Regarding the Brazilian demonstrations these past days, I personallly can’t state for sure why we are so mad.
You can read more about it here, here and here, though.
Yep, it all started with a 20 cents raise in bus fares last week, but things now are taking another turn.
How does it feel to be Brazilian?
Being a Brazilian is not easy, y’see. Even if you come from a privileged family, as I have, we have to face, every single day, social injustice right in our faces. There are beggars, little children selling gum in traffic lights, young women carrying new-borns and asking you for money to feed them. And I’m not saying that because now in Rio, close to a favela. Throughout my lifetime in Brasilia, I saw the same kind of thing.
There was one occasion that I remember well. This deliveryboy came to my house to bring us the water gallon, and he saw my brother leaving for work. At the time, he was working in the Brazilian Senate as a trainee, so he had to wear a suit. The deliveryboy must have felt that he was so fancy and well-educated, so he asked my mum if the gentleman was her son. She replied yes, explained where he was going, that if he studied hard, one day he could look as fancy as him and such. The boy accepted his own condition saying that no, he could never be like him. She felt sorry for making him feel that way, but immediately replied “You can be anything you want”. The poor guy was quite honest to confess: “No, Mrs, I can’t. I’m not a person” (“Eu não sou gente”).
Why protesting?
We are protesting about this feeling. We are fighting for people to start feeling they deserve being gente.
And this is the time to do so, for the entire world is finally paying attention to the South American giant – either because of soccer or the Pope or the cash-transfer programs. The world is finally listening to us.
I suppose that’s why we are so mad.
P.S.: social networks are certainly making a difference:
Brazil has changed its status from “Eternally laid on a splendid cradle” to
“Thou will see that a son of thine flees not from battle”
(both verses from our National Anthem)