The Brazilian way... to the gallows

The Brazilian way… to the gallows

A treatise on hypocrisy

R.M. Suarius-Heilig

            During the first days of November 2018, I was on my way back from the bakery when I came across a couple parking their car on the street. Whilst I waited to cross it, I was able to correct my initial thought; they were not parking the car, they had already parked it. The front part of their BMW X1 was on top of the pedestrian line, whilst the rear end parked on top of a handicap spot. In addition, when the couple got out it became very clear that the conductor was not even close to being paraplegic, given that he was literally able to walk away from his luxury car. That is because; owning a car in a country such as Brazil - with one of the highest taxes in the world - is not only a privilege but also a token of power and prosperity. Thus, the BMW X1 model 2018, which is the vehicle in question costs in Brazil 191.850 BRL-232.950 BRL depending on the desired specifications. As the minimum wage in Brazil is 998.00 BRL, the BMW X1 is far from being just any vehicle; it is indeed a luxury car.

            I could not refrain myself from looking at them as they walked away from their criminally parked vehicle towards the same bakery from which I had just left. They passed by and cordially greeted me probably thinking I was there admiring their success, objectified in a car. To make matters worse, there was no sign whatsoever of the ‘handicap parking permit’ on the car’s panel, a credential issued by the DETRAN - National Transit Department - stating legally after a full medical report that the conductor or owner of the referred vehicle has a mobility impairment and therefore needs a special parking spot. Of course, this is not a mere verbal agreement, as it is mandatory and regulated under federal laws. First, the law 10.048[1], from 08^th of November 2000, which aims to ensure the priority in the assistance of people with special needs such as elderly people, pregnant women, people carrying infants, obese, and all of those who have any kind of impairment. Law number 10.098[2], from 19^th of December 2000, known as ‘Law of Accessibility’, which sets the general norms as well as the basic criteria to promote the accessibility of people with any kind of impairment. In addition, on 06^th of July 2015, the President of the Republic sanctioned the law number 13.146[3] in order to bring significant changes to the national traffic system, better-defining issues regarding mobility and to promote the inclusion of people with special needs to move around in public spaces.

            Having said that, the article 181, subsection XX of the ‘Código Nacional de Trânsito’ - National Traffic Code[4] - understands that parking on a handicap spot without the permit is an extremely serious infraction. And anyone infringing this law must be fined for 200.47BRL, have seven points added to the driving licence and the vehicle towed away by the designated authority. The subsection VIII of the same article understands the act of parking on the pedestrian line as a serious infraction and determines a fine of 195.23BRL, five points added to the driving licence and the car towed away. However, the problem is far from being just about money, that is, someone who disrespects a handicap spot is prone to a lack of respect not for the law but for someone who has this sort of impairment and needs a special parking space, i.e. if you can still use your legs, there is absolutely no problem for you to park a bit further away and walk to the place you want to visit whilst for the person who lost this gift, there is.

            What any reasonable person can understand of the aforementioned episode is that the problem lies in - not surprisingly - lack of education. Despite the fact that all drivers in Brazil are obliged to comprehend and follow traffic laws, the country that dreams of but amazingly fails to build a nation is a hostage of its own population’s veiled credence that if you have money the rules do not apply to you. Therefore, someone who can afford a vehicle that costs 800 times more than the traffic ticket for the mentioned infractions cares little - if at all - for the consequences of parking on such spaces. However, what really caught my attention was not the criminal parking nor the couple’s cordial greeting, it was a Bolsonaro’s stick posted on the rear windscreen of the car with the statement ‘Brasil acima de tudo, Deus acima de todos.’ Which translates to ‘Brazil above everything, God above everyone’.

            Regardless of the administration in power, Brazil never seems to succeed in putting an end to the rampant corruption permeating all levels of its society. It might even come as a shock the fact that Brazilian lawmakers figure among the most well paid in the world, with a budget - which includes their salaries and benefits - higher than that of countries like Canada, Japan, Germany and Britain as listed by The Economist in 2013, with a monthly spent of 157.6 BRL thousand per person. Given that Brazil has 513 Federal Deputies, the annual spent destined to them ranges around 970.185.6 BRL, which pose as a smack in the face of millions of taxpayers in the country who have to endure endless cuts in healthcare and education, whilst the aforementioned lawmakers have everything ranging from housing to aeroplane tickets covered and paid by the overly smacked Brazilian taxpayers. Not to mention the vast array of corruption scandals involving those politicians, who rarely, if ever, admit that they earn far more than they morally deserve once the country is ravaged by inequality, unemployment and criminality.

            However, as noted by George Orwell in the 1940s when the Brazilian Republic was just half a century old, ‘a people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, but accomplices.’ Therefore, to understand the cause of this trend we must first understand that Brazilian politicians are a direct product of its own society and vice versa.  Over the last years, the entire world has witnessed numerous protests in Brazil; thousands of people flocking the streets demanding order and the imprisonment of those responsible for ravaging the country’s economy. However, there is a credence among the Brazilian population that corruption is a superficial problem tied to a handful of politicians or even a standalone political party, when in fact the country’s corruption is a dire outcome of a series of micro-corruptions perpetrated by the population on a daily basis and fondly called ‘Jeitinho Brasileiro!’ - Something like ‘small-little Brazilian way’.

            There seems to be a sort of mass hysteria that makes Brazilians take the streets claiming justice yet prevents the same people from realising that parking on a handicap spot, even if for no more than a couple of seconds is not just a crime but a clear demonstration of the people’s incapacity - or reluctance - to acknowledge their own transgressions. Thus, Bolsonaro’s election is the inevitable outcome of the crippled educational system in Brazil. The overly smacked, disrespected and humiliated taxpayer is undoubtedly outraged with so much corruption and injustice, however, those people were victims of an educational system designed to maintain a culture of privileges, in which the wealthiest are educated to preserve it whilst the consequences of a ridiculously unfair distribution of wealth falls upon the shoulders of those who have to resign to a monthly salary of 998,00 BRL when the necessary salary to attend the basic needs of a family of four  should be around 3.960,57 BRL as calculated by DIEESE - Inter-Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies. As established in the article VI of the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, the basic needs of the citizens, known as Social Rights are housing, food, education, health, leisure, clothing, hygiene, transportation and social security, which 998,00 BRL cannot cover. Nevertheless, if such political measure - or any other for that matter - implemented by the overly paid Brazilian lawmakers starves a child in order to carry out their plans and intentions, it is collateral damage, not social domestic terrorism.

            With that in mind, when people are deprived of good quality education chances are that they shall also be deprived of critical thinking. And during times of crisis they shall tend to follow demagogic politicians voicing false promises, believing those politicians are fighting to build their long dreamed nation, when in fact they are blindly following a path that leads to nothing but intolerance, inequality, social unrest and oppression; a repetition of a past we insist on telling ourselves is behind and not among us.

  

 

 

 

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[1] The law can be read in its entirety on the Planalto’s official website.

(the link could not be added) The text, as expected, is written in Brazilian Portuguese. Consulted on the 25^th of February 2019.

[2] Idem. (the link could not be added) Consulted on the 25^th of February 2019.

[3] The Statute of People with Impairment.(the link could not be added). Consulted on the 01^st of March 2019.

[4] The Brazilian National Traffic Code.(the link could not be added) Consulted on the 15^th Of November 2018.