The Mensalão Scandal (and a brief history of corruption in Brazil)

Brazilian Supreme Court (Brasilia) - Picture by Vitor Sa (Virgu)

Corruption is an evil that slows down the economic growth, as well as the progress and improvement in the life standards that (should) result of this growth. This evil is embedded into pretty much all parts of the Brazilian administrative system and its roots trace back to the colonial years. There is an aggravator in Brazil, which is the way the country was colonised  as an exploration colony, creating a culture of taking and leaving, of self-interest being biggest than the wider interest of the whole society. Taking advantage always is seen as a smart thing to do by many who don't realise the full impact of their actions. The Brazilian people was originated whilst the 3 people they are formed of (see the post on "The Origins of Brazil") watched the country being explored in a ruthless way. They saw the brazilwood being taken, the lands being harvested using slavery and the gold and the precious stones being extracted under rules that were tempting to be disobeyed, since if the richness that was being explored had an owner this owner was slaved to extract them for people and reasons they didn't even know. Corruption started in Brazil with illegal traffic of the exploration products and the concession to explore, import of slaves from Africa after this became prohibited amongst other wrongdoings, and has never stopped. Politics became a way to get rich quickly by taking ownership of something that does not belong to you, contravening any rules and not worrying about the implications to the people being subtracted. Is it an unfair conclusion to suggest that this culture comes from the way we've been colonised?

Brazilians are watching a massive clean-up on the slums of Rio since last year, when special troops started to invade the slums with the purpose of getting rid of the drug dealers that once ruled the cities' main "favelas" (slums). We now also have our eyes on another sort of clean-up that is also taking place at the moment, just this time we are trying to get rid of another type of criminals: the trial of the politicians involved with the "Mensalão" (big monthly stipend) scandal. The word comes derives from "mensal", which means monthly and names a massive corruption scheme that surfaced and put Brazilian politics to shame.

The case started 7 years ago with denounces of money from sources such as pension funds of state owned companies and advertisement budgets being systematically used to pay a monthly amount (hence the name) for Congressmen to vote legislation with the ruling party. The money was funnelled through an ad agency and the scheme was working out fine, until tension  arouse between two parties, one being "PT", the labour and ruling party of former President Luiz Inacio da Silva ("Lula") and current president Dilma Rousseff and the other being "PTB", also from a labour origin and supposedly unsatisfied with promises of bribery that have never been fulfilled.

Hell broke loose after the denounces and video-tapes aired on the national television and the ruling Government trying to deny at all cost by suggesting that the opposition came up with the story to undermine the Government. The population became hungry for answers, but the political circus went on with accusations and allegations and now since the beginning of August, 7 years after it surfaced and 5 years after it's been took up by the Supreme Court, it's all coming together in what is being branded as the biggest trial of the Brazilian democracy history. The population wants some blood and hope that this trial does not "end up in pizza" - Brazilian expression  used in that type of situation where all facts are brought to light but nothing happens to the corrupts at the end - and also that the example is set for the next cases of corruption, which is one of Brazil's worst problems and negatively affects the progress in so many ways.

There should be limited political implications over the results of the trial once politicians in Brazil are used to get away, politically, with corruption - President Lula was re-elected in spite of all these accusation having emerged during his first tenure. Corruption is so embedded into the system that a large chunk of the population would even support a politician who "robs, but also does something", so it is one of those sad cases when people have to get used to something bad and choose the "less bad" as they don't see an alternative. But this might be the first step to end with the culture of politicians legally getting away with wrongdoing, even when they are discovered: there are some big wigs amongst the 38 people accused who now have the chance of their lives to serve as a good example by spending some good years in jail, allowing the incredulous population to believe that a step forward has been taken towards nullifying the sleazy  moves of corrupt politicians that use the gaps in the outdated political and judicial framework until bigger, more structural changes take place to eradicate this evil  from the country at once.

The flag of the state where I was born in Brazil ("Minas Gerais" - or General Mines, named after mining became an important export  and economical activity in the area) has a Latin inscription that translates into "Freedom albeit late" ("Liberta Quae Sera Tamen")  -  I hope that, in this case, it's prison albeit late .

Brazil introduces Rio de Janeiro - London 2012 Olympics Closing Ceremony

Right, so you were watching the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and, all of a sudden comes a street-sweeper dancing and a series of people you've never seen in crazy costumes singing songs you've never heard and doing things you did not comprehend. You are surely not Brazilian, so let me try and explain.

The stars

Renato Sorriso - Interpreting himself, a street-sweeper with samba on his feet, Renato Sorriso has conducted the narrative throughout some acts that showed elements of the Brazilian culture and history. Some 10+ years ago, the crowd watching the Rio Carnaval parade has spotted Renato dancing samba whilst sweeping the runway between two acts and started to cheer. The cleaning supervisor tried to tell him off but, couldn't compete with the cheering crowd, and Renato went on dancing and turning himself into a living Carnaval character. Renato can still be seen every year at the parade performing his act during the interval between the samba schools' parades.

Marisa Monte - Originally a classical singer, the artist has a consistent career on Brazilian popular music having reportedly sold over 10 million records worldwide. She enjoys some worldwide recognition and has worked with some foreign artists in occasions such as David Byrne. 

Alessandra Ambrosio - Brazilian model Alessandra Ambrosio is well known on the fashion world. She has ticked all the supermodel boxes , like being an Angel and spokeswoman for Victoria's Secret and featuring on the Pirelli calendar, besides being the face of Revlon and the cover of most of the biggest selling fashion magazines throughout the world. She appeared wearing a silver dress and a crown - not sure if she was trying to represent anything except the beauty of Brazilian women - indeed, few countries have so many models that made it big as Brazil in the recent years.

Seu Jorge - Singer/songwriter/actor Seu Jorge ("Seu" is a kind of short for "Senhor", which means Mister) features on the world acclaimed Brazilian movie "Cidade de Deus" (City of God) as "Mane Galinha" (Knockout Ned). He also features on Wes Andersen's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou", both as a part of the crew and recording part of the soundtrack, performing versions of David Bowie's classics in Portuguese . He has  several albums and enjoyed great commercial success mainly in Brazil but also abroad. He came dressed in white singing like a real "malandro carioca" (carioca is how we call the people from Rio, whilst malandro is a noun that comes from the word "malandragem", the latter  probably needs a post of its own - I'll look into it in the future but for the time being think of a malandro as a smooth operator, a wheeler-dealer).

Bnegao - Rap/hip-hop singer/songwriter Bnegao was a known artist on the Rio underground scene,  becoming popular to a broader audience initially with his band The Funk Fuckers and then joining the famous and controversial (amazing) rock/hip hop Brazilian band Planet Hemp as a singer and songwriter. After Planet Hemp, he started a band called "Bnegao  e os Seletores de Frequencia" (Bnegao and the Frequence Tuners) and more recently became a part of a trio called Turbo Trio. Hip-hop, funk, dub and rap are the main components of his musical mix. He came dressed with a that reflects the Maracatu, an African-Brazilian musical an theatrical ritual linked to Northeastern states of Ceara and Pernambuco, and performed the song "Mangue Town" by deceased Brazilian singer/songwriter Chico Science.

Pele - Brazilian football legend Pele made a Cameo appearance. I am guessing I don't have to explain who Pele is, but just in case he is the greatest football player ever. And if you disagree, I shall also post on this at some point..

The Tunes

No, samba is not the only thing we listen to. I will surely make not one but several posts about the Brazilian music. Besides samba's many variations, Bossa Nova, Tropicalia, Chorinho, Forro and many others will not fail to awe you and maybe some of you will even be keen to learn Portuguese, just like listening to the Beatles made me want to learn English, so you can understand the beautiful words from the music of the likes of Chico Buarque, Tom Jobim or Caetano Veloso. The songs performed on the 10 minutes gives you just a taste of that: Classical, samba, mangue beat, MPB...

"Bachianas Brasileiras No5"  Performed by Marisa Monte. Written by self-taught Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, this piece of classical music is a part of a 9-suites act for a combination of instruments that are popular in various styles of Brazilian music. The movements are a perfect mix of Baroque, Bachian structures with elements of the Brazilian music like rhythms and melodies

"MangueTown" Performed by BNegao. Mangue Town was written by singer/composer Chico Science and originally performed by his band Chico Science e Nacao Zumbi (Chico Science and the Zombie Nation). The word Mangue means mangrove and Mangue Beat was a cultural movement that Chico and his band were involved from the concept. Their music is a mix of rock guitars, hip hop and the heavy drums of local genres from Recife in Northeast Brazil like the Coco and the Maracatu.

  

"Nao vem que nao tem" Performed by Seu Jorge. "Nao vem que nao tem" was written by songwriter Carlos Imperial and was made famous by performer Wilson Simonal. The title alludes to a Brazilian expression that means something on the lines of "don't even try it" or "don't even go there" - always funny when you translate expressions :)

Simonal was famous on the 60s and 70s and his music started with styles such as "pilantragem" and "samba de gafieira" (like this song) and evolving into something more funky and soulful. This song was used in an IKEA advert in the US so some American readers might have recognized it J

“Canto das Tres Racas” – this song was written by songwriters Mauro Duarte and Paulo César Pinheiro and made famous by former Brazilian singer Clara Nunes. Clara was a multi-million record selling singer, considered the “Queen of Samba”, since many samba songs were made famous in her voice. She made justice to the title by being a real researcher of the genre, having travelled several times to Africa to try and understand the origins of the black music that would come to originate samba in Brazil. This song is about the 3 main races that compose the Brazilian people (Portuguese, European and African) and the suffering from their former relationship of domination. 

"Aquele Abraco" Performed by all artists.  "Aquele Abraco" (That Hug) was written by Brazilian singer/songwriter and former Ministry of Culture Gilberto Gil. Gilberto Gil was involved on the Tropicalia movement and this song is about Rio. The lyrics start with the famous line "O Rio de Janeiro continua lindo" ("Rio the Janeiro carries on beautiful")  and continues making many references to the city's culture and beauty. The piece closes and names the Brazilian show on the ceremony (the show was named "Abraco", or Hug) as if to say "leaving a big hug and see you all in Rio"!

The show

The show kicks-off with Renato Sorriso dancing his samba and being told off by someone acting as a London 2012 security, quite like the event that made him known (see above). Instead of having the security making him stop dancing, he involves him with the rhythm that is involving indeed, and he (kinda) starts dancing too. The drums get heavier and they are joined by  group of women dancing samba on Carnaval-like costumes, in what looks like an “ala” (section) of a samba school from the Rio Carnival.  The drums fade and they are then taken by surprise by the whispers that reveals singer Marisa Monte, representing Yemanja, coming onto the stage singing "Bachianas Brasileiras no 5" (see below). Yemanja is the " Goddess of the Seas" according to some African religions and hailed by Brazilians as such. If you ever spent New Year's in Rio and saw/was told to throw flowers to the Ocean and make a wish you might have unnoticeably praised her – it is cool to note how some religious elements, costumes or traditions from one the cultures that formed Brazilian's own are incorporated by all Brazilians, despite of their religion.

The drums start again with a tribal beat and a group walks in wearing neon war bonnets, representing the native Indians on a tribal ritual. The Maracatu then takes the stage. Maracatus are traditional folkloric performances from Northeast Brazil that enacts the crowning ceremony of a slave that was nominated the “King of Congo” -  an outstanding position within a group of slaves. The tradition endured even after the abolishment of slavery and is celebrated with lots of drums and singing. Maracatu also denotes the type of music played in such rituals. BNegao walks in singing “Marcatu Atomico”, a modern mix of rock and Maracatu (see below), and to the sound of this song, model Alessandra Ambrosio takes the stage. The Maracatu drums slowly fade into a “Capoeira” and a “Berimbau” can also be heard as the Capoeira fighters take the stage. Capoeira is a quick and complex powerful dance/fight formerly practiced by the African slaves and currently by groups throughout the country – and also in many gyms not only in Brazil but in some places around the world and “berimbau” is a rustic instrument used on the Capoeira ceremonies.    

That’s when Seu Jorge walks into the stage and the Capoeira fades into a “samba de gafieira” (Honky-Tonk Samba). This type of samba is danced very differently from famous carnaval samba, like the one danced by Renato Sorriso at the beginning of the presentation. The man usually dances the "Samba de Gafieira" as a "malandro carioca" (the smooth type from Rio played by Seu Jorge), usually with his arms open as to protect his female partner from other "malandros" dancing around yet giving her space to show herself to him. Seu Jorge and Renato then start dancing the Honky-Tonk Samba around Alessandra Ambrosio – the lyrics reflect the “malandragem” – open up your eyes or you’re gonna lose that girl to another “malandro”. The next chant is “Canto das Tres Racas” (Chant of the Three Races) and quickly the stage is taken by a series of displays resembling the pattern of the Copacabana beach boardwalk, with singer Marisa Montes returning and joined by the others to sing “Aquele Abraco” (that hug) and close the show, but not before a last special guest takes the stage: football legend Pele sending that hug to all the viewers and inviting everybody to join Rio in 2016 for the first edition of the games to take place in South America.

In my opinion, the challenge to put something together that reflects and makes justice to such rich and diverse culture is a massive one because there are just so many elements to mix in a coherent way in 10 minutes… it's a bit like trying to put a playlist of all your albums without a filter of genre and then playing it randomly and be asked to make a story around the soundtrack. This is not to say I didn't like - but going from samba on the streets to Pele, going through the Indian origins, supermodels, malandragem, Brazilian-African religion/folklore, Maracatu and Carnaval in  10 minutes in a logical way might be an impossible task, but the effort gave me the impression that they are picking some great elements for an extraordinary Ceremony in 4 years time...

The origins of Brazil (or the various "Brazils")

"We say to the confused, Know thyself, as if knowing yourself was not the fifth and most difficult of human arithmetical operations, we say to the apathetic, Where there's a will, there's a way, as if the brute realities of the world did not amuse themselves each day by turning that phrase on its head, we say to the indecisive, Begin at the beginning, as if beginning were the clearly visible point of a loosely wound thread and all we had to do was to keep pulling until we reached the other end, and as if, between the former and the latter, we had held in our hands a smooth, continuous thread with no knots to untie, no snarls to untangle, a complete impossibility in the life of a skein, or indeed, if we may be permitted one more stock phrase, in the skein of life.”

Saramago, Jose - The Cave

Where to start? Well not sure how far back I could go, but I thought it would be interesting to understand the formation of the brazilian people from the moment it was officially "discovered". This formation is curious for the fact that it is document from the moment the Portuguese people got in contact with the native Indians and is somewhat still under progress, in a continuous quest for identity.

Brazil (in Portuguese "Brasil") was named after brazilwood (pau-brasil), a tree of deep red coloured timber that was once abundant along the country's vast Atlantic coast. Due to its high commercial value (it was used to produce a red dye used mainly on textiles) and evidence, it was the first product exploited in Brazil. To name such country, the word might be slightly misleading as it seems to designate an unit, a single place as an opposite to a name like the "United States of America", that suggests various places united by a central government. If you have travelled throughout the country's various regions, you would have noticed that there isn’t one Brazil, but several. But on the other hand, the name as a singular substantive  has an aggregation property that reflects how the diverse mix of traditions, cultures and races has spread into the massive continental territory in blends of different proportions of each of those defining  characteristics but keeping the same essence.

Although some contradictions that suggest that the existence of the Brazilian land was already known amongst navigators, It's formal discovery happened on the 22nd of April 1500, when the Portuguese caravels shored where it is today called the state of Bahia, in Northeast Brazil. The clash of realities was massive:

"To the Indigene people that was there, naked on the beach, the world was a luxury to live in, so rich in birds, fishes, roots, fruits, flowers, seeds that would provide the joy of fishing, planting and harvest to as many people as would be interested in joining. In their simple and wise conception, life was a gift from good Gods who gave them splendid bodies to walk, to run, to swim, to dance, to fight.(…)

The newly-arrived people were practical, experimented, suffered, aware of their guilty that came from Adam's sin, predisposed to the virtue, with clear notion of the horrors of this sin and the forever damnation. The Indians did not know that. "

Ribeiro, Darcy - The Brazilian People - The formation and meaning of Brazil

What follows is the extermination of the Indigene tribes and population by the diseases brought with the contact with the newcomers, the slavery and the oppression to their traditions, costumes and beliefs under the flag of the Portuguese Jesuit conversion and mercantilist expansion .

The native Brazilian indigene people are commonly classified by the language they spoke:

• Caraíbas (or Karib) -populated the North of the Amazon River bay
• Nuaruaques (or Aruak) -populated an area that goes from the Amazon River Bay until the Andes
• Jês (or Macro-Je) or Tapuias -situated on the Central Brazilian Plateau
• Tupis -populated the whole Atlantic Coast and some parts of inland

To continue the various forms of exploitation of the new found colony, a big contingency of African slaves has been brought into the country. Together with the European and the native Indigene people they form the 3 "matrices" that allegedly formed the Brazilian people:

"At the ethnical-cultural sphere, the transfiguration takes place by the gestation of a new ethos that started to unify, in language and habits, the Indians removed from their native way of living, the Blacks brought from Africa and the European established here. It was the Brazilian being born, constructed with the bricks from these matrices as they come undone."

Ribeiro, Darcy - The Brazilian People - The formation and meaning of Brazil

Brazil is what Darcy Ribeiro, an important Brazilian intellectual and Anthropologist, calls a nation of "new people", rather than "transplanted people" - such as Canada, the US or Australia where the cities and the people mainly replicate the characteristics of the colonizers, differentiated maybe by factors such as nature and geography. Although our rooftops reminds us of our Portuguese colonization, the Brazilian ethos is perceived as one still under development, with strong traces of all those "matrices" that it comprises of. Some of those traces are stronger in some of the regions, hence the same ingredients in different proportions results in a variety of "Brazils" that one who travelled to more than one of the country's region has certainly noticed, and is also well classified by this picturesque Brazilian character:

• Crioulo - Mixed of Portuguese, African and native Brazilian Indians, formed mainly on the Northeast during the years where Brazil's main export was sugar
• Sertanejo - The cattle-raiser on the countryside, mainly at the Northeast, who inherited characteristics of the Portuguese culture, but also elements of the Brazilian own
• Caipira - Mainly inland people from Southeast and Midwest Brazil (states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerias, Goias) and the inland part of the southern state of Parana, the "Caipiras" resulted mainly from a mix between the Portuguese and the native Indians.
• Sulinos - Gauchos and mixed of Portuguese, Lebanese, Japanese amd  other European people (mainly German and Italian), African and Indigene, influenced by the missionaries and with their very own forms of cultural expression.
• Caboclo - With a strong Indigene background, the Amazonian people try to harmonise nature and technology

I shall elaborate on the economical and cultural elements and forces that generated these various "Brazils" in future posts.

If you visit the state of "Amazonas", follow to Bahia and then to the South you might see so many skin and hair colours and tones that you will ask yourself if you are still in the same country - or continent! Curiously, they all (with the exception of a (unfortunately) very, very small minority native Indigene people still living on preserved tribes) speak the same language - Portuguese. But what else do they have in common?

Brazil celebrates the fact that it is a very receptive and tolerant country. In more recent years (19th and 20th centuries), Immigration has also played an important role on the composition of the population, notably the Italian-Brazilians (of Italian origins), Nipo-Brazilians (of Japanese origins) amongst others. Many different people migrated there (many European friends are surprised when I tell them that we have the biggest colony of Japanese people outside Japan) and, despite preserving a few habits have quickly absorbed the essence and mixed into a new blends of what can be called "Brazilianess". In fact, as a Brazilian boy growing in the southeast I had Japanese, blond, black, brown and Indian like classmates and thought that was the most natural thing in the world. It is indeed something to be proud of, once we live in a world that is more and more bruised by intolerant acts. But that does not mean that this came easy - the country did pay a price.

"That cultural uniformity and this national unity are - without a shadow of a doubt - the great result of the formation process of the Brazilian people. It should not, however, make us blind to the fact that there are disparities, contradictions and antagonisms that underlie them as very important dynamic factors. The national unity, made feasible by the successive economic integration of the various colonial transplants, has been consolidated as a matter of fact after the independence, as an objective that was announced, conquered through cruel fights and political savvy of several generations. This is, doubtlessly, the only unchallenged merit of the old Brazilian ruling class. Comparing the unique block that resulted from the Portuguese America with the mosaic of diverse national frames that became the Hispanic America (n.t. from Spanish Rule), one can assess the extraordinary importance of this achievement".

Ribeiro, Darcy - The Brazilian People - The formation and meaning of Brazil

I do have to mention that Brazil is, unfortunately, not completely free of prejudice and there is a massive gap that separate people, although so diverse, from a more comprehensive integration. Without going further into the reasons, I shall highlight, though, that this prejudice, this gap is the result of the unsuccessful way the massive richness of such an abundant country has been distributed and is hence economical rather than cultural, religious or ideological - since the country has always proved open to incorporate new "tastes" of these elements of to the hot pot that it already is. You have to think of a blond Brazilian person of German origins attending to an African Bantu ritual here, of Japanese restaurants reformatted and present in every corner ran and staffed by people who are not Japanese  or of Japanese origin at all or the thousands of people from all over the country attending to the Oktoberfest in the South of Brazil. Money unfortunately does matter - and the hope is that the improving economical situation should come with appropriate means to bridge this gap and transform this unique place into the most amazing and vibrant country in the world.

"Although there is not a theory to explain this people formed by the Lusitanian (Portuguese) sweetness, the African vitality and the Indigene magic, they are making the country build its own way, in all its originality"

All these people have left strong traces of their personalities, characteristics, costumes and traditions. The results is not a single physical or psychological stereotype, but several. What they have in common is what is consider to be Brazilian.

Colour/Race Profile

White	90,621,281	47.51%
Black	14,351,162	7.52%
Yellow	2,105,353	1.10%
Brown	82,820,452	43.42%
Indigene	821,501	0.43%
Not declared	36,051	0.02%
Total	190,755,799	100.00%

Source: IBGE's 2010 census

Disclaimer

It is a globalised world, they were right. And there is a buzz about Brazil at the moment - Rio+20, the World Cup, the Olympics... that might make you want to go there, might make you want to understand it … so you ended up here somehow.

Well there are Blogs about foreigners talking about Brazil and there are Blogs about Brazilians talking about a foreign country. This is a Blog about a Brazilian who lives in a foreign country talking about Brazil - with a bit of a foreigner's twist to it.

So what? Well in my simple mind after living in the US for a while and now in Europe for the last 4 years and hence struggling so much to explain things like tapioca, saudade, Acai, malandragem, malemolencia and abada I should be in a good position to find the right choice of words, metaphors or similar things to compare with and tell you what this place is all about - hopefully better than a gringo and better than a Brazilian who lives in Brazil, but potentially worse than both.

A Brazilian would explain you his country either in either an enthusiastic and passionate way or a delusional manner  - that will vary according to the subject (football and politics, correspondingly) or simply the person you ask. So why not go deep into the various subjects of this blog to try and understand those adorable creatures - the Brazilians - and their beloved land by yourself.

My first impulse to start this Blog came after watching the Closing Ceremony of the amazing London 2012 Olympic games. Being a Londoner myself, I obviously understood, if not all, at least most of the references and recognised most of the people mentioned and performing throughout the beautiful event (hands down to Danny Boyle). And being Brazilian, the last section about the 2014 games in Rio made perfect sense for me - but maybe the wider audience did not recognise singers Seu Jorge, Marisa Monte, B Negao and model Alessandra Ambrosio, besides street-sweeper/dancer/awesome character Renato Sorriso.Well they definitely should so I thought I would explain to everyone in one place since many people come asking me the next day.

  

Topics will vary but always related to Brazil: culture, tourism, politics (just a bit), economy, life in Brazil ...whatever comes to mind and are relevant at a certain time. I hope you enjoy.