lula, there was simply no reason for transparency simply because he did not feel he was accountable.

Initially, there was protest led by Jose Serra, an opponent who had lost to Lula in 2002 and again in 2006. Serra called for an investigation by the Judiciary saying that Lula’s financial chicanery was a clear violation of the Constitution. Without the support of the Lula-dominated media, the protest came to naught.

On the eve of the 2010 election, the powerful Lula government propaganda machine continues to promise a prosperous future that would be fueled by vast oil deposits, nuclear power generation and hydro projects in the Amazon. However, the world is watching closely. The experts understand that Brazil’s promise is not immediate. It could take another two decades before Brazil could generate enough electricity to determine affordable market prices and reasonable costs to the average consumer. In some quarters, Lula’s promises for immediate revenues are sounding hollow.

Currently, much of Brazil’s economy remains based on its exports, but the country no longer has the leverage it once had because inflation within Brazil is hurting foreign sales with higher costs. Traditional revenues from its cash crops are slumping as the worldwide recession continues to linger, and other countries such as Vietnam, China, Turkey and India continue to batter Brazil with competitive pricing.

 Presidential Candidate

José Serra

José Serra and Dilma Rousseff may never meet in an actual debate. If they did, a couple of questions would determine each candidate’s approach to the next government’s economic policies: How will Brazil pay its bills? If Brazil were to default on its loans, what will the government do?

This election is not about the economy, but it should be. Perhaps this is why former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso decided to make a rare appearance recently on the Internet. Events have reached such a critical moment that Cardoso felt it was necessary to come out of retirement to warn his countrymen of the impending economic catastrophe that awaits the next government.

Cardoso, who is the architect to bring stability to the Real, led a government which went on to lead Brazil’s booming economy into the new century. Cardoso warns that the present government has acted for far too long as if it were making simple transactions. He says the matter is not about fiscal privacy. It is about disrespecting democracy. By continuing to circumvent the Constitution and ignoring the laws of Congress the “current president” has shamefully abused the voters and the election process. There will be serious economic consequences, he adds.

By the time of the elections, the voters themselves will be feeling the pinch of an economy gone sour. All across Brazil, the department stores in shopping malls are losing retailers. Restaurants are closing and cultural events are losing attendance. Auto sales are decreasing while basic costs like grocery items are increasing daily. Imported goods are fueling inflation. The roads are still not fixed in Rio and in other large cities more and more people are out of work incapable of paying their bills. Little or no work has actually begun on the large number of ambitious infrastructure projects promised to be completed for the 2014 World Cup or the 2016 Summer Olympiad.

What if Brazil does not have the money?

Brazilians facing a strange election

President Lula

On October 3, 2010 a presidential election will begin in Brazil. It will be the most important election in the country’s history. At stake is the country’s economic growth, its social policies, its civic institutions and democracy itself.

The outgoing President Lula will leave office basking in unprecedented popularity, backed by the powerful media elites he pretends to despise.

Harboring a long-standing problem with alcohol, Lula spent more time traveling than running the country. He made some 102 travels amounting to 382 days out of the country and 602 days away from Brasilia, the country’s capitol. Lula spent 984 days out of the Palace of the President. In total he spent nearly 82 percent of his mandate of 1,201 days traveling instead of governing the country.

Lula is inarticulate, choosing base words and crude antics when he faces opponents. Many educated people say his Portuguese is poor, and his grasp of the language is seldom above a grammar school level. Yet, Lula has effectively positioned himself as a peasant fighting the elites to make up for his intellectual defects.

Lula is nothing if not a showman. He did not wait to leave office to introduce a motion picture of his life in October of 2009. In the bio-pic, Lula, he was portrayed as a poor boy rising to the most powerful position in the country.

During Lula’s past eight years as president, he has based his economic and social policies on those of his predecessor, former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the man who first brought stability to the newly democratized Brazil. The Lula government, however, has claimed all credit for Brazil’s growing economy and has blamed the country’s faults on Cardoso’s previous administration.

At the same time, Lula’s government has spent ten times more than the Cardoso government had spent in its two terms. His excessive spending has drawn little criticism, as both houses of Congress willingly grant the president any amount he wishes.

Should he face any serious opposition for his policies, Lula will use secretive executive powers to circumvent the constitutional process if necessary. Recently he over-ruled the Judiciary when several judges made court decisions that opposed the construction of the Bel Monte damn. Not only has this caused a constitutional crisis that is still unresolved but the construction continues under a cloud of jurisdictional confusion.

Perhaps his most notable impact was made recently when he announced Dilma Rousseff as his successor. This in itself should have been a controversy, but Lula’s control of the media has made her untouchable to complaints. A recent law was passed in Congress forbidding any criticism or unnecessary scrutiny of the candidates for this election, including satire. Rousseff’s opponents now must debate her with their hands tied by executive order of the president.

Heir apparent, Dilma Rousseff

Ms. Rousseff, though intelligent, is not a crafty debater and often is perceived as clumsy. In response, the election debates are highly orchestrated. In some cases the videotapes are heavily edited to make her appear as the preferred candidate before they are released to the mainstream media. She is never available for sound bites or spontaneous discussions among the public or media.

Rousseff is a woman who has been plucked out of nowhere to be the next president of Brazil. She is paraded around by Lula as his successor and all but crowned as the new president. Lula claims she is winning the election by a margin of 50 percent to 29 percent in the polls.

All that is known about her is that she has some minor legislative experience and did not rise from the judiciary. She does not have a strong enough power base to become a senator and her legislative goals are murky.

At times, Rouseff appears to some skeptics as a novelistic character whose past has been rewritten to fit the times and circumstances. She has prospered under the wing of her mentor, Lula. She has steadily moved up through government as an appointed minister and has, like Lula,  taken on the guise of a misunderstood public servant; just another common person who has made good.

But even as her controlled election campaign continues unopposed, there is more evidence she was a middle class radical who later became a terrorist. Much of her history been lost under a new narrative created for her by the state-controlled media: This new Dilma has been redeemed and resurrected as a better person. This is a popular theme in a country dominated by Catholics.

Rousseff, herself, has refused to discuss her redemption or her mistakes of the past with any credibility. Rather, she has undergone several makeovers, softening her once unpolished and frumpy public image into that of a modern, well-to-do elitist on the move up.

Often, her color photos appear on the fashion magazines as a perky government leader. In this capacity she is interviewed more about her choice of toe nail polish than she is of her beliefs about her priorities for governing 290 million people.

While she has been effectively sheltered by Lula, from time to time reports emerge from the Internet that reveal a different Dilma Rousseff.

These reports document her association with guerilla groups in the 60s and 70s, when she was involved in murders, bombings, assassinations and bank robberies. Most notably, it has been reported that she was briefly imprisoned and was released without receiving the same treatment as her conspirators, who suffered much longer prison terms and torture. Some reports indicate that she took more than R$2.5 million from a bank robbery and used it to fund her fledgling political career.

 Dilma the guerilla

Most of these claims are disregarded by the mainstream media. The opposition has only hinted of a dark past with few specifics. In any event, there is no public outcry for a full investigation about Rousseff’s past.

The only stain on her rise to power may have happened during the first week of September when she appeared at a political rally with Lula. When she came out the crowd continued to cheer: “Lula, Lula, Lula” . Lula gloated despite efforts of the organizers to make the crowd yell “Dilma, Dilma, Dilma”.

It may be that her only opponent in the election will be Lula himself, who is showing signs of reluctance about leaving office. He seems unwilling to relinquish his place in history to his successor. This makes many in Brazil fearful that Rousseff will be the puppet and Lula will pull the strings. This reminds many of a well meaning politician in Venezuela who promised democracy and turned it into tyranny: Hugo Chavez.

The Art of Being Empty

pensamento mudo

Lygia Clark

After watching my inspiration turn to ennui recently, I received a note from my Muse, herself a highly respected plastic artist and painter in Rio. It was about Lygia Clark, a Brazilian plastic artist who frequently explored the emptiness of form in her work. Clark wrote that artists must not worry when they feel empty, because this is a natural condition for creative people.

Only when an artist is full are they ready to create, much in the way a person eats too much and they explode (vomit) in a furious burst of creative and emotional energy. What results is a large amount of painting, sculpture, music, etc. coming from the artist.

Filling up, Clark adds, is a process that takes time. It cannot be conjured up on a schedule; it means painfully collecting inspiration from routines among daily life: washing the clothes, taking walks in the neighborhood, having a quiet coffee in a shop alone, buying groceries, or just sitting on a bus while returning from work.

This is good to know because I often putter, waiting for inspiration to replace the emptiness. This means I cook, clean, sort, walk, nap, ponder, and move objects around a small basement apartment.

By contrast inspiration is a feeling of fullness. Often, but not always, the words begin to flow like water coming out of a fire hydrant. My best writing comes from making myself a “full” vessel, allowing the gods to pour their words into me.

Then for the next few days and weeks the cat or dog may not get fed. If I do buy food I might leave part of the groceries on the bus, along with gloves and umbrellas. The laundry does not get done. No one is dusting or vacuuming the carpet. I seldom make good conversation while full of inspiration. My circle of friends gets smaller.

In my fullness my characters jump off the page; they are extraordinary in their hopes and desperately seeking something beyond their grasp. They love and want to be loved. They face conflicting motives by what they try to conceal during the day and what they fear losing at night. They make a journey of discovery and then rapidly fade to black.

Implied in Clark’s statement is the notion that inspiration is found in daily life and that life itself is art.

Reality Returns In Brasil's World Cup Loss

Even Christo on the Corcovado opens his arms in frustration trying to coach the Brasilian team to the 2010 Copa. You can see the disappointment on his face.

My friend tells me that players from Paraguay, Chile and Argentina were warmly cheered by thousands of fans when they returned to their home airports. In Brasil, however, the players were forgotten by their fans and their coach was fired soon after returning home. The media is now creating a new tempest by arguing about the hiring of the next coach. My friend says that Brasil really doesn’t need a coach. “Everyone in Brasil is a coach.”

She is most pleased that Brasil is not playing in the finals of the 2010 Copa. “Now the country can get back to reality.” By this she means the people can begin to look more carefully into the upcoming elections in October, because President Lula will be deprived of taking all the credit for coaching Brasil to the World Championship. “Lula has claimed credit for everything else in the country, why not the Copa?”

Lula was openly critical of Dunga as coach before the Copa began and now has no one else to blame. Hopefully the president will turn his attention to inflation, joblessness and corruption, which is a principal issue in Lula’s presidency, she says.

She and many others want the media to investigate Lula’s manipulation of finances in which he chose not to support Varig, the struggling Brasilian airline, claiming a lack of funds but then decided to spend vast sums of taxpayer money to revitalize Cuba’s depressed economy. Lula also gave licenses to international corporations to exploit the Amazon’s mineral and hydroelectric wealth, while telling the world press that the Amazon is Brasil’s problem to resolve and other countries should stay out of its affairs.

My friend is relieved the people are no longer swept up in futbol and hopefully they will turn their attention to the lies Lula has painted blue, gold and green recently.

As the 2010 World Cup winds down there are still the occasional vuvuzela (horns) blaring from apartment houses, a few fireworks here and there, and some cheering from the noisy sports club around the corner. My friend would prefer people in Rio give up their love of futbol entirely.

No political movement or religious organization commands a greater loyalty than futbol in Brasil. But this is a kind of hypocritical allegiance because the disillusioned fans are already dismantling the old structure before it falls and drags everyone else with it. Because futbol demands such conformity, my friend argues that it takes away attention from important issues, such as building a sustainable and prosperous culture.

The odor of Brasil’s exit from the Copa will leave a bad taste on the tongues of futbol fans for another four years. And my friend is already thinking about leaving Rio for a month when it hosts the finals during the 2014 Copa Mundo. Carnival is noisy enough for one year.

For the next four years the Carioca will have to find joy in other pursuits. This would leave only samba, the beach life and beer as the other gods people pray to each day.

Secondary Sounds

In Rio, I listen to a rich tapestry of sounds, most of them unfamiliar. One night, walking near a wild congress of waterfowl calling to each other I felt privy to an on-going ritual, a private conversation among the invisible life in the trees and grasses. I imagine that the gassa calls from its perch each night from the dense brush surrounding the lagoa. This is as close as I get to a perfectly natural nocturna, just twenty meters away from the rush-hour noise.

In the morning I listen to the birds chirping outside the kitchen loft. Children arrive early down the street for a long day at school, most of it spent singing and laughing by the sounds of it.

On important holidays and days following large storms, the streets are quiet. Whenever Batafogo or Flamengo is playing there is an eerie stillness in the street until a team scores, then the noise shakes our house from a cheering chorus of fans.

One of the most interesting sounds I’ve heard is that of a flying insect who sings her death song shortly before she ends her short life with a sound much like feedback from a musical amplifier. On one occasion I was at an outdoor restaurant overlooking a vast nature reserve. Looking for the source of this sound I looked to my right and immediately saw a four-foot lizard walking out of the bushes with something in its powerful jaws. It looked at me like I was on the menu and then turned back into the brush while all those the piercing insects continued their song of life and death.

Other sounds are more familiar, like a samba drum practice band in a park or a solitary bossa nova being played from a beginning guitar player and occasionally African singing from a nearby club. At night, these sounds are mixed with the incessant yelling from the indoor futbol players next door who kick their soccer balls against a concrete wall. Caught in between these sounds I try to find my way to sleep.

Then there is the sound of waves crashing, mixed with the murmurs from hundreds of casual conversations in a language I do not understand. There is serendipity in the voices of vendors calling to us with a fresh batch of their tasty treats. This is all possible because of a ban on loud music on the beach. Here, there is a serenity only a beach lover would appreciate.

With so many people living cheek by jowl, there is a significant noise problem in Rio. There are several noise hot-lines which register complaints, mostly about late-night clubs that stay open well past midnight. The police say they are powerless to control noise without laws that are enforceable. But really all anyone can do is to relish the silence between the notes and remember to praise silence where it exists – while focusing on the secondary sounds, the ones that seem less like noise.

All photos by Delma Godoy

Jesus...what a swindle

Every day the Carioca look up to the Corcovado and see the statue of Christ holding his arms outstretched to embrace his flock below, including the gang members who rob tourists by legal means.

Christ is the forgiver who grants grace and redemption to the sinners. He is also a brand of Rio de Janeiro. Millions of tourist trinkets, paintings, beach towels, ashtrays and photographs are sold in his name every year. And now he is becoming a Jesus Park, a comical blight that draws thousands of tourists, who are being taken advantage of by the very Shepard they seek to protect them.

Ever since the statue was named one of the most popular icons of the modern world there has been a transformation of the Jesus business in Rio.

This came to light soon after Carnival when the statue underwent its annual renovation. The symbol of Rio was cloaked in a web of steel as workmen built scaffolds so they could sandblast the exterior and reinforce the interior enough to withstand everything that nature can throw at it, including lightening strikes and winds.

Work on the statue was temporarily suspended, however, due to record April rains that closed the roads leading up the mountain. The cog train, whose tracks were under the threat of being washed away, had closed and new earth had to be trucked in to rebuild the various sections to the summit.

But something else also transpired during the closure: the road was re-opened to taxis and a private van service, which had evidently won the Christ conveyance concession. Now, to get to the statue you have to pay an exorbitant fare.

On two different ascents my companion drove me up the road as she had done on numerous occasions for visitors from abroad. And twice we were turned away by security, despite being assured by the tourist office that the road was open to private cars.

My companion, skilled in both English and Portuguese profanity, let her opinions be known, as we watched a parade of taxis, vans and “preferred” cars driving up with impunity. “Corruption. Robbery,’ my companion declared.

We made our way back down to the train station, determined to see the statue, but found the train was still closed. Only the ubiquitous white vans and taxis offered a ride and we soon saw that the price had risen rapidly from driver to driver, like brokers on the floor of a commodity exchange. One price may only take you to the foot of the statue, but not return you to the bottom. Another price may offer you a return trip, but not charge the entrance fee to the actual park. “Imagine what they do to tourists who cannot speak Portuguese,” my companion said.

In the end we opted for a evening view of the statue from our veranda and enjoyed a nice meal with the money we saved by not making the journey.

I had always enjoyed the view of the Redeemer morning, noon and night, rain or shine from our window. I marveled at a breathtaking monument that continues to stir the soul, but I decided against any further attempts to scale the Mount in a van or taxi. I didn’t want to despoil my feelings by getting fleeced at the feet of Jesus.

When A Tree Falls in the Amazon...

I stood under a massive tree much like those under the threat of extinction in the Amazon. It was among many other trees planted by a group of Portuguese military officers who operated a gunpowder factory in Rio de Janeiro around 1800.

Among these men were botanists who saw the threat of extinction of many flora and fauna in the region. The threat came from plantations destroying vast tracts of land for the cultivation of coffee, sugarcane and many other farmed crops. Near the factory the botanists began collecting some 6500 different species of trees and plants under the threat of extinction and created a space where subsequent generations could one day come and observe nature. The space opened to the public in 1822.

I was dwarfed by the magnanimous efforts of these foresighted men as much by the tree I stood under.

Bounded by steep granite hills and deep lagoons and bays, the city of Rio de Janeiro has since been preserved as much by tourists coming to the region as by the foresight of those early botanists who felt a need to protect the environment many years before it became necessary.

Today, Rio’s Jardim Botânico is hemmed in by a rapidly growing city ravenous for space. This garden is an anomaly in an urban area that is equally colonial and newly modern, with a predictable lack of harmony. Beautiful colonial walkways and buildings fall to the plunder of mixed modern architectures as quickly as trees fall in the forests to commerce.

Here, there is a sense of cool spaciousness under giant trees sheltering walkways from the tropical sun. Water flows along stone channels built to water the garden. The space is a sanctuary for birds and monkeys and an occasional tourist searching for a refuge from the everyday world.

For a moment I understand I am a part of a mystery as an inheritor of the natural world and not its master. Listening to the birds I am pleasantly devoid of hubris, if only temporarily.

But still, I cannot imagine true bio-diversity in a place like the Amazon, where every cause of discomfort has its equal in a cure, and where there is balance in the same way a flowering plant provides the antidote to a mosquito borne in a nearby pond.

Modern man has no language or experience in bio-diversity. We would not survive for long in a place like the Amazon. Perhaps this is why man needs to destroy it.

The coming devastation planned for the Amazonian rivers and trees will remove what has been there since the beginning of the planet. Many natural remedies will be swept away by the all-powerful hydro people who bring concrete to solve a problem without considering other more efficient means of energy generation. Bio-diversity will be drowned in the floods created by dams.

Bio-diversity is the promise of a healthy planet; it is based on the notion that everything is here because it is intended; nothing is out of place, except for humans who have no tradition of respect for the natural world.

Perhaps there are those in power who will notice that the entire Amazon needs to be preserved in the same way their ancestors kept nature sacred for our generation.

Photos by Delma Godoy