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 Brazil is dissolving like an ice cream exposed to the sun. The public authority's failure doesn't seem to be the sole reason, but it is for sure, the main one. That's been happening for quite some time, but in the last few months the situation has become more than unbearable, because it turned into tragedy.
At the airports, despite all the promises, the chaos gets repeated every week. One day the meteorological conditions are blamed, the other failures in the voice communication system are the culprit, then we get breakdowns in the Cindactas (air control towers), soon after the problem has to do with aircraft maintenance or overworked crews when the flight controllers are not engaged in a work-to-rule campaign. Obviously good part of the responsibility lies with the incompetent and even wicked airlines, which sell more tickets than they have seats, but it would be incumbent on the state to find a solution, which it doesn't. Things might start getting better with a state intervention. But what happens to the suffering citizen, who distrustful of air transportation decides to go by land? If he has a car he runs the risk to get halted or swallowed by one of millions of potholes spread throughout the roads. If he takes the bus he will take three times longer than scheduled since buses cannot take off as an airplane. And what about the railroads? You can't use them, they are not made to carry passengers. Even the scarce subway, for so long thought to be secure, is starting to scare people away. Craters suddenly open up, as it just happened in São Paulo, while authorities can't do a thing but start an enquiry. Without mentioning that in many capital cities the underground transportation stops its services when the public needs it most. Privatized after Olympic public investments, the subways have been turned into pubs that close their doors at night when profits drop. Despite its health benefits walking is painful and you have to add to that the total insecurity we have to brave at every block we are able to transpose. Gunmen may be behind any wall or pole when they are not driving around in stolen cars, setting up barricades in main avenues or simply staging shootings, throwing grenades, and aimlessly kidnapping and killing pedestrians. Let's admit it, all we can say has already been mentioned by the Portuguese merchant in the past: "Quem não tem competência não se estabelece" (He who has no wherewithal shouldn't open shop). It happens that the government not only opened shop but also acted to extend its term of incompetence. The government shrugs when it is asked to stop making promises and start subjecting itself to the common Brazilian's daily hardships, something it should do at least to know how the population is living. The rulers, however, go about in helicopters, armored cars, special planes, a profusion of bodyguards and much idle talk. When it's time to do something nothing happens. The ice cream melts. Skipping Brazil Not that it would be important, but it was probably better that Iran's president did not land here during his visit to some Latin American countries. That would be a security headache for Brazil. We must respect the old Persian empire might, together with its millenary culture and contributions to the arts and science, but nowadays we wouldn't have anything to gain if president Lula celebrated the visitor with banquets in the Itamaraty, Brazil's foreign ministry. It would only cause us trouble hearing his perorations against the United States, a country much closer to us than to them. I'm curious, however, to know: "Why did he skip Brazil?" Would the fundamentalist Mahmoud Ahmedinejad be forging an alliance with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela, Daniel Ortega's Nicaragua and Rafael Correa's Ecuador? Could he be organizing a Brancaleone Army to confront the superpower? In this case, Evo Morales's Bolivia is missing. Or is the Iran leader offering nuclear technology to possible partners? In Quito, at the inauguration of the new Ecuadorian chief of state, Brazilian president Lula was introduced to and greeted Iran's president, in contrast to Nestor Kirchner, of Argentina, who missed the ceremony so he wouldn't have to do the same. You don't need to stop acknowledging the United States unfortunate mistakes in the Middle East and elsewhere to ask why this disconcerting trek of the Iranian president is happening. If it is just to bring trouble to this side of the world, he did well by skipping Brazil. Carlos Chagas writes for the Rio's daily Tribuna da Imprensa and is a representative of the Brazilian Press Association, in Brasília. He welcomes your comments at carloschagas@hotmail.com. Translated from the Portuguese by Arlindo Silva.
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