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 The siege around the common Brazilian citizen is an old story. It has been happening for ages. And getting worse. Consider what's going on in the airports to those who need to take a plane during this long All Souls Day holiday. A chaos for which not even President Lula was able to provide relief after a meeting in the Palácio do Planalto.
Are the flight controllers right? Sure. Weren't they accused even of failure in the Gol's plane accident? Unjustly and foully they were so charged, without any doubt, because despite their work overload, they, day in and day out, still strive for putting some order in the skies. If someone should be blamed for this horror taking place in our airports this someone is the federal government, which since the Fernando Henrique's era keeps cutting the budget set aside to meet the air traffic growth. In the last three years, 3 billion reais (US$ 1.4 billion) ended up being reallocated, that is, they were never appropriated. We don't know, however, if this money was used to religiously pay our foreign and public debts' interests or if it never existed outside the economic team's computers. We know for sure the horror stories of all those who for five, ten and even twenty hours have to wait to take off, after having paid the tickets. To enumerate the hardships of the common citizen who is treated like cattle in multiple activities in Brazil is something worth of a master or Ph.D. thesis. And let's not get into public power territory. This a theme that I will leave for another day. Agreement in Sight The immense majority of politicians were pleased with president Lula's speech, Tuesday night. He offered an open hand, championed the dialog with the parties, social movements, unions and class associations. It wasn't the arrogant talk of someone who just won a landslide victory, but the exhortation of a winner, looking for alliances even with those defeated. Theory might be quite different from practice, but we must recognize that, logically, to enunciate intentions should precede actions. The ideal would be that starting next week the president embark on a project of national understanding. One or another stubborn character (good morning, senator Jorge Bornhausen) has already announced his decision to not cross the Três Poderes square. Even though he added that he has nothing against the fact that the leaders of the PFL (Liberal Front Party) do the crossing themselves. So, let's wait and see. They Read Proust The PT's (Workers Party) National Executive Committee seems to have found time to read Proust, in mid electoral campaign, which is now closed. Because they all seem to be "in search of lost time". Lost not exactly by them, but by president Lula's government in the last four years. They want a yaw to the left for the PT, I mean, whatever remained from the party after the scandals implicating many of those who today have become the Workers Party's former leaders. And what do they want? Review of certain privatizations, an end to speculators' benefits and privileges, recovery of labor rights pilfered along the last few years, isolation of the civil society's entities interested in internationalizing the Amazon and better care for the domestic market. And new proposals are already been developed by what is already being called "the new PT". The party saw a demonstration, in the elections, of the hope shared by the majority who reelected Lula. The PT dreams that it can once again connect with its grassroots. The Biomass If it's time of suggestions for the construction of a new future, the word goes to professor Bautista Vidal, the great supporter of biomass's adoption as a clean and renewable fuel, able to supply not only Brazil, but the whole world. The different vegetable oils extracted in abundance, according to a program scientifically adopted by the government, would secure our admittance to the world's largest nations' roll. We have land, water and sun all of them top notch. We are not talking about interrupting the activities linked to oil, in which we reached self-sufficiency. The trouble is that oil is in short supply in the planet. In 30 or 40 years, extracting it will become an uneconomical activity. We could supply the world with everything from ethanol to soy, dendê, sunflower and some many other oils. And don't think this is something that would take 30 or 40 years to become reality. The ethanol plan became a success in four years. By the way, it was a plan implemented by Bautista Vidal when he was national secretary of energy, during General Ernesto Geisel's government. The younger generation perhaps will not recall that, in that short period, 90% of the national road fleet were converted to ethanol. Now, with more options at our disposal, we could move even faster. And with the advantage that is worth repeating: vegetable fuel doesn't pollute the atmosphere and is renewable, in many cases two or three times a year... 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
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. Translated from the Portuguese by Arlindo Silva.
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