LXXI - We Want a Different Brazil

          This post is a tribute for the main event of this year, in my opinion, and for those that take part in it. All the world understood the reasons of millions have gone to protest, the brazilian people deserve a better country. This post is a summary of four articles. The first with the title above, published at http://mondediplo.com/, on July 2013. The second with the title of, "The end of Brazil`s boom: inflation and corruption fuel revolt." Published at  http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/a-boom-ends-in-brazil-inflation-and-corruption-fuel-revolt-a-907481.html. The third with the title of, "Brazil, once revered, now rocked by protest." Published at http://www.washingtonpost.com/. The fourth with the title of, "Brazil: protesters angry with poor services and high taxes keep up pressure at Sao Paulo march." Published at http://www.foxnews.com/.

           For the first time in 20 years, massive countrywide demonstrations have rocked Brazil. A year ahead of elections, the president knows she needs to listen: the young, the poor and the middle class all want a country that works and that is cleaned of corruption. The president said during the protests, " peaceful demonstrations are legitimate and part of the democratic process." However, she ignored the fact that the country had not seen such massive mobilisation since the end of the dictatorship in 1985. The day before Roussef`s statement, 200,000 had marched. A few days later, their numbers reached a million. It all began on 11 june in SP when residents started to protest against an increase in bus fare. There were soon other protests around the country, with demonstrators denouncing the billions spent on preparations for the world cup and olympic games. They were joined by people weary of widespread corruption and struggling to provide their families with decent healthcare and education. For years after he took office, Lula could count on strong growth to gradually improve living standards, but when Roussef was elected, she faced a difficult international economic situation. Today Brazil is experiencing weaker growth and deindustrialisation, exports of raw materials have risen but those of manufactured goods have fallen sharply. Roussef estimates the middle class at 105 millions. The economist Paulo Kliass refutes her figures and denounces, "the trickery consists of persuading the poor that they are part of the middle class." That illusion is also at variance with the thousand of young people and poor workers at demonstrations who been shouting, "we want a different Brazil," demanding more health and education.

           Brazil has always been a permissive society. According to a cynical brazilian saying, everything ends in samba. For decades, the powerful of Brazil have relied on this culture of impunity. And it is also the fury over this mentality that is fueling the wave of protests rolling across the country. And they are rocking the country at a critical moment. The Brazilian economy is starting to falter. Last year, it only grew 0.9% and rating agencies are predicting economic growth of only 2.5% for this year. Roussef is trying to fuel consumption in a bid to kickstart the economy, but this approach has not been successful. Many Brazilians are deeply in debt. Furthermore, lowering interest rates has led to a rise in inflation, with significant prices increases for food and services. Roussef has expanded  state capitalism and founded a number of new state-owned companies. Meanwhile, the roads is dilapidated, the ports are run by corrupt trade unions and efforts to expand airports have bogged down. Even the exploitation of deep-sea oil reserves has stagnated. Now, gasoline and ethanol have to be imported. Not much happens without the government in Brazil and, not surprisingly, corruption continues to flourish. The construction of sports facilities for the world cup and olympic games was negotiated with only a handful of contracting companies, and now the projects are billions over budget. Along with the poor and students, a large number of business people are taking the streets. "There is plenty of money, we pay enormous amounts of taxes," said Raoni Nery, 27 years, who joined the protests in Rio, "but we do not receive anything in return."

           In 2007, just as this country was being revered for its strong economy, officials announced that Brazil had at last arrived on the world stage with its selection as host of soccer biggest event, the 2014 World Cup. But now hundreds of thousands of Brazilians who have been protesting in dozens of cities are telling the world a different story, that their country, despite improvements, has fallen far short. The spark was a strike against a bus fare hike. Leaderless and assembling through social media, they have become a loud voice against widespread graft. They are tired of paying first-world tax rates for third-world services, from pitiful roads to decrepit airports. Even the cellphone and internet services has drawn the ire of users complaining of high costs and terrible connections. Unlike Egypt or Tunisia, Brazil is an established democracy. Demonstrators here are venting over a range of complaints and calling for changes such as a more accountable government.

            Thousand of demonstrators flooded into a square in SP, on tuesday in a historic wave of protests against the shoddy state of public transit, schools and others services. The nationwide protests are giving voice to growing discontent over the gap between the high tax burden in Brazil and the low quality of public infrastructure, after an estimated turnout of 240,000 people in 10 cities, the protests are turning into the most significant in Brazil since the end of the military dictatorship, when crowds rallied to demand the return of democracy. The Brazilian tax planning institute found the tax burden in the country in 2011 stood at 36% of GDP, ranking it 12th among the highest tax burdens of the world. Yet, public services such as schools are in sorry shape. The OECD found in a 2009 educational survey that literacy and math skills of Brazilian 15 years-old ranked 53th out of 65 countries. They say they have lost patience with endemic problems such as government corruption and inefficiency. They are also slamming the government of Brazil for spending billions of dollars on sports stadiums, while leaving other needs unmet.

          

LXX - 110th Birthday of George Orwell - Part II

        This post is a summary of three articles. The first with the title of, "Orwell and me." Written by Canadian author of the dystopian novel, "The Handmaid`s Tale," Margaret Atwood. Published at  http://www.theguardian.com/uk, on June, 16 2003. The second with the title of, "NSA spy scandal boost sales of Orwell`s 1984." Published at, http://www.orwellsociety.com/, on June, 24 2013. The third with the title of, "1984 study guide-major themes." Published at http://www.gradesaver.com/1984/study-guide/major.

         The book of Orwell, "Animal Farm", was published in 1945. Thus I was able to read it at the age of nine. I knew nothing about the kind of politics in the book. So, I gobbled up the adventures of the smart, greedy, upwardly mobile pigs and the easily led, slogan-chanting sheep, without making any connection with historical events. Children have a keen sense of injustice. The whole experience was deeply disturbing to me, but I am forever grateful to Orwell for alerting me early to the danger flags I have tried to watch out for since. I could see, too, how easily those who have toppled an oppressive power take on its trappings and habits. Jean Jacques Rousseau was right to warn us that democracy is the hardest form of government. Animal Farm is one of the most spetacular books of the 20th century, and it got Orwell into trouble. Then came "1984", which was published in 1949, thus I read it when I was  in high school. Then I read it again, and again. It was among my favorite books. "1984" struck me more, probably because Winston Smith, the protagonist, was like me, a skinny person who got tired a lot and who was silently at odds with the ideas. I sympathised particularly with the desire of Winston to write his forbidden thoughts in a secret book. Along with illicit sex, another item with considerable allure for a teenager of the 1950s decade. "Animal Farm" charts the progress of a movement of liberation towards a totalitarian dictatorship. "1984" describe what it is like to live within such a system. There is no love interest in Animal Farm, but there is in 1984. Winston finds a soulmate in Julia, but the lovers are discovered. Orwell became a model for me much later in my life, in the real year 1984, the year in which I began writing a dystopian novel, " The handmaid tale," by the time I was 44, and I had learned enough about real despotism, through the reading of history, travel, and in my membership of Amnesty International. Democracies have defined themselves by, among other things, openness and the rule of law. But now it seems that we are tacitly legitimising the methods of the darker human past, upgraded technologically. For the sake of freedom, freedom must be renounced. To move us towards the utopia we are promised.

         The NSA spying scandal has had an unusual side effect, sales of Orwell`s dystopian novel 1984 are going through the roof. The book, which depicts a nightmarish world where citizens are subjected to constant surveillance, have rocketed onto Amazon pages thanks to a whopping 6.000% increase in sales. Its website says, "people are buying it up either to learn about what could be, or simply because recent events remind them to read the classic." Whatever the reason, there are certainly some similarities between the book of Orwell and the recent revelations about the NSA`s mass surveillance operations. In the book, 1984, a world of perpetual war, government surveillance and public mind control. In the U.S. perpetual war on terror has been used to justify government surveillance of phones and internet.

         The main goal of Orwell was to warn of the serious danger dictatorship poses to society. He goes to great lenghts to demonstrate the terrifying degree of power and control a totalitarian regime can acquire and maintain. In such regimes, notions of personal rights, freedoms and individual thought are pulverized under the all-powerful hand of the government. Orwell believed in the  advancement of society. He witnessed during his time in Spain and Russia, the rise of  destruction of civil liberties, honest government, and economic strenght. Besides totalitarianism, propaganda is another major theme in his book. There is a extremely well organized and effective propaganda machine that allows the ruling party to completely dominate the range of information disseminated to the public. The citizens are filled with hatred for the stated enemies, but this hatred is easily re-directed if the supposed enemy happens to change. This efficiency is disturbing. The world is as the ruling party defines it. Others major themes in 1984 are: Love and Sexuality, the ruling party works to quell all sensations of love, solidarity, affect and depersonalizes sex to the point where it is referred to as a "duty to the party". The party has also removed interfamilial loyalty, demanding all loyalty to itself, in this way, the bonds between family are broken. Independence and Identity, it is a effective psychological manipulation tactics, to destroy all sense of individuality, for this reason writing has been outlawed, independent thought could be dangerous. Music appears to inspire Winston and allow him to see simplicity in a otherwise violent world. Orwell also demonstrate how totalitarian societies promote the wealth of the ruling elite regime while decreasing the quality of life for all other members of society. The technology is an important tool to the ruling party to maintain control over its citizens, when technology development serves the power, as more effectively put citizens always under observation, they are encouraged, when they do not, they are stopped.

LXIX - 25th Birthday of Brazilian Constitution

        In October our constitution completed 25 yeras, so this post is a tribute to our greater laws, all citizens should recognize its importance, and  its democratic values. This post is a summary of three articles. The first with the title of, " The role of the constitution and the law in a free society."  Published at http://www.ourcivilisation.com.   The second with the title in the link and published at http://fgvnoticias.fgv.br/en/news/fgv-discusses-digital-democracy-and-25-years-constitution-conference-rio.The third with the title of,"The role of the constitutional court in democratic society." Published  at    http://www.juridicainternational.eu/index/2007/vol-xiii/the-role-of-the-constitutional-court-in-democratic.

              James Madison, the most influential of the draftsmen of the American Constitution, identified the main problem confronting the draftsmen of a constitution thus: The great difficulty lies in this, you must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government, but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions. The role of a constitution is to provide scope for a good government, while at the same time placing limitations on the powers of the governors. The doctrine of the separation of powers, involving a system of checks and balances, is basic to liberal constitutionalism. This system begins with the separation through a constitution of judicial, executive and legislative powers. However, it goes much further. It operates also within each branch of the state, in the division of powers between state and federal governments and others institutions and individuals in the community. The system of checks and balances also operates outside the constitution and the law.  Democracy, the electoral system, free expression and criticism, the investigative media and the existence of countless strong and not so strong independent institution cumulatively operates as a system of checks and balances on those exercising private and public power. Justice is based on the rights and duties of the individual. The concept of Justice is the emphasis on procedure. The possibility of achieving equality, democracy, justice, the public good through legislative and prescriptive action. An emphasis on procedure is one of the foundations of the rule of law. Procedures limit power by providing for consultation among interested parties. 

             In October, the federal constitution, also known as "Citizen Constitution" completed 25 years. Since then, Brazil has already witnessed the impeachment of a president and parliamentaries and experienced the mobilization power of social networks. The FGV Law School and the Institute Palavra Aberta will hold the conference, "25 years of the Brazilian constitution: freedom of expression and digital democracy." The FGV law school professor Pablo Cerdeira explain that the changes generated by digital means have already been discussed in the academic world for some time, but now they are taking concrete forms. He said, "the demonstrations that have been happening since June in Brazil are living proof that the organization and social relationship models are really affected by new technologies." The professor also emphasizes that the society`s new forms of organization offered by new technologies also encourage emergence of new ways of State control.

            The constitutional court is central but not the only instrument of democracy and constitutionalism. Therefore, the role of the constitutional court should be viewed in a wider perspective embracing the general issues of democracy, constitution and constitutionalism. There is reason to believe that, relying on earlier experience of statehood and having lived according to constitution and practising democracy. We have passed the beginner course in constitutional democracy. Ralf Dahrendorf (1929-2009) was a German-British sociologist and political scientist. He was director of the London School of Economics. Also member of the European Commission for Research and Education. He wrote that constitutional democracy is built in three stages: 1- The establisment of a constitution laying down the basic values of statehood, fundamental rights, the main paradigms of the rule of law, independent administration of justice and separation of powers. 2-  The creation of a market economy with the development of a certain social protection network. 3- Establishment of civil society, the building of substantial source of power outside the state. This is a network of autonomous institutions and organisations and that a state or party authority can not eliminate. Constitutions are drafted at and after times of upheaval. They usually bear the stamp of past fears. They are generally created on the basis of recent bad experiences and in order to avoid recurrence of that experience. We all know the simple definition of democracy as the power of the majority. However, it would be a great mistake to see things in so simplified manner. Mistake majority for democracy and it is only a question of time and circumstances before one sees the evolution of authoritarianism. Reducing democracy to merely the power of the majority is Jacobinism, which as we know was abandoned a long way back in history.  Power can be limited only by another power that is at least equal to the first. It took ocidental culture hundreds of years and much suffering to understand that the best guarantee of balance and stable development is division of power and mutual control under a law approved by the nation, a constitution. A true and functioning constitutional democracy is based first of all on thinking, values, practice, faith and experience. It is perhaps appropiate to cite the oppinion of a famous American judge, "I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much on constitution. These are false hopes, believe me, liberty lies in the hearts of men and women.," We can agree with this generalisation if we know that law can still be helpful in restoring one`s liberty and independence, as our experience has shown. To keep society together and coherent, to make it follow common and stable rules, or, put other way, to keep them tied to the mast, as it were a 'reader of the holy word' is needed. The mission of the court is to consolidate democracy, to keep it together. As constitution have been created throughout history as a result of upheaval and shocks. They have been set up for putting down totalitarianism and for upholding democracy as values that could often to be grossly violated. The violations have often been committed by or with the help of power itself. Constitutional jurisdiction was thus created with the aim of ensuring democratic stability and of avoiding the erosion and suppression of democratic values via sheer stupidity or scheming or the application of Jacobinic methods. It should not be concluded from this discussion that a constitution and court are needed only by those in power in order to settle matters of their mutual relations and activities. This is certainly one of their functions, but constitutional law is esentially the law of everyone, the law of the nation for keeping power and the society within an agreed framework. This is how constitutional law acts, unless it is illusionary, or if it is a real and effective law that anyone can use and rely on.