2013 will
hopefully be remembered as a year of positive change in Brazilian history. As
we have gone through a series of urban and social transformations for huge
sporting events, the real fragilities of Brazil came into sharp focus. To host
the World Cup and Olympics, special legislation weakened already tenuous
institutions. Tens of billions of public funds have been directed to projects
that were never discussed with the
The protests of
2013 were partly a reaction to the opaque, exorbitant and authoritarian megas.
They also responded to the deteriorating conditions of urban life in Brazilian
cities. I see this every day when I walk out of my apartment: bubbling sewage,
abandoned buildings, precarious infrastructure, military police sitting on the
corner. The protests were not spontaneous expressions of rage, but a big blip
of concentrated indignation that is always kept alive by Brazilian social
movements such as the Comitês
Popluares da Copa.
The violent police
responses to peaceful protest exposed the contradictions and brutalities that underlie
most facets of Brazilian life. The police do not do policing, they treat the
population as a threat to order and have no capacity to work for the public good.
They serve at the behest of a very thin slice of Brazilian society – those benefitting
from the very projects and conditions that the protesters were on about. There
may have been real material gains in Brazil over the past generation, but this
does not indicate meaningful social, political, infrastructural or economic
reform has been accomplished. Rio is a perfect example of this – a place where
issues of inequality and violence are solved through a counter-insurgency
pacification program. The knock-on effects of pacification
were never thought through or adequately prepared for, exposing Rio´s most vulnerable
citizens ever more to conditions of bare
life.
2014, without
question, will be the shortest year in modern Brazilian history. A late
Carnaval, World Cup and Elections will ensure that none of the necessary,
difficult work of building a more just society will occur. The events will
limit social agency at the same time that the politicians will be handing out
crumbs to gather votes. If Brazil wins the World Cup, we will lose even more of
our lives to the false delirium of a hollow promise.
Despite the
constant difficulties of living in a city governed by decree and in a state
that acts on the behest of the invisible hand, 2013 was a year that
demonstrated that there is real potential for collective social action to have
an effect. The work of building consensus to create a collective future based
on an atomized and self-referential past is tiring, frustrating and slow. The
events of 2013 demonstrated that this work, undertaken by millions on a daily
basis, can spring to life to challenge those in power with legitimate, articulate
and diverse messages. These messages were heard and seen around the world
linking Brazilians with Turks, Egyptians, and Circassians in their struggle
against authoritarianism. Hopefully 2014 will bring even more people to the
streets to raise their fists and voices.
That´s it for
another year of Hunting White Elephants. Thanks to the tens of thousands who
have visited the site this year and be sure to follow my twitter @geostadia.
I´ll be putting up links to journalistic and academic pieces in January and
updating the media page. Feliz ano!
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