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Lula's official photo as president of Brasil
In 1984 I had the opportunity to meet Luiz Inácio da Silva, LULA, for the first time. I was a Law student who since childhood had a strong identification with minorities and since first grade decided to fight strongly for equal opportunities for everybody! I never got why I could eat a good, fresh and warm meal everyday and some people from my school and from my city don’t.
I remember asking my father about it and he answered me saying that I would get tired of trying to help people and that I never would be able to see a real equality of classes. He used to say that if I could divide all the money in the world by the world’s population, absolutely equal amount, sooner than I could expect, the “cast” would starting form again. In his very simple way of explain it to his 7 years old daughter he used to say that some people would use the money to improve their quality of life and some would go to a bar to “drink” the money.
Right now, some years later, I couldn’t agree more with my father but also I could answer him properly saying that I really don’t want help anybody in a sense of assisting help. I want equal opportunities and that’s all my battle is about.
Bringing equal opportunities is what LULA started doing in Brasil after 502 years of political domination.
I can explain that: since the Portuguese arrived in Brasil we have had the same political domination culture! The origins of it are found in traditional monarchist and then in the rural society during the colonial and independence periods through the day that Lula was swore president of Brasil in January 1st of 2003.
This political culture in Brasil was/is evolved into three styles of bad politic practices as colonelship (controlled the votes of rural workers and their families, by giving theirs slaves/employees one single boot for the promise of voting and the other boot after the positive result of the election even though the non-military colonel had all of them controlled using power and fear’s culture), clientelism/client state (helped people resolve their problems in exchange for their votes. This way they could prove that the population could not survive without their help) and populist politics (it is a mix of colonelship and clientelism, plus being well influenced by the media. It makes people believe that the politicians support them and their citizenship, but the goal is the same old one, keep all the privileges owned by elite society).
Politic “was” conducted in a very cautious and calculated manner, since the politicians there are known for their ability to negotiate and cut bargains, and they have political "adversaries" rather than enemies.
Unfortunately I know this in a very intimacy way, since my grandfather was one of those colonels who became mayor and hold a lot of power and privileges in his city and adjacent areas as well.
Well, I think that all my life I have fought against this word: privilege! I’m 100% against it in every single way it could be applied.
Privilege for me is the worst thing in society, because it holds apartheid, preconceptions, arrogance, predominance, social classes, domination, command and so on. Privilege makes people believe that they have the right to have some rights over others (people and things) and I can’t stand that!
Anyhow…in 1984 I went to a meeting to meet one guy who had no college’s diploma, who had no interest in politic whatsoever (Lula went to his first syndical meeting, because his brother took him saying that he couldn’t stay home watching soap operas after coming back from work as metallurgic), but was brave enough to find a party to fight against the military dictatorship what prohibited presidential elections and free political thoughts in Brasil for over 20 years. It was the first meeting of many I had the opportunity to participate having him as comrade in the same table.
Many people gave their lives for the democracy we have now in Brasil, including few relatives of mine. They died in the “basement” of dictatorship or went to prison being sadly tortured. Luiz "Lula" Inácio da Silva, also was arrested for some days for the crime of violation of national security laws. This violation of national security laws couldn’t be anything such a song, a folder, a movie, a chat between neighbors, anything…
So, I met this guy in syindicalist office and he said everything I had thought all my life. With his coherence of speaking and thinking I knew we had some hopes finally. He himself found PT-Partido dos Trabalhadores, Labor Party, and very soon it attracted the passion of many and the angry of many others.
PT got bigger and bigger!
Lula was elected to the lower house of parliament in 1986 and he hated it, since he couldn’t change things as he thought he could. In 1989 he ran for the presidency for the first time. By just a few votes, he was defeated by another young politician, Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached and removed by parliament in 1992, for corruption. After that he lost presidential elections twice more and got elected, finally 4 years ago, in 2002.
A curiosity… Lula's birth certificate shows that he was born on Oct 6, 1945, but his mother always said his real birthday was Oct 27 -- a confusion that was common among Brazil's poor, who often register their children late or failed to do so at all.
If his mother was right, Lula was elected president of this country of 170 million, Brasil, the day he turned 57 years old. But if his birth certificate was correct, his birthday fell on the day he won the first round of the elections.
The day he got elected, I called all my friends who share the ideal for a fair society and we got so emotional. We were not living in a dream anymore because our dream was a reality now. We believe that a dream dreamed alone is just a dream dreamed alone. A dream dreamed together is a reality.
In my phone calls I said to my friends that I hoped that Lula’s government didn’t do anything for all my friends and family because we were good opportunities in life. We eat everyday, we have homes to protect us, we got education and have access a healthy care!
And Lula didn’t disappoint me…but he disappointed a great part of the population from middle class. Lula and his work’s group have worked in many projects to improve poor people life’s quality and they are working hard to make smaller the difference between social classes what really didn’t please a lot of people, of course.
Among many projects I highlight 3 of them that really improve the life of those people who have suffering from many years with promises of unscrupulous politicians that just cared about their votes. They are:
I remember asking my father about it and he answered me saying that I would get tired of trying to help people and that I never would be able to see a real equality of classes. He used to say that if I could divide all the money in the world by the world’s population, absolutely equal amount, sooner than I could expect, the “cast” would starting form again. In his very simple way of explain it to his 7 years old daughter he used to say that some people would use the money to improve their quality of life and some would go to a bar to “drink” the money.
Right now, some years later, I couldn’t agree more with my father but also I could answer him properly saying that I really don’t want help anybody in a sense of assisting help. I want equal opportunities and that’s all my battle is about.
Bringing equal opportunities is what LULA started doing in Brasil after 502 years of political domination.
I can explain that: since the Portuguese arrived in Brasil we have had the same political domination culture! The origins of it are found in traditional monarchist and then in the rural society during the colonial and independence periods through the day that Lula was swore president of Brasil in January 1st of 2003.
This political culture in Brasil was/is evolved into three styles of bad politic practices as colonelship (controlled the votes of rural workers and their families, by giving theirs slaves/employees one single boot for the promise of voting and the other boot after the positive result of the election even though the non-military colonel had all of them controlled using power and fear’s culture), clientelism/client state (helped people resolve their problems in exchange for their votes. This way they could prove that the population could not survive without their help) and populist politics (it is a mix of colonelship and clientelism, plus being well influenced by the media. It makes people believe that the politicians support them and their citizenship, but the goal is the same old one, keep all the privileges owned by elite society).
Politic “was” conducted in a very cautious and calculated manner, since the politicians there are known for their ability to negotiate and cut bargains, and they have political "adversaries" rather than enemies.
Unfortunately I know this in a very intimacy way, since my grandfather was one of those colonels who became mayor and hold a lot of power and privileges in his city and adjacent areas as well.
Well, I think that all my life I have fought against this word: privilege! I’m 100% against it in every single way it could be applied.
Privilege for me is the worst thing in society, because it holds apartheid, preconceptions, arrogance, predominance, social classes, domination, command and so on. Privilege makes people believe that they have the right to have some rights over others (people and things) and I can’t stand that!
Anyhow…in 1984 I went to a meeting to meet one guy who had no college’s diploma, who had no interest in politic whatsoever (Lula went to his first syndical meeting, because his brother took him saying that he couldn’t stay home watching soap operas after coming back from work as metallurgic), but was brave enough to find a party to fight against the military dictatorship what prohibited presidential elections and free political thoughts in Brasil for over 20 years. It was the first meeting of many I had the opportunity to participate having him as comrade in the same table.
Many people gave their lives for the democracy we have now in Brasil, including few relatives of mine. They died in the “basement” of dictatorship or went to prison being sadly tortured. Luiz "Lula" Inácio da Silva, also was arrested for some days for the crime of violation of national security laws. This violation of national security laws couldn’t be anything such a song, a folder, a movie, a chat between neighbors, anything…
So, I met this guy in syindicalist office and he said everything I had thought all my life. With his coherence of speaking and thinking I knew we had some hopes finally. He himself found PT-Partido dos Trabalhadores, Labor Party, and very soon it attracted the passion of many and the angry of many others.
PT got bigger and bigger!
Lula was elected to the lower house of parliament in 1986 and he hated it, since he couldn’t change things as he thought he could. In 1989 he ran for the presidency for the first time. By just a few votes, he was defeated by another young politician, Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached and removed by parliament in 1992, for corruption. After that he lost presidential elections twice more and got elected, finally 4 years ago, in 2002.
A curiosity… Lula's birth certificate shows that he was born on Oct 6, 1945, but his mother always said his real birthday was Oct 27 -- a confusion that was common among Brazil's poor, who often register their children late or failed to do so at all.
If his mother was right, Lula was elected president of this country of 170 million, Brasil, the day he turned 57 years old. But if his birth certificate was correct, his birthday fell on the day he won the first round of the elections.
The day he got elected, I called all my friends who share the ideal for a fair society and we got so emotional. We were not living in a dream anymore because our dream was a reality now. We believe that a dream dreamed alone is just a dream dreamed alone. A dream dreamed together is a reality.
In my phone calls I said to my friends that I hoped that Lula’s government didn’t do anything for all my friends and family because we were good opportunities in life. We eat everyday, we have homes to protect us, we got education and have access a healthy care!
And Lula didn’t disappoint me…but he disappointed a great part of the population from middle class. Lula and his work’s group have worked in many projects to improve poor people life’s quality and they are working hard to make smaller the difference between social classes what really didn’t please a lot of people, of course.
Among many projects I highlight 3 of them that really improve the life of those people who have suffering from many years with promises of unscrupulous politicians that just cared about their votes. They are:
Fome Zero/Hunger Zero: designed to free millions of Brazilians from the ''humiliation'' of surviving on donations of basic food supplies and also it has expanded to many areas as creation of jobs, efforts to ensure quality education, expanded land reform, creation of cooperatives and access to micro-credit, and skills training initiatives.
Bolsa Família/Family Dole: The objective is to fight poverty and hunger and it consists primarily of financial aid to families with monthly incomes less than R$100.00 (around US$40 as of 2006). It demands that the families send their children to school and keep their mandatory personal vaccination-booklets duly updated
University Racial Quotas: This polemic project was created to make some justice to the African black people who went to Brasil as slaves and since their “freedom” they didn’t get the dignity that they do deserve. The Brazilians descendants of the slaves usually live in poor neighborhoods, without having access to good schools and consequentially getting not good jobs and poor salaries. This situation has keeping a cycle of domination for years and years and without this project, this cycle has no possibility to be broken whatsoever.
Many people are really mad with PT and Lula right now! Many Lula voters believed that all their problems would be solved and fast with his election and got so frustrated with the real reality! I really don’t understand how people could think that Lula or anybody else would have a magic stick and in a pass of magic he would solve all 502 years of social exclusion and poverty. Also how come somebody could think that those politicians who need all kinds of social problems to have their speech of empty promises up to be elected once again, and this way keep their wealth growing because of many lobbies, would let Lula governs in peace?! So naïve!!
But for me, what really made the middle class disappointed and angry with Lula is that they really agree, in an informal conversation, that everybody deserves quality of life and equal opportunities, but in fact most of them really don’t like having their own sons and/or daughters in the same university with the sons and/or daughters of their housemaids! With the cycle broken, who is gonna do the “dirty” job? Lula’s government diminished the space, the distance between classes in Brasil and that is something that didn't not please the middle class.
Today is election’s day in Brasil and Lula is candidate. I do hope that all those people who had the opportunity to improve their quality of life don’t vote anymore for a pair of boots!
Lula after voting, in Brasil today!
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