Street-sweepers' strike and racism in Brazil

One of the most relevant news in this year's Carnival was the street-sweepers strike in Rio de Janeiro. Even after the union of street-sweepers reached a deal with the city hall in the middle of the celebration, part of the workers disagreed and refused to clean the streets, as millions danced samba and produced tons of garbage.

The dissident workers said the union leaders were not looking for their peers best interest and decided to continue with the strike. After eight days, they conquered a 37% increase in their salary on a meeting with the city government on saturday (March 8th), a much better result than the 9% the
union agreed on monday (March 3rd).

The episode shows two sides of the Brazil's social inequality. First, the vulnerable representation such workers have. The difference between the salary raise the union leaders agreed upon (9%) and the final result after the dissidents protests (37%) shows how union leaders and politicians worked in collusion against the street-sweepers best interest.

On top, doctors (mostly white) protest
against the government last yer.
Below: street-sweepers (mostly black)
on strike in Rio

The second aspect relates to the racial inequalities in the country. The street-sweepers strike showed clearly a vast majority of  black workers. This contrasts with the predominance of white doctors that protested last year against the government, against the program that import physicians from Cuba and other foreign countries. The striking difference of the images was shared this past week in social media, reminding one of the hidden faces of the Brazilian racism, that is usually hidden under social inequalities.

Next week I'll come back to the business, financial and political commentaries. For the time being, it worths saying in this matter that Dilma Rousseff is dealing with a rebellion from her allies. The biggest party that composes the situation coalition, PMDB, is threatening to retreat its support after the Rui Falcão, president of the Workers' Party (PT, Dilma's party), said during the Carnival that all that PMDB's members want are more ministries and government positions. The real reasons for PMDB moves are abundant and for sure are not related solely to Falcão's declaration -- hopefully I'll be able to address some of them here next week. For now, both parties are now trying to mend the alliance that will be crucial in this election year.

World Cup: 100 days to go

This tuesday marked the 100 day countdown to the 2014 World Cup. It is really an interesting coincidence that this event that fueled the protests of last year reaches this symbolic milestone now, as millions of people are occupying the streets of Brazil -- just this time for a different reason: to celebrate the Carnival. 

[If the tranquility of the Carnival mass celebration, in clear opposition to the violence of the protests, may strike you as a contradiction bear in mind two things. First  the Carnival is a people's party, so it may be seen as opposed to the opulent stadiums built for the benefit of a few. Another hypothesis is that the Carnival is the moment when the "silent majority" that actually disapproves violence in the protests (as seen through the Data Folha survey) actually comes to the street. These are at least two reasons I could think of.]

In Rio, millions celebrated the Carnival,
that had no reports of protests

Both O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo dedicated different stories to the landmark towards the World Cup. Just O Globo put with all the letters that the event is dividing the country. In a beautifully written article published on the sports section, the newspaper interviews two former players from the Brazil football (I'll always mean soccer by that) team with distinct visions of the World Cup and its meanings. The text start by saying that so far the sole legacy from the event are the protests and calls this 100 days journey as a journey to self discovery. 

Folha decided to approach the event with a different strategy. In the Economics section, the newspaper talked about the inflated prices in hotel rooms and how they are driving an increase in temporary rents from people that own houses near the stadiums that will host the event -- an american tourist paid US$ 1,640 for renting a three bedroom apartment near the stadium of Porto Alegre, more than what could be earned in a whole month in the area. In another related article it also says that the hotels in the cities that are just serving as training sites for the football teams are not receiving much reservation from tourists. 

The controversial part of the tournament was raised by the OpEd section in an article signed by Ronaldo Nazario (Ronaldinho), a member of the committee in charge of organizing the World Cup. The former Brazil forward plays defense on the text, saying the US$ 3.4 billion investment on the stadiums since 2007 were not much compared to the  US$ 323 billion spent on health care in the same period. "Brazil is progressing a lot, in social and economical terms, and has been correcting the inequalities in the recent years. We need to keep pursuing a better country. This final is played every two years in october and not in july", says Ronaldo calling protesters to express their dissatisfaction in the ballots and not inside or outside the stadiums.