OU VIRE PARA LER EM PORTUGUÊS
LONDON EDITION
www.brasilobserver.co.uk
ISSN 2055-4826
MARCH/2017
# 0 0 4 7
2
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
Content
March/2017
# 0 0 4 7
LONDON EDITION
4
16
Is a montlhy publication of ANAGU UK UM LIMITED founded by
Images from the Brazilian Carnival
Anita Malfatti: 100 years of modern art
Ana Toledo Operational Director ana@brasilobserver.co.uk Guilherme Reis Editorial Director guilherme@brasilobserver.co.uk Roberta Schwambach Financial Director roberta@brasilobserver.co.uk English Editor Shaun Cumming shaun@investwrite.co.uk
OBSERVATIONS
6
CULT
18
GUEST COLUMNIST
CULTURAL TIPS
8
20
Is Brazil winning the fight against corruption?
INTERVIEW
Gabriela Lobianco speaks with the musician Eumir Deodato
10
Art, literature and music
COLUMNISTS
Franko Figueiredo on theatre and life Heloisa Righetto on feminism Aquiles Reis on music
REPORT
22
14
A trip to Crystal Palace
How agribusiness is threatening the Amazon
LONDON BY
REPORT
The failure of Brazil’s security forces
Layout and Graphic Design Jean Peixe ultrapeixe@gmail.com Contributors Ana Freccia Rosa, Aquiles Reis, Christian Taylor, Franko Figueiredo, Gabriela Lobianco, Heloisa Righetto, Márcio Apolinário, Nathália Braga Bannister, Wagner de Alcântara Aragão
COVER ART Personal archive
Printer St Clements press (1988 ) Ltd, Stratford, London mohammed.faqir@stclementspress.com 10.000 copies
Edson Ikê The graphic artist Edson Ikê explores xylograph techniques as the basis of his work, influenced by popular artists from Brazil’s North-Eastern region and urban culture. He currently makes illustrations for the publishers Moderna, Unoi Educação, Evoluir, Abril, Sesc and advertising agencies with projects focused on the appreciation of AfroBrazilian culture.
Distribution Emblem Group Ltd. To advertise comercial@brasilobserver.co.uk 020 3015 5043 To subscribe contato@brasiloberver.co.uk To suggest an article and contribute editor@brasilobserver.co.uk Online 074 92 65 31 32 brasilobserver.co.uk issuu.com/brasilobserver facebook.com/brasilobserver twitter.com/brasilobserver Brasil Observer is a monthly publication of the ANAGU UK MARKETING E JORNAIS UN LIMITED (company number: 08621487) and is not responsible for the concepts expressed in signed articles. People who do not appear in this expedient are not authorized to speak on behalf of this publication. The contents published in this newspaper may be reproduced if properly credited to the author and to the Brasil Observer.
SUPPORT:
The cover art for this edition was produced by Edson Ikê for the Mostra BO project developed by the Brasil Observer in partnership with Pigment and with institutional support from the Embassy of Brazil. Each of the 11 editions of this newspaper in 2017 is featuring art on its cover produced by Brazilian artists selected through open call. In February 2018, all of the pieces will be displayed at the Embassy of Brazil.
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
What is an IVA Individual Voluntary Arrangement? Especialistas em Dívidas & Finanças
Personal Debt Problems? Aspect Plus can help you out of serious debt problems
An Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) is a legal process by which you can gain protection from your unsecured creditors by entering into a legally binding repayment agreement with them, which is then supervised by a licensed insolvency practitioner. All debts included into an IVA will be looked to be cleared in a set time frame which is usually 5 years. Any outstanding balances at the end of the IVA agreement period will then be written off leaving you only with debts that couldn't be included in the IVA to pay (such as secured debts) or no debts at all. An IVA is available to all individuals, Sole Traders and Partners (domiciled in England and Wales) who are insolvent and are experiencing creditor pressure. It can be used by those who own their own property and wish to avoid the possibility of losing it in the event they were made bankrupt. You can also sign an IVA if you live in rented accommodation.
How does an IVA work? The arrangement is supervised by a licensed Insolvency Practitioner who is responsible for all negotiations with your creditors and for ensuring that you make all of the payments required under the terms of the arrangement. You are normally required to make regular monthly repayments, usually over a 5-year period, after which any balances remaining on your IVA included debts are written off. For the IVA to be accepted, there must be a vote of 75% or more of the creditors agreeing to the IVA proposal. You need to have debts over £15,000 and owe money to a minimum of three separate creditors. For more information please email or call us to discuss your requirements with consultants that listen and take time to understand your needs. We would be delighted to hear from you.
ultrapeixe@gmail.com
TELEPHONE: 0800 988 1897 | FAX: 01708 226205 EMAIL: INFO@ASPECTPLUS.CO.UK HEAD OFFICE: 40a STATION ROAD | UPMINSTER | ESSEX | RM14 2TR
3
4
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
Observations
Alfredo Filho/SECOM
Manu Dias/GOVBA
Juan Hoppe
THE CARNIVAL
Fernando Grilli/Riotur
Daniel Tavares/PCR
Sumaia Villela/Agência Brasil
Clélio Tomaz/PCR
Valter Campanato/Agência Brasil
Peu Ricardo
Fernando Maia/Riotur
Juan Hoppe
5 brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
IN PICTURES
Mídia Ninja
6
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
Guest
Why Brazil is winning its fight against corruption Controlling corruption is possible, but the system requires new rules to make politicians more accountable
I
By Paul F. Lagunes and Susan Rose-Ackerman | Originally published at The Conversation (www.theconversation.com) g
In January, the respected Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki died in a plane crash. He was overseeing the largest corruption investigation in the country’s history. Even if his recently selected successor, Edson Fachin, rises to the occasion, Zavascki’s death remains a tragic loss and a blow to Brazil’s fight against corruption. Especially since it comes on the heels of lawmakers torpedoing in late 2016 a widely popular effort to make it easier for prosecutors and judges to clean up government. While these events make it easy to despair, the reality reveals much more reason for hope. In our 2015 book “Greed, Corruption and the Modern State,” we argue that societies must push back against the influence of powerful economic actors in order to safeguard the public interest. The network of Brazilians exposing, prosecuting and sentencing the corrupt politicians swimming in this mar de lama, or sea of mud, embodies that ideal. However, their effort would benefit from legal reforms that make it easier to fight corruption.
FROM SCANDAL TO SCANDAL Brazilians have long had to accept corruption scandals as a chronic part of their government. Graft was present under military rule, despite what those hoping for the return of authoritarianism seem to believe. But corruption scandals have also plagued every presidential administration since civil order was re-established in 1985. Even the administration of the popular Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who governed Brazil during a period of rising prosperity from 2003 to 2010, coincided with several corruption scandals. They include Caixa Dois, Bingos and, most memorably, Mensalão, a scheme in which coalition parties accepted more than US$40 million in clandestine payments to support Lula’s Workers Party (also known as the PT). Yet even as the Supreme Court investigated the Mensalão case, the PT still won two presidential elections – one that re-elected Lula and another won by Dilma Rousseff in 2010.
Rousseff ’s administration began on a hopeful note for those battling corruption. She fired five ministers linked to bribery, kickbacks and influence peddling and helped enact a major government transparency law. But within a few years, the tide – and public support – turned against her as Brazil’s economic outlook worsened and crowds protested continuing corruption and the billions that were spent on new stadiums for the 2014 World Cup. As a result, the country soured on her at the same time that Brazil’s largest corruption scandal, known as Lava Jato, began to unfold. That scheme involved construction companies colluding with employees of the state-owned oil company Petrobras to win inflated contracts. Petrobras employees took bribes, while
politicians got kickbacks as personal gifts or campaign donations. Meanwhile, Rousseff was accused of spending public funds without congressional authorization and was impeached in August, shortly after the 2016 Olympics. Although Rousseff herself was not accused of corruption, some argue that she was essentially used as a scapegoat.
WHO’S CHANGING BRAZIL But none of the bribes and kickbacks would be known today if the federal prosecutors had not doggedly investigated the Petrobras scheme allowing the judicial branch to take on the elite. Brazilians themselves and an emboldened media also deserve credit for the gradual end of impunity. In the past three years, the public took to the streets on
multiple occasions to protest waste and corruption. Local media coverage of the scandals was “scathing and unrelenting.” Authorities have made nearly 200 arrests, and the lower courts have convicted over 80 people, including the ex-CEO of Odebrecht, Latin America’s largest construction group, which is also on the hook for at least US$3.5 billion in fines for bribing government officials. The Supreme Court, which is responsible for trying politicians, is processing over 100 additional cases.
10 MEASURES Despite their successes, Brazil’s prosecutors and judges operate in a challenging legal and institutional environment that makes it difficult to achieve decisive results.
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
Paul F. Lagunes is Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. Susan RoseAckerman is Professor of Jurisprudence (Law and Political Science), Yale University.
g
Antonio Cruz/ABr
To remedy these problems, prosecutors have crafted the reform statute known as 10 Measures against Corruption, presented to Congress last year as a public initiative endorsed by over two million Brazilians. The bill’s threat to vested interests provoked powerful opposition in the legislature, and lawmakers quietly weakened it by adding an amendment to undermine the effectiveness of prosecutors and judges. An effort by the president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, to rush the weakened bill through failed. And the Supreme Court seemingly fired back by forcing Calheiros to relinquish the presidency while he faces corruption charges of his own. The failure to pass a strong reform bill, coming on top of the massive bribery and bid-rigging revealed by the
Petrobras scandal, has shaken the country’s political system. The dramatic cases against officials and private parties have also meant the public believes that corruption is getting worse. Paradoxically, however, the flood of recent cases indicates to us that conditions are improving. They show that elements of the country’s system of accountability are working.
REFORMING THE SYSTEM But to consolidate these past gains, important reforms are necessary. The 10 Measures against Corruption ought to be a starting point for more fundamental reforms. This bill aims to eliminate some of the practices at the heart of the Petrobras scandal, such as illegal campaign contributions to politicians who, if elected, are expected to reciprocate by awarding government contracts. The bill also seeks to speed up criminal proceedings, ensure the confidentiality of whistleblowers, extend the statute of limitations and enhance asset confiscation capabilities. However, prosecutorial zeal has also led to controversial tactics that have raised concerns about due process. We, for example, question the use of pretrial detention absent clear evidence of flight risk. Others question the high proportion of cases targeting the PT and other left-leaning political parties. While these concerns need to be addressed, we believe prosecutors and judges are proceeding as best as they can under challenging conditions. The next, more difficult step should be structural reform of the political system. Brazil has over two dozen parties that produce a chaotic legislature in which lawmakers compete for payoffs in return for votes. As evidenced by Mensalão, presidents have used questionable tactics in order to sustain governing coalitions. Political corruption might seem the inevitable result of Brazil’s constitutional structure. Shifting to a parliamentary system, with a prime minister from the winning coalition, would solve some problems, but seems presently unrealistic. Alternately, requiring a higher proportion of the popular vote before a party can participate in the legislature would be a less draconian reform.
MARÇO O MÊS DO BEM-ESTAR
DETOX £ 25 FACIAL
MASSAGEM £ 25 NAS COSTAS EXFOLIAÇÃO CORPORAL + BANHEIRA + HIDRATAÇÃO £ 45
DEPILAÇÃO £ 39 DE LUZ PULSADA BUÇO + QUEIXO BLOW DRY A PARTIR DE
LOOKING AHEAD Controlling corruption in Brazil is possible, but the system requires new rules to make politicians more accountable in the country and to reduce the incentives for corrupt payoffs. Reformers can help by leveraging the political crisis generated by the Petrobras scandal. For the sake of their country, and to honor Zavascki’s memory, the Congress should embrace this critical moment in history and enact legislation that may finally break with the cycle of corruption for the good of Brazilian democracy.
£ 17
Agendamentos:
020 8961 1633 • 074 9468 9866 Para maiores informações
wwlondon.co.uk WWLondonNW10 wwlondon 41 Station Road • Willesden Junction • NW10 4UP
7
8
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
Interview
Eumir Deodato the master arranger
Brazilian musician speaks to Brasil Observer before coming to London for two performances at Ronnie Scott’s By Gabriela Lobianco
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
Divulgation
B
Born in Rio de Janeiro and educated in the United States, Eumir Deodato is a versatile composer, arranger and instrumentalist who perform almost every year at Ronnie Scott’s, renowned jazz club in the British capital. In spite of a well-rounded resume, with more than 500 albums between arrangements and compositions, besides a Grammy on the shelf, Eumir is very shy and talks about his trajectory quite simply. “I always perform at Ronnie Scott’s with its own orchestra. I prefer to perform outdoors, but especially now, in the winter, I end up surrendering to the clubs,” he said in an exclusive conversation via Skype with the Brasil Observer. This year’s concert includes Dom Glover on trumpet, Dave Williamson on trombone, Ben Castle on baritone saxophone and flute, Ronan McCullagh on guitar, Andrew McKinney on bass, Pat Illingworth on drums and Snowboy on percussion. According to Deodato, this is a simple show, but well rehearsed and thought, with a mixture of jazz and throbbing rhythms. He adds that the audience that normally reveres him is mixed between foreigners and Brazilians, not just immigrants but travellers. “Despite the crisis, right?” he teased. And he shies away from commenting on serious issues such as the situation of immigrants in the United States or Brexit. “I have not followed these issues very much”.
ADVERTISE HERE
TRAJECTORY Self-taught, Eumir Deodato began his career aged 12 playing the accordion. He then devoted himself to studies in piano, orchestra arrangements and regency. He became famous in 1973 with the album Prelude, which he recorded live at Madison Square Garden in New York. Especially with the track “Also Sprach Zarathustra”, world-wide known as the theme of the film “2001: A Space Odyssey”, by Stanley Kubrick. It was the first of numerous soundtracks for which he worked in Hollywood, such as Lewis Gilbert’s “The Adventurers”, with the American actress Candice Bergen in the cast, or even his composition “Spirit of the Summer”, which ended part of the soundtrack of “The Exorcist”. Eumir is also remembered for having worked in the 1960s with renowned Brazilian Popular Music artists such as Antônio Carlos Jobim, César Camargo Mariano, Baden Powell, Chico Buarque, Elis Regina and Vinícius de Moraes. There were countless collaborations that led to others. This is the case of the song “Travessia”, by Milton Nascimento, which in 2017 turns 50, which ended up making possible partnerships with artists of the calibre of Icelandic Björk. “It’s true, I met her because of the arrangement [of the music] I made for the Festival [of Brazilian Music in 1967, TV Globo]. It’s spectacular, we worked in a studio in Spain with excellent musicians, like the Portuguese drummer Luís Jardim,” he recalls. In addition, Eumir participated in the musical movement that emerged in the 1960s in Brazil’s State of Minas Gerais and culminated in the album Clube Da Esquina, which turns 45 in 2017. The movement merged Bossa Nova innovations and Jazz, Folk and Rock elements – with great influence of the Beatles – as well as erudite and Hispanic folk music. Milton Nascimento and the Borges brothers (Marilton, Márcio and Lô) led the club, of which Eumir was also part. “I took part in the album but did the things I already knew Milton had done. He gave me the song and I made the arrangement, only one of strings that became very beautiful. The rest of the album was made in Rio and I then went back to New York.” When asked about the success of this emblematic album, Eumir says he does not have much responsibility for its success. “There are very beautiful things made by Lô Borges, the rest of the group that worked with Milton at that time and still work with him.” And reveals that he has no contact with these musicians and artists: “I have not heard from Milton Nascimento for many years now. Is he well?” he asks.
LIFE ABROAD After Prelude sold millions of copies, settling for third place on Billboard, Eumir Deodato’s career took off. At the same album, he added bossa nova style to “Afternoon of a Faun” by Claude Debussy. After that, he worked with several established artists: he was arranger of Frank Sinatra, Roberta Flack, Aretha Franklin, Kool and The Gang, among many others. Anyone who can attend Ronnie Scott’s this month to enjoy the sound of Eumir Deodato will not regret it (see Cultural Tips – page 19).
For Brazilians who think globally. For everyone who loves Brazil. 074 92 65 31 32
9
10
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
REPORT A sign welcomes drivers to the city of Sorriso, Brazil’s agribusiness capital
Soy invasion an imminent threat to Amazon The last four decades saw an explosion in soy plantations in the Brazilian Amazon. As China’s soy demand grows, harm to rainforests and indigenous groups could go critical
O
Over the last 40 years the north of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso has profoundly changed. This far-reaching transformation – matched almost nowhere else in the world – is largely due to the rapid expansion of industrial agribusiness, particularly soybean production, which has destroyed huge swathes of savanna and tropical Amazon rainforest. “There are certain regions, near Brasnorte [to the west of Sinop], for example, where you can look completely around, 360 degrees, and not see a single tree,” says anthropologist Rinaldo Arruda, a lecturer at the Catholic University (PUC) in São Paulo.
By Maurício Torres and Sue Branford | Originally published at Mongabay (mongabey.com)
There is much talk about the prosperity that agribusiness has brought to Mato Grosso state, but, according to Andreia Fanzeres, coordinator of the indigenous rights program at the NGO Opan (Operação Amazônia Nativa), the traditional communities, which had inhabited the region for centuries, were not consulted, nor have they benefited from the rise of soy: “The indigenous communities and the family farmers, rural communities in general, were always outside the decision-making process as to what type of development they would have”.
‘BLACKMAILING’ THE COUNTRY Soybeans arrived in the state of Mato Grosso with startling speed: the area under its cultivation jumped from 1.2 million hectares (4,633 square miles) in 1991, to 6.2 million hectares (23,938 square miles) in 2010 and to 9.4 million hectares (36,293 square miles) in 2016. Most of this recent growth hasn’t consumed rainforest, says an independent investigation, with only 1 percent of Amazon deforestation arising directly from soy expansion over the last decade. Some believe this dramatic reduction is due to the implementation of the Amazon Soy Moratorium
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
Thaís Borges
(ASM), negotiated in 2006 between the industry and NGOs, (and later the government). Others report that the low rate of deforestation is the result of a change in land use reflecting how soy currently moves into the Amazon — with it largely taking over pasturelands, of which there are large areas. The soy moratorium will be discussed more fully in a later article in this series.* According to Antônio Loris, lecturer in human geography at the University of Cardiff, who has carried out research into the advance of agribusiness in Mato Grosso, the start of the forty year soy industry growth period was heavily supported by the federal government’s agricultural research body, Embrapa: “New technologies developed by Embrapa produced solutions for the acidic [nutrient-poor tropical] soils and other problems. The farming sector went through a crisis in the 1980s. Then soy arrived and ‘rescued’ it”. The large-scale meteoric expansion of soy came at the end of the 1990s, when, Loris says, “it benefitted from both the [global] commodities boom and the liberalization of the [Brazilian] economy”. Soy production is highly mechanized, and works most efficiently on very large plantations, so that led to the concentration of land ownership in Mato Grosso state among a small number of wealthy companies and individuals.
Then as commodities like soy boomed on the world market, the Brazilian economy became increasingly dependent on the millions of dollars brought in by soy exports. Ioris explains: “This gave the [large-scale Mato Grosso] soy farmers enough political clout to demand the paving of the roads and the creation of further logistic support, including waterways.” He concludes: “Today agribusiness blackmails the country”. Driving along the BR-163 highway through the largely depopulated Mato Grosso countryside, one sees evidence of the new bosses in the region — the multinationals, who sell the farmers their seeds and chemicals, and who buy the farmers’ produce. Rising above a sea of soy are the occasional soybean silos, emblazoned with the logos of the multinational commodities companies that now control the region: Bunge, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Cargill. There too are silos belonging to Amaggi, a powerful Brazilian commodities player. The Amaggi company was built by André Maggi and is now run by his family, including his son, Blairo Maggi. Once known as the “Soy King” and formerly the governor of Mato Grosso state, Blairo Maggi was chosen last year as Brazil’s agriculture minister by President Temer. Maggi’s rise in influence has paralleled the rise in power of the bancada ruralista, the industrial agribusiness lobby that today holds sway over much of the National Congress. After accumulating a fortune through planting, processing and exporting soy, Amaggi has now joined the big players on the international market, cultivating a particularly close relation with Bunge, with which it jointly owns grain terminals in Miritituba, the new commodities port on the lower Tapajós River. The soy crop now flows by truck from north Mato Grosso down newly paved BR-163, to Miritituba, where the commodity is transferred to barges for the trip down the Tapajós to the Amazon River and on to foreign ports, especially in China.
AGRIBUSINESS AS USUAL Some credit soy production with bringing “modernity” and “development” to Mato Grosso. Aprosoja, the soy farmers’ trade association, speaks of “the positive socioeconomic impact of soy farming”. It claims that for each person directly engaged in soy farming, another eleven jobs are created, “taking into account all the employment produced along the whole productive chain”. Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi, when he was a senator for Mato Grosso state in 2012, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper: “If it weren’t for soy, Mato Grosso would still be backward.… Today the soy farmer gets a 30 percent return on the capital he has invested.” But for others, the 40-year soy expansion serves as just one more example in a long historical process in which the Brazilian rainforest has been cut down and rural indigenous and traditional populations disenfranchised — replaced by agribusiness monocultures owned by a very few who make the lion’s share of profit.
The sociologist José de Souza Martins, whose writings have become essential reading for Amazon scholars, showed that, while the military government in the 1970s spoke a great deal about attracting landless farmers to the Amazon (under the slogan “the land without people for the people without land”), powerful economic groups were the main beneficiaries of the money it poured into the region. While the generals spoke of “occupying the empty land”, many large-scale landowners set up large cattle ranches that drove out many more people — including the “invisible” indigenous communities, rubber-tappers, and fisher folk — than they ever brought into the region. Cândido Neto da Cunha, an agronomist employed by INCRA (the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform), believes that what is happening with soybeans now is, to a large extent, just a continuation of the military programs. “Though ‘development’ has replaced ‘national security’ as the ideological driving force, the state is creating the same negative social consequences — rural exodus, deforestation and precarious labor conditions — through its support for agribusiness.”
SOY’S UNLEVEL PLAYING FIELDS In its march north, soy appears in some surprising places. One of these is at the Wesley Manoel dos Santos agrarian reform settlement, created by INCRA in 1977. Located 70 kilometers (43 miles) northwest of Sinop, this settlement exemplifies the serious challenges faced by Brazil’s small family farms. The land was originally bought up by the Brazilian subsidiary of the German company, Mercedes Benz, at the end of the 1960s. According to research by Odimar João Peripolli, a lecturer at Mato Grosso State University, the company set up ten separate subsidiary companies to get around the legal limits on land ownership. Each subsidiary bought “40,000, 50,000 or even 60,000 hectares, so that in the end it [Mercedes Benz] had acquired about 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres). The whole large estate became known as Gleba Mercedes (the Mercedes Holding)”. The company was able to use its clout as a large-scale landowner to gain hefty federal benefits, mostly tax rebates from SUDAM, the Amazonia development agency. This money was supposed to be invested into the land, but wasn’t, according to testimonies gathered by Peripolli. The company’s vast holdings were “never, effectively, occupied by the company.” Mercedes eventually sold Gleba Mercedes to a São Paulo company, which in turn sold it to INCRA, which created an agrarian reform settlement with plots for 507 families. But it’s not easy for a small-scale farm settlement to compete economically in a remote region where the government is actively promoting large-scale agribusiness. Lacking sufficient federal technical assistance, the settlement’s 500+ families tried several survival strategies. In the beginning, they reared dairy cattle and sold milk and cheese in the town of Sinop. Though this was the nearest market, it still took three
11
hours to transport dairy products there — and that was when it wasn’t raining. The venture went well at first, but then ran into government obstacles. Settler Jair Marcelo da Silva, known as Capixava, relates how the small-scale dairy farmers were very careful with hygiene, because it was their principle to only sell products that they themselves consumed. However, their common-sense approach didn’t satisfy the authorities. “The food safety bodies don’t think like ordinary people, they think very differently”, says Capixava. The authorities made unrealistic regulatory demands on the small-scale farmers, and when they couldn’t satisfy those demands, the settlers were banned from selling their produce in Sinop. It was the end of their dreams. “I had six cows, from which I took on an average 90 liters of milk a day”, explains Capixava. “What was I supposed to do with this milk [if the federal authorities wouldn’t let me sell it]? What do you think? We gave it to the pigs! Just imagine that!” The settlers tried rearing pigs and chickens, but once again they fell afoul of food safety regulators. Lacking any other income, some settlers trained to operate the sophisticated machines used by the large-scale farmers who had the money to comply with government health and safety rules. Others worked as day laborers. Women found jobs as maids in Sinop, leaving their husbands to look after the children. In time, all attempts to use their land to earn a living were largely abandoned.
ECONOMIC VACUUM Shortly, the vacant land of the agrarian reform settlement caught the eye of big soy farmers and the impoverished settlers began renting their plots for northing, or almost nothing, to the soy producers. In exchange the large-scale soy farmers “tamed the land.” This expression, frequently heard in the region, describes the slashing-and-burning of native vegetation, digging out of tree roots, and use of chemicals to reduce soil acidity — an expensive land-preparation process that takes at least three years. And so, a poor settler got his cropland cleared of forest, something he couldn’t afford to do for himself, and, in a world where land stripped of native vegetation is worth much more than standing forest, the settler ended up with a more valuable asset. Though, of course, he didn’t end up with the soybean crop; those profits went to the large-scale farmers. Soybeans have also arrived in the agrarian reform settlement by a more circuitous, less legal route. During our November 2016 visit, we noticed an enormous soybean plantation, much too big to belong to a single settler. Capixava explained how it got there. By law, all settlers must keep a portion of their land as forest and INCRA had decreed that it made more sense, from an ecological point of view, to bring all these forest lots together in a single collective reserve. Capixava said that the forest in their reserve was “so dense that fire never penetrated it”.
12
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
Thaís Borges
On the side of the BR163, one sees little except soybeans and the large silos owned by multinational companies
Thaís Borges
Land ownership concentration in just a few hands, caused by the arrival of industrial agribusiness in the region, even impacts lands that were once set aside for agrarian reform, creating tension between small-scale and large-scale farmers
Thaís Borges
The BR-163 on the outskirts of the town of Sorriso. The highway runs from Cuiabá in the south of the state of Mato Grosso to Santarém in the state of Pará and it was built primarily to handle the movement of soybeans
Maurício Torres
Map showing the extensive deforestation occurring in the northern part of Mato Grosso between 1986 and 2016
But little-by-little the big soy farmers managed to penetrate it. Caixava said that the soy farmers used the correntão — an enormous chain, 100 meters long, suspended between two huge tractors, which, when pulled along, knocks down all the forest in its path. The illegally cleared 3,500 hectare (8,650 acre) area is now completely covered in soy. Nobody knows for sure how this all happened, but many settlers say that a corrupt INCRA employee ceded the forest reserve to the soy farmers and then bought himself a mansion in Barra do Garças, a city in the south of the state, with his unlawful profits. Gleba Mercedes is not an isolated case. The criminal advance of agribusiness into agrarian reform settlements has happened elsewhere. For instance, the Terra Prometida Operation, launched by the Federal Police in November 2004, led to the arrest of more than 20 people in the Tapuráh-Itanhangá settlement to the west of Sinop. According to police, the soy farmers had taken over more than 1,000 of the 1,149 settler plots, and had created a giant soy plantation. Among those arrested were Odair and Milton Geller, brothers of then Agriculture Minister, Neri Geller, who is currently the ministry’s Secretary for Agrarian Policy. The geographer Antônio Loris sees little hope for the reform of large-scale agribusiness because he sees it as “intrinsically corrupt.” He asserts that “there is a very evident and immediate form of corruption (as in the way INCRA is controlled by landowners and land thieves), but there is also a long-term form of corruption, expressed in the violent appropriation of land, aggressiveness against squatters and Indians, and social and environmental destruction.”
LEGALIZING LAND THEFT?
Thaís Borges
Jair Marcelo da Silva, known as Capixaba, a farmer from the Wesley Manoel dos Santos settlement. This vast soy plantation was once the settlement’s forest reserve, which was illegally clear cut and then taken over by large-scale soy farmers
Thaís Borges
To prepare the land for mechanized agribusiness, the forest must first be cut, then the roots of the felled trees must be removed
Under the Brazilian Constitution, a settler in an agrarian reform settlement cannot sell his land title for ten years. This meant, for example, that it was illegal for agribusiness to buy the plots in the Tapuráh-Itanhangá settlement because, although the settlement was created in 1997, almost all the beneficiaries had not held their plot titles for ten years. However, in December 2016, the Temer administration issued a presidential decree (MP 759), which altered the situation. The decree largely dealt with the chaotic housing situation in the poor districts that have sprung up around most of Brazil’s large cities. Because MP 759 will make it easier for some people to register their land ownership, it was welcomed by some lawyers, with one calling it President Temer’s “Christmas present”. Bruno Araújo, Brazil’s Minister for Cities, said that, by allowing poor urban dwellers to get titles for their land, the decree will put “millions of assets into the economy”. But, unnoticed by most observers, the decree also altered how the ten-year term is counted in agrarian reform settlements. Under the old system, the term only began once the structure of the settlement was in place and the settler had received his or her land title; now the counting starts
when the family receives formal notification that it has been given a plot. It may seem an unimportant bureaucratic adjustment but agronomist Cândido Neto da Cunha believes it to be highly significant: “MP 759 is clearly intended to legalize the illegal occupation of agrarian reform land and to put more of it on the market” quicker. Cunha says the settlements don’t receive the support they need from the federal government and this weakens the settlers economically. “They become more vulnerable to pressure to sell their land in areas where agribusiness is expanding,” he explains.
CHINA’S HUNGER FOR SOY The unchecked, ever-rising global demand for soy creates a bleak outlook for the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous and traditional communities. The driving force behind the advance of soybeans in Brazilian territory is Chinese demand and policy. Up to 1995, China was self-sufficient in soybeans. But that year the country’s human population outpaced food crop production, and the government decided to prioritize crops. It upped the in-country production of human foods — wheat, rice and corn — and reduced soy production — most of which is fed to animals. The motive was simple: the people and government still remembered the Great Famine of 1959-61 when millions starved to death, and so were fearful of relying on imported food. The impact of the policy shift was immediate: by 2011, China was importing 56 million tons of soy. Since then, demand has gone on growing: China is expected to import 102 million tons this year and probably 180 million tons by 2024 — more than the combined current output of the world’s three largest growers (the US, Brazil and Argentina). Where will this production come from? It is unlikely that the US can increase its production and analysts have been saying since 2010 that the area under soybean cultivation in Argentina cannot grow significantly. That leaves Brazil to fill the gap. Until recently, Brazil significantly increased its soy output primarily through rises in per-acre productivity, but there seems little room for further improvements here : since 2000, Brazil’s soy productivity has stabilized at about three tons per hectare. The only option then for meeting China’s demands, argues Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, is to push the agricultural frontier deeper into the Amazon forest. That’s a goal also totally in keeping with the plans of the politically powerful ruralista agribusiness lobby, and by all legislative indications, of the current Brazilian government. The anthropologist Rinaldo Arruda is deeply alarmed by the prospects of a 21st century soy invasion, deep into Amazonia’s heart. He envisions “cities swelled with people, without sanitation, very violent places, with internal conflicts and degraded environments. A shanty-town Amazonia…. This notion that our society has, at least from the 19th century, of becoming more and more civilized is profoundly mistaken. It doesn’t exist. It’s a fiction.”
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
13
14
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
Brazil’s police ask for help Battalions of the Military Police in Espírito Santo went on strike, (similar action took place in Rio de Janeiro) which displayed the bad working conditions of the Brazilian security forces By Wagner de Alcântara Aragão
Robberies, a series of homicides and a frightened population: for at least ten consecutive days this was the scenario in the South-Eastern State of Espírito Santo, when, in early February, battalions of the Military Police were blocked by police officers’ wives and representatives of the corporation in an attempt to circumvent laws that prevent the police forces from going on strike. The movement, accompanied by television and internet by a frightened population, exposed the ills of public security workers. The paralysis in Espírito Santo has sparked similar mobilizations in other states. In Rio de Janeiro, wives and relatives of military police officers came to occupy the front of battalions, although they did not prevent the exit and entrance of teams, vehicles and equipment. Like other categories of public servants, military police officers have been victimized by the fiscal crisis that plagues many of the federation’s units. The economic recession has dramatically brought down tax collection, so that administrations (both state and municipal) have alleged difficulties in paying off expenses and honouring payments.
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
Tânia Rêgo/Agência Brasil
According to the journalist, “the Brazilian police work almost with the same structure and mentality of the years of dictatorship, mainly in the peripheries.” Rovai notes that not only the right-wing governments, but also the centre and centre-left governments in the states, “did very little to transform the police.” “From Bahia, which is in the third Workers Party government, to São Paulo that has the same group in power since 1982, they do not have anything very different,” he said.
MILITARIZATION
Wives and relatives of police officers remain outside the Military Police Command of Vitória and prevent the military from leaving
As almost always, the workers are being sacrificed. Public servants with wages are being paid in instalments, when not totally delayed; frozen wages and other wage tightening measures are also affecting security force officials. The paradox is that these forces, mainly represented by military police officers, are being used by governments to repress, with violence, the protests of servants (teachers, health professionals, etc.) in defence of a basic right, which is to receive salary at the end of a month’s work.
ARMED FORCES The paralysis of the military police in Espírito Santo and the similar mobilizations in Rio de Janeiro ended up serving as an argument for the federal government, together with local governments, to use the National Security Force and the Armed Forces for ostensive patrol in the two states. Until the beginning of March, the presence of federal military personnel was guaranteed by the Ministries of Defence and Justice. In Rio de Janeiro alone, there are nine thousand men from the Armed Forces.
However, in the weeks leading up to Carnival, in Rio de Janeiro, federal reinforcement served much more to repress protests on the doorstep of the Legislative Assembly against the package of privatization sent by the State Government, rather than for crime prevention. The feeling is that under the justification of bringing security to the population while police are prevented from leaving their battalions, the federal government has taken advantage of the situation to “test” public receptivity about the use of Armed Forces in patrolling urban areas. Associations to the period in which Brazil lived a military dictatorship (1964-1985) are innevitable. For example, the journalist Renato Rovai, who maintains a blog of political and economic analysis of the country, made this observation. “What is happening in some states, with special emphasis on Espírito Santo, which is one of the smallest states in the country, deserves a more responsible analysis of those who know that when chaos sets in, the exit in general is not left-wing,” he wrote, warning of the risk of a military crackdown in the country.
Military servicemen, like the police, are barred from striking. For the expert Ignacio Cano, a professor at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj) and a member of the Laboratory of Analysis of Violence, Uerj’s own research group, police militarization is at the root of the chaos faced in early February by the population of Espírito Santo. In an interview with Agência Brasil, the professor emphasizes that the structure of the military police makes dialogue impossible. “The military character of the police prevents internal communication, a channel for police demand, unionization and strike,” he observes, and then points to the consequence: “This causes demands to be repressed for a long time and to leave in a more explosive way, more uncontrolled,” he says, referring to the way the protest movement occurred in Espírito Santo, as well as being tried out in Rio de Janeiro. In the evaluation of Igancio Cano, the mobilization of the wives of the police officers is a way to “circumvent the lack of labour representation” of the police. “Because they, by regulation, cannot even speak out, are using their family members to get over this legal limitation to pressure the government. The police use families not to be punished directly,” he explains.
FEDERALIZATION In the heat of the crisis in her state, Senator Rose de Freitas filed in the Senate on February 22, a Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC 6/2017) that federalizes the careers of military police, fire fighters and civilian police. The proposal is also in public consultation on the House website. Until the closing of this edition, the measure divided opinions. Just over 50% of Internet users showed support for the PEC, while just under half voted “no” to the initiative. In addition to police arrests in Espírito Santo and Rio, the author cited the “strengthening of the criminal factions” and the “bloody” rebellions in January in the prisons of Amazonas, Roraima and Rio Grande do Norte among the factors that justify federalization of the Military Police, Fire Brigade and State Civil Police. “[These events] are blatant signs that our current model of public security is exhausted and bankrupt,” says the senator.
15
FRAGMENTATION For the parliamentarian, “the States and the Federal District are no longer able to bear alone the burden of ensuring the safety of citizens.” Apart from this, she adds, fragmented into federation units, the police forces do not account for ensuring an efficient public safety service. “Brazil has on the one hand three police officers at the federal level, and on the other, 27 civilian police, 27 military police and 27 fire brigades at the state or district level, totalling 84 generally devalued public security organs, inefficient and that do not interact or cooperate with each other,” points out Rose de Freitas. According to the proposal, the state military police would be unified, and thus a “Union Military Police” would be created. The fire brigades would be dismembered from the Military Police and would constitute a “Union Fire Brigade”. The PEC 06/2017 also affects the state civil police, which would be incorporated into the Federal Police. “The change we propose is aimed at rationalizing, de-bureaucratising, optimizing, and standardizing administrative structures, procedures and equipment, eliminating the redundancies and conflicts caused by the existence of 27 heterogeneous structures in the federation units,” says the senator. Judging from the initial adhesion of Rose de Freitas’s colleagues, the proposal has everything to be approved by the Senate. After all, at least 27 senators have already subscribed to the PEC presented by the local representative in that House. Until the closing of this edition, the PEC 06/2017 was in the Commission of Constitution and Justice of the Senate, body in charge of ascertaining the constitutionality of the proposal, so that it continues in procedure.
OTHER PROPOSAL Another PEC – PEC 51/2013 – also in process in the Senate transfers responsibility for public security from the states to the Union. This, however, establishes the demilitarization of the police. Under Senator Lindbergh Farias, PEC 51/2013 has been on the Senate Constitution and Justice Commission since November 25, 2015, with no sequencing expected. Lindbergh’s justification for the federalization of public security coincides, in some respects, with the arguments of Senator Rose de Freitas in favour of PEC 06/2017. The senator from Rio says that “the vices of the constitutional architecture of public security contribute to the calamitous situation of this area in the country. The cycle of police activity is fragmented – the tasks of ostensible policing, crime prevention and crime investigation are distributed to different bodies. The Union has minimal responsibilities, except in exceptional situations.” For him, however, the police must be demilitarized, because “the excessive rigidity of the military police must be replaced by greater autonomy for the police, accompanied by greater social control and transparency.”
16
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
Reproduction
Among the bestknown works of Malfatti are ‘The Lighthouse’ (1915), ‘The Russian Student’ (1915) and ‘Samba’ (1943)
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
T
Malfatti’s gaze opened the eyes of many art critics to the new, at the same time showcasing the orthodox By Márcio Apolinário and Jefferson Gonçalves
Taking a tour through São Paulo is much more enjoyable if you can feel its soul. “Anita Malfatti: 100 Years of Modern Art” is an invitation from the city so the works of the woman who inspired the Art Week of 1922 - the cradle of the modernist movement in Brazil - can be visited and appreciated. The event, which began on February 8 and runs until April 30 at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, is not just a return to the past. Those who experience the cultural importance that the artist brings with her expressionist language, still so contemporary, will be carried by a aspect so plural and important in a way that will show the city that never sleeps in other tones, besides the gray that is already part of the impression that São Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city causes. A century ago, those who participated in the inauguration of the “Anita Malfatti Modern Painting Exhibition” scarcely had the idea that it was at the centre of what would transform the course of art history in Brazil, promoting the thoughts that eventually brought new trends in art from Europe to hit head-on with the São Paulo elite, accustomed to consuming the more conservative European aesthetic. Brazilian painter and teacher Anita Catarina Malfatti, daughter of an Italian and an American, was born in the city of São Paulo in 1889. She, the second daughter of Samuelle Malfatti and Eleonora Elizabeth Krug (or Betty Krug), came to have contact with the canvases after the death of his father, when the mother happened to give classes of painting and drawing to support the family. Anita followed all the classes and this began to take her time, with Betty being the first influence in the foundations of the plastic arts. Anita’s talent attached to her vanguard vision captures and expresses sensations with her features and colours. European innovations started to bubble up in her mind, and from the works created by Malfatti, landscapes are undoubtedly one of the attractions that most impress. The impact that avant-garde art had on her during the period of learning in Germany (1910-1913) and in the United States (1914-1916) created the bridge to philosophical revolu-
tions in art and literature years later. But in 1917, this second exhibition of Anita Malfatti’s life brought constructions with spots of strong contrasting colours, expressive and deconstructed portraits, and completely uncommon frames, the physical deformations of painted models, completely unadjusted colours, and naturalist. That was too much for the São Paulo elite so accustomed to or close to academic paintings. Malfatti’s gaze opened the heads of many art critics to the new, at the same time exploding that of more orthodox and extremely conservative ones. This is what happened when dealing with such productions as “The Russian Student”, painted in 1915 when Anita Malfatti was in Berlin, and her oil on canvas technique, provoking the senses with expressionist forms and colours outside the traditional, or even composition “The Fool”, one of the most well-known and notable paintings by her (also from 1915), who dared both in the colours considered extravagant and in the technique of pictorial treatment, escaping a bit of expressionism and flirting with something more cubist. Perhaps the distant gaze, bringing emptiness to the observer, causes more annoyance than the exuberance and short strokes and the strong contrast used by the artist. At first, the exhibition was a surprise and aroused the curiosity in the society of São Paulo. The visits were more intense than expected. Anita even sold eight of her works. People became aware of the painter’s art and were shocked by this provocation to the orthodox and conservative concept of European art. However, the more conservative also had their point of prominence, but one of them hit the painter in full. Monteiro Lobato, with his criticism published in the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo created a negative reference to the name of the artist so strong and heavy that all the sold pictures were returned and others were almost destroyed. Every time the name of Anita Malfatti was mentioned it was also associated with the Brazilian writer. Even after the author’s harsh words and negative repercussions, she still illustrated Lobato’s books – and, years later, in the 1940s, she presented radio pro-
17
gram with Monteiro Lobato himself. The idea that the artist would never recover from the shock of criticism became firm, but the influence of her visionary modern art gave wings to the “Modern Art Week of 1922”. During the event, Anita Malfatti presented 22 works that also had a similar reaction to her show in 1917 (a mix of amazement, fascination and curiosity). Otherwise, the painter had joined the group of people who defended the ideas of the Modern Art Week (an event that promoted the modernist movement in Brazil). Next to Anita Malfatti were Tarsila do Amaral, Mário de Andrade, Menotti Del Picchia and Oswald de Andrade. They became known as Group of Five (of Modern Brazilian Art). A century later, it is time to re-present it to the world with the analyses of modernism on a sweeping and enlarged sweep of what had been done in the past. After all, it is a fact that Anita’s contribution to the history of modern Brazilian art did not stop only in the innovations for the time it was presented (1917). It is at this point that the event “Anita Malfatti: 100 Years of Modern Art” focuses. In the sensitivity of the artist’s eyes, bringing paintings and drawings that show the most varied moments of Anita’s production. Punctuating the unique perception of the painter for the art around her and the variables of daily life. The exhibition goes beyond the expressionist group that established it and served as a fuse for modernism in Brazil. The exhibition features landscapes and portraits from periods that precede even Modern Art Week, featuring refined naturalist paintings from the 1920s and 1930s, and even those closest to popular culture that can be seen in the 1940s and 1950s. The inspirer of the Modern Art Week of 1922 should be remembered and celebrated when the event that was the trigger of the Brazilian modernist movement is celebrating its 100th anniversary (2022). It will also be an exquisite way of revising Malfatti’s legacy, which extends to the present day as a pioneer artist, who, in addition to surviving the radical conservatism of the 1920s, was adventurous when he entered and revolutionized the “popular way” of art, in the last years of life.
18
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
TIPS
LITERATURE
By Joe Thomas g
Brazil shows its face in Paradise City provised houses, like an approximation of a home, at least in our narrow conception of one. From my balcony, I can see a circular and impressive tower block with helipad and gardens. At night, only a couple of the apartments are lit up. My friend Mario laughs when I put it to him that they must be prohibitively expensive. ‘Expensive?’ he says. ‘Mate, they’re knocking them out, cut-price.’ ‘So why are so few occupied,’ I ask. Mario laughs again. ‘Structural damage.’ ‘Eh?’ ‘There’s a swimming pool on every balcony.’ I raise my eyebrows. This is unusual even for Morumbi. ‘Thing is,’ Mario goes on, ‘they forgot to factor in the extra weight of the water. When they filled them all up, the supporting pillars cracked.’ He laughs again. ‘Idiots.’ It turns out only a few people will invest over a million reais in a dodgy structure. Still. A few do. One of the epigraphs to Paradise City is from a Cazuza song, O Tempo Não Para – time doesn’t stop. Cazuza died young due to complications with AIDS. He remains the poet of the disaffected. His work is discursive and profane, preaching inclusivity and tolerance. It is a staunch representative of a growing alternative movement that rejects the nepotism and vulgar capitalism of the country’s elite. The political protests of the last few years recalled one of his songs, Brasil, and a specific line: Brasil, mostra tua cara Quero ver quem paga para a gente ficar assim --Brazil, show your face I want to know who pays for us to end up like this His lyrics were prescient in the early years of democracy in the post-dictatorship period, and now they reflect a deepening dissatisfaction with the political system. Many Brazilians have had enough of the endemic corruption, the widening inequality: the general passivity in the face of societal injustice. There’s a recurring slogan: O gigante acordou. The giant awoke. In Portuguese the verb ‘acordar’ means to wake up, and, as in English, there is the connotation of stirring yourself to action. Cazuza’s lyrics find an echo in Paradise City. One couplet was a refrain: Transformam o país inteiro num puteiro Pois assim se ganha mais dinheiro --They turn a whole country into a whorehouse Because that way it makes more money Joe Thomas is a visiting lecturer in English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. Prior to this, he lived and taught in São Paulo for ten years. ‘Paradise City’ is his first novel, published on February 9th. The second book in the series – ‘Gringa’ - will be published by Arcadia in 2018. g
Divulgation
São Paulo is the capital of South America. What a city: rich in culture, dripping with cash, undermined by political corruption, marked by a rich/poor disparity which fuels desperation and a life-is-cheap criminal ethos. The idea for my novel Paradise City was born over a weekend in 2006. It was the lovechild of organised crime, the construction industry, and Cazuza, the counter-culture musician and poet. I’d been in São Paulo three years and it was the first time I thought: ah, OK, I get it. This is Brasil. The PCC gang runs São Paulo crime – mainly drugs. The men that run the PCC run it from prison. These men want to watch the 2006 World Cup on large, flat, wide-screen TV sets. The PCC is like a corporation – none of the flip-flop/assault rifle shtick of the Rio gangs. They are very organised. And they generally get what they want. So the PCC leaders ask for large, flat, wide-screen TV sets. They pitch for more frequent conjugal visits. These requests are nixed. In response, the PCC leaders tell the authorities that they will ‘cause some chaos.’ For three days, São Paulo experiences some righteous, PCC-brand chaos. Gangbangers attack the police. They hijack buses. They evacuate them. They set them on fire and leave them burning on major highways. There are rumours of raids on public buildings, that schools and hospitals are next. Over a hundred and fifty people are killed – police, gangsters, and the inevitable, unfortunate bystanders. The stray bullets: the bala perdidas. The city goes into lockdown. The authorities throw in the towel. The PCC get their TVs and, I believe, their conjugal visits. On the Monday, at the British school where I teach History and English, I speak to the headmaster. The Chief of Police’s son studies with us, and his father dropped him off that morning. The officers who had been shot at over the weekend are receiving danger money. Trauma and whatnot, the chief of police tells the headmaster. Thing is, hearing this, a number of officers have shot at their own police stations. The bullet holes can be used as proof they’ve been attacked. They too, the chief of police said, are claiming danger money. São Paulo is a city of great contrasts. That weekend, the gap between the have-nots and the elite seemed to close a little. The peculiarity of the crime, the brazenness of the requests and the response, and the implied police behaviour seemed distinctly Brazilian to me. Paradise City opens with a favela and a stray bullet. In the novel, the city’s construction industry is the connecting backdrop. I lived in Morumbi, close to Paraisópolis, the favela. Paradise City, as it is known, is set low, in a sort of crater, like a settlement built in the hole of a great explosion, an apocalyptic, concrete and brick village, the rough houses pillboxes like machine gun posts. Morumbi is representative of the new São Paulo suburbs. Located in the southwest part of the city, it is affluent with considerable greenery – which will be slowly cut back and concretised over the next ten years. It is unlike the traditional areas around Paulista Avenue with their neighbourhood bars, old-fashioned apartments, and canteen restaurants. It is a place to move to and have children, or move to when your children have left home. It is dangerous outside the condominium gates. As we drive past Paraisópolis, I clock the harried faces, the slouch of rubbish and mess, the half-naked children and the condensed, im-
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
19
MUSIC FLÁVIA COELHO A wonderful young Brazilian singer who draws on the traditions of samba, bossa nova, and Brazilian melodies – there’s even room in the mix for ragga and hip-hop. She is now launching a fully-formed new album, her third: Sonho Real on LE LABEL [PIAS]. When: 21 March, 8pm Where: London Omeara (6 O’Meara Street, London SE1 1TE) Entrance: From £15 Info: www.serious.org.uk
EXHIBITION Waltercio Caldas’s first exhibition in the UK EUMIR DEODATO Brazilian-born keyboardist, arranger and producer, Eumir Deodato makes a welcome return to Ronnie’s after his smash shows last January. Deodato has been better known as an arranger for the likes of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Astrud Gilberto, Wes Montgomery and Frank Sinatra and for his own series of classic Bossa Nova albums. When: 23 and 25 March, 10.30pm Where: Ronnie Scott’s (47 Frith Street, Soho, W1) Entrance: £35 – £55 Info: www.ronniescotts.co.uk
ELIANE ELIAS A welcome return for multi award-winning pianist and vocalist Eliane Elias. Her distinctive and immediately recognizable musical style blends her Brazilian roots, her sensuous, alluring voice with her impressive instrumental jazz, classical and compositional skills. When: 19 and 21 April, 10.30pm Where: Ronnie Scott’s (47 Frith Street, Soho, W1) Entrance: £35 – £55 Info: www.ronniescotts.co.uk
CAETANO VELOSO & TERESA CRISTINA Brazilian superstar Caetano Veloso’s music radiates warmth and passion. His seductive, melodic voice and bossa-nova guitar push Brazilian traditions into exciting new realms, and in this concert he presents rising Brazilian samba star Teresa Cristina, who is launching her new Nonesuch album, Canta Cartola, where she pays homage to the great poet Cartola from Mangueira samba school. When: 21 April, 8pm Where: Barbican (Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS) Entrance: £25 – £65 Info: www.serious.org.uk
SEU JORGE Seu Jorge is one of Brazil’s most talented artists. In a deeply personal tribute, the Brazilian singer/songwriter takes his audience on an emotional journey through his bossa-flavoured David Bowie covers. When: 30 May Where: Royal Albert Hall Entrance: From £25 Info: www.royalalberthall.com
Waltercio Caldas (Rio de Janeiro, 1946) could be defined to an international audience as a minimalist. But more than that, he is an artist who, with every piece produced since the 1970s, gets closer and closer to a certain abstract emptiness – a silence. Critics describe him as an artist who does not create objects but rather the space between objects. Experiencing an exhibition by Waltercio Caldas is to feel the invisible content. A sensation that can be as corporeal and ethereal as it may be intellectual. His work explores those relationships of within and without. Every piece intends to capture all the space potential that surrounds it. The works displayed in the exhibition, both sculptures and drawings, will be arranged and selected by the artist. For this exhibition, Caldas has selected works made during the last ten years of production. Waltercio Caldas is an artist whose work is known for being difficult to trace chronologically in terms of artistic production. This exhibition is a reflection of that spirit. A work produced in the 70s sits comfortably alongside a work produced last year. Together these works negate the notion of linear progression as they sit painlessly without interruption. When: 30 March – 19 May (Tue-Fri: 12-6pm and Saturday 12-5pm) Where: Cecilia Brunson Projects (Royal Oak Yard, SE1 3GD) Entrance: Free Info: www.ceciliabrunsonprojects.com
20
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
Columnists FRANKO FIGUEIREDO
Keeping the fire of Brazilian dramaturgy in the UK alive
T
This March, we’ll see the launch of ‘Brazilian Contemporary Theatre’, a new book by the publishing house Oberon Books at the Embassy of Brazil in London. With it comes the stage reading of the play ‘For Elise’ by Grace Passô directed by Ramiro Silveira at Sala Brasil and the production of ‘The End Of All Miracles’ by Paulo Santoro at the Albany Theatre. The publication is part of a joint initiative of the past Brazilian government’s Ministry of Culture, Oberon Books and the Ministry of Exterior Relations promoting an image of a Brazil that sees culture as an important instrument of reflection, cooperation and international dialogue. Brazilian theatre is little known in London, let alone in the UK. Having said that, we have had a handful of Brazilian theatre makers, myself included, as well as a couple of British producers, working hard to give UK-wide audiences a taste of Brazilian dramaturgy. Unfortunately, without sponsorship or public funding, artists and producers can only scratch the surface. The last decade has been an important time for Brazilian Theatre in the UK, and Brazilian UK based artists have played a vital part in seeding many projects that promote our contemporary dramaturgy. Looking back, we see Andre Pink’s Dendê Collective producing ‘Two Lost Souls on a Dirty Night’ by Plinio Marcos (Theatre 503, 2000). In 2004, Royal Court Theatre produced ‘Almost Nothing’ by Marcos Barbosa, which led to a review from Michael Billington: “watch out for Brazil. It not only produces great soccer players but also highly promising playwrights”. StoneCrabs Theatre came on the scene in 2002 and after a successful stage adaptation of ‘Agua Viva’, the company went on to produce five Nelson Rodrigues plays, including ‘Waltz #6’ (Greenwich Playhouse, 2005), ‘Our Lady of The Drowned’ (Southwark Playhouse, 2006) and ‘All Nudity Shall Be Punished’ (Union Theatre, 2008), all of which received much critical acclaim including Time Out and Metro’s critics choice. They also produced ‘Origins/Origens’, an annual festival aimed at airing Brazilian dramaturgy in the UK. ‘Origins/Origens’ ran for 5 years supported by Embassy of Brazil, Canning House and Arts Council of England and ended in 2010 due to the lack of continued financial support. Between 2005 and 2008 producer Paul Heritage and the People’s Palace Project brought the work of Grupo Galpão, Grupo Piolin, AfroReggae and Nós do Morro to London. In 2007, Dendê Collective produced ‘Drylands’ by Newton Moreno at the Lyric Theatre. The production had an international cast that included Brazilian actor Tereza
Araujo. In fact, ‘Drylands’ is one of the plays published in the Oberon compilation, but its Lyric Hammersmith production receives no mention. In 2009, Victor Esses, another Brazilian director living in the UK, and his company Alter Ego produced ‘The Assault’ by José Vicente and ‘Last Days of Gilda’ by Rodrigo de Roure; the latter travelled to the Edinburgh Festival and actor/performer Gael Le Cornec won many awards and critical accolades for her performance as Gilda. In 2010, Mariana Pereira’s company One Leg Still Standing produced Rodrigues ‘The Deceased Woman’. StoneCrabs last production of Brazilian work was Rodrigues ‘The Asphalt Kiss’ in 2012, and ‘Kitchen’ written by Gael Le Cornec. After a hiatus of almost 3 years, Rogerio Correia in partnership with Theatre 503 devised ‘Red Like Embers’, a festival of new Brazilian playwrights: this was a fantastic enterprise made on a shoe-string and produced by a collective of artists who gave their time, resources and dedication to the project. ‘Red Like Embers’ went ahead with no public funding but it kept the fire of Brazilian dramaturgy alive; from it came ‘Fluxorama’ produced and directed by André Pink, who also brought ‘Turmoil’ by Jô Bilac to the London fringe scene last January. In 2015, I directed a stage adaptation of Jorge Amado’s ‘Tieta’ at the Manchester Festival, which toured the northeast of England but, again, due to lack of funding, never made it to London. In the same year, Daniel Goldman’s CASA Festival brought ‘Neverwhere Beckett’ by Café Cachorro to the Richmix. Brazilian dramaturgy in the UK does indeed look like embers, hot and burning, but if no more logs are added to this fire, it will soon burn out. Artists cannot continue to front all the work and risks alone either, they will also burn out. Most recently, Ramiro Silveira and Fernanda Mandagará have been working hard to re-kindle the fire, keeping the Brazilian theatre-making scene alive in the UK. Last year, Ramiro & Fernanda produced a staged reading of Rodrigues’ ‘Forgive me for not betraying me’ at the Embassy of Brazil in London; this was the kick-off event in what is to be a resurrection of the work of Nelson Rodrigues in London. The initiative is led and supported by Rodrigues’s grandson Sacha Rodrigues and the Embassy of Brazil in London. Their goal is to translate six of Rodrigues’ works and have them published and produced in the UK in the next couple of years. When I asked Ramiro how he got involved with coordinating the launch of the book, he said “I met George Spender and
Oberon Book through Sacha. In our first meeting, George told me of the British audience’s increasing interest in Brazilian dramaturgy, it was then that I found out that they were publishing ‘Contemporary Brazilian Theatre’ and after a little while, Hayle Gadelha, Brazil’s cultural attaché in London invited me to coordinate the launch of the book, and direct one of the plays from the book. The book introduces six very current plays going through this moment of great creative effervescence in the new Brazilian dramaturgy. I’m directing ‘For Elise’ by the Belo Horizonte born Grace Passô.” ‘For Elise’ is about a Brazilian housewife telling tales about her neighbours: a dog barks words; a garbage man searches for his father, who he hasn’t seen in years; a woman who is lost; another works rescuing sick dogs, wearing a uniform that makes him feel nothing, either when he is beaten up nor when he is loved. ‘For Elise’ was the first production of Brazilian Theatre Company Espanca! (in Curitiba, Brazil) and the play made Grace Passô one of the most well known contemporary playwrights in Brazil. Ramiro promises to transform the main hall of the Embassy of Brazil in London (Sala Brasil) into a surreal neighbourhood, where Passô’s characters live and their stories emerge and invites the audience and cast to contemplate their own existence. ‘The End of All Miracles’ by Paulo Santoro, which you can also find in the same publication, will receive its UK Premiere at StoneCrabs Young Directors Festival at the Albany, Deptford. The play is being directed by director Fernanda Mandagará. ‘The End of All Miracles’ follows an elderly couple’s attempts to recall the most beautiful moment in their lives. Fernanda Mandagará promises to deliver a visually enticing production that approaches the themes of dementia with poetry, carnival and gusto. Producing theatre is not an easy feat, there are many intricate elements ranging from securing a venue, bringing together a good production team, obtaining copyrights and most importantly securing the funding to ensure high production values. There are a great number of UK based Brazilian artists hungry to bring Brazilian dramaturgy to the British Stage, but they need the financial support to make this happen. Let’s hope that the Embassy of Brazil in London, together with the current Ministry of Culture and Exterior Relations will continue to support not only the publication of translated plays but also their productions. Plays are written to be heard and they are an important instrument of reflection, cooperation and international dialogue.
For Elise by Grace Passô
Directed by Ramiro Silveira 2 Mar, 2017 - 7.30pm Sala Brasil - Embassy of Brazil 14 - 16 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5BL (near Trafalgar Square) Free entry - RSVP essential: culturalbrazil. rsvp@gmail.com
The End of All Miracles by Paulo Santoro
Directed by Fernanda Mandagará Wed, 16 Mar - 8pm The Albany Theatre, Douglas Way, SE8 4AG Tickets £6 / 020 8692 4446 / www.albany.org.uk
Franko Figueiredo is artistic director and associate roducer of StoneCrabs Theatre Company g
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
21
HELOISA RIGHETTO
A female nipple bothers much more One nipple bothers a lot of people. Actually, a female nipple bothers a lot of people. It also bothers Facebook’s algorithms, which recognise images of nipples and categorise them as “unsuitable” (although the same algorithm’s tolerate content that encourage and share hate in all its forms), even if the images are of women breastfeeding their children or are used to make a political point, as a protest, not at all linked with pornography or improper use of image. They are photographs published on the social network to raise questions regarding gender equality and women’s rights, authorised by the nipples’ owners. Photos of a part of the body that all human beings have. However, once they are linked to feminism, they are censored. I took part in the #FreeTheNipple (the Brazilian version: mamilolivre.com) campaign, organised by Revista Azmina, which consists of downloading a mosaic of four images that when arranged together form the image of a nipple, and then posting this mosaic on Facebook. Because of this “trick”, the algorithms don’t recognise the image, however the viewers can see it clearly. A clever way to protest, which not only questions the censorship imposed in such a tiny part of our bodies but also wog
men’s objetification in general. A few hours after posting the mosaic in my feminist page on Facebook, however, I got a notification saying that I wouldn’t be able to login into my account. I had been blocked. I might have fooled the algorithm, but I pissed someone off, and this someone used their precious time to report the images. When I tried to login, I got the following option: delete the images or lose the page. According to the notification, the post did not respect Facebook’s guidelines (the same guidelines that do nothing to ban images of rape, paedophilia and Nazism, for instance). All because of a nipple. A female nipple. Why can’t we free the nipple from the sexual connotation? As the manifest published by the #freethenipple campaign says, “an exposed nipple doesn’t mean an available nipple. Hiding or showing the nipples should be a choice (Which already is, for men). Shame and lust of others can’t be more important than one’s will of their very own body”. But as we already know (If you still don’t know, please read the column published on the October 2016 issue: My Body, My Rules), women are not the owners of their bodies. What we can or can’t expose, or how and when we expose, it’s not our decision: it’s the
result of patriarchy sovereignty. Even in breastfeeding pictures, the nipple is censored. But unfortunately we don’t need to dive into the digital world to witness this censorship, as mothers all over the world get disapproving looks when they breastfeed their babies in public spaces. So, the nipple is not even allowed to fill its primary function. There are people that consider breastfeeding in public a controversy. For me, and I believe for many feminists, this is just an example of how the occupation of public spaces by women is still in its first steps. A woman outside the house and exposing her body? Who on earth allowed that? “Is it worth to make so much noise because of a nipple?”, those who love to raise doubts about feminist might ask (the same ones that are quick to say how absurd sexism is, but consider feminists to be a bit too angry). My answer is: everything that triggers dialogue, might trigger change. The aggressions that women absorb every single day (and many don’t even think they are aggressions, as they have become so used to them) should generate way more noise than an exposed nipple. While sexism is an everyday thing, we will keep fighting to #FreeTheNipple.
Heloisa Righetto is a journalist and writes about feminism (@helorighetto – facebook.com/conexaofeminista)
AQUILES REIS
A Brazilian big band with soul Nailor Proveta Azevedo (musical direction, arrangements, sax and clarinet), Ubaldo Versolato (baritone sax, flute and piccolo), Josué dos Santos (tenor sax and flute), Cássio Ferreira (tenor sax, soprano and flute), François Lima (valve trombone), Waldir Ferreira (stick trombone), Nahor Gomes (trumpet and flugelhorn), Walmir Gil (trumpet and flugelhorn), Odésio Jericó (trumpet and flugelhorn), Jarbas Barbosa (electric guitar), Edson Alves (electric bass and guitar), Celso de Almeida (drums), Fred Prince (percussion), Cleber Almeida (percussion) – the Mantiqueira Band, without recording for 12 years and celebrating 25 years of career, is back with Com Alma (With Soul). A glorious arrangement by Nailor Proveta for “Segura Ele” (Pixinguinha and Benedito Lacerda) opens the album. A turn of the drums precedes the first beat, a suit that inlays the DNA of this great band. The flugelhorn of the American Wynton Marsalis has a special participation. In the middle of the suit, you hear the picollo. Between “questions” and “answers”, skil-
fully distributed by the arrangement, the sound grows. Soon it is the turn of the clarinet solo. New and chilling beating of the woodwinds. On the bed created by the guitar and the drums, the improvisation returns with the flugel. With all the dignity it deserves, the pandeiro is given the chance to improvise, the flugel brings the solo to him and, with rare sonority, the duo shines. Sizzling is the return of the Mantiqueira. In a chord chaining, the arrangement descends on an ascending scale that ends the weeping. Next, “Desafinado” (Tom Jobim and Newton Mendonça). While the blows are in the bass notes of the arrangement of Edson Alves (of the seven tracks of the CD, this is the only one whose arrangement is not from Nailor Proveta), the introduction has the notable participation of the guitar of Romero Lubambo. The melody is in his hands. The blows continue to “pinch” the chords, whose rhythm is regally used by the guitar and the sax. After a creative improvisation of Lubambo, a sax solo appears above the g
woodwinds. Admirable, guitar and sax complete the arrangement. “Chorinho Pro Calazans”, by Cacá Malaquias, has arrangement of Nailor Proveta and special participation of the author, with his sax tenor. Touched by the wind, the introduction announces the simplicity of the melody. The battery resonates through the brooms. The tenor improvises, and for him the wind blows the weather. The solo is now the clarinet. The muted trumpet shines. The guitar improvises. The tenor picks up the soil and leads to climax. “De Frente Pro Crime” (João Bosco and Aldir Blanc) closes the album. The melody fits the puffs and thanks the solos of Romero Lubambo (guitar), Proveta (clarinet) and François de Lima (valve trombone). Added to the drums, the tambourine and bass add cadence... I will not say anything else. Or rather, I’ll just say: readers, do not forget to listen to Com Alma, from the Mantiqueira Band. The most Brazilian of the big bands born in this land of God.
Aquiles Reis is a musician, vocalist of the iconic Brazilian band MPB4
22
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
LONDON BY Liliana Carneiro
Crystal Palace, a neighbourhood full of personality and history
Crystal Palace is a neighbourhood in South London full of cool restaurants, a lovely park, great bars, antique and decorations shops, fairs and even a museum to call its own. It is a place full of life, especially on weekends, when the people who live in the neighbourhood run to enjoy a bit of this surprising place. It’s a pity that tourists and people from other regions do not come here so much. So let’s try to change that by showing a little of what Crystal Palace has and what you can do here! By Liliana Carneiro, from ‘Catálogo de Viagens’ (catalogodeviagens.net)
PARK Crystal Palace Park is right next to the train station and offers a range of entertainment options. One is the dinosaur park, a section with several sculptures of these animals and “The Darwin Trail”, with explanations about each species. There is also a farm with several animals that is open to visitors and has free admission. Another option within the park is the Leisure Center of Crystal Palace, which in addition to having space for more traditional sports offers a few blocks of “beach volleyball” during the summer. It is also in the park that is the TV tower, which is one of the city’s tallest structures and the main television transmitter of London.
MARKETS The local market of Haynes Lane is that typical little market of used stuff. But I guarantee it’s hard to get out of there with empty hands. You will see a lot of used clothes, vinyl, home items and everything else you can imagine. They open every Tuesday and during the weekends. Close to this market is the Carberry Road fair, which runs every Saturday. The fair is small and the tents are made by local people. Most of them sell food, organic things, but there are also some handicrafts.
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
23
RESTAURANTS AND CAFÉS
RUINS OF THE PALACE
The neighbourhood has many nice restaurants and it is even difficult to choose one. Most of them are in the famous triangle of Crystal Palace, formed by three streets: Westow Street, Westow Hill and Church Road. My favourite restaurant is the Vietnamese Urban Orient, but the traditional restaurant there is Joanna’s, which serves British food and has been there since 1978. But do not think the options end there: you can eat from Thai to Venezuelan food in Crystal Palace. For those who like a coffee or brunch I highly recommend the coffee that sits inside the Bambin store; besides serving delicious food you eat amidst antiques. Brown and Green is another delightful choice for a hearty breakfast. They have two choices in the neighbourhood: inside the station and in the triangle. Besides these, you can end up in the sweets and breads of Blackbird Bakery, or buy a homemade granola to take home.
The main structure of the Crystal Palace was completely destroyed, but there were still statues and parts of the Italian terrace. All this is in the neighbourhood park. Some statues, more precisely the sphinxes were recently renovated and are today as they were originally.
CRYSTAL PALACE SUBWAY One of the most beautiful and untouched parts of what remains of the original structure of the Crystal Palace is the entrance to the old train station. The Victorian building has escaped from the fire and can be visited at least once a year during the Open House in London, a weekend that celebrates architecture opening to visit several buildings in the city.
PUBS Just as there are several dining options, there are many pubs in this southern district of London. If you want live music with excitement, head to Westow House. The pub has live music every Friday night and on some Sundays during the day. Westow House has good options for those who enjoy craft beer. At the Grape and Grain pub there is also live music some days of the week, and is a good choice for anyone who wants less confusion but wants to hear a jazz or blues. The White Hart is another pub with live music some days of the week and has a great burger. The Soul is already a somewhat more adult and sophisticated pub while The Sparrowhawk is a little more familiar option with a menu that has a gastropub footprint.
CRYSTAL PALACE MUSEUM The museum tells the story of the neighbourhood and the famous Crystal Palace that existed there. The first version of the site was created for the 1851 exhibition, which would be the first exhibition of many. The structure where the first exhibition took place was in Hyde Park, but it was so certain that it was re-created and assembled in Crystal Palace some time later. There it remained until 1936, when a fire destroyed the place. The whole history of the place is told in the museum, which opens every Sunday until 4pm and has free admission.
SHOPPING Crystal Palace is a great place to buy furniture and household goods in general. In addition to the used ones, you will find shops that make your furniture, even to order. Most stores of this style are on Church Road. In addition, you will find many independent shops there, with plenty of local produce, handmade items and handcrafted products in general. Finally, those who like wine, cheese and artisanal beers should make a jump on Good Taste.
l a v i t s e F e c n a Brazilian D Brazilian with
and foods
BUY YOUR TICKET NOW
24
March 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk
Subscribe now and get it in your doorstep!
12 editions
More information: contato@brasilobserver.co.uk
Payment forms: Bank Deposit or Paypal
6 editions
brasilobserver.co.uk | March 2017
OU VIRE PA RA LER EM PO RTUGUÊS
LONDON
EDITION
WWW.BR
ASILOBSE
RVER.CO.U
K
ISSN 2055
-4826
DECEMBE
R/2016
# 0 0 4 5
25