{"id":2905,"date":"2013-06-18T08:46:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T12:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/?p=2905"},"modified":"2013-06-18T08:46:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T12:46:16","slug":"what-the-hell-is-happening-in-brazil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/2013\/06\/18\/what-the-hell-is-happening-in-brazil\/","title":{"rendered":"What The Hell Is Happening In Brazil?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FBL-WC2014-CONFED-PROTEST\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On-the-ground readers report:<\/p>\n

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Why nary a mention of the anti-government protests going on in Brazil? Tens of thousands of people are demonstrating in cities throughout the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sixth largest economy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c certainly big news and something of this scale not seen in South America since the \u00e2\u20ac\u212280s. Granted it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the Middle East. However, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a significant event worthy of some coverage\/analysis on the Dish, IMO.<\/p>\n

The IMO is admittedly biased. I just returned from marching with protestors along Av. Faria Lima in S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo. Things were quite peaceful, one could even say festive, as clowns trounced about, a man on stilts danced around (dusted them off before Carnaval it seems), and groups of drummers played classic samba rhythms. Much of this is simply indicative of Brazilian culture \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the whole enjoying life and trying to have a good time part of it.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the general message of the protests was not festive: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We deserve better from our government.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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I saw all sorts of signs and placards admonishing a corrupt government that heavily taxes its people with little to show in terms of public services (education and healthcare in particular).\u00c2\u00a0I believe your last post about Brazil was this<\/a> in January \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Boom Times For Brazil\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. There are two sides to every coin, so Dish readers should know that boom times don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily mean good times for the citizenry of a country that suffers from tragic and wholly resolvable social inequality. It will be interesting to see if the momentum of these protests continues.<\/p>\n

On the cab ride home, the driver told me that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think anything will be done by the PT party in response to this. Brazil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s President, Dilma Rousseff, was quoted simply saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is natural for young people to demonstrate.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Whether this response throws more fuel on the fire is yet to be seen. Also, there were more than just young people in the crowd tonight.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another gets more specific:<\/p>\n

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Things here in S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo\u00c2\u00a0are getting contentious and it looks as if it could be Taksim all over again. About two weeks ago, some small protests started on Paulista Ave in downtown S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo\u00c2\u00a0over a $0.10 increase in the bus fares.\u00c2\u00a0Of course, the protest was about more than a hike in fare though; it was about the horrible state of Brazil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s infrastructure, government corruption, high inflation and low growth \u00e2\u20ac\u201c basically everything that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dysfunctional about this place.<\/p>\n

Predictably the police didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t handle things well, so more people came out, fueling more protests. Last Friday police began firing on protestors and beating journalists \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it looks like the government has finally woken the slumbering beast here. 230,000+ people are said to have headed out to the streets of S\u00c3\u00a3o Paulo, with large protests in Rio and other major cities as well. Brazilians are apparently even going to protest in front of their embassies as far as away as Dublin and Berlin.<\/p>\n

For videos and documentation of some of the violence from Friday, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to Google Translate this<\/a> (check out number 9). Here<\/a> is a good explanation of what the real issues are (like Taksim wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about just a park, this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just about bus fares). A\u00c2\u00a0Facebook event page for protests is here<\/a>. And here<\/a> is a list of 33 foreign cities Brazilians will also be protesting in.<\/p>\n

Also worth noting is that the FIFA Confederate Cup is starting this week, which is basically like a trial run for next year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0World Cup. Brazil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s infrastructure is failing spectacularly there, with some people waiting up to six hours just to leave the airport. So this is basically the worst timing possible for the government, as the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention is about to be on the country anyway.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be going down to the protest today. I can continue passing along info as I find it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That reader follows up:<\/p>\n

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This video<\/a> shows some of the protests over the weekend in Rio. The reporters in the video are trying to blame the violence on the protesters and are writing them off as just angry youth with nothing better to do \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while the video shows police beating people and shooting tear gas at them. The reporters also are lamenting that this is happening during the Confederate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cup, as it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to embarrass the country on the international level. It was a HUGE deal for\u00c2\u00a0Brazil\u00c2\u00a0to land the World Cup and Olympics because it meant tons of money was going to be pumped into the country to build infrastructure. Well, the money came and the infrastructure didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. So now you have tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of pissed off people on the streets.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another passes along this video<\/a> as a good summary of the protestors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 grievances.<\/p>\n

(Photo: Demonstrators clash with riot police during a protest in front of Rio de Janeiro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Legislative Assembly (ALERJ) building in Rio de Janeiro, on June 17, 2013. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of major Brazilian cities protesting the billions of dollars spent on the Confederations Cup \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and preparations for the upcoming World Cup \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00c2\u00a0and against the hike in mass transit fares. By Tasso Marcelo\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

via The Dish http:\/\/dish.andrewsullivan.com\/2013\/06\/18\/what-the-hell-is-happening-in-brazil\/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+andrewsullivan%2FrApM+%28The+Dish%29<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On-the-ground readers report: Why nary a mention of the anti-government protests going on in Brazil? Tens of thousands of people are demonstrating in cities throughout the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sixth largest economy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c certainly big news and something of this scale not seen in South America since the \u00e2\u20ac\u212280s. Granted it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the Middle East. However, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What The Hell Is Happening In Brazil?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[182,6,843],"class_list":["post-2905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-reader","tag-andrew-sullivan","tag-ifttt","tag-the-dish"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2skW4-KR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}