What a thing: suddenly, in two columns in a row, it’s television that inspires me to write.
The other day I told how I marveled in Manaus, seeing news about floods and ebbs of rivers interfering in the life of the urban population. Now I’m further north, in Mérida, on the incredible Yucatan peninsula (in Mexico), and what I see on television is Brazil.
The way people from outside see our country has already been the subject of my comments here, years ago, still at the beginning of the neo-fascist hecatomb of future prisoner (it doesn’t hurt to hope) Bolsonaro.
Today’s news, coming from the TV that makes breakfast at the hotel a nightmare (and which I watched this past Tuesday, the 15th), talk about the meeting on the climate in Egypt with the headline: “The outlook is good and Lula is expected to achieve a positive consensus”.
It made me mentally review the phases that the image of Brazil went through, at least according to my testimony.
In the beginning, it was the usual caricature, soccer, caipirinha, beaches, women. Communications were more precarious, many people knew who Pelé was, but had no idea what hemisphere Brazil was in, much less what was going on there.
So much so that they congratulated me on our football, but they hadn’t seen the sinister figure of General Medici, who received the 1970 selection with his hands soaked in blood.
As my travels —started ten years later— led me to meet cultured and politicized people, the Brazilian scourge was known to them. But for the rest, Brazil was just joy.
Only with the end of the dictatorship did our image begin to change. Around twenty years after redemocratization, the generalized admiration for happiness, football and the beaches in Brazil began to spread to a more serious sphere, let’s say, that of politics.
It was from the 2000s, the end of the Fernando Henrique era and the beginning of the Lula governments, with much faster and more globalized communication, that my interlocutors (including occasional ones, like a taxi driver) started to talk about Brazil as a beautiful country, yes, but especially as a promising, thriving country, a giant finally rising.
One of the largest economies on the globe, a stable democracy, a champion in hunger and health care. It was even proud.
Then came the 2018 election. A former terrorist lieutenant (who only became a captain so he could follow the procedures of being expelled from the army by complacent comrades), popularly known among his peers as Cavalão, became president.
Then hell began for the Brazilian population, including for this poor traveler unable to explain in a few words and many languages how this had happened to this happy and promising country.
At this point, you might be thinking: why is this columnist kicking a dead dog at this point in the game, when the demon is already exorcised?🇧🇷 The answer also comes from TV.
Well, ending my breakfast, which had begun with the optimistic news from the president-elect at the climate conference, she returned to talk about Brazil. This time with images showing hordes of fanatics dressed as Robinho (or something like that) saluting truck tires or marching like geese (or cattle) in front of barracks calling for a coup against democracy.
“Protests against election results,” read the headline on the TV, while the incredulous announcer reported that there had been no hint of irregularities in the election. So it is.
No matter how well Brazil turns out to be on the tape, by the looks of it, it will continue to be very difficult for us travelers to explain to the world —and ourselves— what kind of mess we are in.
I have worked as a journalist for over 10 years, and my work has been featured on many different news websites. I am also an author, and my work has been published in several books. I specialize in opinion writing, and I often write about current events and controversial topics. I am a very well-rounded writer, and I have a lot of experience in different areas of journalism. I am a very hard worker, and I am always willing to put in the extra effort to get the job done.
