This Country has a Lump in its Throat

Outside the Carioca metrô station. Of the two buildings in the foreground: the Petrobras building on the left, another building on the right.

I was saddened. Truly. It happened last Friday as I left lunch at Mama Rosa. The remaining diners in the restaurant placed their forks beside their plates and watched the TV as graphics of torn newspaper clippings flew across the screen claiming that Lula knew! Lula knew! He claimed not to know, but the news said he knew about the corrupt vote buying scandal that’s been plaguing his party (the worker’s party).

There was a time when I would write extensively about this sort of thing, but the nice thing about having smart people read my blog is that it encourages me to keep my mouth shut when I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’ll just say this: I feel like I saw something in those lunch-interrupted faces, a return to disillusionment as they were forced to ponder the possibility that Lula, an often idealized paragon of incorruptible virtue and new hope, was, in fact, corruptible, if not corrupt. Again. Things were going well, and then: again. And it’s beginning to seem like it will always happen again. And again.

Well, at least the economy doesn’t seem to be responding negatively. What’s more, some people seem to be having a great deal of fun with the whole mess (excellent article, thanks to Diogo).

Must retain hope. Many are trying.

We don’t want Lula to fall. If he goes it’s a setback for all Brazil’s social movements.
-Gustavo Petta

He’s a symbol of the Brazilian worker, of honesty
-Joao Felicio