Opinion – Candido Bracher: Rooting for Brazil

Twice in recent weeks, news from Brazil has made headlines in the world’s leading newspapers. On Monday (9), the front pages brought images of the crowd in yellow shirts taking the National Congress by storm. The subtitles reported on the destruction carried out in the headquarters of the Three Powers of the Republic by groups that, inexplicably, encountered practically no police resistance.

It is Sheet, in an exquisite editorial entitled “Handful of idiots”, predicted that in a short time the episode will be remembered only as a “vexatious paragraph of history”. Indeed, the feeling that comes over me as I imagine readers around the world contemplating this pathetic tropical version of the events of two years ago on Capitol Hill is one of shame and embarrassment. May the episode at least serve to encourage the immense majority of correct citizens who voted for Bolsonaro to definitively distance themselves from this group of nonconformist delinquents and to practice opposition in a constructive way.

In contrast, the photograph on the English newsstand, where all ten publications in the showcase had Pelé’s image on the front page, aroused pride, nostalgia and a deep gratitude for having been graced with the possibility of seeing his moves and vibrating with his talent and charisma. For a Santos player like me, who accompanied the idol from 1968 until the end of his career, these feelings are greatly amplified.

The commotion reflected on television news, in newspaper columns, in testimonies collected from people on the streets made it clear that it is not for us to ask for whom the bell tolls; we all know they fold for us.

The French newspaper L’equipe reflected on its cover, with painful precision, the sensation that I had not yet been able to name: “La fin d’un monde”. Yeah, the end of a world that was mine. A world of vibrancy, enthusiasm and optimism, enriched by the energy of youth, which
—more clearly in the last ten years— has been invaded by economic stagnation, political polarization, environmental destruction and threats to democracy. It is necessary to react.

I seek encouragement by reading the most recent book by Henry Kissinger, “Leadership: Six Studies in Global Strategy”, not yet published in Brazil. In it, the 99-year-old author describes the political journey of six admirable world leaders, with whom he had an intense relationship.

They are Konrad Adenauer, architect of post-WWII German reconstruction; De Gaulle, leader of “France Libre” in the same conflict, who returned to power in 1958 to deal with the complex issue of Algerian independence; Anwar Sadat, Egyptian leader who took power in a country demoralized by defeat in the war against Israel and acted to transform relations with the historic enemy; Lee Kuan Yew, the “inventor” of Singapore, who turned an unimportant island in Southeast Asia into one of the most prosperous nations in the world; Margaret Thatcher, the first woman Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who managed to reverse the country’s downward trend, which had lasted for decades.
The sixth character is perhaps the only one who does not deserve a place in such an outstanding group of statesmen; Richard Nixon owes his presence in the book to the fact that he invited the young academic Henry Kissinger to the post of Secretary of State in 1973.

The book is very instructive, as it objectively describes the individual trajectory of each leader and their circumstances. More than that, the author’s description of his close contact with the biographers gives humanity to the characters and encourages empathy, by allowing a better view of their challenges and their personal motivation.

The breath of hope I sought after reading the book materialized with the realization that all leaders “transcended inherited circumstances and thus led their countries to the frontier of the possible”. To them Kissinger attributes the qualities of George Bernard Shaw’s foolish man: “The sensible man adapts to the world. The foolish man insists on adapting the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on foolish men”.

What is true for these leaders in relation to politics is no less true for Pelé in relation to football. To satisfy the nostalgia and enormous admiration for the idol, I watched the film “Pelé”, by David Tryhorn. When reliving his fabulous goals and even his plays that did not result in goals, such as the midfield shot against Czechoslovakia, or the dribble past the Uruguayan goalkeeper Mazurkiewicz —both moments in the 1970 World Cup—, I remembered a sentence with similar sense to that of Shaw: “Not knowing it was impossible, he went there and did it”.

In the same film about Pelé, journalist José Trajano reports that he went to the 1970 World Cup ready to cheer against Brazil. After all, we were in the middle of the Medici government, the most truculent of the period of military dictatorship. We lived in Brazil, which was proud of “love it or leave it” and “no one can hold this country”, and winning the World Cup would inevitably increase the prestige of the infamous regime. When the team entered the field, however, he realized that “one thing is one thing and another thing is another thing” and that it was impossible to cheer against Brazil.

A new selection entered the field on January 1st. We may not agree with how well the players were called up, or with the team’s tactics. We must even express our critical opinions and warn of risks in the paths chosen; but we cannot cheer, much less act, against Brazil.

I will especially cheer for three players on that team: Marina Silva, a playmaker tasked with making a tight stand against the destruction of the environment in general and the Amazon in particular, Simone Tebet, a warrior whose job it will be, among other things, to promote the rescue of the Budget as a management tool and the improvement of our public policies, and Minister Fernando Haddad, on whose shoulders rests the greater responsibility for the economic consistency of government policy.

Go Brazil!