Brasil Observer #49 - EN by Brasil Observer

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brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

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CVL - What is it and how can it help my company? Part I

A Creditors Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) is a formal insolvency procedure used to close a company that has reached a position of insolvency. If your company’s debts have become unmanageable and pressure from creditors is unbearable, it can be overwhelming. If you have decided you want to effectively ‘shut up shop’ and put an end to the worry and sleepless nights, a Creditors Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) may be the solution to your company’s financial difficulties. Here are some of the advantages: g g g

Quickly removes creditor pressure. Stops further legal action. Can provide the lifeline a ‘business’ needs to continue trading under a different legal entity. Allows your employees to claim their unpaid wages and redundancy pay from the government

What is it and how can it help my company? Creditors Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) is the most common form of liquidation in the UK. A company that decides to implement a CVL generally has little or no cash flow. This in turn makes it difficult to pay debts as and when they fall due. A CVL is usually the last resort for a company as it is insolvent and cannot continue trading. As the name suggests, the process is a voluntary option for directors and shareholders. It brings an end to worries regarding company debts quickly and professionally. However, it should not be confused with Compulsory Liquidation. This is the process where one or more of the company’s creditors issue a winding up petition to the courts, effectively forcing the company into liquidation. The decision to propose the company enter into CVL is initially made by the directors. However, it is the shareholders that have to pass the relevant resolutions. When the directors decide CVL is the best way forward, the company will generally cease trading immediately. It is imperative the company does not take on any more credit or incur further liabilities. At this stage, this could be seen as worsening the creditor’s position. If there are any assets, there should be a safeguard of these pending the appointment of a liquidator. These assets will be re-

alised upon the liquidator’s appointment and after deduction of costs, any remaining funds are distributed to the company creditors in the order of priority, set out in insolvency legislation. It may be possible for directors, shareholders or other company connected parties, i.e. employees, to acquire company assets at market value. They can then continue trading in the same line of work. Strict controls are in place with regards to the re-use of company trading names.

What are the advantages of CVL? It is never pleasant when a company needs to ‘close its doors’. However, it can become apparent a company is no longer viable and cannot be rescued. In this case, it is often better for directors and creditors if a CVL commences as soon as possible. It gives directors an opportunity to deal with the company’s insolvent position quickly and professionally. It gives directors a clean break, allowing them to move on. By ceasing to trade the company upon the realisation of insolvency, the directors reduce the risk of wrongful trading. It enables creditors to submit their claims in a controlled manner. Liquidation does not affect the directors’ ability to be a director of another company, unless there is a subsequent disqualification order. Employees that are made redundant will still receive any redundancy payments due from the Redundancy Payments Office (subject to limitations). It can be possible for directors or shareholders to purchase company assets at market value and trade again in a similar line of business.

Please keep an eye at the next edition where we will detail the advantages of an CVL and will fully explain the procedures. Whilst a CVL can seem a drastic measure for your company, directors of an insolvent business must take action immediately. Particularly, once you become aware the company is unable to pay its debts as and when they fall due. Failure to do so could put directors of an in a situation where an action for wrongful trading may later be taken against them. This could put your personal assets at risk. Early action by directors can prevent this.

For more information, full procedures explanation and a free consultation: switchboard: (UK) 01708 300 170 f: 01708 202472 info@aspectplus.co.uk

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GENERAL ELECTIONS

Special reports on the UK General Elections

INTERVIEW

Kleber Mendonça Filho, director of ‘Aquarius’

REPORT

Research portraits the Brazilian State as the enemy

REPORT

The life of Venezuelan migrants in Brazil

CULT

Cora Coralina, an exponent of Brazilian culture

CULTURAL TIPS

Nina Miranda launches her first solo album

COLUMNISTS

Franko Figueiredo on theatre and life Heloisa Righetto on feminism Daniela Barone on human behaviour

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From Guilherme Kramer’s work emerge vivid faces and detailed landscapes, seen on the streets as well as in the depths of his imagination. For a long time, in much of his paintings the black and white aesthetic has predominated, which has more recently been dividing space with colours. His fascination with crowds results in studies of the masses in different contexts. They are a translation of days spent in public transport, popular festivals, demonstrations and other great meetings. Compulsive, the artist is able to fill large sheets of paper, canvas and other surfaces, in what he calls “spontaneous art”, unloading all the information he captures in his urban crossings. From 2006 to 2017, Kramer held individual and collective exhibitions in different cities in Brazil and the world, including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Barcelona, Rome, Bogota, Berne, Azores and Paris. In 2010, he participated in the Lasar Segall engraving workshop in São Paulo, where he perfected lithography, woodcutting and metal techniques. From 2012 to 2014, he studied Applied Arts to the Wall at Escola Massana in Barcelona, dedicating himself to painting, drawing, pottery, mosaic and stained glass techniques. The cover art for this edition was produced by Guilherme Kramer 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.

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brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

GENERAL ELECTIONS

Can we trust the opinion polls? By Matthew Wyman g Divulgation

The leaders: Theresa May (Conservatives), Jeremy Corbyn (Labour), Tim Farron (Liberal Democrats) and Nicola Sturgeon (Scottish National Party)

Election 2017:

how the main parties shape up ahead of snap vote

By Victoria Honeyman g

Theresa May’s announcement, calling for a general election on June 8, 2017, caught virtually everyone by surprise. May has repeatedly rejected calls for an early election since becoming leader of the Conservative party and prime minister, which made the timing extremely unexpected. She has argued since the beginning of her tenure that a general election during the Brexit negotiations would be inadvisable. However, with opinion polls suggesting that the Conservative party can expect a resounding victory in a general election, it appears that the temptation to bring the vote forward was simply irresistible. The real question is who will be the winners and losers in this snap election – and who will survive to fight another day?

Conservatives on course for a big win The obvious winner is Theresa May. The PM appears confident that she will not only win the election, but will increase her majority in the House of Commons. If that were not the case, why would she ask parliament to call a general election, cutting short the current term by three years? If she had concerns over her own ability to win, she would perhaps hold off on a general election and see if conditions improved. However, that is a dangerous strategy, as Jim Callaghan and Gordon Brown found to their cost. Opinion polls have not always been accurate when tight contests have been held – as the EU referendum and the g

latest US presidential election exemplified. However, the enormity of the proposed gap between Labour and the Conservatives in these polls suggests that, even if the margin of victory is not accurate, the Conservative party will increase its majority. That’s not to say it will be all plain sailing for May. She will have to ensure that Conservative voters believe she is a “safe pair of hands” for the Brexit negotiations. As May has suggested “Brexit means Brexit”, but that can mean different things to different voters. The new intake of Conservative MPs that will come with an increased majority will help to determine how Brexit negotiations play out. Should the new MPs be on the right of the party, a hard Brexit will be the only acceptable outcome of EU negotiations. Should the new MPs be more centre-right figures, May will have more room to manoeuvre and will be less reliant on the right wing of her party. Beyond the traditional Tory heartlands, May will be hoping to pick up some voters from both the left and right. She will use Brexit to try and persuade disillusioned UKIP and Labour voters that she is their best and only hope for Britain.

Liberal Democrats rising from the ashes Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, appears to be delighted with a snap general election. His party was annihilated in the 2015 vote but the two years since have been a little kinder.

The Liberal Democrats have performed well in council and parliamentary by-elections, most notably in Richmond-upon-Thames, where they replaced Zac Goldsmith, the sitting Conservative MP, based on their pro-European message. The party will inevitably increase its number of MPs, although it’s starting from a very low baseline. The message is clear – the Liberal Democrats support Britain’s continued membership of the single market – and that clear message will be easy for them to effectively communicate to the 48% of the British public who voted remain in June 2016.

traditional Labour areas voted to leave the EU, contrary to the party’s official stance. Corbyn came in for much criticism after the referendum result, with his critics arguing his message was unclear and lukewarm. In light of this, how will Labour MPs, many of whom were Remainers, justify their stance to their local electorate? Will those voters conclude that the issue of Europe and Brexit is more or less important that their party loyalties or their traditional voting patterns?

Labour struggles with its message

The SNP has a slightly different worry, in that it starts from a position of dominance. The party holds 56 of the 59 parliamentary seats in Scotland, so there are only marginal gains to be made – and even losses to be considered. Sturgeon’s call for a second independence referendum will be tested in this election. Those who support the SNP but not independence may be concerned enough over another referendum to take their vote elsewhere. Alternatively, the pro-European Scottish public may want to ensure that their voice is heard clearly in Westminster. SNP candidates will suggest that only they can provide such a voice. The coming weeks will be filled with political uncertainty, claim and counter claim. What is certain is that the political careers of May and Corbyn depend on their success. One of them will almost certainly be looking for another job on June 9. Who that is has yet to be decided.

The Labour party has a much more difficult message to push at the general election. Without a clear position on Brexit, the party has instead focused on domestic policy initiatives. These are much easier to sell to the electorate, and Labour will argue that a general election needs to be about more than Brexit. Regardless of that, Brexit will dominate the campaign and Labour will struggle as a result. While Corbyn is loved by his supporters, and they hope for a surprise victory, all evidence suggests that simply won’t happen. Labour MPs are bracing themselves for the Corbyn effect. In many ways, Corbyn’s leadership is a symptom of Labour’s bigger illness – who are their electorate and how do they deal with the Blair legacy? Labour’s stronghold in Scotland has been smashed by the SNP and many

SNP strength as a weakness

Victoria Honeyman is a Lecturer in British Politics, University of Leeds. This article was originally published at The Conversation (www.theconversation.com)

Political opinion polls have taken a bit of a battering in the past few years. There was wide agreement on the eve of the last UK general election that the outcome would be a hung parliament. Few pollsters saw Donald Trump winning the 2016 presidential election in the US. And almost everyone agreed that Brexit would not happen. So are opinion polls worth the paper they’re written on any more? Polling made its entrance onto the political stage in the United States presidential election of 1936, at a time when various prominent American newspapers were confidently predicting victories for Republican Alf Landon on the basis of polls of their (rich, unrepresentative) leaderships. George Gallop realised that he could achieve much more accurate predictions reasonably cheaply by taking a random sample of the population, and by doing this successfully forecast a landslide victory for Franklin D Roosevelt. The key words in this statement are “random sample”, and this is where modern day polling is running into trouble. When Gallop began building his market research empire, gauging public opinion was a complicated business. It involved sending trained interviewers out to

randomly selected addresses to interview a specific named person. If they couldn’t get hold of them, they were asked to go back again and again until they found them. What pollsters call “response rates” – the proportion of people agreeing to be interviewed – were very high. So was the cost. You had to train your interviewers, send them out, and tabulate the results, which in the BC years (before computers) was done by hand using punched paper index cards. However, overwhelmingly, results were good, politicians came to rely heavily on poll predictions, and newspapers got into the habit of using them in order to report politics as entertainment about who was winning.

Polling today These days technology and changes in the ways political opinion polling is done allow market researchers to get answers much more quickly and cheaply. Polling can also be done by post, online, or by phone. Rather than genuinely random samples, it’s usually cheaper for market researchers to use what are known in the trade as “quota

samples”. Interviewers talk to certain numbers of people in different demographic categories (by gender, income, social class, ethnic group and so on). However, they face several increasingly difficult challenges. Some kinds of people are just harder to reach than others, especially people who work full time – a group who are still a bit more likely to vote for conservative parties. We are now asked our opinions about so much so pointlessly that response rates for polls are desperately low at around 25-30%. We all suffer from poll fatigue. Respondents are also self-selecting. People who are interested in politics are more likely to be willing to share their views with a stranger, and also are more likely to be left wing. All of these factors mean that the samples used by the pollsters to make their predictions simply aren’t as good as they used to be, and they all tend to err in the same direction. This doesn’t mean that polls are now redundant. Well-constructed surveys which are properly carried out still get representative results. For example, the sample used by the British Social Attitudes survey, carried out via face-to-face interviews and requiring revisits where the randomly

selected individual was unavailable for interview, correctly forecasted around a six point lead for the Conservatives in the 2015 general election. However, these high quality polls are expensive, and take a long time. Given that the mass media mostly wants poll numbers rapidly, and for entertainment, it hardly seems likely that they will want to make the extra investment. Parties’ own internal polls do take the time and trouble and do get accurate results, ones which will no doubt have been part of the prime minister’s decision to go to the country. Current published polls show the Conservative Party has a 20 point lead over Labour, if not more. Is the true situation in the country likely to be anything other than a large Tory lead? Absolutely not: even cheap polls are not that inaccurate. As it stands, you’d be most unwise to take the 12:1 odds currently offered by some bookmakers on Labour being the largest party on June 8. Matthew Wyman is a Senior Teaching Fellow, Keele University. This article was originally published at The Conversation (www.theconversation.com)

What does the election mean for Brexit? By Kathryn Simpson g

As soon as Theresa May announced an early general election, just weeks after triggering Article 50, the vote was being dubbed the “Brexit election”. May is likely to campaign on a strategy of “vote Conservative for my vision of Brexit”. While there are divisions in the Conservative party about what Brexit means, there are greater divisions about what it means within the Labour party. The opposition begins the campaign on the back foot. But what does this election mean for the actual Brexit process? There are several important implications.

Will this election interrupt Article 50 talks? When May triggered Article 50 in March, she opened the two-year negotiating window for Brexit negotiations, so it might look like taking six weeks out to conduct a general election would be risky, as it will eat into the time available to deal with the EU. However, the election will not result in any major delay in Article 50 negotiations. Now that Article 50 has been triggered, the balance of power is very much with the remaining members of the EU. They held a summit on April 29 to confirm their negotiating

brief and the schedule for talks between the EU and the UK. The European Council also needs to finalise the structure of the negotiations – and that won’t happen until June 22. It’s unlikely that negotiations will even begin until the autumn when the elections in France and Germany have been held.

Could it delay Brexit? The UK needs to get its house in order to prepare for Brexit. Civil servants are already working round the clock to fill the gaps that the UK’s departure from the EU will create. That includes the great repeal bill, which brings all EU laws onto the UK statute books so that they can be reviewed and potentially changed after Brexit. During the election the UK will enter into purdah, which limits the amount of work civil servants can do during the campaign period. That will inhibit much of the day-to-day business of government, as well as the level of scrutiny over the legislative process, which certainly piles on the pressure for anyone hoping to be ready for Brexit. The government has already discussed an implementation phase for Brexit, during which new systems for immigration

and customs will gradually be introduced. Much of the work required to get the UK ready for Brexit will not be completed by April 2019 when the two-year Article 50 negotiating window closes. The April 2019 deadline was one year before the scheduled 2020 general election, which would have placed pressure on the Conservatives to deliver a completed Brexit. The next general election will now take place in 2022, giving the potential implementation phase more breathing space.

Will May’s negotiating position be strengthened? In calling this early election, May is seeking a mandate for her Brexit plans. She knows that an unencumbered mandate will mark her out as a strong negotiator in negotiations with the EU. She should use this election and manifesto process to set out a clearer vision of what Brexit will mean. Further clarification on what the UK economy will look like outside the EU is an important question, as is what she thinks the role of the European Court of Justice will be in the UK’s dealing with the EU in the future.

If the Conservatives win a majority – and a mandate – having further explained what a post-Brexit UK will look like, it will be harder for the EU27 to extract compromises on specific issues. However, by being specific on key policy issues during the election the prime minister may find herself unable to compromise when she needs to during the negotiation process. May must tread a delicate line in her quest for a clear mandate. Being somewhat opaque about Brexit may well be par for the course. All this means that while the 2017 general election might be seen as the Brexit election, it won’t actually provide much clarification on Brexit. That said, if 2016 taught us anything, it’s that the current political climate is volatile, predictions can be wrong and that there is no such thing as a political certainty. g

Kathryn Simpson is a Lecturer in Politics and Public Services, Manchester Metropolitan University. This article was originally published at The Conversation (www.theconversation.com)

May 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk

brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

A progressive alliance is a chance that must be taken in election 2017 By Andy Price g

It’s clear that every party except the Conservatives fears the outcome of the impending general election. Even for the SNP, which will no doubt hold on to – if not improve upon – its standing in the last election, the prospect of an increased Tory majority is not a welcome one. Barring a massive Labour recovery it appears this is almost certainly the outcome to expect. But even if that Labour recovery does come, is Jeremy Corbyn the man to steer the UK through Brexit and its consequences? Whether they like it or not, for most voters, this election will come down to a choice between Corbyn and May, rather than their parties. And the sad truth is, many may find themselves in the unwelcome position of believing that neither is the leader the UK needs. Turning out for the third major national vote in two years is tiring enough for those people who are just carrying on with the crucial business of getting on with their lives; asking those same people to turn out to vote for two options they find equally unpalatable is worse still. So what’s to be done to reengage people? The first thing we must do is view the present situation as an opportunity to renew the business of politics in the UK.

GE2017 should be seen as nothing short of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to break out of the Labour-Tory duopoly that the nation has clearly outgrown. Discussions among some of the smaller parties have already turned to this. The Greens have called for a “progressive alliance” between those parties lined up to oppose the Tories and their Brexit at all costs. Even the SNP has nodded assent if it were to become a realistic option. Labour leaders have discounted it fully. But they should reconsider. The finer details of what this would entail will take many hours, days and weeks of negotiation to flesh out, including the thorny issue of who would lead this alliance were it to somehow secure a big parliamentary role after the election. But that is highly unlikely, and therefore should not be the primary concern. The first thing to consider should be the process of putting this alliance together.

A long-term vision A progressive alliance is not just for GE2017 – it’s for life. The shifts in the electoral landscape of the UK in recent years mean that the likelihood of an outright majority for the main party of the

left is receding into the distance. The shift to the SNP in Scotland and the rise of UKIP as an alternative for swing voters in formerly marginal seats has dealt the Labour party a blow that may ultimately prove fatal. The likelihood of ever-increasing Tory majorities is also growing as a result of an ageing population and an ever-more disenfranchised youth vote. The plan for a progressive alliance forged in the white heat of GE2017 should explicitly be about challenging this growing rightist, Tory hegemony. And the parties and politicians involved should say so. They should point to a new, longterm political grouping on the left that will more closely match a deindustrialised, multi-cultural Britain; that will more accurately appraise the place of Britain in the world and its responsibilities to other nations and the international community; that will not just celebrate membership of the EU but celebrate European history and identity, too; that will put electoral reform at the heart of its manifesto; and, perhaps most importantly of all, that will put the impending ecological crisis at the very centre of political life.

Bravery To make all of this happen, however, a further ingredient is necessary – and that’s bravery. To call for some of the things above is to go against the political advice from strategists that has held sway for at least the past 40 years. All of the above have consistently been sold as vote losers, if not electoral suicide. Never make the case for the EU and its attendant loss of national sovereignty; never go into an election talking of electoral reform; never remind voters of the environmental damage associated with their lifestyles. If you do, conventional political wisdom has it, you will turn voters off, and lose badly. But this kind of advice is a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you accept the central premise of this stuff, that these issues are vote losers, and then try to sell them in an election, then yes, you are doomed from the outset. However, if your starting point is that the positions above are fine positions for a mature, 21st century democracy, then there is so much more to sell to the electorate in each of them – so much to sell in membership of the European Union and European identity itself, and in electoral

Why a progressive alliance just doesn’t work in British politics By Tom Quinn g

The election campaign is underway, but with the Conservatives 20 points ahead of Labour, things are already looking grim for those on the left of British politics. Labour’s prospects of winning outright look hopeless. Attention is turning towards an idea that has been repeatedly proposed in recent years – a “progressive alliance” of anti-Conservative parties. The idea is beguilingly simple. The centre-left vote is split between Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru. Under the UK’s winner-takes-all electoral system, those divisions enable the Conservatives to win seats they might otherwise have lost to a single “progressive” candidate. Therefore, the centre-left parties could win more seats if they explicitly encouraged anti-Conservative tactical voting for whoever had the best chance of defeating the Tory candidate in a given constituency. This could even entail electoral pacts in some constituencies. Parties that had no chance of winning would stand down

to give another progressive party a clear run against the Conservatives. The Greens did this to help the Liberal Democrats in a 2016 by-election and some Labour figures wanted to do the same.

The big problem However, calls for a progressive alliance fail to comprehend the contrasting electoral scenarios in Labour-Conservative and Lib Dem-Conservative constituencies. And they overlook the differences voters perceive between the progressive parties. To see the dangers for progressive parties of electoral pacts, it’s vital to understand that, in the British political system, voters are not only voting for constituency MPs; they are also voting directly for governments. The main option is either a Conservative-led government or a Labour-led government. Smaller parties must work within these parameters. They might do that by opposing a government led by either major

party, or waiting to strike a deal with whichever side offered the best post-election deal. The Liberal Democrats tried doing that in 2010 and ended up alienating their centre-left supporters by unexpectedly entering a coalition with the Conservatives. The result was almost total annihilation in the next election five years later. Alternatively, smaller parties may pick a side. For the Greens and the nationalist parties, that means the left. But this raises its own problems. If voters strongly associate a small party with one of the major parties – and an electoral pact or formal call for tactical voting would be a clear signal – they will believe a vote for the small party is effectively a vote for a government led by its proximate major party. Most Green and SNP voters probably prefer a Labour-led government to a Conservative-led one, and that is why those two left -leaning parties have been at the forefront of calls for a “progressive alliance” (particularly in the form of a post-election deal, as far as the SNP is concerned).

The more centrist Liberal Democrats face a harder calculation. An electoral pact could encourage Labour and Green supporters to vote tactically for the party in Conservative-Lib Dem marginals in the south of England, boosting its prospects. On the other hand, centrist voters in those constituencies would believe – and the Conservatives would ram home the message – that a vote for the Lib Dems was a vote for a Labour-led government. That might not be disastrous if Labour were itself centrist and popular, but under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour is neither of those two things. As there are many more centrist voters than left-leaning ones in Tory-Lib Dem marginals, any formal arrangement involving Labour could put these votes at risk for the Liberal Democrats. So while Tim Farron would be delighted to receive tactical votes from Labour supporters in marginal seats, he wants nothing to do with any electoral pact or “progressive alliance” that formally associates his party with Corbyn.

reform. And while it might not be a popular thing to say right now, there is so much to sell about globalisation, about opening up to different cultures and nationalities from around the world. And there is certainly a lot more to sell in the rewards of leading a greener life. But when do we see mainstream politicians championing any of these things? I can count on one hand the politicians who, in my lifetime, have proudly championed the European Union. And, apart from the Liberal Democrats, who has ever made the case passionately for electoral reform that could meaningfully devolve power to people beyond London? And of course, despite there being many champions of economic globalisation and the spread of capitalist consumerism, can we remember any politician making the positive, proud case for free movement of people, welcoming immigrants and the valuable enriching cultural accoutrements they bring? No, it doesn’t happen. All are seen as detrimental to electoral success. So politicians need bravery in the name of risking that success.

What’s at stake? This progressive alliance is needed now more than ever precisely because progressive values are under intense pressure. And make no mistake: they are indeed under threat in GE2017. Not because Theresa May, or the Tories, or the right in general are somehow naturally malevolent. Far from it.

The Liberal Democrats prefer instead to remain aloof of both major parties, offering voters the chance to vote for a pro-EU party to oppose the policies of a Conservative government but which will not promise to put Corbyn in Downing Street.

Remember what happened to Ed For Labour, the main danger of a progressive alliance is the SNP. A pact with the nationalists would, for a start, kill off any chance of a Labour revival in Scotland. What more would left-wing voters gain by voting for Labour? It would also risk alienating swing voters in Labour-Conservative English marginal constituencies who dislike the strident separatism of the SNP. In this case, centrist voters might fear that a vote for Labour would be a vote for Nicola Sturgeon as the puppet-master of a weak Labour government. That was precisely the argument made by the Conservatives in the 2015 election. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader at the time, was depicted in a famous poster as being in the pocket of the former SNP first minister, Alex Salmond. Interestingly, the poster was deployed in Conservative-Liberal Democrat English marginal seats such as Colchester in the 2015 election. That was despite Labour

These values are under threat because of the issues that the present government is tapping into and the tools it is using to protect its Brexit agenda. It is in a weak, defensive position because Brexit, in its current hard form, is undeliverable without much economic and social upset. Going on the offensive, then, seems to be the only option on the table. The result is a cabinet of ministers who belittle anyone seeking to scrutinise them and a prime minister who announces a snap general election with incredible belligerence, claiming it to be in the national interest. The Brexit-obsessed elements of the media then help her to sell that line. This strategy makes rational sense for GE2017 on many levels. But in unleashing ever darker forces to protect itself from weakness, the government is pitting Remainer against Leaver, left against right, them against us, like never before. These are the forces confronting progressives in GE2017, forces unlike any others in the history of peace and stability post-1945. So vastly different are they, the response to them must also be of an entirely different order. The question now is, do we have the politicians, the advisers, the academics and the writers brave enough to stand up and champion those new, progressive forces? We can only hope so. g

Andy Price is Head of Politics, Sheffield Hallam University. This article was originally published at The Conversation (www.theconversation.com)

not having any chance of winning such seats and the SNP not standing candidates. It made strategic sense because centrist voters were being told that a vote for the Liberal Democrats risked becoming a vote for the broader “progressive alliance”. A daisy-chain of negative images thereby linked the Lib Dems to a weak Labour party and the latter to a belligerent SNP. From this perspective, the only alternative was a majority Conservative government. The Conservatives subsequently won Colchester from the Liberal Democrats, one of 26 English seats they took from the party and which were crucial in delivering their slim overall majority. The general ideological proximity of progressive parties doesn’t mean they are seen as perfect substitutes by swing voters. Theresa May understands that. Instead of what she called “a coalition of chaos” involving the centre-left parties, she offers the clarity of a majority Conservative government. If the Conservative prime minister is keen to talk up a “progressive alliance”, that should be warning enough of its inherent dangers for progressive parties. Tom Quinn is a Senior Lecturer, Department of Government, University of Essex. This article was originally published at The Conversation (www. theconversation.com) g

May 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk

brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

Interview divulgation

which is systematically destroying many public policies, there’s a grey cloud hanging over Brazilian cinema. Yourself, Cláudio Assis, Gabriel Mascaro, Marcelo Gomes, some of the Brazil’s most creative filmmakers are all from Recife. What is it with cinema from Pernambuco [the state where Recife is located]. Is it something in the water?

Kleber Mendonça Filho, the filmmaker who denounced the Brazilian coup The director of the acclaimed drama ‘Aquarius’ flew to London for his film release, and spoke to Victor Fraga from DMovies By Victor Fraga g

Kleber Mendonça Filho gained worldwide notoriety last year for conducting a very timely protest on a star-studded platform. The filmmaker and the crew of his latest movie ‘Aquarius’ held signs on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival in May last year denouncing the coup d’état, which was taking place in Brazil then. Images of the unusual gesture circulated the world, stamping the cover of many international newspapers (including The Guardian). The action coincided with start of coup process in Brazil, and the opening of the film months later took place at exactly the same time as the illegitimate ousting of President Dilma Rousseff. But Kleber isn’t just a sexy moustached face on the red carpet. At present, he is the most commercially and critically acclaimed filmmaker in Brazil, with just two feature films under his belt. The outstanding ‘Neighbouring Sounds’ (2011) explores the dull urban cacophony that ties together middle-class neighbours in the Brazilian city of Recife (Kleber’s hometown). It was elected by the New York Times as one of the best films of

the past 10 years. Last year’s ‘Aquarius’ tells the story of Clara, played by the legendary Sônia Braga, a woman who resists property developers who want to knock down the building where she lives. She uses nostalgia as a shield against her fast-changing and deeply corrupt society, as well as an instrument for both physical and emotional survival. After showing at the BFI London Film Festival last year, ‘Aquarius’ was released in theatres last March. Kleber travelled to the UK especially for the occasion, and DMovies’ editor Victor Fraga met up with him for a talk. Brazil is a very exotic country in Britain, and most people would know neither where Recife is located nor that there was a coup last year. How do you think people will relate to your film here? When I make a film I ask myself: will anybody see it, will it make any sense, will anyone care? I think every filmmaker should bear that in mind. I have been very lucky since I started making short films because they seem

to travel quite well. All of my films did very well both in Brazil and internationally. In ‘Neighbouring Sounds’, I shot the film on the street where I live, it’s almost like a home movie, and made with just under US$1 million, and it went to countries I never imagined it would. With ‘Aquarius’, it’s even bigger. And the same story seems to take place everywhere. I’m convinced that people will relate to my film wherever there’s money and real estate. The main conflict is well understood by people everywhere. Of course you might miss out on a few details if you are not Brazilian. There are certain flavours that were built into the film which are naturally local. But I don’t think this will prevent Brits from understanding the film. This is a very good moment for Brazilian cinema, 12 films at the last Berlin Film Festival, seven in Rotterdam, and the organisation Cinema do Brasil has more than 150 films in their catalogue. Are you concerned that the current coupmongering government of Brazil will destroy this incredible momentum?

That’s the big question that everyone in the Brazilian film industry is asking right now. A lot of what we are seeing today, such as the films in Berlin and Rotterdam, the international acclaim of ‘Neon Bull’ (Gabriel Mascaro, 2015) and ‘The Second Mother’ (Anna Muylaert, 2015), this is all the result of years of investment and policy development supporting Brazilian film. On one hand, we have a bunch of commercial films doing very well in Brazilian theatres. People think I’m against commercial movies, and that’s ridiculous. I just happen to belong to the other side, where we get more prestige than money. Although ‘Aquarius’ had box office earnings which are not typical of a 150-minute film shot in Recife with a 65-year-old female protagonist [Clara, played by Sônia Braga]. So my film was both commercially successful and prestigious. And a lot of that came from the policies implemented by Lula from 2003. This is the incontestable truth. Some people might dislike the previous left-wing government of Brazil, but they can’t challenge this reality, which started with Lula and continued with Dilma. And now we have a completely different government,

That’s a very tough question. Recife seems to be some sort of breeding ground, and not just for cinema. It is in literature, in the arts, in music. That was particularly true of the 1990s with the Mangue Beat movement in the music scene. And now we have the film scene, which is very strong! My theory is that after 400 years of sugarcane monoculture, when we were only known for sugarcane plantations and nothing else, things changed. This generated some inside mechanism forcing us to think “multi” instead of “mono”. With the presence of the Dutch invaders, combined with the distance from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, which were quite far away, we ended up with this very interesting breeding ground for culture. Your question is asked every day in Brazil, particularly by cariocas and paulistas [people from Rio and São Paulo, respectively], and everybody is trying to understand how such cultural strength came to being.

new way of looking at Brazilian film, not just in relation to the “commercial side” but also to the “prestigious side”. It was very interesting that we got them to support ‘Aquarius’, you know why? No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me! ‘Aquarius’ is going to show on prime time Brazilian television, on Globo’s open channel. This is unheard of for such a long and non-commercial movie. For me that’s diversity. Film is a weapon for change, for denunciation, and you made good use of that in Cannes, when you held signs denouncing the Brazilian coup d’état on the famous red carpet. Can you tell us a little bit about the retaliation you have experienced since? And would you do it again? If I had a time machine I could go back to May last year, I would have done exactly what we did. We as Brazilian citizens just did a very simple protest expressing our opinion about what was happening in Brazil. We were thinking of what’s happening right now back then. We had no choice but to quietly say: “this is wrong!” We had a lot of support for what we did, but also a lot of attacks, particularly on social media. But this also brought attention to my movie. They tried to boycott it, which made it even bigger.

Globo is everywhere in Brazil: on print, the Internet, television and also in cinema, including your film [which was produced by Globo Filmes]. Do you think that it’s healthy for cinema, television and so on to be under purview of one single, extremely powerful organisation?

The biggest Brazilian filmmakers of the past 20 years have all embraced an international career, including Walter Salles with ‘Motorcycle Diaries’ (2004), Fernando Meirelles with ‘The Constant Gardener’ (2005) and José Padilha with ‘RoboCop’ (2014). Will you be doing the same?

It’s not healthy at all. This is a huge discussion in Brazil right now. We need diversity of criticism and of points-ofview. Globo has historically, since the 1960s, dominated the media in Brazil, particularly in television. They have found ways of becoming even more diverse with the Internet and cable television. Now the power of Globo is being questioned through the Internet and social media, Netflix, Facebook and YouTube. At least now we can see some change in Globo’s outreach.

I’m open to possibilities, but it’s not like I dream of making a film in Hollywood.

What kind of changes? People attention is being diverted to YouTube, Netflix (which is incredibly strong in Brazil) and so on. Plus people make their own programming. And how does that affect the film industry? We have an interesting relation with Globo Filmes because I have always been their vocal critic. At the time of ‘Neighbouring Sounds’, I had a major fall out with their president Cadu Rodrigues. But now they have a completely

So you won’t be remaking ‘RoboCop’ yet again for us then? I would never in my life remake a film that I love, I just don’t see the point. And I absolutely love ‘RoboCop’ [the 1987 original by Paul Verhoven]. But, you know, good luck to… well, you know what I’m talking about! [at this stage, it’s worthwhile pointing out that José Padilha, who remade ‘RoboCop’, is one of the very few filmmakers in Brazil who supported the 2016 coup d’état]. If I make an interesting discovery in a book or a script then of course I would consider making a film abroad. But I would never make a film for some big shot just for the sake of making money. I wouldn’t do something that’s purely industrial and not personal at all. Victor Fraga is a Brazilian born and London-based writer with more than 15 years of involvement in the cinema industry and beyond. This interview was originally published at www.dmovies.org g

May 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk

brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

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identifies Márcio Pochmann. For this reason, the rejection of the State by the poor population would be more in line with the ideals of anarchism than with those of neoliberalism.

CHURCHES Another finding of the research is that the absence of the State, previously filled by the actions of unions, social movements and left-wing parties in the periphery, has been supplied by neo-Pentecostal churches. And not for nothing, Pochmann observes. “These churches do an important job of offering services; offer the possibility of sociability in the peripheries. They provide assistance to unstructured families, and address the desires of this population.” But despite the still precarious living conditions, the peripheral population does not identify the advances it made, especially in the decade 2004-2014, with public inclusion policies such as ProUni and Fies, which opened the door to higher education for the poorest; My House, My Life, which fulfilled the dream of home for many people; More Doctors, who took basic health care to orphan communities, among other actions? For Marcio Pochmann, yes, there is this recognition; however, the population of the peripheries lacked a greater sense of involvement in the process, of belonging to such policies. “It is public policies that have been made for the poor, not with the poor,” he says. “The poor have been a passive part of these policies,” he adds.

The enemy that should have been an ally A new study indicates that the population on the periphery of São Paulo sees the state as an adversary, because it returns the taxes paid with services “below their needs” By Wagner de Alcântara Aragão

A qualitative survey whose results were released at the end of March shows that the population on the outskirts of São Paulo knows almost nothing, does not get involved, and cares little about the political polarization that has arisen in Brazil after the 2014 elections; and still has the mass media as the main source of information and sees the State as an “adversary”, an “enemy”. The research – “Perceptions and political values in the peripheries of São Paulo” – was conducted by the Perseu Abramo Foundation, linked to the Workers Party (PT), whose origin, almost 40 years ago, is precisely based on the working class living in peripheral neighbourhoods of São Paulo and metropolitan region. The study also shows that, instead of political parties and social movements, it is the Pentecostal churches that have taken the position of catalyzing the desires of the poorest population of the metropolis of São Paulo. Professor and economist Marcio Pochmann, president of the Perseu Abra-

mo Foundation, stresses that the people of the periphery do not see the state as an “enemy” in the perspective of neoliberals, that is, the poorest population is not essentially against the State role in the society. “It is not that the population understands the State as an ‘enemy’ in the sense of considering that, with the absence of the State, life will improve [as the neoliberals defend]. The population criticizes the State, but it is not a criticism in the neoliberal vision. It is an awareness that [the poorest population] receives services from the State that are below their needs,” Pochmann explains in an interview with the Brasil Observer. For the professor, “there are elements of rationality” in this criticism. “They [the residents of the periphery] are the users of public transportation, public health... They know the State by the police [and their truculent action in the neediest neighbourhoods]. They know how to identify the problems”, emphasizes the economist.

POLITICS According to Pochmann’s analysis, the damaged image of politics and politicians is transferred to the image of the State as well. It is worth mentioning that episodes such as the so-called “Fachin List” – a reference to the names of eight ministers of Michel Temer government, the last four former presidents, 42 federal deputies and 29 senators placed under judicial investigation by the Operation Lava Jato reporter in the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Edson Fachin – further contribute to the demonization of politics. Moreover, according to the professor and economist, the researched population has difficulty distinguishing spheres of government and instances from the three branches of the Republic, and their attributions and responsibilities. Thus, everything is, for the public consulted, “government”, and thus “State”. There is, therefore, dissatisfaction with the State in general, with “governments”, a contestation similar to that of the anarchists,

REFORMS Pochmann’s interview with Brasil Observer was given days before the general strike that stopped the country on April 28 against labour and pension reforms. The economist says that the research did not address this issue with the public consulted; however, for the professor, it is possible to perceive that the Brazilian population, dissatisfied with the Michel Temer government, increasingly tends to mobilize against the measures that Dilma Rousseff ’s successor has imposed on the country – with the approval of the absolute majority of the Congress and with clear support from the mainstream media. In the professor’s view, there is still a need for more intense mobilization against labour reform, as it is already happening against pension reform. The strategy adopted by the Temer government was different for each of the “reforms”, and this, Pochmann argues, has focused attention on proposals for pension changes. “The pension reform was whole in a package for Parliament. The population got to know what it was. Labour reform, however, consisted of only four changes. In the Chamber of Deputies, changes were included that in practice reconstitute labour legislation. It was a government strategy. This made it difficult for the workers to identify themselves with the proposed changes,” the economist explains.

PERCEPTIONS ON THE PERIPHERY Some of the findings of the research carried out by the Perseu Abramo Foundation on the outskirts of the city of São Paulo: The formulation and debate on politics take place superficially and still according to the agenda defined by the mainstream media. g Words that limit the fields and are even used pejoratively in political disputes (‘conservative’ versus ‘progressive’) do not inhabit the imaginary of this population. g There is confusion in the federal, state and municipal spheres. It is not easy to define the functions of each. The tendency is that all that concerns the concrete experience in the city be charged of the prefectures and what concerns to more macro and abstract questions, for the Presidency of the Republic, exempting the state government. g The split between the working class and the bourgeoisie also does not permeate the imagination of the interviewees. g For the interviewees, the main confrontation in society is not between rich and poor, between capital and labour, between corporations and workers. The great confrontation takes place between State and citizens, between society and its rulers. g There is a strong desire for visibility and personal appreciation; they want to have a ‘place in the world’: ‘social ascension’ is important in the process of differentiation. g On the road to ascension, stability is needed: risks of ruptures, chaos, threats bother and tend to be rejected. g

Comments:

It is worth noting that this is a qualitative rather than a quantitative study, that is, there are no statistical indicators. The research was carried out through two complementary techniques: in-depth interviews and focus groups, exposing the interviewees to a set of predetermined themes, capturing the understanding, perception and values present in the public opinion regarding these subjects, as well as the narrative structure built around them.

May 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk

brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

Prejudice and bureaucracy: the life of Venezuelan migrants in Northern Brazil About 30,000 Venezuelans have arrived in Roraima since the beginning of 2016, according to state government data By Rodrigo Borges Delfim g Frontier area between Brazil and Venezuela Rodrigo Borges Delfim

Today there are thousands of Venezuelans living in Roraima, a state in northern Brazil that has become a refuge for people fleeing Venezuela’s economic crisis. As officials in Roraima complain about a lack of support from the federal government, migrants say they’ve experienced prejudice from local Brazilians, and suffered under the state’s bureaucracy. “We’re not here to play around. We are cursed because we speak Spanish. We suffer discrimination because we are Venezuelan,” says Merlina Ferreira, a psychologist who has been living in Roraima’s capital city Boa Vista for a year. She is one of the 30,000 Venezuelans who have settled in Roraima since early 2016, according to the state government. This wave of migrants includes indigenous Warao people, the second largest indigenous ethnic group in Venezuela. Many of these people survive by selling their wares or begging for money in the streets. Large numbers of displaced Venezuelans have come to the border town of Pacaraima, which neighbours the Venezuelan town Santa Elena de Uairén, and they’ve arrived in Boa Vista. Many of these people have no access to permanent shelter, and must sleep in the open. The migrants haven’t gone unnoticed in the Brazilian media, where you can find reports about displays of both solidarity and prejudice from the local population. In March, to understand the situation, the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office sent 40 representatives from different government agencies and NGOs to Roraima. The delegation had people from all across Brazil. “We must have a humanitarian perspective, but we also need to go deeper, as these people are the subjects of rights. Solutions can’t just be short-term; we must think of solutions that are permanent,” said Federal Prosecutor João Akira Omoto, who led the delegation. For three days, the delegation spoke to migrants and officials from numerous local and state agencies, also visiting a temporary shelter outside Boa Vista, before stopping in the town of Paracaima (where there is no shelter for migrants). At the end of the mission, the Prosecutor’s Office held a public hearing with migrants and authorities. Both the city administration of Boa Vista and the state government of Roraima complained about a lack of resources. State officials argued that this was an issue for the federal government, also complaining that migrants were arriving without the proper documents. In fact, indigenous migrants from Venezuela typically don’t carry papers of any kind. “I can’t register irregular migrants in our healthcare system. Without this registration I can’t get more funding and so I risk providing medical care

to others. We don’t have the resources to take charge of healthcare for them,” the attorney-general from Boa Vista, Marcela Medeiros, told. “What we’re doing is humanitarian aid,” said Suely Campos, governor of Roraima. “We won’t leave women and children vulnerable in the street. Because there is an indigenous component to this, the question is even more profound. That’s why we want the federal government to help us.”

THE CRIME SCARE Locals haven’t been thrilled about the influx of migrants, who often crowd public squares to sell wares and beg for money. Local police say the rush of migrants has led a spike in thefts, robberies, and homicides, though studies are necessary before this correlation can be fully understood. Prosecutor José Gladston Viana Correia, one of the delegates, cautioned local officials against rushing to any conclusion about the rising crime rate. “We need data to prove whether it’s true,” he stated. Federal Prosecutor João Akira Omoto echoed this sentiment, saying, “the federal police have found no record of criminal activities by Venezuelans up to December 2016 in Roraima. It’s necessary that this information is clarified. What is being publicized doesn’t match the official records.” According to Gustavo da Frota Simões, a professor of International Relations at the Federal University of Roraima, alarming crime statistics reported by the media in an environment of fear can help create a sensation that Venezuelans are “invading” Brazil. “The way local newspapers cover the Venezuelan migration reveals a lack of understanding of the issue and xenophobia. The immigrant, or ‘the Venezuelan,’ is always ‘the author of the crime’ – the one who causes increase in prostitution, drug abuse, and other woes,” Simões says. Simões says he believes the problems mentioned by the authorities existed long before the influx of Venezuelan immigrants: “The way I see it, this state of emergency is being used as an excuse by local authorities to negotiate public debts and receive more funds, as well as to justify faults that have happened since before the arrival of the Venezuelans.” Firsthand accounts of prejudice and discrimination were widespread among the 50 or so Venezuelan migrants who attended the public hearing at an auditorium of the Federal University of Roraima, in Boa Vista. “We’re not a problem. The situation in our country is very difficult, that’s why we’re here,” said a Venezuelan man named Bruno Florian. “We want to be part of the solution. We suffer a lot with discrimination. The women are all labelled ‘prostitutes,’” added another man named Freiomar Villena.

LEGAL LIMBO While Venezuelans can freely enter Brazil with their ID cards, those who intend to settle and work in the country experience difficulties when it comes to obtaining documents like the employment record book (Carteira de Trabalho), which allows foreigners to seek legal employment. Many Venezuelans have to settle instead for the legal limbo of filing and waiting for an asylum request. In Brazil, while they wait for their application to be processed, asylum seekers are eligible for documents like a social security number, passport, and the employment record book. The review process itself can take months or years. In the meantime, migrants can work and reside freely in the country, while accessing all public services. According to Conare, the National Agency for Refugees (the agency responsible for asylum applications), the number of requests from Venezuelans skyrocketed from 341 in 2015 to 2,230 last year. Foreigners qualify as refugees if they can prove they have suffered persecution or violation of human rights in their home country, and Brazilian officials say most Venezuelans don’t fulfil those requirements. Last year, Conare granted refugee status to only five Venezuelans. To circumvent this obstacle, Brazilian’s National Council for Immigration (CNIg) recently allowed anyone to enter the country by land to request “temporary residence,” if they are from countries with which Brazil doesn’t have bilateral free-residency agreements. To take advantage of this program, however, individuals must pay R$ 400 per head. Migrants without such means can also hope that Brazil’s National Congress will pass a new bill on migration that’s now under consideration. The legislation would expand the provision of humanitarian visas (currently only granted to Syrians and Haitians) to include Venezuelans. Meanwhile, Brazil’s local authorities are doing what they can to address the needs of their communities and their newest arrivals. During the public hearing near Boa Vista, several officials admitted their mistakes in trying to provide assistance to migrants, and promised to do better. “Our expectation is that a joint effort happens and that public entities really respond to civil society,” Ana Carolina Bragança, a prosecutor in Roraima, who also helped organize the public audience, told Migramundo.

Rodrigo Borges Delfim is editor of the Migramundo website. This article was originally published at www.globalvoices.org

Venezuelan migrants and indigenous people meet with delegates from the mission organized by Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN VENEZUELA? Dictatorship is the word many Venezuelans use to describe the last few months of political turmoil, which reached a peak on March 30, when the Supreme Court of Justice effectively nullified the National Assembly. The move sparked protests and caused international outrage. Some described it as a “self-inflicted” coup. For many Venezuelans, it was confirmation that their country had lost any semblance of democracy. The Supreme Court assumed the role of the National Assembly and permitted President Nicolas Maduro to take over some of the functions of the legislature, but this was short-lived – the court reversed course days later, after President Maduro asked it to reconsider its decision. Despite the reinstatement of the National Assembly, organizations inside and outside the country are not content. Protesters continue to mobilize almost daily, even when confronted with police aggression. To the casual observer reading headlines in international media, Venezuela has grappled with a crisis for the last several years, and the Supreme Court’s short-lived ruling is just the latest development. However, Venezuela doesn’t have one crisis. It has many crises, all of which are interconnected and affecting ordinary Venezuelans. The first is political. The late Hugo Chávez, who died in 2013, handpicked President Nicolás Maduro as his successor. Maduro says he is trying to further Chávez’s socialist Bolivarian Revolution, which was meant to bring democracy to the people and alleviate the high levels of poverty. But Maduro has not commanded public support and respect at the level of his predecessor. Amid a three-year economic crisis and record levels of violent crime and poverty, Maduro’s popularity has dipped to its

lowest point. He also has been accused of using authoritarian methods to stop dissent. His government has suppressed protests, censored the press and curtailed free expression. Opponents, critics and journalists whose reporting puts the government in a negative light face imprisonment. Some have gone into self-imposed exile. Others have simply gone silent. Maduro’s administration has been marked by a deep economic crisis. The country is dependent on its oil revenues, but oil prices have fallen in recent years, and the system has not been able to compensate for these losses. Venezuela’s inflation rate, which has been over 50% since 2014, reached 800% at the end of 2016 and continues to rise. Meanwhile, currency controls have limited imports, putting a strain on supply. The government controls the price of basic goods, but the black market still has a powerful influence on prices. Prices on basic goods can soar in days, and the national currency can weaken with the same speed. The food insecurity can been seen in the long lines inside and outside supermarkets and the attempts to cross the border to buy basic goods. Venezuela also suffers a health crisis, which is one of the most turbulent debates taking place inside the South American country at present. A shortage of medicines and the poor condition of facilities, as well as the marginalization of indigenous communities, has had deadly consequences. Violence has also spiked in the last decades. Venezuela’s murder rate is among the highest in the world. Despite efforts like these to improve the situation, the challenging reality has pushed waves of Venezuelans to leave the country. Meanwhile in the political arena, each party blames the other while these crises only worsen.

May 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk

brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

Many women inhabit

Cora Coralina By Vitor Nuzzi g

Reproduction

Play in São Paulo tells the trajectory of the Brazilian writer

Ana Lins dos Guimarães Peixoto Bretas was the baptismal name of Cora Coralina, “red heart”, writer, poetess, sweet maker, engaged in solidarity with the disinherited of society, who died on April 10, 1985, close to her 96th birthday. Last April, on the eve of her 32-year death, a play in São Paulo – where she lived for 45 years – told a bit about this woman born in Goiás, seeking to recreate the environment in which she lived, with live making of sweets and the presence of Vicência Bretas Tahan, the youngest daughter of Cora. Vicência, the only living child, is a retired teacher. ‘Cora Dentro de Mim – Plantando Roseiras & Fazendo Doces’ (Cora Inside Me – Planting Roses & Making Sweets) is the name of the show presented by the actress and writer from Brazil’s Northern State of Maranhão, Lília Diniz. It’s been 17 years on road, seen by 10,000 people. The story begins with the poem ‘Todas as Vidas’ (All the Lives), given to Lilia by a friend who had visited the Cora museum in the city of Goiás. Fascinated, she walked with the text for three years in her purse. One day she transformed it into a song – and began to enter the universe of Cora. “What brought me closer to Cora was the simplicity of the verses, although very deep, and the passionate way she speaks of her people, the simple things of life,” says the actress, who lives in the Federal District. “Until then, I did not know her warrior side, the fights. Only after reading the book of Vicência (‘Cora Coragem, Cora Poesia’) did I encounter another Cora, I changed the way I interpreted her poems.” Many women are Cora, in the face of prejudice, in the struggle for independence. “By taking on the defence of prostitutes, laundresses, obscure women, she stands on an equal footing,” says Lilia. “It serves as a mirror so that other women can face the other forms of violence that we have been facing throughout our lives. These women inhabit Cora, as these women inhabit so many other women who go to the fight.”

POPULAR CULTURE From the countryside of Maranhão, she learned to read with cordel literature. She also had encouragement from her grandmother. The distraction of childhood was listening to the radio. “I have been involved in artistic issues since I was little, with presentations in the church, in the school, the theatre movement in Rio Grande do Norte, parodies, theatre texts,” recalls Lilia. “When I arrived in Brasilia, I already had this contact with literature and popular culture.” She speaks with admiration of Cora, of her posture when facing prejudices, of the involvement in political and artistic movements, like the Week of Modern Art of 1922, her participation in social causes. “At age 15, she was already

attending meetings, representing women. She escapes with the love of her life, Cantídio (to São Paulo; he was an older and divorced man, with whom she would marry in 1925). She serves as a mirror so that other women can face the other forms of violence.” The set up of the show was slow, began with ‘Todas as Vidas’ and started to add fragments of poems and short stories. It maintained elements such as the kitchen, where during the presentation is made a banana candy. “The show had some changes, and that’s probably why it’s been moving me, I’m still in love with it,” says Lilia, who currently directs the show. In the scene, she is accompanied by two musicians, Léo Terra Oliveira and Maísa Arantes de Amorim. “It has a lot to do with the memory I have of my mother, with the women who have their work in the kitchen, the conversations. People report a lot that they remember the grandmother, the aunt from the countryside...,” says the actress. Lilia says, laughing, that she did not get to experience the sweets made by Cora herself, called “sublime and divine” by Jorge Amado in 1975. “Many people who have tasted said the sweets were wonderful. She would sell them and take the opportunity to recite a poem to sell the book.”

WITHOUT GIVING UP For the creator of the show, probably for making a “class choice”, Cora has been despised by the Brazilian elite. Difficulties in childhood may have served as a stimulus to her later social engagement, her choice for the marginalized. “The option may have to do with her own sufferings in the pursuit of affirmation as a woman, a writer, a thinker,” believes Lilia, commenting, however, that even in the face of difficulties Cora was always optimistic and did not complain. “This is one of the strongest images I have of her: the one who does not surrender and goes to action,” she says. She also believes that there is still a lack of knowledge about the work of Cora Coralina, including a part of the academy. Lilia tells the story of a few years ago, after making a presentation at a federal university. One director complained later of the expenses to perform a play on a “little writer.” “There is a lot of prejudice; a lot of people do not dwell on her work.” But the present time is even more propitious for this, for poetry. “We live in hard times, difficult times, denial of a series of rights, attacks on the working class. Poetry has this ability to make us reflect, to perceive beauty even in the face of chaos, even in the face of fear. Of perceiving the poetics of life,” she reflects. You can search for outputs. “It’s enough for us to observe, realize and go do what has to be done.”

Article originally published by Rede Brasil Atual (www.redebrasilatual.com.br) g

May 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk

brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

TIPS

MUSIC

EXHIBITION

Nina Miranda goes tropical in ‘Freedom of Movement’ Regina Mester

Rooted in a deep sense of open-spirited community, ‘Freedom of Movement’ is Nina Miranda’s debut album (to be released by Six Degrees Records on May 26) and features contributors from around the globe, with core band members coming from London’s Ibibio Sound Machine. From late-’90s trip-hop landmarks with Smoke City, Mark Pritchard’s Trouble Man project, to guesting on Nitin Sawhney’s concerts and albums, Nina has long embraced the free-flowing exchange of collaboration. An intricate, multi-faceted patchwork of the people and places that excite her, ‘Freedom of Movement’ stands as a rebuttal to the restrictive, negative forces she sees prevailing over the world in 2017. Nina Miranda has spent most of her life living between Brazil and London, and this hotly awaited solo album is bursting with the dissonance and freedom of her experience. Reminiscent of the flamboyant, nimble songbird that haunts the lowland forests of eastern Brazil – a ‘scarlet tanager’ – Nina migrates between musical continents with a fluency and originality that is totally immersive. The result is a record that resonates with the glorious genre-hopping hybridity that her fans have come to relish over the years. Nina’s first recording was when she was on her art foundation course at Middlesex University, her neighbour was a young Nigel Godrich (Radiohead), using his downtime at Rak Studios. Later that year she joined the Sweatmouth collective of rappers, singers, DJs and musicians who released two EPs to great critical acclaim, played by DJs Gilles Peterson and Patrick Forge, who finally tracked her down when she swapped London streets for those of Rio de Janeiro. Nina says she found her sound by “intertwining the threads of her languages and cultures, the light and the shade of her continents and moods, the hip-hop and the bossa, the ska and the dub.” Haverstock school-friend and DJ of the Camden scene, Marc Brown, enjoyed her recordings and live shows with Sweatmouth so much that he tailor-made a song for Nina, who recorded the words “This must be underwater love…” on first hearing the deep, trippy, dubby sensuous music, “channelling the Amazon river, Brazilian novelas, a french chanteuse” and her imminent return to the land of her roots. Whilst Nina was living in Rio, a 12” of ‘Underwater Love’ rippled across the mu-

sic scene, with many major labels courting the band. Nina returned to the UK to make the first Smoke City album with Marc, multi-instrumentalist Chris Franck, and producer-writer Patrick Forge on Devil Mood. Their hits, (with the help of Michel Gondry Levi’s advert in 1997, entitled ‘Mermaids’), created a worldwide sensation, and paved the way for a new cross-cultural, genre-defying, underground to overground pop-sensibility. Nina later joined Da Lata and became lead singer of the bands Shrift and Zeep. An integral member of the Trip Hop, Electronica, Brazilian and World Music scenes of the nineties, noughties and to date, she has collaborated with numerous artists. These include Nitin Sawhney, Basement Jaxx, Bebel Gilberto, Jah Wobble, Nação Zumbi, Baaba Maal, Troubleman, Seu Jorge and Gilles Peterson. Nina’s music has been used on film and television soundtracks worldwide, resulting in a cult following of fans who will be thrilled to see her stepping out solo with this voluminous, passionate offering of plurality and wonder.

THE ALBUM ‘Freedom of Movement’ showcases a confection of influences: traditional rhythms of Bahia are juxtaposed with urban bass-lines, the atmosphere of 1970s Santana & Osibisa is channelled along with the valorous grooves of Earth Wind & Fire and Sly & Robbie, the free spirit of les dames Grace Jones and Rita Lee, the swing of The Specials and the urban bite of Ian Dury & The Blockheads. This solo outing also shows its political teeth, with conscious lyrics that warn against complacency, a galvanic call to action at this crucial time in our collective history. Get me out of the cage! The muscle-bound chorus of focus track ‘The Cage’ is part of an anthem that urges us to break free of the chains that bind – ideological and physical – alternately shaking and entreating the listener with shamanic glee. Born out of what Miranda describes as a “Meat Loaf epiphany” as she walked up a paved hill (“he just appeared in a little cloud in the sky”, she says, “his ringed-fingers beckoning as he sang the chorus to me”), the

song was recorded first in Rio with celebrated musicians Kassin and Domenico Lancelotti. That recording, says Nina, “was like jumping off a mountain and power-gliding through different atmospheres together, we just kept on the same slipstream and went with all the twists and turns.” She then took the song back to London and worked in her home studio, editing, arranging and recording the voice of Chico Cesar with strings and percussion, including Bahia’s Peu Meurray’s recycled tyre-drums. Then to the studio of Ibibio Sound Machine massive for Horns, BVs and keys. ‘The Cage’ and ‘The Garden’ were recorded as one epic journey, “main-course and desert, war and peace’”, but have been made separable on the album with an inaudible marker. In ‘Marshmellow Dreams’, the surrealist soundscape that comes from working with long-time collaborator and former partner Chris Franck is a dream pill for the subconscious, with Ninas’s iconic vocal dancing a light footstep over Franck’s inventive, plush instrumentation. “We made certain to keep it fresh and floating,” says Nina. “Untethered to the ground by anchors or ropes, choruses or verses, it was a very deliberate choice.” The ‘Whole of London’, a duet written with songwriter Antony Elvin sets his haunting vocals, reminiscent of Scott Walker at his most melancholy romantic, against the questioning realism of Nina’s words. “It began as a song we wrote fifteen years ago,” she says, “discussing the days of singledom when we were young, when we never knew if we were going to regret the one that got away.” Now it is reimagined for her, she says, conjuring up images of post-Brexit Britain. “Grey streets void of colour, music and culture. Cold eel pie being sucked up by sad lips and flat beer trying to wash down all the disappointment, loneliness and regret.” ‘Silken Horse’ is a heady cinematic synthesis of accomplished afro-rhythms and poetry with percussionist Anselmo Netto and legendary guitarist Kari Bannermam. The Lennon/MCartney cover ‘Julia’ brings particular pleasure to Nina, not least because of her childhood love of The Beatles, but also because she sings it with her own sister Julia in mind, pronouncing the name in both their mother’s English and their father’s Brazilian accent. With ‘Freedom of Movement’, Nina Miranda marks herself out as a singular talent, and her international edge is more crucial than ever. On this record, this bird really does fly.

‘Rio Diaries’, drawings by Paulo Mariotti A newspaper columnist and a playwright were going downtown. It is their routine route. Even so the columnist stops the car in front of the Sugar Loaf and exclaims: “have you ever seen a more extraordinary view?” His friend answers: “this is the howling obvious!” forging the expression that would become to cariocas (Rio-dwellers) and to Brazilians in general the best way to describe what cannot be questioned. The contours of the city are irresistible to those who are adept with lines and colours. Travellers on the various expeditions from the 19 century depicted from every angle the group of mountains that shape the city. The free forms of the slabs and curved walls in Niemeyer’s buildings were inspired by the city where he was born. But others have also been enchanted by the streets and day-today scenes of life in Rio. Paulo Mariotti was born in Bahia, has lived in São Paulo, and today lives and works in Paris. He likes to make portraits of the places with which he has established an affectionate relationship. Rio has conquered him and there is little chance it will be supplanted. Maybe the years lived in Paris have made him a sensitive and meticulous flâneur. His scenes of life in Rio are built upon delicate details that reveal the spirit of the city: the proud-of-his-job and kind look in the eyes of the waiter at the Albamar; the girl from Leblon that comes and goes, and the lazy end of the afternoon at Praia Vermelha. Paulo uses blue ballpoint pen on Canson paper, which hints at the tiles that used to colour the façades of the colonial city, and when he depicts the Sugar Loaf he chooses to have in the foreground the view of the landing strip of the smallest airport to serve a big city in the world. Santos Dumont

Airport provides the first sensation of the city. From there on, Paulo Mariotti will take our hand and show us Rio.

PAULO MARIOTTI Born in Bahia, Paulo Mariotti graduated with a degree in graphic arts at FAAP, in São Paulo. In 1991 he moved to Paris where he continued his studies at the Sorbonne. Since then the artist has lived and worked in the French capital. Paulo Mariotti started his professional life in France as a story-boarder for long and short feature films. In 1999 he migrated to editorial and publicity illustration, developing at the same time a career as a journalist in France and Brazil. In 2000 he started to work as a correspondent of Vogue Brasil in Paris, contributing to the printed and online versions of the magazine. Since 2012, he has also worked as a correspondent of the Brazilian news channel Globo News. Lately he has shared his time between illustration and journalism. As an illustrator he has, apart from his publicity assignments, also signed a monthly column for 15 years in the French design magazine IDEAT. In 2010 he published in France his first book, a collection of his illustrations made for the press. In 2013 he launched his second, ‘Aqui – Crônicas Cariocas’ (Here – Rio Diaries). Published by BEI Editora the work brings together most of the drawings whose originals are being exhibited at Sala Brasil, in the Embassy of Brazil in London. When: 5 – 24 May, 10am – 6pm Where: Embassy of Brazil, 14-16 Cockspur Street, London SW1Y 5BL Entrance: Free Info: www.londres.itamaraty.gov.br

May 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk

brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

Columnists Ramiro Silveira

FRANKO FIGUEIREDO

An energetic blend of stylized madness: ‘Turmoil’ by Jô Bilac is back in London

Penned by Jô Bilac and produced by Dendê Collective, Turmoil is back in London for four performances at Battersea Library as part of the Wandsworth Arts Fringe Festival. Billed as a South-American Jane Austen-esque surreal tragicomedy, this Dendê Collective production takes you into a world of mysterious deaths, fatal diseases, family bickering and a blind goat that steals everyone’s hearts. This is the second play Jô Bilac has written for his company Teatro Independente. Bilac was inspired by his godmother who lived in an apartment in the Humaitá borough, in Rio de Janeiro. He says “during the period I lived in her house, she raised a goat inside the apartment. I found it strange. Once it was fully grown, the goat disappeared. Then, when I was older, I realised that the goat was sacrificed in a ritual... I wanted to talk about this transposition of affection that reveals our human paradox, mixing noble, sublime feelings with obsessions, horror.” Jô Bilac describes himself as a “carioca fascinated by plants and cats. I have written many texts on the beaches, in Internet cafés. The city of Rio, a paradox of beauty and horror, has always been a reference, comprising the characters within its own paradoxes.” Refreshin-

HELOISA RIGHETTO

Sorority for real

Heloisa Righetto is a journalist and writes about feminism (@helorighetto – facebook.com/conexaofeminista) g

gly, he is unashamed to admit that he comes from a bourgeois, upper middle class family from the borough of Urca in Rio, “…which consumed art as entertainment. And that meant unbridled consumption as a way to placate the emptiness of their own lives.” As I read his plays I can see how much that has influenced his work. Full of puzzles and oddities, Turmoil is indeed a paradox; the writing mixes melodrama and nineteenth century literature clichés with contemporary elements and symbolism that remind us of Lorca, Theatre of the Absurd and Surrealism. André Pink’s direction accentuates these contrasting elements with a mishmash of styles from Flamenco to tap-dancing; from over the top melodramatic acting to Commedia inspired movement, Brecht like chapter punctuation to pastiche, the result is riveting and hilarious. Turmoil tells the story of Vladine, who has come to live with her brother and his wife Bianca due the mysterious death of her husband. Vladine has brought her beloved Nathaniel, a blind goat, with her. Matias’ growing attachment to the goat and Vladine ridiculous demands on the household pushes Bianca into desperate actions with unconventional consequences. Chaos ensues as Bianca declares war

on Vladine and the goat. Who will win the final battle? Vladine? Bianca? Matias? Or Nathaniel, the goat? in an interview conducted by Dendê Collective, Bilac explains that he was “interested in the meaning we attach to signs, through our own understanding of the world. In the case of the goat, it’s a powerful animal, who was worshiped as a god and Christianity demonized the poor creature which began to be associated with the figure of the devil himself, with evil. The horns, the blindness of the eyes, the moon, it’s all nature; the human mind is responsible for mythicizing nature in a quest for the understanding human nature itself. Nathaniel comes from ‘Natal’: Christmas, birth. But it’s not from him that the obsession of Bianca, Matias and Vladine is born. He serves as a scapegoat for everyone in the house, who place this role on him.” These interests and encounters paid off beautifully as in Turmoil, Bilac’s writing are inspirational, witty and captivating. Bilac spent his formative years going back and forward from Madrid to Brazil. He says he spent his childhood in a gipsy community and believes that his intercontinental upbringing helped him better understand what brings us together as human beings, “because be it

Asia, Europe, America... man is always there, and within him the skull and the blood, growing, developing and dying.” Turmoil was first presented as a staged reading back in 2015 and has since developed into two drafts before it premiered as a full production earlier this year at the Courtyard Theatre. The original team included Alejandro de Mesa Palau as Nathaniel, Najla Kay as Vladine, Paula Rodriguez as Bianca and Paul Sebastian Mauch as Matias. For the Festival, Pink himself has joined the cast as Matias, Fernanda Mandagará has taken over the role of Vladine, Bianca is now played by Ciara Molloy and Bryn Mitchell plays Nathaniel. Live musicians accompany the actors: Ella Bellsz on the accordion, Birte Widmann on flute and Tom Baulling on the guitar. Turmoil is an energetic concoction of stylized madness performed by a talented international cast. Get a ticket now, you will be in for a fabulous treat!

The campaign #MexeuComUmaMexeuComTodas (something like: you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us), which create a support network to fashion designer Su Tonani, who came forward regarding several harassment episodes by famous Brazilian actor José Mayer, is one of the most recent examples of sorority. Other female employees of the same TV channel (Rede Globo), as well as thousands of people on social media, quickly declared their support to Su. This led to Mayer’s admission of guilt and subsequent suspension. This specific case is proof of the power of collectiveness, but unfortunately it’s an exception. Thousands of victims have no one to ask for help and find themselves alone when they most need. When a woman says she was abused or is suffering any kind of sexist violence, our duty is to support her unconditionally. It doesn’t matter if she considers herself a feminist or not. Sorority doesn’t mean that we should let go of our individuality, but to see beyond that and acknowledge that all women are oppressed – although oppression happens in many levels (remember intersectionality?). To lend your support, to listen, to offer your help to another woman is not a matter of mutual sympathy, but empathy.

Exercendo o poder pessoal

TURMOIL by JÔ BILAC When: 5, 6, 12 & 13 May 2017, 7 PM Where: Battersea Library, London Entrance: £10 & £8 Info: www.wandsworthfringe.com

Franko Figueiredo is artistic director and associate producer of StoneCrabs Theatre Company

ces we might have.” Therefore we need to understand that sorority does not require eternal friendship, not even kinship, and even less agreement in social or political issues. Sorority, for instance, means acknowledging that Brazilian journalist Rachel Sheherazade (who is well known for her fascist opinions) was a victim of sexism when her boss, Silvio Santos, said on national television that she was hired to “be pretty and read the news”, even though she doesn’t seem to be bothered and has come forward to defend him. It means being aware that Prime Minister Theresa May (who hasn’t been helpful towards vulnerable women in the UK) is scrutinised in tabloid newspapers that see fit to write about her choice of clothing and objectify her body. Things like that would never happen to a male political leader. It means supporting women that breastfeed in public spaces, even though you don’t know them. It means respecting women’s choice not to have children, and do not see this decision as a critic to motherhood. It means asking the HR department to interview as many women as men for a new job position. It means trusting a woman that comes forward about harassment or any other gender-based violence or discrimination.

DANIELA BARONE SOARES

g g

There’s no true friendship between women. A woman is always gossiping about other woman. A female boss is worse than a male boss. Women dress to show off to other women. A female colleague is always after your job. All women are hitting on your husband. Women are drama queens. Women lie about harassment because they are vindictive. At some point in our lives, we all said one (or many; maybe all of them) of the sentences above. We don’t know exactly how, or exactly when, we were taught that women should not be trusted. Especially those that challenge gender roles and dare to be in public spaces. Female drivers? Danger! Female CEO? She’ll cry during an argument! A woman who doesn’t want to marry or have kids? Certainly hates all men and is planning to annihilate the entire male population so the world will be ruled by lesbians. It’s because of this axiom – which is a perfect fit for patriarchy, thanks very much – that a lot of people can’t stand the word that everyone is talking about right now: sorority. It’s not the first time I write about this word. In the column of edition 41 (August 2016), I wrote that “sorority allows empowered women to help others find empowerment, creating a huge support network that is bigger than any other differen-

Daniela Barone Soares is part of the Inner Space team (www.innerspace.org.uk)

Too many things around us can trigger a feeling of powerlessness. The evening news is full of examples of negative, stressful and distressing facts, which could bring fear, sadness or undermine our ability to feel empowered to take charge of our lives. What is self-empowerment? Here, we are considering it in terms of power over the self: the “inner power” which enables us to respond to situations from a grounded, positive and masterful position. In other words, the power over how we act, feel, speak and think. It’s about choice and having the inner power to follow one’s dreams. This is not about controlling others or having money, status or possessions. Recall a time you felt empowered. What were you doing? We feel empowered when we believe in our “self ” and in what we are doing. It is when we

feel strength, but not force. When we don’t, well, we find that the power just isn’t there. Check out: Am I doing what I wanted to do – and in the manner I want to do it? Am I moving towards it? Am I limiting myself? Do I know what my gift is and am I using it? How do we power up? Powering up is connected to the power of silence, as a silent mind is one that can see and think clearly. Check out: can you put a full stop to what you are thinking and allow the mind to become a still, deep and silent lake? Are you able to act from “inside out”, drawing from your inner wisdom, or are you just reacting to what happens externally? To make the mind silent takes practise. First, is to just to become aware of how un-silent the mind can be. Does your mind chatter all day long? Is it commenting on everything that is happe-

ning? What is the quality of this chatter? Often this chatter tends to be quite negative and repetitive. This just leaves us feeling drained and exhausted. Thoughts are seeds that grow into feelings. Ultimately, how we choose to think is down to us alone. We can continue with the negative chatter or choose to make it more empowering. Meditation is designed to help us dialogue with our self in an empowering way and transform our thoughts and feelings. It is simple, natural and practical. To be empowered is to live from the inside out. It is to consciously choose our thoughts, feelings and responses to life, rather than going through life just reacting to whatever is happening. It is to feel comfortable with ourselves and able to be authentic, whilst being in control.

May 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk

brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

BR TRIP

Chapada Diamantina: North-Eastern State of Bahia, in a mountainous region, almost every day

João Ramos/Bahiatursa

Cleide Isabel/Flickr

In the centre of Brazil’s

a world of beauty

new river basins belonging to Paraguaçu, Jacuípe and Rio de Contas are born. The water springs from

Gruta Lapa Doce Considered the third largest cave in the country, the Lapa Doce has an incredibly beautiful and accessible trail. During the trail you will have the company of various fruit trees and flowers that will leave your path more colourful. Once there, get ready to recognize shapes such as a chandelier, lion, frog, angel and even a nativity scene in the rocks. The most amazing part of your trip will be when your guide turns off all lanterns and lamps. At this point, take a deep breath and feel all the energy of the place. You will come out of there renovated.

the ridges, slide slowly through the vegetation and plummet in towering waterfalls, forming natural pools that are amazingly transparent.

look, you are faced with lush landscapes, blessed by

The terrain is considered difficult, with many rocks and, depending on the season, the sun can be disturbing. It will take you two hours just to arrive at the Cachoeira da Fumaça. Our advice: don’t get discouraged. Upon arrival, all your tiredness will disappear. The thin layer of water that falls through the wall seems to dance with the wind. The volume is so big and the high so great that the water seems to disappear before it even touches the ground. Try to go to a rock in the middle of the cliff, lay down, look down and enjoy one of the most beautiful views of the tour: the waterfall seen from above. To feel the peace of the whole place, sit back and simply admire the incredible design of the canyon.

mother nature. The Chapada houses numerous trails, beautifully shaped caves, a multitude of rivers and mountains, besides esoteric and alternative communities that show the sustainable side of the

find rare beauties such as multicoloured orchids and caves that have not been explored yet. The Chapada also invites you to venture through valleys and ridges, on horseback or in a canoe, climbing its rocks or jumping from waterfalls. By Visit Brasil | www.visitbrasil.com

Morro do Pai Inácio Morro do Pai Inácio is a synonym of charm, grandeur, beauty and of legends and mysteries. You will look around and see bromeliads, orchids, and cacti, vegetation found in improbable places, but understandable, since the scenario is so fascinating that it is almost unbelievable. Sit down at the Morro, feel its peaceful atmosphere, appreciate its landscape, breath the fresh air and prepare yourself to witness one of nature’s most beautiful spectacles: the sunset at the Morro do Pai Inácio. It’s unforgettable.

Chico Ferreira/Flickr

stone paths, you’ll also

João Ramos/Bahiatursa

National Park. Through

Cachoeira da Fumaça

Dimitry B./Flickr

is like this: wherever you

Fred Schinke/Flickr

Chapada Diamantina

Gruta da Torrinha If the subject is beauty and variety, you need to visit the Gruta da Torrinha. Instead of bromeliads and orchids, you will see canudos de gipsita with up to 60cm in length and flores de aragonita (similar to glass flowers). In fact, the second biggest “glass flower” in the world is at the Torrinha. These rare formations make it one of the most complete caves of the Chapada, considering the richness and diversity of their speleothems. Be sure to meet the famous and immense Salão Branco, the largest of Chapada, besides the rare helictites with “glass flowers” on their tip.

Poço Encantado and Poço Azul Caves with crystalline water wells that, when sunlight passes through, reveal an elusive turquoise waters that is amazing to watch. This is when you notice why the Poço Encantado (Enchanted Well) has this name. It is a thought-provoking exercise to discover where the rocks ends and the water begins, in this amazing and beautiful place, as sun rays transform the Poço Encantado into a mirror in which images are projected from the ceiling. Even with a depth varying from up to 61 meters, it is possible to see everything in its blue bottom, such as rocks and tree trunks that have been there for years. Be sure to enter its waters, the energy is impressive, and the fluctuation in the Poço Azul will be one of the most pleasurable sensations of your trip: you will be, in fact, plunged into the purest essence that we know as natural beauty.

May 2017 | brasilobserver.co.uk

brasilobserver.co.uk | May 2017

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