Brazil History and Culture: Michel Temer

The current President of Brazil, Michel Temer, suggested that he plans on running for a new term in this October’s election. Temer originally entered the office of the Presidency in 2016 after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. To this point, much of his presidency involves straddling corruption charges and attempting to pass economic reforms to fix, to use Temer’s words, “a country that was broken” from the heavy public spending of his predecessors. On corruption charges, Temer has avoided trial in the Supreme Court thus far. If he wins the election and continues in the office of the presidency, it may allow him to continue avoiding trial due to special legal privileges for high-ranking government officials.

Michel Temer responding to allegations of bribery in the Chamber of Deputies President Eduardo Cunha on May 20, 2017 in Brasilia, Brazil

In an interview with the newsmagazine Istoé, Temer claimed that he seeks to protect the legacy of his presidency, highlight his successes and the advancements of his administration, and to continue in the pursuit of economic reform. However, the same interview carries threads of the desire for a maintenance of power to protect himself from potential persecution by the other candidates and political opponents. Temer’s opposition is large, which is readily apparent in his single-digit polling numbers. Also, his opponents mainly lie on the left, as center-right Temer’s attempts at economic reform have changed labor laws and weakened the political power of unions and their members. Because of these polling numbers and Temer’s rampant unpopularity, running for office is a relatively safe option for him. That is, his approval is so low that his candidacy will not significantly damage those numbers, and if he, or one of his allies does win, he is likely to have some level of protection from previous charges of corruption.

This decision to run also occurs about a month after his decision to allow the military to control security in Rio de Janeiro, which was a calculated strategy to attempt to secure some political favorability. However, the effectiveness of this decision is debatable, as Temer’s approval rating is still extremely low and violence in Rio remains.

Vampire in Carnival 2018

Brazilian politics in this New York Times article are portrayed as consisting of corrupt politicians who use their positions and the tools of those offices (ie. the military) to pursue personal and political gains. It also shows the Brazilian public, at large, as dissenting and politically engaged, especially in art forms such as graffiti and samba. The article is suspicious of Temer’s motivations, not only due to corruption charges, but also because there is a disconnect between the rationale of decisions and the reality of their consequences. This disconnect is demonstrated in the author’s disapproval of the recent decision to allow the military to run Rio’s security due, in part, to the assassination of Marielle Franco. In discussing elections and presidents, this article relates to class conversations on political leadership and transfers of power in Brazil.

Main Article for the Blog Post:

Michel Temer, Brazil’s Deeply Unpopular President, Signals Run for a New Term

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/world/americas/brazil-michel-temer.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&rref=world/americas&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Americas&pgtype=article

Articles for context and/or further reading:

Brazil’s Military Is Put in Charge of Security in Rio de Janeiro

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/world/americas/brazil-rio-military-security.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer&contentCollection=Related

President Temer of Brazil Faces New Corruption Charges

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/world/americas/brazil-temer-corruption-janot.html?action=click&contentCollection=Americas&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article

Killing of Rio de Janeiro Councilwoman Critical of Police Rattles Brazil

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/world/americas/killing-of-rio-de-janeiro-councilwoman-critical-of-police-rattles-brazil.html

Upending Brazil’s Presidential Race, Court Upholds Ex-Leader’s Conviction

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/world/americas/brazil-presidential-electionluiz-inacio-lula-da-silva.html

Photo: Carnival

http://www.jornaldaparaiba.com.br/politica/protestos-contra-a-classe-politica-marcam-desfiles-do-carnaval-de-sao-paulo-e-do-rio.html

Photo: Michel Temer May 20, 2017 in Brasilia, Brazil

http://time.com/4792665/brazil-michael-temer-corruption-scandal-lava-jato/

Brazilian History and Culture Post: Yellow Fever

On March 20th, Brazil’s government announced that it planned to vaccinate the entire country against another outbreak of yellow fever by April 2019. For those who may not know, yellow fever is a nasty disease. It’s caused by a virus that is spread through mosquito bites. The first time I learned about it was in the seventh grade when my class was studying Colonial American history in Philadelphia. The worst epidemic occurred during the summer of 1793. At the time it started around 100 people died, but at the end, the death toll reached 5,000. While modern medicine has come a long way since 1793, yellow fever is not to be taken lightly, further evidenced by the fact that in this year alone 300 people (including tourists) in Brazil have already died from the virus.  “This virus has hit the outlying areas of the country’s largest cities, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, particularly hard, threatening to become (Brazil’s) first-blown urban epidemic since 1942.” ( Shasta Darlington, New York Times)

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Despite the disease’s normal location in Amazon River basin, it broke out of its usual pattern in early 2016 and started to move toward the country’s largest cities, which prompted the declaration of a public health emergency in 2017. Perhaps what is more troubling than the outbreak of the disease, is the number of domestic people who still need vaccinations. At a news conference, Health Minister Ricardo Barros said, “We are going to act preventively instead of reacting with emergency measures as we have done.” Referring to the fact that health officials would need to vaccinate an additional 77.5 million people to reach the country’s entire population by April of next year.

Ironically, critics say health officials are the ones who failed to act aggressively, due to the fact that they determined yellow fever had limited reach and was therefore not worth the risk of vaccinating the entire population. These actions or lack thereof subsequently left them scrambling when the virus appeared near São Paulo in the most recent outbreak. Additionally,  increasing efforts to vaccinate 23 million people this year have been hampered by “false rumors” about the vaccine.

Historically, it is hard to conceptualize the recent events going on in Brazil. While we have talked about shifty politics and dictatorship in class, I’m not sure this current epidemic falls directly under those categories. I think that if one wanted to, they could make the argument that the governments’ ineptitude in handling the yellow fever outbreak could possibly fall under state-sanctioned violence. I myself am not making that argument because I feel like I would need to do more research, but judging from the tone of this article, I feel like it could be made. I also feel like this argument might hold credence due to the fact that Brazil just came off from dealing with the massive Zika virus outbreak that spread from 2015-16.

Health workers visited the Pirituba neighborhood of São Paulo this month to vaccinate residents. Credit Dado Galdieri for The New York Times

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/world/americas/yellow-fever-brazil-vaccinate.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Famericas

Brazilian History & Culture Post

Over spring break, two important killings occurred in Rio de Janeiro. One, the death of Matheus Melo, 23, a poor black man whose death received moderate coverage. His death is one of many for the city and many caused from police brutality. However, his death was taken note by councilwoman Marielle Franco, who in the past month was placed in charge of monitoring the current military intervention. President Michel Temer signed a decree giving the military power to restore order in Rio de Janeiro State. This action is notable because it’s the first time a Brazilian leader has used a constitutional provision to grant the military primary responsibility for providing security to a state since the 1980s. Franco, one of seven women on the 51 seat council and the only black female representative, was elected to the City council in 2016 breaking barriers in Brazilian culture. She was a human rights activist and outspoken advocate against police brutality.

Councilwoman Marielle Franco, 36

On the eve of her killing, Franco had suggested that the death of Matheus Melo was in fact caused by police brutality, and in turn the State’s fault. Leaving a meeting about empowering black women after 9pm, councilwoman Marielle Franco, 38, and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, were spayed in her car with bullets and killed. Her death, has received much coverage in Brazil and globally as a clear execution of the part of the state.

Brazil is portrayed in this article from a state-crisis and as less of a democracy. It is important to note that Rio de Janeiro State does not represent all of Brazil but does represent a large and populated part. President Temer is using his constitutional power to maintain military power over the cities which reinforces police brutality and violence. Additionally, the State comes into question with the involvement in Franco’s death, especially since she has been wildly popular and one that was outspoken against some of the State’s actions.

Protest in Rio de Janeiro, March 15

In class we have learned about the Vargas dictatorship and the ways military intervention has been used. Additionally, during this course period the election of Temer was followed and frequently discussed. Brazil in history has been a country of many forms of government and different styles of leadership, something foreign to America. This article is important and hopefully something we follow throughout the rest of our course, with the hopes that this brings attention and change to the State and justice to those killed in police brutality as well as Franco’s family.

 

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/15/world/americas/killing-of-rio-de-janeiro-councilwoman-critical-of-police-rattles-brazil.html

3/27 Class Notes

Happy IS Tuesday!

For class today here’s what we did and what you hopefully learned!

Brazilian History & Culture Blog Post: presented by Nasua, we learned about the Natural Hair Movement in Brazil. Recently, Brazil held the first natural hair empowerment march celebrating the various styles and braids worn by Brazilian women!

Book Presentations: presented by Natalie and William, both books were concerned with music, society, producers, and the long term impacts it has had in Brazil.

Following the presentations we viewed and listened to music by Luiz Gonzaga and discussed various genres including Sertaneja, Forró. Later Dr. Holt presented and showed us a few videos concerned about Carmen Miranda.  Our discussion talked about symbols and clothes used as a way to identify as a Brazilian woman, if her dress is cultural appropriation or not, and her appeal to the various social classes. In this class we briefly touched on the readings that needed to be done prior to class and thus can’t tie them back into the class notes.

Key Terms from today:

  • Forró: a genre of Brazilian music that originated from Northeastern Brazil which incorporates various dance styles and beats.
  • Carmen Miranda: Portugese born Brazilian samba singer, dancer, and later Broadway performer famous for her role in the short film Banana’s is My Business as well as The Gang’s All Here.

Three examination questions to think about today post-lecture:

  1. Do you think that the music we listen to today will have a long term impact in our social structures?
  2. What do you think Carmen Miranda represents?
  3. Historical Question for today: How did music in Brazil during the 1930s-1960s impact the social and national identity? In what ways did

Below I have reattached the link from Nasua’s post for people to view if they would like.

https://bglh-marketplace.com/2015/11/40-incredible-photos-from-brazils-first-natural-hair-empowerment-march/

Works Cited:

Bryan McCann, Hello, Hello Brazil: Popular Music in the Making of Modern Brazil (Durham: Duke UP, 2004)

Jack Draper, Forró and Redemptive Regionalism from the Brazilian Northeast: Popular Music in a Culture of Migration (New York: Lang, 2011)

 

 

 

 

Class Notes 3/8/2018

Why this world: An author biography of Clarice Lispector

Today’s class began with Mia doing a book Analysis on a biography of Clarice Lispector by titled Why this world. Mia’s presentation helped the class have more of an idea of the author of The Hour of the Star which was our class reading. This presentation also helped the class understand what influences she had on her writing. Lispector was a first generation immigrant whose family came fled from the Ukraine when the Soviet Union was persecuting Jews. Her mother died of a disease early in her life. One eerie detail we had learned is The Hour of the Star was published days before Clarice’s death. It was discussed how in a previous book Lispector wrote where a cockroach is slowly crushed and died, that the author of the autobiography believes Lispector made this scene in that book resembles the death of Lispector’s mother who died slowly and painfully. It was discussed how the author of this autobiography mostly tried to make inferences about how certain parts of Lispector’s life were emulated in her books, with no real solid evidence. Lispector did not talk to the public that often, there was only one in-depth interview with her, and she often used pen names. She is a woman that had a lot of mystery surrounding her. This presentation then transitioned flawlessly into the next topic, our class reading The Hour of the Star.

Discussion questions and socratic seminar

Today after Mia’s presentation the class formed a circle and began a socratic seminar style discussion using questions posted on the class blog by students on Wednesday as guides. Such questions delved on themes, poverty, society, beauty standards (Macabea seeing ads with “beautiful” women), and symbolism. One of the major themes discussed in depth was death and the attitude Brazilians hold towards death versus Americans. It was expressed that Brazilians celebrate the person’s past life and burials are done quickly after passing, and life goes on, compared to in America where services take a while to organize, and mourning is usually somber. One question that was discussed was “Why do the narrator and characters constantly berate Macabea?”. This also closely tied with the question “How does the author tell us about different socioeconomic class in the novel and why?”. One such example offered was how, poverty in a class system often has scape-goats. That those that are poor are leeches, not working hard enough, dumb, and other stereotypes. It was discussed how socio-economic class and affects treatment of different people from economic, social, and mentally. It was discussed how although those living in Macabea’s ward of the city were “poor” some were better off than the others. Macabea lacked basic education and was constantly berated by most of those she knew as “slow”. The conversations the class made were productive, and students were not afraid to disagree with arguable statements made, or dive deeper into proposed concepts.

Sources:

Clarice, Lispector. Translated by Moser, Benjamin.The Hour of the Star. New Directions Publishing. New York, New York, 2011.

Moser, Benjamin. Why this world: A biography of Clarice Lispector. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK, 2011.

Interview with Clarice Lispector with English subtitles. Sao Paulo, 1977, Penguin Books UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1zwGLBpULs

Hour of the Star

How is poverty portrayed?

Poverty is a huge theme for Macabéa in Hour of the Star, not only poverty as in socioeconomic status but poverty in her spirit and her life experiences. Poverty is a major issue in most countries in the world. Having Macabéa and Rodrigo be complete opposites shows how poverty and wealth in Brazil, and any other country, have such an unequal wealth distribution. The narration of the novel coming from Rodrigo shows the audience that many people believe and understand that with wealth comes education and happiness. People always say money does not buy happiness, but it does bring financial stability, sustainability, and education. This can be seen in how Macabéa is described as only surviving on hot dogs, soda, and coffee, but Rodrigo is not surviving, but thriving.

Natural Hair Movement in Brazil

Even though Brazil has a predominantly black and colored population, Black features and culture are often looked down upon and stigmatized. In this article by Zoe Sullivan and Ana Terra Athayde, the current trend of black women and women of color accepting and embracing their natural hair is explored. The article begins with a reference to the Brazilian Blowout technique which has gained international fame because of many famous American stars. This technique was widely used by women of color to conform to social norms and standards of beauty; but today, many young black and mixed raced women are choosing to wear their hair in its natural form to “reclaim their identity.” This has created a market for natural hair salons and hair product lines in Brazilian.

Like many other movements involving hair throughout history, this is about more than just defying fashion norms, but it also brings to light many of the problems and oppressions people of color face in Brazil. Black women earn 28% of what non-black males earn and 80% of employed black females work as maids or in manual labor.  This is coupled by a lack of representation of black women in Brazilian media. By embracing their natural hair these black women are challenging the notion of black culture and black people as inferior.

https://bglh-marketplace.com/2015/11/40-incredible-photos-from-brazils-first-natural-hair-empowerment-march/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/04/brazilian-women-natural-hair-techniques

 

On the Hour of the Star

“What psychological and philosophical devices does Macabea employ as a means of coping with her perpetual state of destitution?”

On several occasions during the story, Macabea is noted by the narrator to have nearly considered the utter depravity of her external conditions. However, she avoids despair by simply accepting such things as she encounters them in particular moments, rarely pausing to reflect upon the gravity of her reality. An early example of this occurs as the narrator is describing her physical appearance and lack of decent food, and she is quoted as saying “it is so because it is so” (55). This tendency also manifests itself in her conception of the divine when it is revealed that despite her frequent recital of prayers, she does not believe in God since she never observes Him firsthand (81). Later, upon being fatally struck by a car following her meeting with the fortune teller, she promptly examines some nearby grass and rejoices as having been “born for death’s embrace” (441).

(The Hour of the Star)

Lespector includes parentheses interjected throughout the novel, these include commentary on life(and death) and on what is occurring in the book. What is the goal/the purpose of these interjections?

These comments are being made by the narrator and they are in parentheses in order to indicate that they are asides and not apart of the normal dialogue. These asides are made by the narrator which is also representative of Lispector herself. The narrator and Lispector are acting like guides through this “murky” flow of consciousness novel. There are many examples indicated that Lispector is showing her own voice in these parentheses. One of these examples is “(I warned that this was a cheap tearjerker, even though I refuse to show any mercy)” (25). This is in reference to the “thirteen titles” that are named at the beginning of the book. Since these titles are a way for Lispector to show the multifaceted aspects of the novel her reference to these draws the reader’s attention to the many titles.

The Hour of the Star: Discussion Question

How does the author tell us about different socioeconomic class in the novel and why?

Response: Macabéa is a typical teenager who dreams to be a Marlyn Monroe or eats hot dogs and drinks Coca-Cola. As a typical college student, I would say she would be eating lots of pizza as well. However, the situation is not that easy for her. She is 19 years old and works as a typist and living with four other girls. Her job does not look secure. She lived with her aunt, who was not loving. Her appearance is described as sickly, very thin and gloomy. As apparent in the above, she is living in poverty. The author provided a detailed description of Macabéa’s socioeconomic class, as a lower class. In contrast, the narrator, Rodrigo is well-raised, confident and really excited to tell the story. The story that narrator tells do not match with his background. By using two completely opposite character to discuss poverty, the author wanted to make a claim that the government and people must think on the side of the poor not the side of the rich.