Trouble in Paradise

Jun 23, 2013 Editorial

Who would have thought that a million people would be in the streets of Brazil protesting over a ten-cent rise in the bus fare? But they did, in an ever-rising wave of frustration even after the fare rise was rescinded and the President acknowledged that the protests were “justified”. To outsiders, it did seem that Brazil had it all: it had overtaken Britain as the fifth largest economy in the world and was the lead act in BRICS – the association of the mega-developing states that had overtaken the US and Europe as the driving forces in the world economy.
Since the 1990s, the country had emerged successfully from the strictures of the Washington Consensus that had been imposed as its economy collapsed under hyperinflation and misguided autarkic economic policies. With inflation under control, it rode a boom in commodities and production in agricultural produce to finance a massive industrialisation programme that catapulted it into the upper ranks of global exporters. Forty million of its citizens were lifted out of poverty and as many benefitted from programmes that supplied loans to fledgling businesses as well as basic necessities for the poor.
When it won the rights to host the two largest sporting events on the planet – the Football World Cup (2014) and the Olympics (2016) – most saw it as occasions that would simply certify Brazil’s position as a world heavyweight power. The country had long put its history of right-wing dictatorships behind it and had just elected a woman, Dilma Rousseff, the handpicked successor of the charismatic two-term President Lula, from their Workers’ Party. Even in the midst of the protests, Rousseff’s popularity remains at a respectable 55 per cent. So what is behind the protests?
The answer lies in the composition of those who are in the streets protesting: generally hound and from the middle class who resent the endemic corruption, poor public services, high taxes, increasing inflation (and the concomitant rise of cost of living), lack of security and the not-so-much-loved-anymore World Cup which has already cost them over US$15 billion and counting.
Even with their fabled love of football most believe that the money could have been better spent on schools and health services. The rise in the bus fare, which is comparatively high to begin with, was just the straw that broke the back of the long-suffering middle class and youths.
The violent response early on by the police infuriated the middle class. It is not that they do not have more than they had a decade ago, but what drives their anger is what they could have had if not for the cracks in the system.
And this is a lesson that politicians often forget. People do not rebel when they are being immiserised and even oppressed, but when conditions have got better and they now have expectations that things should have become better. Ironically, it was the very party in power, the Workers Party that had railed about the very excesses that people are now protesting.
In fact the call for “free pass” throughout Brazil, which was the spark for the protests, is a project of leftists affiliated with that party. The social networking tools now available so ubiquitously have facilitated the mobilisation.
The attacks against the Brazilian currency by speculators, which Brazilians have blamed the US easy money policy as encouraging, have had an enervating effect on the economy with only one per cent growth last year and at the very best three per cent this year. The protests have compounded the problems with the currency (Real) dropping to a four year low this week.
Inflation is starting to become a problem once again with ordinary Brazilians who are still fairly poor. The growth in income has not been spread evenly in the population and this has been one of contention by even partisans of the ruling party who believe that the original egalitarian goals have been abandoned.
It is our hope that the politicians of Brazil will listen to their people.

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