What's happening to Brazil?

The world might be flabbergasted about the protests that have been occurring in Brazil in the recent days. How is it possible during the FIFA Confederations Cup that people are not adorning their homes and streets with green and yellow to support the Brazilian National Football Team?

The problem is that Brazil has been just like this: keeping the image of the “glad fool” for the world. Hardly we have another image different from the “Football Nation”, pretty women and samba having always that marvelous Rio de Janeiro as a post card.

(No, we are not happy as in this FIAT ad shows)

The reason of the popular uprising wasn't just the increase of the bus fares in the city of São Paulo, but also all the money spent to organize the FIFA's Confederations and World Cup, besides a succession of absurd political decisions.

The Brazilian people were (and they still are) tired. People was not consulted if they wanted to host the FIFA mega events as well as the Olympics. Initially, the federal government had said that the fund money would come from private funds but, it ended up paying the major part of the football venues and infrastructure works. It was spent billions of reais (for more precise numbers, please search over the internet) in theses works while the investments in public education, health and security were minimum. During the construction works, government has approved several laws for them to fit the FIFA exigences. Besides they got late, many of the infrastructure ones barely were finish and even came out from the project. As all of this wasn't enough, several poor families who lived close to the football venues were forced to leave their homes. And finally, TV ads and the biggest TV broadcaster of Brazil asked the people to positively impress the foreign tourists, it means, for FIFA the government did all they could and for Brazilians, they barely did something.

Differently of the fake image that Brazil tries to sell as if everybody was smiling and happy, the truth is completely different. Brazilian aren't necessarily depressive, but they do suffer, it doesn't matter if they are poor or “rich” (as the middle class is usually classed). They suffer at the chaotic traffic spending about 2 or 3 hours per day at their cars or at a crowded and abusively expensive traffic mean of transportation. They suffer face to criminality having to jail themselves behind high walls. They suffer with a precarious public education were the teachers are receive low salaries, the same we can say of the public health were doctors and hospital rooms are not enough and so people crowd the hospital corridors. Who can pay for it, pay a high price and who can't suffers by having to use the public services.

The government argues that there isn't money to invest in these services, but how could they fund the coasts of the FIFA events, for example? Brazilian pay high taxes for every little thing. Money is something that we don't are in need, but the problem is that it is concentrated in the hands of very few people and it is traditionally stolen and poorly invested by our corrupt politicians.

The fact is that the Brazilian people has finally “waken up”. A people that formerly held on passively all the absurd and limited themselves to complain on Facebook and Twitter is now coming out from their computers and going to the streets.

It doesn't mean, of course, that a revolution is about to happen. What the Brazilians want are not the spotlights of the world for hosting the World Cup or having a powerful economy, but they are demanding quality of life and political seriousness.

Unfortunately, there's a big chance of the protests not succeed (just like in Syria that is experiencing a war for over 2 years). We are living in a atmosphere of political polarization, what's not good for the people. Although few Brazilian are politically engaged, they had batter to leave their passions aside and analyze the political background more rationally. It doesn't matter if president Dilma Rousseff was booed or if José Serra was hit by a paper ball. Neither PSDB nor PT, not even any political party have being work seriously for the political moralization and the fight against corruption. What we have seen, for decades, was a merely political war were politicians seem to concern mainly about party loyalty issues and electoral rules, and they also unite themselves to raise their own salary and benefits (that are many) while an ordinary worker has to make miracles with a salary of US$ 2,000 or less having to pay for their housing, food and transportation. And the laws for the people? And when they decided to vote for something related to people, the laws are those written by the religious parties concerned in pursuing homosexuals and obligate them to hide again in their ghettos in order not to shock the intolerant ones that feel offended by others' happiness.

Anyway, the problems of Brazil are many and extremely complex. If people didn't keep engaged into politics in a less passionate way and more rational, and if they don't protest always something absurd is voted, this national mobilization may be in vain. And the more important, it can't be summed up in a childish war between suffering poor people against the evil middle class, but it have to be a fight for rights of everyone, it doesn't matter their social class, color of their skin, religion, sexuality or whatever.