segunda-feira, 28 de março de 2016

MY PERSPECTIVE FROM INSIDE BRASIL’S CRISIS – MARCH 2016

The reason for writing this article in English is because I’ve been reading in some international blogs a few perspectives on Brazil’s crisis that aren’t quite accurate and I’d like to put out a different perspective. I live here in Brasil and it's important to ask some questions, put some links and let people make up their own mind. I don’t pretend to know everything that is going on behind the scenes, I’m not a journalist, but I cannot agree with this propaganda being put out there that this is a conspiracy to bring a "good" government down. I don’t doubt there are conspiracies going on or different criminal factions fighting for power, but this government and the party currently in power are far from being good to it’s people and if they weren’t so corrupt and ineficient, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess! Keep in mind that workers party PT has been in power for over 13 years in one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and their allies have been even longer than that, so you can imagine how deep the rabbit hole goes!
By the way, I voted for Lula when he came to power for the first time in 2002, we all thought we were going to get a differnet kind of government since one of their main moto was "ethics in politics", only to find out it was more of the same – “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”, just like predicted by George Orwell in his famous book “Animal Farm”. Everyone should do their own research, but don't be naive thinking this government is good just because we are part of BRICS, which is known for standing up against the powers that currently rule the world.
People always say that Brasil is not for beginers, the situation is complex, so before I continue, I’d like to make a little note on the 3 main political parties in Brazil: PT, PSDB and PMDB.
PT is president’s Dilma and Lula’s party, left wing, used to put a strong opposition to the one’s in power, and after loosing some elections finally came into Power in 2002, and since 2005 have been involved in major scandals, like “Mensalão”, you can learn more about it here:
Lula managed to keep his image intact, went on TV to say he knew nothing about it, got re-elected, but the second strong man in the party José Dirceu was found guilty and is currently in jail. He was going to be the follow up to Lula, but since his involvement, Lula had to find a replacement, and that’s when Dilma Roussef came in. Before that nobody knew her, she was a technocrat and not a politician, had never before been a candidate in any election, and originally was from another party called PDT ! You can read more about it here:
The party that was in power before PT is called PSDB, with president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who has a left wing tendency but generally his party is considered right wing and is the biggest opponent to PT, in all recent elections they made it to the second and final rounds of presidential elections, but lost. Here we can see how the “divide and conquer” technique is played out very well, also the “controlled opposition” tactic, since people end up being divided into right wing versus left wing, and very few can see how both wings belong to the same bird! There isn’t much choice and people end up having to choose between the lesser of two evils. PSDB was involved in corruption scandals when they were in power, so there is much resistance to them and their image is usually associated with the rich white elite that has always ruled the country, while Lula and PT’s image is more associated with poor people. We do have to recongnize that Fernando Henrique, while finance minister and before becoming president, was responsible for the “plano Real” which brought economic stability and growth to the country’s economy, making him president twice in a row and laying the ground for Lula to enjoy an economic boom during his presidency. Read a little bit more here:
The third party that people don’t talk as much about but are always in the shadows of power is PMDB, the party of the current  vice-president Michel Temer. They are quite strong in congress where they have both the president of the senate Renan Calheiros and president of the chamber of deputies Eduardo Cunha. Both men are involved in several corruption charges by the way! It is agreed that if a party wants to be in power they have to make an alliance with PMDB or they’ll never make it, and both PT and PSDB have made those alliances to get to power, so it doesn’t really matter who’s turn it is, PMDB always manages to be there, and they have been there since the military dictatorship! Here we have famous politicians like José Sarney, who is an ex-president that only came to be because he was the vice-president to Tancredo Neves, who died in strange circumstances before he could assume his post. José Sarney and his family have been involved in scandals but never really faced any serious charges and since the military dictatorship he’s been around. He was once a political opponent to Lula, but now they are like buddies! Sarney is also known to be a free-mason. Although PT and PMDB are allies, they don’t trust each other, maybe that’s why some people say that impeachment is a coup, since if that happens Michel Temer becomes president. They sure know how to play both sides – Eduardo Cunha, facing several criminal charges, is trying to push impeachment in congress, while Renan Calheiros, another famous corrupt is defending Dilma. Complex and tricky? You bet it is, and although you don’t see vice-president Michel Temer involved in scandals, it is interesting how his name showed up in this list:
With that introduction into the 3 main political parties, let’s try to analyse what is going on and all the possibilities to where it could lead us:
First we need to mention an operation by brazilian justice department and Federal Police (PF – Policia Federal, our version of FBI) called “Lava-jato” which  translates as car wash. This operation began in early 2014 and has brought to the surface just how much corruption there is in our political system, our state oil corporation Petrobras and also with the big construction companies that hold major contracts with government.
The ones defending PT’s government tend to be quite radical and will attack anyone bringing this truth to the table and how corrupt their leaders have become. Anything that goes against them is a conspiracy by the elites who can’t stand the fact that PT and Lula are helping the poorest people in Brasil. Yes, they have done more for the very poor than any other government before them, it’s true, but does it mean that they aren't working for the "real" elite? They try to make the middle class look like they are the elite, the folks that pay most taxes, and they also use other “divide and conquer” tactics such as racial issues, gender, and all kinds of division. Here we have to understand that there is a gap between the poor population and the middle class, and they clearly play the game of throwing these two against each other, while the very rich continue to thrive! If you don’t believe it, try and Google how much the big banks have been profiting with this so called “left wing for the poor” government, even during the economic crisis:
It is also good to research how much of the taxmoney is used to pay interest of our national debt, in other words, profit for bankers:
In English:
In this Facebook post, this economist brilliantly shows how the government lied big time when they said they payed all our external debt:
It is interesting to note that the big construction companies like Odebrecht, involved in these recent corruption scandals, have always worked side by side with all governments, regardeless of the political party in power, so is there a pattern here?
Again we see the “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” going on. The difference here is that PT portrays an image of being a government for the poor, although they totally neglect education, health or even environmental issues, pointing to the fact that they are a big fraud! I personally know senator Cristovam Buarque, used to be in PT, was the Minister of Education in Lula’s firts mandate, but he could never get money or help for some wonderful educational projects, and because he kept trying hard, ended up being fired by Lula over the phone! Other serious people who used to be in PT left the party in that first government, as soon as they realized that the apple had become rotten! Research another senator by the name of Heloisa Helena who was kicked out of the party for speaking out. Law expert Helio Bicudo, who filed Dilma’s impeachment in congress, was one of the founding members of PT.
As with “bolsa-família”, the governmental project that gives money to help feed poor people, remember that “if you really want to help men, teach them how to fish instead of just giving the fish”, otherwise you are creating a dependency and this is usually used in politics as a means of buying votes!
Lula is a very charismatic leader and skillfull in the art of manipulation! He has enjoyed a huge popularity, once had 87% of approval when the economy was doing great and he thought he was above the law! He became a myth in the international arena, but it can be quite dangerous to put a politician on a pedestal like that! He has no problem in going to TV and lying openly, and has some blind followers that will bow and say “AMEN” to anything he says! Some people hold him as a messias, a saviour of the poor, will even become violent and get into fist fights to defend him, quite a dangerous situation! "If you mess with Lula you messed with me!"


Recently he is under criminal investigations and PF forced him into interrogations. Right after that he began to incite his followers saying there will be a war and other people around him are also threatening with violence! His popularity is far from what it once was, a lot of people have woken up, but there is still a large part of the population that would do anything to defend him! Dilma is trying to make him a minister in order to save him from going to jail, with this move he would have access to a privileged court and could only be prosecuted by the Supreme Court, where most of the judges were nominated by PT. This also made a lot of people angry and the people behind the investigations leaked audios of his conversations with Dilma for everyone to hear! Some people thought that was wrong, but since we are talking about public figures, everyone has the right to know! There is also a vídeo circulating of Lula himself defending Wikileaks when they put out audio of an important american politician.
Besides Lula playing the victim’s roll, Dilma is also playing it, saying that there are no motives for her impeachment and it’s all a coup, but you can read here the crimes she has commited:
Here her name is cited in an international Lawsuit against Petrobras:
Here we have investigations made by the swiss government:
This victim role is also being played out on the international geopolitics spectrum, and since Lula was once seen as a myth, people are more likely to believe this is all a big conspiracy on the innocent politician in order to bring down Brasil and weaken the BRICS alliance:
Here another article by the same blog puting Lula again on a pedestal and as a victim of a conspiracy:
They say they are "trying" to bring down Brasil, but the truth is they have already been doing that for years now! There are many out there who will deny the truth and people are very passionate about it, either to defend him or to condemn him, and this is bringing a lot of tension, a lot of division. Maybe that is what was planed all along – the old “problem-reaction-solution”!
Since 2013, I have been participating in street protests against the government, I really feel there is a spiritual awakening happening on planet Earth and this is part of people standing up against opression! Let me make myself clear here: I have always been against government, whether it was PSDB, PMDB, Fernando Collor (a former president that was impeached). Funny thing is PT keeps saying that impeachment is a coup, but besides being in the Constitution, when they were on the other side they worked hard to impeach all the other presidents! There is so much hipocrisy that it’s unbelievable!
No doubt that oponents and right wing radicals are trying to make the best out of it, are pouring huge amount of money into anti-government protest and propaganda, just like the government is pouring huge amounts of money for people to go to the streets to defend them. If the radical right wing is becoming popular it's due to incompetence of the radical left wing in power! Protest and manifestations always end up being infiltrated and co-opted for someone's dark agenda, so what's new?
There were huge protests before the FIFA World Cup in Brasil in 2014, people were angry that there was so much money going into building huge soccer stadiums, while hospitals lacked medications and doctors. Now most of these stadiums are hardly being used, some ended up costing three times the original amount, and FIFA, the international football league, had total isention from paying taxes, would you believe? They had a profit of over $2 billion dollars and didn’t pay a single cent on taxes!
This is what was left for us:
In 2015 everyone was exposed to how corrupt FIFA is:
Are we starting to get the picture here? Will we continue to be naive into thinking that this government really represents us? Are we talking here about good guys who are being targeted just because they are part of BRICS? Think twice!
Going back to recent protests, mostly they have been peaceful, with children and old people attending, except when groups like the Black Blocs or others infiltrated it and transformed it into a combat zone! The most recent one, on march 13th, was one of the biggest in Brasil’s history,  it was totally peaceful, and when Aécio Neves and other leaders of PSDB (opposition) tried to use it in their favour, they we were not allowed to speak and people asked them to leave, making it clear that this protest wasn’t about political sides, it was against the whole corrupt system! Yes, there will always be people trying to infiltrate it and use it for their own agenda, or try to discredit it, saying it’s an upper class protest, but that is not true. Poor people have also become disatisfied with this government, the economic crisis is reaching everyone! Except the banks, of course.

Operação Lava-jato (Operation Car Wash) is bringing to the surface all the corruption hidden in our system, and not only in PT, people from other parties are being investigated and indicted as well! Here we see a new generation of judges, prosecutors and federal Police that are sick of the old ways of doing business in the country. They are working hard and strictly under the Law, although some may try to dismiss it or discredit it and you have to understand that they are up against powerful forces and a corrupt system where criminals have always gotten away with their crimes. For the first time we have seen powerful and rich men go to jail in Brasil! I have a good feeling about it, although I can be naive myself, but it sure feels like justice has finally arrived on planet Earth and criminals are being exposed for what they really are, not just here but all over the world! Lies are not working anymore and the Truth always seem to pop up, no matter how they try to hide it or distort it! Of course there are rival criminal factions trying to benefit from it and boosting protests with money and propaganda, but the way things are going, no political party will survive after all these revelations! We are witnessing a true disclosure of all the corruption in our political system, all parties and major politicians are involved, including the opposition, and if mass arrests took place tomorrow no one would be shocked!
With all that being said, and since this soap opera is not over yet, let’s pay attention to what follows next:
 1 - If in the end only politicians from PT face criminal charges, than we’ll know for sure it was just another conspiracy, an orchestrated coup, and what will follow is more of the same;
2 - If it brings down the whole political spectrum, than this could be the begining of a new era, one of more transparency and honesty, one that will transform this country for the better and will be an example for the rest of the world! Let's wait and see how this novel ends.
Apart from the corrupt system, Brazil has a lot of spiritual people praying and meditating for peace so that all this tension in the air and all these revelations don't sparkle violence. Let's use our power of manifestation so that we have a peaceful  and honest outcome of it all! Let's all join in and send good vibes for the whole world, and like John Lennon sung:
"You say you want a Revolution, we all want to change the world, but when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out?"
Peace and Love on Planet Earth!