We, the 21st-century Brazilians, inherited a great quantity of knots that hobble us in our long walk. Within a few decades, when the history of these days is studied, it will seem that the future of Brazil was tied into merely two knots: the high interest rate and the unbridled corruption.

As if our future were not imprisoned by a long string of knots impeding Brazil, which has been independent now for almost 200 years, from making the transformation into a nation.

In the news, in Congressional action and in administration decisions there is no reference to the many other knots inherited over the course of two centuries: the income concentration, illiteracy; backwardness in public education; regional inequality; social apartation; economic stagnation; indebtedness; unemployment; violence, deficiencies in the healthcare system; environmental depredation; international vulnerability; corporativism; weakening of the universities; disdain for culture; paralysis in the debate over ideas.

These problems have been forgotten, or put on the back burner, because it is in the interest of those who make the news to choose that which directly affects them. The problem of the knots is in us: the republican aristocracy who refuses to distinguish the knots that tie up Brazil, affecting the excludeds.

The illegal, clandestine appropriation of public money by individuals is a clear act of corruption.

But something else that should be seen as corruption is the utilization of public resources to benefit the wealthy segment of society to the detriment of social investments even when this is done legally by means of Congressional budget approval.

The diversion of the money for construction of the São Paulo Regional Labor Court (TRT) into a judge's bank account was an act of corruption.

But in a country with 14 million inhabitants without access to running water, a country in which only half the population has indoor plumbing, the spending of public money to construct a luxurious building is as great an act of corruption as is the theft of that money.

Everyone was indignant because a judge diverted R$ 169 million (US$ 71.2 million) while the project was under construction.

But no one protested when R$ 220 million (US$ 92.7 million), which could have been destined to housing construction for poor people and to water and sewer system installation, was transferred to the construction of a luxurious government building.

The diversion was a corruption of conduct; the decision was a corruption of priorities. To make matters worse, up until the 30th of July of this year, merely 3% of the budget allocation for 2005 sanitation works had been spent.

In a country with such a great fiscal and social crisis, that is a diversion in the ethic of priorities. Resources are spent to benefit the rich population, or simply wasted, without provoking our indignation.

We consider it natural to divert public funds to take care of the interests of us, the republican aristocracy, instead of fighting so that they will be utilized to benefit the poorest sectors of society.

The problem of the knots that tie up Brazil is in us, the Brazilians. The Brazilian republic has not been completed, the society remains divided, separated with one part excluded, like the slaves, and one part included, like the nobility.

The government continued as if it were a royal court; it changed its address to Brasília; it altered the manner of selecting the chief of state through elections; it exchanged the title of emperor for that of president and the name of Pedro for that of Luiz.

As for the rest, everything continues as before: the knots are the same ones because we are the same. We are the knots.

Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage - www.cristovam.com.br - and write to him at cristovam@senador.gov.br.

Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome - LinJerome@cs.com.

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