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 The end of the year is the time to express our wishes. Mine for 2007 is a tempest of purification over Brazil. A break with corporativism; national sensibility; public commitment to the elimination of social exclusion, child labor and child prostitution; reduction of the gap between salary ceilings and floors; cleansing of the river waters; serious combat against corruption and violence; an understanding of the importance of education for national development; the discovery that, besides the immediate, there is a future to build.
We - above all those of us who occupy positions of public leadership in the three branches of government - are in need of purification. We, the members of Congress, need to leave behind the corporativism and the quick fix with which we exercise our offices and discover our commitment to Brazil and to the future. We need to acquire the sensibility to stop offending the public with mensalão (monthly cash for votes), sanguessuga (bribes for ambulance contracts) or salary increases that are shocking to public opinion, detract from the legitimacy of our work, and demoralize the democracy. The Executive needs purification: to be aware of what is going on around him and not allow corruption to become embedded; to know that he was not elected merely to make accords that will permit him to continue in power or to manipulate public opinion with projects that do not change the face of Brazil; to perceive that his actions and omissions are causing us to lag behind in relation to the rest of the world; to know that history will judge his administration in terms of its concrete results in fulfilling its promises; to understand that Brazil needs to make a historical course correction for a different future, one synchronized with the century in which we are living. The Judiciary needs to leave behind its zigzagging decisions made according to the pressures and the affinities of the moment or based upon the competency of lawyers hired by the rich. It must demonstrate that it is more concerned with the impartiality of its decisions that affect the citizen and the country and less concerned with its personal benefits. The tempest of purification is needed to defeat the selfish sins of each social class and each group and the quick-fix attitude of each person. It will end the corruption not merely in behavior but also in priorities. It will eliminate the taste for being misled and for misleading others. It will stop the lack of follow-through when decisions are made without public spirit, without national sentiment. It will eliminate the hypocrisy with which we commemorate small advances while inequality continues to grow in our society and while our backwardness is consolidating in front of the world's other countries. I wish for a transforming tempest to begin in 2007. That tempest of purification will demand multiple actions in all the sectors of national life, principally in politics. But a revolution in education will form the basis of the purification. The purification will only begin when the population mobilizes itself as it has in the past. All the changes that have occurred in contemporary Brazil originated in mass marches calling for changes - "The Oil is Ours," "Amnesty Now," "Censorship Never Again," "Sovereign Constitutional Assembly," "Torture Never Again," "Impeachment." But Brazil has never taken to the streets over education. There have been marches demanding more resources for the universities, free bus passage for students, an increase in teachers' salaries. There has never been a broad, tempestuous march in favor of education. With slogans like "Abolition of Adult Illiteracy," "Every Child in School until the End of High School," "It is Not Enough to Enroll; We Want Enrollment-Attendance-Promotion-Learning," "Good Salaries for Teachers," "Every School Well Equipped," "An End to the Need for Strikes in the Schools," "Education Is Everything," "Brazil, Country of Knowledge," "Education Now." May the waters of 2007 bring us a tempest of purification: the surging of a great national movement with the presence of politicians, teachers, students, parents for the Revolution in Education; one, two, one thousand marches through the streets of our cities chanting for a change in Brazil by means of education. This is my wish for Brazil: that in 2007 a tempest of purification may carry the people to the streets in a Revolution for Education. Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PDT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). He was a presidential candidate this year. 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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