President Lula of Brazil blames crisis on 'white and blue-eyed'

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Times

arch 27, 2009
President Lula of Brazil blames crisis on 'white and blue-eyed'
Francis Elliott in São Paulo

Gordon Brown’s efforts to smooth a path to international agreement at next week’s G20 summit in London hit a bump in Brazil yesterday when he was told that the financial crisis was the fault of the “white and blue-eyed”.

President Lula da Silva of Brazil warned that there would be spicy discussions and “tough confrontation” next Wednesday as world leaders faced up to who should pay the costs of the banking crisis.

As Mr Brown looked on during a press conference, Mr Lula da Silva said that action was urgent since it would be intolerable for the poor — who were blameless for the collapse — to suffer the most from its effects.

“This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by the irrational behaviour of people who were white and blue-eyed, who before the crisis they looked like they knew everything about economics, but now have demonstrated they know nothing about economics,” he said, mocking the “gods of wisdom” who had been bailed out by the State.

“The part of humanity that is responsible should be the part that pays for the crisis,” he added.


Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5983430.ece

[Thrill]

1. Wow is that Lula or Hugo Chavez?

[Hosnon]

2. Racism is everywhere. nt.

[JerseygirlCT]

16. Unfortunately, very true

And our endless capacity as human beings for stupidity, too.

[EFerrari]

25. Lol. This reminds me of when a group of us English grads

went to two of our profs and asked them how we could put together a seminar on Toni Morrison. I still remember, they were standing on the first floor landing and they just looked at each other (two women, both blonde and at least one blue - eyed) and my mentor said, "Those old white men will let you do that when pigs fly".

lol

Of course, Morrison won the Nobel later that year and shortly after, she read in Berkeley and then, pigs flew. :)

[JerseygirlCT]

74. Fly pigs, fly! nt

[Enrique]

65. it's not racism imo

it's playing the race card, yes, however anyone feels about doing that.

But racism? Is Lula saying or suggesting that whites are inherently worse at economics? Is he playing on stereotypes of whites as being bad at economics?

No, he's introducing race into the discussion about the financial situation. Whether it should be there I don't know, but that's a discussion about playing the race card, not about racism.

[Hosnon]

80. Yes, his comments reasonably suggest that white individuals with blue eyes are

inherently worse at economics.

Assuming the existence of a causal relationship between skin color and behavior is racism. Correlation is not causation.

[EFerrari]

95. In order to take that view, you have to ignore the entire history of Latin America

as well as the ongoing struggle there by indigenous people for autonomy and against the predations of foreign, mostly European and American, capital. Maybe you can do that. There is no reason to expect Lula to do that.

[Hosnon]

107. Um, no. The entire history of Brazil notwithstanding, implying a causal

relationship between eye and skin color, and economic ability (or lack thereof) is racist. I don't expect people to not be racist...but I do expect people to condemn it (and certainly not to defend it).

And for what it's worth, I speak and read Brazilian Portuguese and have studied there (i.e., I'm not speaking from a place of complete ignorance with regard to Brazil).

[EFerrari]

109. And there you have it. You have to relegate the entire history of Brazil

to unimportance in order to reach your conclusion. Thank you for the illustration.

[Hosnon]

110. It's not unimportant, just not relevant to whether Lula's comment was racist. nt.

[EFerrari]

115. What about this statement by Gordon Brown?

End western control of IMF, World Bank: Britain

Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 27-Mar-2009 15:51 hrs

The World Bank Group building in Washington, DC. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown signaled he would support ending a six-decade-long gentlemen's agreement under which leadership of the World Bank and IMF has been divided up between Americans and Europeans.

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/310042.asp

Apparently, Brown not only disagrees with you but he thinks as I do that Lula has a good point!

[Hosnon]

116. Since when are Americans and Europeans only white skinned and blue eyed?

And what does the fact of being white skinned and blue eyed have to do, at all, with economic ability?

Please tell me which races are inherently good at economics so I can easily spot a good financial planner. (And which races are inherently bad so I can avoid them.)

[EFerrari]

117. Have a good night!

[Hosnon]

126. ? Oh well...thanks and you too. nt.

[malaise]

120. All the multilateral agencies have been controlled by

the West since they were set up after WW2. Lula is absolutely correct.
The rest of the world has been at the mercy of blue eyed bullies. Why anyone is debating this is beyond pointless.

[Judi Lynn]

112. I'll take a look for support for your claim. I'm not having much luck so far:

Not black & white

Has Brazil been able to create a racially integrated society? Some domestic and foreign observers would say so. But there is an increasing number of voices that dispute this. Recent polls have shown that while almost 90% of Brazilians say their society is racist only 10% admit having any racial prejudice. The lyrics of a song believed demeaning to blacks have provoked a national debate about racism and freedom of expression.

Rosemary Gund
To be Brazilian has always seemed to mean more than mere nationality. Brazilians like to define themselves as a real race -- the Brazilian race -- result of a mixture of other primary races such as African, Indian and white, this one being represented mainly by the Portuguese. This exotic hybrid was supposedly the origin to a self-proclaimed "racially integrated society", where there were no fundamental differences or racial conflicts.

The truth of the matter is that this "myth" of a racial democracy is becoming more and more questionable and has been debated more openly showing the veiled face of racism and discrimination in Brazil.

The most complete scientific-journalistic study about racism is Brazil was conducted just last year by the major newspaper Folha de São Paulo and the Institute of Research Datafolha. Some of the results were very surprising: while 89% of Brazilians said they believe there is racism in the society, only 10% admitted they were prejudiced; but 87% manifested some sort of prejudice by agreeing with racist statements or admitting having had discriminatory behavior in the past.

According to the same study, black people also manifest prejudice against their own color. About 48% of interviewed blacks agreed with such statement as "Good blacks have white souls" and the like.

~snip~
Pitta is not a common black person in Brazilian society either. On the contrary, he is the exception to the rule. He has an American diploma in business administration and is being backed up by a popular veteran Brazilian politician Paulo Maluf, the current mayor of São Paulo. But in reality, his conservative approach appears as the decisive response to his advantage in the polls so far.

"The population does not see in race an element of decision for the vote," affirmed Pitta on an interview with newsmagazine Isto É. But that was not the case of Brazilian senator Benedita da Silva. When she run for mayor in Rio de Janeiro, she was often victim of discrimination and racial jokes. "People made gestures imitating monkeys to me," she revealed. That is explained probably by the fact that she comes from a lower class than Pitta and of course is also a woman.

Even though racism in Brazil is by law considered to be a crime with no right to bail, cases like Benedita's have never ended up with anyone in jail. Because racism in Brazil is so subtle, it is easy to get it confused with other criminal offenses such as injury, calumny and defamation. Moreover, in Brazil, offenses of the like are almost always taken as mere jokes, like in the recent case of the Brazilian singer and composer Tiririca, who ended up having his song "Veja os cabelos dela" (see Rapidinhas in the September issue of Brazzil) censored because it referred to black people in a derogatory way. The song tells of a black woman who "stinks like a skunk." The song was censored and Tiririca, an illiterate circus clown from the drought-ridden northeast of the country, is being sued for crime of racism.

While that might seem like a just cause for many, for others it comes only to reaffirm the position of Brazil as a country full of contradictions and reveals the elite's hypocrisy towards the black people. Many believe indeed that Tiririca is a scapegoat, who did not offend blacks more than did many other popular songs that were Carnaval hits such as "O Teu Cabelo Não Nega" (Your Hair Can't Deny It) or "Nega do Cabelo Duro," (Hard-Hair Blackie) as was pointed out by writer Aguinaldo Silva. "In Brazil, it is no use the black movement, gay or lesbian try to reproduce American models The Brazilian black movement must find its own model," explained Silva to weekly newsmagazine Veja.

Hélio de La Peña, humorist of the TV group Casseta & Planeta, also declared to Veja that as a black he was not offended by Tiririca's song: "It is natural that people stink, independently of their race."

~snip~
Datafolha's research confirmed this hypothesis. According to the results of that research, Brazilians practice what they called "racismo cordial", in other words, the individual always denies being racist himself because he knows it is politically incorrect.

More:
http://www.brazzil.com/p16oct96.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Apartheid in Americas
Carlos Verrisimo discusses the interweaving of race, class and poverty in Brazil with Teresa Sanchez, CrossRoads, December/January 1994/95

Brazil is one of the Latin American countries that has most enthusiastically taken up neo-liberal economic reform. A nation of great natural wealth and human resources, Brazil shares the dubious honor -- with Mexico -- of having the greatest disparity between rich and poor in the Western Hemisphere. After two decades under a brutal military regime, Brazil has begun to re-establish civilian government and civic participation in national life. But whether this process is considered "democratization" largely depends on one's relative position within the country's socioeconomic and racial matrix.

Every two minutes, a child dies in Brazil; 53 percent of children under 15 live 50 percent below the official poverty line in families earning less than $70 per month.

Children currently make up 18 percent of the country's work force. Child labor has risen 11 percent since 1970. Youths between 14 and 18 years of age make up 45 percent of the work force, up from 31.4 percent in 1970.

For those children entering first grade, only 10 percent will complete primary school. Inadequate nutrition and poor conditions make it difficult to study. Most students cannot afford books and supplies and are forced out of the public school system forming a body of eight million marginalized street children.

The murder of street children in cities such as Rio de Janeiro has become epidemic. Business owners hire armed thugs, in some cases off-duty police officers, to assassinate children as they sleep. Eighty percent of the victims are Afro-Brazilian. The death toll over the last 10 years is double the number of U.S. troops killed in the war in Indochina.

Recently, under the guise of the war on crime, the governor of Rio de Janeiro turned over control of state and local law enforcement agencies to the Brazilian Army. The federal army will coordinate the roundup of suspected "bandits" and "drug traffickers" in Brazil's most famous city. Plans to crack down on drugs and weapons include the potential military occupation of 400 working class neighborhoods.

The timing of this extraordinary law enforcement initiative coincides with the mid-November special elections for state offices. New elections had to be called because the October election results had to be thrown out due to massive fraud.
A RACIST STATE

For Brazilian activist Carlos Verr!simo, these facts demonstrate the racist nature of the Brazilian state and the inequitable impact of neo-liberal economic policies. The unofficial-but-officially-tolerated policy of extermination of marginalized members of society exposes the underside of Brazil's transition to civilian government since 1984. While the military is no longer formally in government, the political and economic elites in power are, for the most part, the same ones who prospered under the military regime.

Increasing concentration of wealth -- and especially agricultural land -- continually forces migration to urban areas. More than 70 percent of Brazil's population live in the cities, swelling the working class shanty towns known as favelas. Favela residents often lack basic services such as water and electricity. Even workers with full-time jobs often earn sub-minimum wages and cannot afford daily transportation from home to work. Thousands of these workers live as homeless people on the streets of Rio Monday through Friday, only to return to their families on the weekends.

For activists such as Verr!simo, the issue of race and class are indivisible in Brazilian. Out of a total population of 150 million, 90 million are of African decent. "This gives the largest country in Latin America the third largest Black population in the world," Verr!simo says. "But when one looks at the government bureaucracy, the military hierarchy and the directors of corporations, one never sees a Black person".

More:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/42/035.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Racism in Brazil
By Roadjunky, Posted May 18, 2007

At first view it might seem that Brazil would be one of the most multi-racial societies in the world, with every shade of skin from Portuguese white through to African black represented.

At first view it might seem that Brazil would be one of the most multi-racial societies in the world, with every shade of skin from Portuguese white through to African black represented. The slaves mixed with the colonisers here on a greater scale than anywhere else in the Americas and the result is the sliding scale of skin colour seen today.

But when you look closer at Brazil you see that, as usual, the whiteys are on top and the blacks take most of the shit that society has to offer. The favelas are 70% black, the poorest areas of the country are those with the strongest African influence and head to any expensive coffee shop and you’ll see that the moneyed classes could almost pass for Europeans.

Bur racism in Brazil is different to how it’s expressed in most places in the world. Brazilians are a people who prefer to brush uncomfortable truths under the table – or rather, they prefer to hire a maid to do it for them. Few people in Brazil will speak their prejudices out loud but they’re there all the same.

You will see people of brown or black skin mixing in moneyed circles without anyone making a fuss, but there’s a good chance that they’ll be called negrinho (blackie), a term that everyone insists is purely affectionate. The negrinho in question might even agree but deep down, everyone likes to be called by their name rather than their skin colour.

Those of African descent in Brazil have always been feared by the controlling classes, who found their dance, religion and culture to be alien and bewitching. In the early days of samba the jam sessions would be broken up by the police, fearing that the poor were beginning to organise themselves.

More:
http://www.roadjunky.com/cultureguide/1398/racism-in-brazil

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The challenge of eliminating racism in Brazil: the new institutional framework for fighting racial inequality

This paper argues that racism is a central force perpetuating socio-economic inequalities in Brazil, one of the most unequal countries in the world. Brazilian racism has its roots in the African slave trade. The historically popular opinion that Brazil is a ‘racial democracy’ continues to suppress acknowledgement of racial inequalities. Yet these are profound and persistent, trapping many black Brazilians in a vicious circle of poverty, poor educational outcomes, low access to goods and services, labour market discrimination, and violence. Brazil’s long-established black movement has fought for public action against racism. Recent achievements include the establishment of a legal framework for dealing with racism; a series of participatory policy discussions and conferences on racism; the creation of government institutions tasked with promoting racial equality; and the appointment of black people to senior government positions. The challenge remains to tackle institutional racism at all levels and to create a more constructive media environment.

http://www.inesc.org.br/library/other-publications/Racismo%20-%20texto%20do%20Peck.pdf/view

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Obama Win Forces Brazil To Take A Tolerance Check
BRADLEY BROOKS | December 5, 2008 11:44 AM EST | AP

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — What struck the Brazilian woman most forcibly as she watched U.S. election returns on television was seeing Barack Obama's two young daughters.

"I can't believe those two little girls with hair like mine will be in the White House," said 31-year-old Carolina Iootty Dias, putting her hand to her head, tears in her eyes as she watched the screen.

Black Brazilians such as Dias, a human rights worker, celebrated Obama's election as giving hope worldwide. But the country that prides itself on racial mixing and tolerance is also being forced to take a reality check.

Though half of Brazil's 190 million people are black _ the world's largest black population outside Nigeria _ power remains firmly in the hands of whites. The country has few blacks in top political positions, and government studies consistently show blacks in Brazil earn half as much as whites.

"This Brazilian hypocrisy that says racism does not exist is one of the things that keeps the nation from advancing," said Stepan Nercessian, an actor and Rio de Janeiro city councilman, who is white.

Latin America's largest country has long looked down its nose at the racial discord in the U.S. _ segregation laws, civil rights battles and a strained social dialogue that continues today.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/05/obama-win-forces-brazil-t_n_148796.html

[Hosnon]

113. ? My claim is that there is no causal link between race and economic ability (or lack thereof).

Be my guest to argue the contrary.

[EFerrari]

174. The irony here is that since the invasion. white Europeans have been

claiming exactly that -- that they can manage economies and that brown people can't. That's exactly what Lula was referring to.

[anonymous171]

186. It may be justified, but it is still racism. nt

[Deja Q]

98. Ah, but it doesn't count when it's applied against white honkeys.

And just to make sure:

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Hosnon]

108. Unfortunately, that is often the case. The cause of racial equality is not helped

by failing (or refusing, as seems to be occurring in this thread) to recognize racism, regardless of the race under attack.

This type of stuff just provides justification for white, blue-eyed racists.

[Karenina]

114. As if they needed any...

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[ninety lives]

164. I don't think you understand what Lula means....

There are affluent whites who assume that they understand money better because they have managed it for so long.

Maybe you don't take it seriously, but here in the US there are still privileged whites who think that brown-skinned
people don't understand economics as well because, historically, they haven't been managing the economy.

[cali]

3. ugh. just ugh.

[Thrill]

4. Gordon Browns reaction?

[roody]

22. Gordon Brown has brown eyes.

[EFerrari]

122. See above, #115.

[msongs]

5. thank gosh there's no crime in Brazil! nt

[Dramarama]

6. Unbelievable

[Neo Atheist]

7. finally someone figured out the root of the problem!

Now with the acceptance that only blue eyed white people are the sole party responsible for the world's financial troubles, we can work on a final solution to this crisis based entirely on both ethnicity and eye color. Maybe we can dig up Mengele's bones (I believe they're in Brazil), clone him, and have him come up with some theories on punishing people!

Part 1: Blame Whites
Part 2:
Part 3: Profit

[Bacchus39]

12. yeah, everyone knows its the underpants gnomes fault n/t

s

[corpseratemedia]

13. Of Course!

:rofl:

[LeftofU]

8. Yeah, Brazil's a real paradise....

I wonder what real estate prices are in City of God?

[New Dawn]

9. "The Times" (owned by Rubert Murdoch) is playing with Lula's words.

Lula does not blame all white/blue eyed people in his statement (as the article's title claims). He just says that those responsible were white and blue eyed, which is a big difference. Of course, why should we be surprised that a Murdoch owned paper is distorting the comments of a progressive leader like Lula?

[cali]

10. either way, those are unfortunate words.

sorry, you can't see that.

[EFerrari]

32. The preyed upon minority communities of America

fighting off predators like Allan Jones probably disagree with you.



http://www.wallanjones.com/jms.htm

[cali]

38. It's racist language. And I stand against racism period.

I could care less if I'm in a minority when I do so. It's just one of those bright line things for me.

[EFerrari]

40. Describing the financial power imbalance that people of color endure

is not racism. Describing racism is not racism. Lula is right in his description of how the meltdown was brought about and how it disproportionately affects people of color.

[cali]

41. It absolutelhy fucking is racism and it's so disturbing that

you and others here embrace racism. I like Lula but his language was racist and he shouldn't have used it. He could easily have made the point you just made without using racist language. You did it. He could have too.

[EFerrari]

42. You don't even understand what he's saying. That should disturb you more. n/t

[cali]

43. bullshit. that's a cheap cop out. and you're smarter than that.

you're not stupid. that's why this is so ugly on your part. You embrace racism. You excuse it. Disgusting. You are now my one and only ignore.

[EFerrari]

44. If you think that's racism, then reality is racist not Lula and not me.

[Judi Lynn]

46. What does it take to get them to dive in there and read, for chrissakes?

What keeps them from understanding the material, anyway?

Looks like it would be so much more rewarding to spend some time not harrassing and ridiculing progressive posters, but in actually researching the material until they understand what is at stake, themselves.

It's impossible trying to discuss issues with people who have no grasp of the issue to start with. Don't know how you manage to maintain civility, patience, understanding, even kindness. Amazing. I just start seeing things twice, instead!


It's all beyond me that it takes so little to LEARN, to finally find out what has been happening, yet if they are rigid, it's just impossible for them to do it.

[cali]

47. Sorry, genius. I did read it. Furthermore.. you don't own the word progressive.

And why don't you try reading for a change instead of your endless fucking sychophancy of everything and anything SA as the holy grail of human achievement? Lula is a leader I find interesting and generally admire. I did not say he was racist. I said his language was. And it was. That's so clear that those denying it are simply disgusting apologist hypocrites. I understand the point Lula was trying to make. He totally fucked it up by using racist language. And that people defend that language is NO fucking different than assholes who defend the use of racist language toward any other ethnic group.

[pecwae]

51. If there's an "Oh, snap!"

in this thread, this post is it. Bigotry and racism and the language it employs knows no bounds and anyone who denies it has to be either incredibly ignorant or horribly hypocritical.

[EFerrari]

54. Right! The exploitation of Latin America by white Europeans

is a racial stereotype!

lol

[Hosnon]

79. I also find it absolutely baffling that you are defending this...as if there was any

causal relationship between being white with blue eyes and being a greedy asshole.

Are you a believer in that backwards notion that racism can only flow from a more powerful group to a less powerful group?

[EFerrari]

81. Here is a report about Guadaloupe today, again.

Labor Victory in Guadeloupe After Six-Week Strike Reverberates Across French Caribbean and France

JUAN GONZALEZ: The financial crisis has had reverberations far beyond the United States and Europe, with people taking to the streets in cities across the globe to protest rising wealth inequality and to call for economic and labor rights. Perhaps the most significant action took place in the French Caribbean on the island of Guadeloupe. Labor leaders in Guadeloupe led a forty-four-day general strike that completely paralyzed the island. Starting on January 19th, workers revolted against the French government over the exorbitant cost of living by closing down roads, schools, gas stations and public transportation.

The strike was led by a coalition of union leaders called the LKP, an acronym in Creole that translates to the League Against Profiteering. They accused the ruling white business minority of exploiting the island’s black majority. While legally a full part of France and the European Union, Guadeloupe is one of the poorest parts of the national territory, with 23 percent unemployment and a high cost of living.

http://www.democracynow.org/

Lula is voicing a truth about Latin America and the Carribean, where the war on poor people is waged along racial lines as it has been for four or five hundred years. No one who knows this region can find his statement surprising in any way. It's like being surprised that black South Africans objected to Apartheid and the racist system that kept it in place.

[Veruca Salt]

71. +1 nt

[rabs]

14. Lula was talking about the world financial crisis

that began on Wall Street and sent shudders throughout the global markets.

The Times article shifts the focus from the global crisis and tries to make Lula's remarks an internal problem for Gordon Brown.

Here is what Lula said.

O presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva disse nesta quinta-feira que a crise financeira mundial foi causada por "gente branca de olhos azuis" e que não é justo que negros e índios paguem a conta da crise. "É uma crise causada por comportamentos irracionais de gente branca de olhos azuis, que antes da crise pareciam saber tudo e agora não sabem nada", afirmou, diante do primeiro-ministro britânico, Gordon Brown, e da imprensa britânica --quase todos com perfil semelhante ao descrito pelo presidente.

President Luiz inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday that the world financial crisis was caused by "white people with blue eyes" and that it was not just that blacks and indians pay the costs of the crises. "It is a crisis caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything and now they know nothing," he said beside British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the British press, who almost all had a profile described by the president.

Questionado por um jornalista inglês se estaria adotando uma postura ideológica no combate à crise, Lula negou e disse que estava apenas "constatando um fato".

Asked by an English journalist whether he (Lula) was adopting an ideological posture in the fight against the crisis, Lula denied it and said he was merely "stating a fact."

O que nós percebemos é que, mais uma vez, grande parte dos pobres do mundo são as primeiras vitimas", completou.

"What we can perceive is that once more a great number of the world's poor are the first victims," he said.

Brown evitou entrar na polêmica e disse apenas que a crise bancária começou no sistema norte-americano e que o resto do mundo teve que lidar com os problemas.

Brown avoided the controversy and said only that the banking crisis began in the North American system and the rest of the world has to deal with the problems.

(Portuguese)

http://noticias.bol.uol.com.br/economia/2009/03/26/ult4734u28793.jhtm

[Bacchus39]

19. yep, that is what the OP says too, that would make me guilty

anything about blondes???

[KamaAina]

75. At least he didn't blame it on the jooooooos

:sarcasm:

[Adelante]

11. What a fucking stupid thing to say

I thought he was smarter than this - unless something is garbled in translation.

[Posteritatis]

15. Phew. I'm white and brown-eyed, so I guess I'm fine (nt)

[roody]

23. Phew! Me too, and I sure didn't have anything to do with the crisis.

[FudaFuda]

24. green-eyed here. pressure's off. whew. lol. nt.

[harun]

203. Brown here too, but I must admit I have always been a little suspect of our blue eyed brethren.

[Odin2005]

17. Uh, Lula, you look pretty EUROPEAN to me. So are you blaming yourself?

:crazy:

[Judi Lynn]

55. What were the chances he was thinking of his country?

[Judi Lynn]

58. Take time to acquaint yourself with the facts on Brazil's staggering racism.

Apartheid in Americas
Carlos Verrisimo discusses the interweaving of race, class and poverty in Brazil with Teresa Sanchez, CrossRoads, December/January 1994/95

Brazil is one of the Latin American countries that has most enthusiastically taken up neo-liberal economic reform. A nation of great natural wealth and human resources, Brazil shares the dubious honor -- with Mexico -- of having the greatest disparity between rich and poor in the Western Hemisphere. After two decades under a brutal military regime, Brazil has begun to re-establish civilian government and civic participation in national life. But whether this process is considered democratization largely depends on one's relative position within the country's socioeconomic and racial matrix.

Every two minutes, a child dies in Brazil; 53 percent of children under 15 live 50 percent below the official poverty line in families earning less than $70 per month.

Children currently make up 18 percent of the country's work force. Child labor has risen 11 percent since 1970. Youths between 14 and 18 years of age make up 45 percent of the work force, up from 31.4 percent in 1970.

For those children entering first grade, only 10 percent will complete primary school. Inadequate nutrition and poor conditions make it difficult to study. Most students cannot afford books and supplies and are forced out of the public school system forming a body of eight million marginalized street children.

The murder of street children in cities such as Rio de Janeiro has become epidemic. Business owners hire armed thugs, in some cases off-duty police officers, to assassinate children as they sleep. Eighty percent of the victims are Afro-Brazilian. The death toll over the last 10 years is double the number of U.S. troops killed in the war in Indochina.

Recently, under the guise of the war on crime, the governor of Rio de Janeiro turned over control of state and local law enforcement agencies to the Brazilian Army. The federal army will coordinate the roundup of suspected bandits and drug traffickers in Brazil's most famous city. Plans to crack down on drugs and weapons include the potential military occupation of 400 working class neighborhoods.

More:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/42/035.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


For Which It Stands: Brazil
Colorblind melting pot or racially divided society? Either way, Afro-Brazilian leaders welcome Obama.
By Seth Kugel - GlobalPost
Published: January 8, 2009 17:21 ET
Updated: January 22, 2009 16:23 ET

~snip~
Here in Maragojipe, it took until 2004 for the town to elect a black mayor, Silvio Jose Santana Santos, a broad-shouldered 37-year-old with a penchant for red clothing, the color of his Workers Party. And even then, his campaign slogan, “A star is shining” was turned against him by an opponent, who in a speech noted that, “Black stars don’t shine.”

The mayor, who goes by the political name Silvio Ataliba, distinguished the history of Jim Crow laws in the United States from race relations in Brazil. “They say racism doesn’t exist,” he said. “But here’s what happened: we traded slave quarters for favelas (slums).

“Racism is camouflaged. People call you ‘neguinho’ and they think they’re being affectionate. They call you ‘black with a white soul.’ We still haven’t accomplished in our society what black Americans have in theirs, and I’m not just talking about Obama’s election,” Ataliba said.

Though black leaders in Brazil often looked to figures like Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks as models, the movement in Brazil was dampened from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s by the military dictatorship. But there has been progress since, the mayor noted. Among the signs in the last decade: increasing roles for black actors and controversial racial quotas for admission to Brazil’s prestigious public universities. He notes that he has heard — but is not sure — that Obama was a beneficiary of quotas in the United States.

On a recent evening in Cachoeira, Gomes de Jesus, older and more skeptical than Ataliba, was watching a news report on Obama in his run-down but invitingly warm center, the Casa Paulo Dias Adorno. He is a priest of Candomble, the religion of African origin influential in this part of the country.

“Blacks in the United States had the opportunity to grow socially, culturally and politically,” Gomes de Jesus said. “So much so that today white Americans elected a black man president. That indicates that whites in the United States came to the conclusion that if you’re capable, you can have power, whether you’re white or not.”

Most Brazilian whites, he believes, do not feel the same way. He suspects that “white Brazilians find it absurd that a black man is president of the United States.”

More:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/america-and-the-world/081231/which-it-stands-brazil

[Bacchus39]

63. sounds like he needs to focus on his own country's problems then n/t

s

[MrBlueSky]

18. Hey wait a second here!!!

I almost always agree with O Senhor Presidente Lula (whom I once declared was my President too!)

However, I myself am white and blue eyed... yet I had nothing to do with the economic crisis!

[BeFree]

62. You have no money in the bank?

Most of the people in the world have no idea what a bank account is.

If you told them you did, they might say:
"You give your money to a stranger to hold for you? No way!!"

Most people in the world don't have anyone they can trust to hold their money even if they had an excess of money.

The present day banking system is based on trust. That trust has been violated, yes? And since violated is causing problems across the globe. Mainly, the high fuel prices are to blame, and most of that impact came from the financial markets jacking oil prices sky-high, financed by, here it comes, our banking system.

This is what the Reaganites meant by 'trickle down' economics.

[Sandrine for you]

72. As a white and blue-eyes I have to say this: Lula you Rock !!! He is right.

[Swagman]

20. come on folks....it's an allegory..he means the "establishment"

and he's correct.An unfortunate use of words..he should realise it would be taken out of context.

He's also not responsible for everything that went on in Brasil before him.

[ronnie624]

170. Absolutely right.

Lula's language is a metaphor for a system that rests firmly on a history of imperialism and slavery; an establishment of economic dominance by light skinned people over dark skinned people for the purpose of exploiting labor and resources.

According to the reactionaries on this thread, pointing this fact out constitutes racism. This seems to be a right-wing tactic for diverting attention from uncomfortable facts that many white people prefer not to think about.

[mvd]

171. I agree that it's a metaphor

What I disagree with was the choice of words. There is an uncomfortable fact that many white people don't want to address; I don't see anyone here that denies there has been dominance by a mostly white establishment, however.

[Prometheus Bound]

21. I love it: the fallen "gods of wisdom"

They thought they knew everything; they have demonstrated they know nothing.

Yes, he's talking about the relatively small band greedy rich white men who ruled the world economy, patronising developing countries as they raped them.

[davidinalameda]

26. to quote Forrest Gump

stupid is as stupid does

this comment is pretty damn stupid

[bird gerhl]

27. White people sure are sensitive

[Karenina]

28. BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[laureloak]

73. You should respect them for it. After all they learned from the

pros.

[Chovexani]

29. .

[Nihil]

61. Prefix that with "some" and you've got it!

:thumbsup:

(PS: Welcome to DU!)

[Prometheus Bound]

30. Actually he was referring to white, blue-eyed "bankers".

So all those who took it as a personal affront can stop feeling aggrieved.

Unless you're bankers of course.:evilgrin:

'Blue-eyed bankers' to blame for crash, Lula tells Brown
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/26/lula-attacks-white-bankers-crash


'White, blue-eyed bankers have brought world economy to its knees': What the Brazilian President told Gordon Brown
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1165089/White-blue-eyed-bankers-brought-world-economy-knees-What-Brazilian-President-told-Gordon-Brown.html

[EFerrari]

31. Amy did a great segment today on how those payday lenders target minority communities.

Lula was just stating the obvious.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/3/26/usury_country_why_are_millions_of

[rabs]

35. The description Lula should have used

It would have been nice had President da Silva used this Brazilian racial classification to describe the bankers:


Burro-quanto-foge ("burro running away"), implying racial mixture of unknown origin. :rofl:

[EFerrari]

36. LOL!

[Judi Lynn]

39. Really wish I had seen your two articles FIRST, Prometheus Bound!

Think of all the surly insults we would, or should have avoided. Almost EVERYONE should be able to grasp his meaning from either one of these articles, with NO EXCUSES.

From your Guardian article:

'Blue-eyed bankers' to blame for crash, Lula tells Brown
Nicholas Watt Brasilia guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 March 2009 20.31 GMT

White, blue-eyed bankers are entirely to blame for the world financial crisis that has ended up hitting black and indigenous people disproportionately, the president of Brazil declared .

In an outspoken intervention as Gordon Brown stood alongside him, Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva pledged to make next week's G20 summit "spicy" as he accused the rich of forcing the poor into greater hardship.

"This crisis was caused by no black man or woman or by no indigenous person or by no poor person," Lula said after talks with the prime minister in Brasilia to discuss next week's G20 summit in London.

"This crisis was fostered and boosted by irrational behaviour of some people that are white, blue-eyed. Before the crisis they looked like they knew everything about economics, and they have demonstrated they know nothing about economics."

Challenged about his claims, Lula responded: "I only record what I see in the press. I am not acquainted with a single black banker."

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/26/lula-attacks-white-bankers-crash

Thank you many times for adding this more complete material for those who could not or chose not to comprehend the first article.
Very deeply appreciated.

[Prometheus Bound]

45. Big smile. And I thank you for your unrelenting efforts to move beyond the propaganda.

And inform. I have learned so much from your threads and posts.

You have my greatest respect.

[Judi Lynn]

48. OMG! Thank YOU. It sounds as if you are someone who has learned once you have found out

what has happened, you can NEVER go back to the way you were originally. You have many friends here, you can be sure. There are many, MANY excellent people of conscience here.

It's an honor to think any info. I could find has been helpful. This is a wonderful place for pooling our information, comparing notes. As you've seen, it's not likely others can destroy our constant movement forward!

So glad you're here, welcome to D.U. :hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

52. "I am not acquainted with a single black banker" - he should get out more

We had a story on DU about how the photo of Franklin Raines was being used when he was the only African American CEO among those caught up in this:

Perhaps the most insidious and ubiquitous propagation of this imagery is the McCain ad that features a scary photo of Franklin Raines, former head of Fannie Mae, the single black head of any organization implicated in this mess. Yet of all the hundreds of CEOs, crooks and swindlers who could be named--from Ken Lay to AIG's Christopher Swift to Jack Abramoff--it is Raines who is used as the Willie Horton-ized whipping boy of civilization's downfall. This is pure manipulation: Raines is not connected in any way to Barack Obama. Yet McCain's campaign director was a top manager at Fannie Mae. If we must look for figureheads, allow me to nominate George Herbert Walker IV, who just happens to be George W. Bush's second cousin. He also happens to be Lehman Brothers' investment management director, who, just before the firm's collapse, dismissed a suggestion from the asset management firm Neuberger Berman that top executives forgo their multimillion-dollar bonuses so as to "send a strong message...that management is not shirking accountability for recent performance." Walker actually apologized that the very notion had been circulated: "Sorry team. I am not sure what's in the water at Neuberger Berman. I'm embarrassed and I apologize."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x395656

Basically, the financial disaster wasn't about race, and it's disappointing to see Lula trying to make it so. It was about rich people, and the rest of us.

[Bacchus39]

64. brown-eyed and non-white bankers are OK though. they are blameless of course n/t

s

[killbotfactory]

33. There is a lot of diversity at the top of the banking industry

Brown eyes AND blue eyes.

http://a.abcnews.com/Business/Economy/Story?id=6849315&page=1

[Frank Booth]

129. Apparently the brown-eyed ones didn't mess things up.

Only white people with blue eyes are bad.

Thank goodness I've got brown eyes!

[amandabeech]

179. Second row, second from the right. That's Vikram Pandit, head of Citigroup.

His heritage is Indian--he's not a northern European, which is what I think Lula is talking about.

Citigroup is the most likely to fall, and has been really sucking up taxpayer dollars.

Way to go, Vikram!

[Prometheus Bound]

201. To be fair, Pandit took over only just over a year ago when the shit had already hit the fan.

[Hardrada]

34. Cue Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

doo doo doo doo doo doot doot dedoo dedoo

I am guilty myself of being white and blue-green eyed. Don't know how off
the hook O am!

[Mr. Hyde]

37. There's a lot of blame to go around on this one Lula at all levels of the socioeconomic spectrum and

throughout both US political parties and, for that matter, among more than one nation. Your stupidity and your true colors are showing.

[bread_and_roses]

53. Really? Please explain what "blame" assigns to the poor

even in this Country, and make sure you make a case for the "blame" attributable to the even more deperately poor of Brazil, or Africa, or Asia?

As for the "white and blue-eyed bankers" it is, as far as I can see, a simple matter of fact that 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999...% of those who created this debacle are white, and probably the same % of those who starve and die as a result of it will be some shade of brown. Facing that fact, understanding what it means without getting our knickers in a twist over "racism" might be illuminating.

[Mr. Hyde]

77. It was the lower SEC types who took out loans for overpriced houses that they couldn't afford

and that would include plenty of non-white non-blue eyed types. Go ahead and defend the irresponsible borrowers. And, having spent sometime in NYC and on wall street, I can tell you, not all bankers are white, blue eyed, and/or American, not by a long a shot. Furthermore, the foreign entities that speculated in the CDO's and other ABS's have nobody but themselves to blame as it was their willingness to gamble in risky investments that perpetuiated this mess. If you go to Vegas and lose big at the blackjack table, is it my fault that you didn't understand the game? Fuck. No. But don't let facts interfere with your "blame whitey" world view.

[EFerrari]

82. "Irresponsible borrowers" didn't cause this meltdown

but, thank you for repeating Republican bs here.

[Mr. Hyde]

83. I never said they caused it, I said they shared in the blame with everyone else

but thanks for hating white people anyways.

[EFerrari]

84. That's the Republican ethic, privatize the profit, socialize the blame.

No sale. And the rest shouldn't even be dignified.

[Mr. Hyde]

86. And yours is the ethic whereby everything is always someone else's fault.

If you bought more house than you could afford, it's your fault and no one else's. And if you were subsequently foreclosed on because you could no longer afford to live beyond your means, you helped contribute to the current economic crisis. You certainly aren't the only actor in this drama but you certainly played a part. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should have given AIG or any other financial entity a dime of tax payer money. I'm quite pissed off that we did in fact. I don't think irresponsibility and failure should be subsidized at either end of the SEC spectrum. Regardless, you don't seem like the type of person that would listen to a reasonable point if it threatened your world view so there's no point wasting anymore time discussing this with you. Keep on pointing fingers. See where it gets you.

[EFerrari]

92. Blaming poor people for the global meltdown is like blaming a fallen apple

for gravity, it entirely misses the bigger picture.

[Mr. Hyde]

160. Sorry, I've observed too many people living beyond their means for too long

I would have liked to have bought a bigger house but I didn't because I couldn't afford it and I knew it. What's more, I took the time to learn about mortgages before I locked into one so that I din't make a poor decision like locking into an ARM with a preload penalty for instance. At this point, I don't blame poor folks for walking away from their mortgages either. As a matter of fact, I would encourage it at this point considering the ass rape perpetrated againt them by the powers that be. Furthermore, I'm not "blaming" them for the global financial meltdown. I'm simply stating that everyone contributed to this crisis. That being said, if you want to blame it all on white people, why don't you come out and say it plainly? Is that your point of view, that this is the fault of "white people with blue eyes"?

[EFerrari]

161. Maybe you should read this thread.

[Mr. Hyde]

162. Better yet, just answeer the question. Are you blaming this on white people?

[EFerrari]

167. LOL

[Karenina]

180. Erraaa...

YES! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

[Mr. Hyde]

181. .

[EFerrari]

184. This thread is my only proof that I didn't sleep through the entire 6th Grade.

lol

[No Elephants]

49. Don't it make my brown eyes blue? BTW, what color are Greenspan's eyes?

[No Elephants]

50. Maybe that was just his way of saying he doesn't blame Obama.

[Peace Patriot]

56. When the U.S. embassy in Caracas held a party on the night of the rightwing coup

against the elected president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, and the entertainment was a comedian in a gorilla costume playing "Hugo," it wasn't reported in the corpo/fascist press. Chavez had been kidnapped, and his life threatened, and the fascist coupsters had suspended the Constitution, the courts, the National Assembly and all civil rights. Led by RCTV, 'brownshirt' mobs were hunting down members of the Chavez government and other leftists, trying to arrest them; some were beaten; some escaped. It was a 48-hour horror that was being celebrated in the U.S. embassy with racist humor.

I can't even find my source now. I've lost it. But I remember reading a report from someone who was there. The racial aspect of the hatred of Hugo Chavez and his use of the oil resource to help the poor, most of whom have indigenous, African-Venezuela or mixed race backgrounds, has never been acknowledged or condemned by our once progressive and now horrible, fascist press.

When Venezuela's corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies routinely portray Chavez as gorilla or a monkey, our corpo/fascist press just ignores it entirely. James Petras discusses this in a Democracy Now interview.

http://thestudyofracialism.org/about4267.html

When the U.S. (Bushwhacks) funded/organized a white separatist war against the indigenous in Bolivia, this last September, in which the fascist rioters machine-gunned some 30 unarmed indigenous peasant farmers, in an attempt to overthrow Bolivia's first indigenous president (Evo Morales), the white bigotry of the U.S. allies was never mentioned by our corpo/fascist press.

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18837
http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2008/09/racism-domination-and-revolution-in.html

It is a dreadful fact that the white European minority of South American society are the ones who ally with the U.S. and other 'first world' financial dragons and corporate predators to impoverish the mixed race and indigenous majority, and have done so from the beginning. The poor are almost all brown-skinned, and they are the ones who suffer from World Bank/IMF loan sharks, and Chiquita, Inc.'s death squads, and Bechtel Corp.'s privatization of Bolivia's water systems, and Chevron-Texaco's "rainforest Chernobyl" in Ecuador, and Exxon Mobil's greed.

This is what Lula da Silva is talking about. It is the reality. And the people on this thread who get all huffy about racism are ignoring the reality of the U.S. corpo/fascist support of racism in other countries. It is the brown and the black who are suffering from the Bushwhacks' Financial 9/11, as they have suffered from U.S.-led looting, impoverishment, tyranny and ruination--including torture and death--for decades, and indeed throughout the 20th Century. And it is also the brown, the indigenous, the black and the mixed race who have achieved democracy over the last decade, and have elected leftists all over South America and now increasingly in Central America. And they most certainly have some things to teach us about social justice, grass roots organization, local/regional control of resources and finance/development for everyone's benefit, indigenous wisdom about the environment and democratic institutions, such as transparent, aboveboard elections. It has been largely "blue-eyed white men" who have destroyed our democracy and our economy, and are furthermore destroying the very planet we all depend upon. That is an undeniable truth. Why shouldn't it be spoken?

Those who cry "class warfare" when the poor start rebelling forget who started the class warfare. Those who cry "racism" when the brown and the black rebel forget who started slavery, segregation and bigotry. And it was Barack Obama who said that we must talk about this, and acknowledge this, if we hope to get past it. We cannot bury it any more. The slavery in our southern states was reiterated, on a large scale, with U.S. oppression of the largely brown-skinned peoples' of the southern hemisphere. And in its most recent manifestation--"neo-liberalism," "free trade" (for the super-rich), and the World Bank/IMF looting and destruction machine--"blue-eyed white men" dictated the dreadful rules that destroyed Latin American countries, and are now destroying us. Take a trip to the inner city anywhere in the U.S., or out to pesticide-ridden, ugly, corpo/fascist farms where the indigenous from the ruined economies of Mexico and Guatemala pick the poisoned food that goes to our supermarkets. Who is suffering the most? The brown and the black, who are systematically excluded from the rule-making.

I think Lula's remarks were right on--and I am blue-eyed and white (though with a trace of Kikapoo and lots of "black" Irish). It is time for the "third world"--and I mean all oppressed people, of whatever color or sex, in whatever country--to change the rules.

[Prometheus Bound]

59. I'm a blue-eyed white male as well, (with a bit of Micmac) and I agree completely.

[malaise]

121. Naomi Klein documented this brilliantly

in The Shock Doctrine - the Chicago Boys.

Who feels it knows it and Lula is 100% correct.

[Blue_Tires]

57. i can relate to what he's saying but his wording could have been better

now the media will only focus on the 'blue-eyed' part rather than the whole message itself..

[Enrique]

66. yeah, like the media was going to focus on his message

when was the last time you heard the message of Lula or the leader of any Third World country, on this topic or any? Probably it was Hugo Chavez, and they reported it because he said it in a way that got their attention.

[arikara]

147. Too true about the media

which of course is run by the same sort as the bankers, and lots of them are probably blue eyed too. If Lula had just borrowed Michael Moore's term "stupid white men" there would be no contrived PC controversy.

[mainegreen]

60. As there were NO browned eyed people, African Americans, Indians, Chinese, Spanish, Latin financiers

Caribbeans involved.

OH NOES. ONLY THE WHITEY.

Lulu is a racist, and all racists are morons, and their 'logic' should not be trusted.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

67. "But 'till we killed the white people. Ooh we gun make them hurt.

Kill the white people yea. But buy my record first.
Ooh yea. Why don’t you buy my record?"

http://www.tubearoo.com/articles/90378/Eddie_Murphy_Kill_the_White_People.html

[ej510]

68. President Lula of Brazil blames crisis on 'white and blue-eyed'

Source: The Times

Gordon Brown’s efforts to smooth a path to international agreement at next week’s G20 summit in London hit a bump in Brazil yesterday when he was told that the financial crisis was the fault of the “white and blue-eyed”.

President Lula da Silva of Brazil warned that there would be spicy discussions and “tough confrontation” next Wednesday as world leaders faced up to who should pay the costs of the banking crisis.

As Mr Brown looked on during a press conference, Mr Lula da Silva said that action was urgent since it would be intolerable for the poor — who were blameless for the collapse of financial markets — to suffer the most from its effects.

“This was a crisis that was fostered and boosted by the irrational behaviour of people who were white and blue-eyed, who before the crisis they looked like they knew everything about economics, but now have demonstrated they know nothing about economics,” he said, mocking the “gods of wisdom” who had had to be bailed out. “The part of humanity that is responsible should be the part that pays for the crisis,” he added.

His remarks threatened to overshadow the announcement of proposals for a £100 billion injection of finance to kick-start world trade. Mr Brown said that the expansion of credit was the minimum required as exports collapsed around the world.

It already seemed inevitable that world trade would shrink for the first time in 30 years, Mr Brown said, as he called on donor nations and private companies to make new credit available ahead of the G20 meeting.

The Prime Minister also gave more details of how countries found to be engaged in covert protectionism would be named and shamed. Boosting world trade that was free and fair was “absolutely vital” to creating the conditions for a global economic recovery, he said. Officials later said that they expected the International Finance Corporation and World Bank, as well as existing export credit guarantee schemes, to underwrite extra trade finance.

The choice of Brazil, heavily dependent on export income, to announce the new proposals helped to explain Mr Brown’s decision to visit the country before the summit. Brazil also has a better record than most emerging economies in resisting protectionist policies. For his part, Mr Lula da Silva hailed the Prime Minister as a “great brother, a great comrade and a great friend”, before embarking on a lengthy denunciation of the financiers he blames for the downturn.

His colourful language served as a reminder of the diplomatic challenge Mr Brown faces to forge agreement among the 20 largest economies. “Our meeting in London has to be spicy, it has to have a bit of heat,” said the Brazilian leader — in stark contrast to Mr Brown’s repeated claims of an emerging international consensus.

In another piece of diplomatic choreography Mr Brown announced a new deal between England’s Football Association and the Brazilian Football Federation. The FA will oversee the creation of a new refereeing academy in the South American nation.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5983430.ece

---

He will be hated by right wingers and this will be Obama's fault! Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs.

[knowbody0]

69. well, thank the stars we have a dark eyed leader!

[NavyDavy]

70. I need to hide my daughter shes both "white and blue eyed"

[krabigirl]

76. Wait, so the white banker with brown or green eyes are off the hook? lol

[Judi Lynn]

78. Did you know Lula da Silva worked against the Brazilian military dictatorship?

Just found an interesting photo while looking for an answer for DU'er magbana.

In taking the time to look around a moment, I found something I've never heard, and from which our own corporate media COMPLETELY STONEWALLED us on Luis Inacio Lula da Silva all throughout his election campaign, and up until now:



Johanna Dohnal and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
the later President of Brazil, prize winners 1984.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the later president of Brazil, was honoured for his brave work under the Brazilian military dictatorship.

http://www.kreisky.org/human.rights/englisch/awards3.htm

I have to leave now, but you can be sure I'm interested in finding out more about this story, which has been hidden from U.S. readers in the wash of propaganda vomited out by our own media.

[cali]

90. Sychophants who can't admit that their idols make mistakes are

pathetic. And dangerous.

[ProudDad]

183. right wing trolls pretending to be "liberals"

are pathetic and dangerous...

[Judi Lynn]

85. Want a look at why many Brazilians resent neo-liberal managers? Here's what Lula had to work with:

The Struggle Against Neoliberalism
by Tom Lewis
International Socialist Review, June/July 2001


Crisis hounded Brazil's president Fernando Henrique Cardoso this spring as developments on several fronts threatened to weaken his government. Looming energy shortages, a snowballing corruption scandal, the uncertain slide of the real, a negative human rights report, and new evidence of the massive inequalities in Brazilian society combined to punish Cardoso's public approval ratings.
But Cardoso has only himself to blame. His government's pursuit of neoliberal economic and social policies has caused the problems that Brazilians face today. Beyond drought and low water levels, for example, the power restrictions that are due to hit Brazil in June can be traced directly to the inability of privatized energy companies to meet rising demand. Part of the ongoing corruption scandal involves the private pocketing of public funds, including government insider tips on official currency movements, which allowed a few private bankers to loot millions.

A report released by the Brazilian Institute of Government Statistics in April also shocked the nation when it revealed that, after a decade of neoliberal reforms, the top 10 percent of Brazilian society averaged an income 19 times greater than the lowest 40 percent. A banner headline in a major Sao Paulo daily newspaper proclaimed, "The country ends the 90s as unequal as it began" ('Pais termina anos 90 tao desigual como comecou').

As if all of that wasn't enough, the Cardoso government was forced to admit to charges of widespread police brutality and corruption during a May appearance before the United Nations Committee Against Torture. The government thereby confessed to the world the kind of treatment it metes out to the poverty-stricken offenders who are created by its very own policies of eliminating jobs and reducing social services.

The resurgence of struggle
The public relations disaster for the Cardoso government occurs against the backdrop of a resurgence of popular struggle. Various end-of-year retrospectives identified the distinctive feature of 2000 as "the messages the people sent to those in power in the Republic-messages left in the streets as well as in the ballot box." A Catholic bishop in Rio de Janeiro explained, "Brazilians today are living a feeling of disillusionment with their country. Environmental degradation, globalization of the economy, and social exclusion prove that the model of development needs to be reformed."

In April 2000, hundreds of indigenous people protested their exclusion from the official celebration of the 500th anniversary of the "discovery" of Brazil and were greeted with police violence. That same month, following demonstrations by the trade unions and left political parties, the government agreed to raise the minimum wage. The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra) launched an occupation of land and buildings in 12 capital cities during May as a protest against the slowdown of land reform and the failure to extend credits to existing settlements.

A wave of protests broke out in June 2000, uniting teachers, health workers, bank workers, and transit workers in huge demonstrations against the Cardoso government's economic and social policies. In July, public opinion pressured Cardoso into meeting with MST representatives in an attempt to find a way to resume expropriating lands and granting credits to the settlements. MST militants staged a new round of land and building occupations in September to protest the government's failure to deliver on the promises Cardoso made in July.

In September 2000, six million Brazilians participated in a national referendum on the external debt. The referendum was organized by the National Council of Brazilian Bishops and supported by numerous nongovernmental organizations and the opposition political parties. Ninety-eight percent of voters called for a national hearing on the debt, while fully 93 percent favored immediately repudiating the debt and severing relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In October, the Cardoso government unleashed a ferocious campaign of violent repression against the MST that led to numerous conflicts in the countryside.

~snip~
"Savage capitalism": Neoliberalism's forerunner
Brazil boasts the world's eighth-largest economy today. In 1999, it produced $783 billion in goods and services, placing it between China ($980 billion) and Canada ($591 billion). To put this in perspective, Argentina, the second-largest economy in South America, is two-fifths the size of Brazil's and ranks as the 17th largest economy in the world. Trade between the U.S. and Brazil is modest from the U.S. perspective, accounting for one percent of U.S. imports and exports. The U.S. exported $15 billion of goods to Brazil in 2000, while Brazil exported $14 billion of goods to the United States. From the Brazilian point of view, however, the balance of the period 1994-2000 is exceedingly unfavorable. Brazilian exports to the U.S. grew barely 5.2 percent between 1994 and 1997, while imports of U.S. goods skyrocketed by 116.5 percent.

Despite its economic strength, Brazil has suffered for 30 years under the yoke of the U.S.-dominated international financial system. The military dictatorship that came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1984 repressed workers' organizations, curtailed citizens' rights, criminalized membership in left political parties, purged the public administration, and practiced systematic torture and summary execution. This terror served as the social basis for what became known as Brazil's "economic miracle" of the 1970s. Favorable access to foreign loans, as well as a tripling of foreign direct investment between 1970 and 1973, allowed for the diversification of Brazil's economy, making it less dependent on its main export, coffee. Gross domestic product (GDP) increased at a yearly average of 11.2 percent between 1969 and 1973.

Yet the "miracle" also produced a number of negative effects. Brazil became excessively vulnerable for the first time to the flow of international commerce and the dictates of international bankers. Growth also made Brazil more dependent on certain imported products, especially petroleum. Expansion led to higher prices and so favored high- and middle-income Brazilians while squeezing most urban and rural workers. The result was to widen the already horrendous gap between rich and poor. As one historian illustrates:

If the minimum wage of January 1959 had been 100, that wage would have fallen to 39 in January 1973. This return is especially significant if one considers that in 1972, 52 percent of the working population was making less than one minimum wage, and 22 percent was making between one and two minimum wages.

This harsh reality, along with the flagrant disregard of the environment, is what was meant by the phrase "savage capitalism"-the method by which Brazil entered the modern global economy.

More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Brazil_Neoliberalism.html

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XFynFBqCznA/R4pVt32WBKI/AAAAAAAAD4A/H5uwuYU3C9M/s400/fhc+exterminador.jpg

[EFerrari]

93. Lula called out the unholy trinity of vampiric capitalism, colonialism and racism.

No wonder he's made so many people angry, he located and mapped the Bermuda Triangle of American political awareness.

[nolabels]

199. And in California, and in spite of them facts, we all live together because we have to.

The weak recessive gene of the blue eyed blond is going to do us all in, we are all just so fucked now :woohoo:

[Judi Lynn]

87. Lula’s Dissent

Lula’s Dissent
June 4, 2007
It appears some of Chavez’s defiance is rubbing off on Lula. For the first time since he singled out US citizens for strict visa controls in reponse to the harassment of Brazilian citizens at American airports, Lula is showing signs of a spine.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has flatly rejected President Bush’s proposals for parallel global negotiations to combat climate change, insisting that countries come to agreement at the United Nations, and not under US leadership…

“The Brazilian position is clear cut,” Mr Lula said. “I cannot accept the idea that we have to build another group to discuss the same issues that were discussed in Kyoto and not fulfilled.

“If you have a multilateral forum {the UN} that makes a democratic decision … then we should work to abide by those rules {rather than} simply to say that I do not agree with Kyoto and that I will develop another institution,” said Mr Lula…

The Bush administration has sought to cultivate President Lula as an ally, seeing the former trade unionist as a centre-left alternative in Latin America to the more radical anti-American socialism espoused by Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez…

However, on overall climate change policy, President Lula was dismissive of the Bush approach, calling it “voluntarism”, meaning a reliance on “coalitions of the willing” rather than establish global institutions and the pursuit of voluntary goals rather than binding commitments. “We cannot let voluntarism override multilateralism,” he said…

But Mr Lula, Brazil’s president since 2003, rebuked Mr Bush for seemingly sidestepping the UN and not taking its global responsibilities seriously. “I am open-minded about talking to President Bush … I will never refuse to discuss any idea, but we should respect the decisions made in the multilateral forums. It is the only thing we have all agreed on in a democratic way,” he said. “If the US is the country that most contributes with greenhouse gases, in the world, it should assume more responsibility to reduce emissions.”

http://fanonite.org/2007/06/04/lulas-dissent/

[Judi Lynn]

88. Time to brush up on your recent Brazilian history:

This is a not a pleasant exhibition, but it is a very important one.
It consists of photographs and text describing of twenty out of
more than 500 documented cases of torture in Brazil when the
Military ruled the country between 1964 and 1980.

Brazil has punished no one for these crimes and none of the victims
of torture or their families received any compensation from the
government for their losses.

This exhibition keeps alive the memories of these atrocities and alerts
the people of Brazil and other countries that these things continue in
Brazil, in spite of the so-called democratic government in charge now.

We call on International organizations concern with human and civil rights
in underdeveloped countries to look closer at the Brazilian situation.
Brazilian authorities are masters at hiding wrong doings, and this
deception has to stop. Sanctions have to be established, to force
Brazilian leaders to respect the rights and dignity of the Brazilian people.

This exhibition is a work of journalists Amancio Chiodi (photos)
and Mylton Severiano da Silva (text).

Case #1 MILTON SOARES

http://www.brazilianmusic.com.nyud.net:8090/20cases/caso1.gif

WHEN - March 3, 1978. Friday.
Guarulhos DP/SP. (DP=Police
Station. SP - São Paulo)
WHO - Photographer for the
newspaper Folha de São Paulo,
thirty-six years, 6 children.
Police officers Fausto Raineri,
Darcidio Ferreira and Antonio
Carlos Silva.

WHAT - The officers arrested
Milton on charges of "disrespect
of authority" and took him to a cell
with nine prisoners previously
instructed to torture him.

HOW - punches, kicks, head
kicks, electric shock, wood stick
blows, cigarette burns in the
body and psychological torture.

WHY - Milton was writing an
article about police brutality.

~~~~~~~~


THEY SAID:
HERE THERE IS NO GOD OR DEVIL.

___________

" When I came in the bandits were playing cards in the cell.
Previously instructed."
"- Oh, you are the one who fingered us, huh? You are Milton, huh?"
One stood up and punched me in the eyes. It was the start.
I turned into a toy in the hands of the nine men.
They took my clothes off; they were already prepared
with the "PAU DE ARARA" (a common form of torture
where the victim is tied to a stick by their arms and feet
and physically abused). They tied up my arms and legs,
held my arms behind my back and stood in a line;
one kicked me with his head and other with his feet.
hey broke my molar.
This was from midnight until 2:00 in the morning.
I vomited blood for fifteen days.
My insides were like a rotten egg, you know when you make
any movement and everything is loose inside, everything hurts.
Six months later my electrocardiogram detected a disturbance.
Today I am well.
They do not satisfy me with the results of the investigation.
I had to pay $1000 for disrespect and they acquitted the officer.

________________

Exclusive interview by Milton to twenty exemplary cases
on September 1979, one and a half years after being tortured.
Photos: Milton at his trial and as he appeared
in the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo on March 4, 1978.

http://www.brazilianmusic.com/20cases/case1.html

Other cases:
http://www.brazilianmusic.com/20cases/casos.html

~~~~~~~~~~

Human rights came slowly to Latin America

http://www.miradaglobal.com.nyud.net:8090/images/stories/Image/sociedad/1_sociedad_051108.jpg

Long-lasting dictatorships had taken hold in several countries: the Somozas in Nicaragua, the Duvaliers in Haiti, Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay, Rojas Pinilla in Colombia, Batista in Cuba, Perón in Argentina, Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, and Pérez Jiménez in Venezuela. Democracy was still an alien concept in some of these countries, and dissidents were treated harshly. But these were not yet identified as "torture states ", and at that time the church did not routinely invoke the evolving tradition of human rights or the social encyclicals to protest the actions of the reigning caudillos. Several bishops, however, did issue harsh pastoral letters that hastened the downfall of Perón, Pérez Jiménez and Rojas Pinilla.

More recently, Latin dictatorships have taken the form of the "authoritarian" military regimes once favored by Jeane Kirkpatrick, as opposed to the "totalitarian" model. The authoritarian model began with the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, a left-leaning but democratically elected president overthrown by the combined forces of the United Fruit Company and the C.I.A. His was the first of a series of repressive regimes that culminated decades later in the genocidal rule of Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt (1982-83). In 1954, however, the Guatemalan church was minimally engaged in the nation’s political struggle.

Three events were to change all that: the Cuban revolution (1959), the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and the Medellín Conference of Latin American bishops (1968). Castro embodied the new challenge; Vatican II and Medellín called on the church to respond to that challenge by defending the dignity and rights of the human person.

BRAZIL

The first South American dictatorship to gain popular notoriety was in Brazil in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It had become a classic "national security state ", in José Comblin’s phrase, a country prepared to use all means necessary to eliminate its perceived enemies, even when these were its own citizens. The enemy within was presumed to be tied to the enemy without: since January 1959, Communist Cuba and its Soviet puppeteer.

The contemporary human rights tradition can trace its origins to the violent overthrow of President Salvador Allende in Chile on Sept. 11, 1973, and the extraordinary response of the Chilean church to that crisis, but these events were presaged by the state’s indiscriminate violence and the church’s courageous response in neighboring Brazil. In 1973, before the Chile coup, bishops in at least three regions in Brazil issued powerful pastoral letters denouncing the oppression and torture that had become the norm in that country. The year 1973 was also the 25th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a date whose symbolism was not lost on leaders in the Latin American churches.

State censorship in Brazil at that time was as stringent as anywhere else in the hemisphere. Newspapers routinely appeared with huge sections of white space where offending articles had been excised. The Archbishop of Recife, Dom Hélder Câmara, was declared a non person and could not be mentioned in the press. His pastoral letters could not be published and had to be passed about from hand to hand. The church then decided to observe the declaration’s anniversary by printing a broadsheet with the entire text. After each of the 30 articles in the declaration, the bishops added quotations from Scripture and citations of Catholic and Protestant statements. The text was then posted on church bulletin boards all over the country, a silent cry of protest against the world’s worst "torture state" and a clearly subversive act that the military censors found difficult to suppress.

http://www.miradaglobal.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=952&Itemid=9&lang=en

[cali]

89. time for you to stop justifying an unfortunately phrased

statement. And a racist one. It's become just flat out pathetic.

[EFerrari]

101. Here's restatement from another "racist" you might recognize:

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast between poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just."

It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say: "This is not just."

The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. - MLK

[cali]

102. Please don't lie and misrepresent what I've written.

I've made it crystal clear that I do NOT think that Lula is a racist. I've said repeatedly that his choice of words was unfortunate and yes the words themselves are undeniably racist. It does not follow that he himself is a racist. I get the point he was trying to make. I think it's largely a valid one, but the words he used to make that point, are racist.

One can agree with what you posted and still have the sense to recognize that what Lula said was couched in the language of racism. That isn't arrogance.

I have to say I have nothing but contempt for the kind of dishonest and dissembling that you're swaddling yourself in.

[EFerrari]

103. Then you have what you want, your judgment,

and I have what I want, a better understanding of Lula, Latin America and the kind of neoliberalism that blames Lula for the "language of racism" as if he possibly could speak outside of that language and be who he is, where he is and at this moment. Cheers.

[cali]

104. there is nothing neoliberal about recognizing racist or bigoted language

for what it is. And all your poor excuses won't change the reality here. I pity you. It's sad to see people contort themselves into cariactures to justify a mistake. it's pathetic. but cheers to you to, and here's hoping that your kind of dogmatic and slavish idolization is something people can recover from.

[EFerrari]

105. See, that's arrogance, cali. With all due respect.

Believing that even for an instant you yourself can step outside the same system Lula is speaking, be separate from it and in fact, blame him for it, that's arrogance right about there.

It's also misguided, to say the least, to mistake comprehension with dogma. But, we all make choices.

[cali]

106. no, it's not arrogance. it's simply dealing with what is.

And yes, I absolutely can say, sans arrogance, that Lula, much as I admire him for what he's doing, made a mistake and used racist language. there is no alternate reality where racist language is OK.

[Judi Lynn]

91. Brazil reveals military rule list

Last Updated: Thursday, 30 August 2007, 02:28 GMT 03:28 UK
Brazil reveals military rule list
By Gary Duffy
BBC News, Sao Paulo

Brazil has for the first time published an official document detailing atrocities said to have been committed during the military dictatorship.
The country was under military control from 1964 to 1985.

The book was launched at a ceremony attended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was himself briefly imprisoned under the dictatorship. It accuses federal agents of rape, torture, executing prisoners, and concealing bodies of victims.

They are also alleged to have decapitated people.

The new book, "The Right to Memory and to Truth", was published on the anniversary of Brazil's amnesty law passed in 1979. That law, passed as the dictatorship was drawing to a close, pardoned all those said to have been involved in crimes committed under the regime, as well as those who fought against it.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6969812.stm

More:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2972319

[cali]

94. Lula's choice of words was a poor one. And yes, racist.

and all the obfuscating and the look-over-there tactics in the world can't and won't change that. All the pathetic, lying ass accusations directed at those inconveniently pointing out the fact that the language used was racist, won't change it. All the hypocrisy being used by the sychophants who can't bear the reality that their idols make mistakes, won't change it.

You can lie, obfuscate, deny, try to justify, from now until the end of time, and it won't change it.

[mvd]

123. Well yes - I deplore any generalizations, and what do the eyes have to do with it?

He is even pretty much talking about some of his own country's people, if you take it literally and not U.S./European. Not having been subjected to racism as a white person, I can let these words roll off my back more easily than if a white bigot blamed blacks/Hispanics/Asians for some event in history. It was still wrong to put it this way, though.

[EFerrari]

124. By the same logic, it's wrong for Tibetans to talk about the Chinese

or black South Africans to talk about the white South African system of Apartheid or the Pipiles in El Salvador to talk about the white military forces that all but wiped out their community in 1932.

As unpleasant as it is to know, Latin America has been subject to colonialism by other means since those territories claimed independence and along racial lines these many years. Describing racism is not racism and that's what Lula did.

And we better buckle up because the indigenous and mixed blooded people of Latin America have wrested back some power. We will be hearing more of this in the very near future. It's just flat out unreasonable to expect an oppressed people to remain silent about their confinement.

[mvd]

125. I still agree with cali

I think it was a dumb statement. If I'm a leader, I personally would be careful of not offending a group in my own country, and it was not the right way to describe what he meant.

[EFerrari]

127. It was so dumb, Gordon Brown said the next day that the IMF and World Bank

shouldn't be solely in American or European hands.

[mvd]

128. That's twisting what I said

The oppression of the poor part is correct. He did not put it well, though.

[EFerrari]

133. Who do you think the "poor" are in Latin America?

You know, whatever. It's an easier matter to scream "racism" than it is to understand 500 years of oppression rationalized by "race" finally speaking up.

[mvd]

134. It's not going to be solved this way.

I think standing up for something like this just makes it worse. The eyes part actually made this even more about race and was really ignorant.

Certainly there has been racism involved in South America. I'm not denying that.

[EFerrari]

136. Looks like is it. Gordon Brown publicly said that American/ European control

of the IMF and World bank is a bad idea. And our owners at those two institutions have seen their influence fail miserably in Latin American since the 90s.

The worm has turned.

[mvd]

138. That could have happened anyway

I doubt he approved of the statement. Anyway, glad the IMF/WB won't just be in American/European control.

[Hosnon]

130. The underlying point is valid...but that point has absolutely nothing to do

with white skin and blue eyes. The historical oppressors may have simply happened to have white skin and blue eyes, but there wasn't (and isn't) anything about those two physical characteristics that made (or makes) someone an oppressor.

Thus the racism.

[mvd]

132. Yeah, I see what you mean

For one, it lumped together all bankers with those qualities, and the real point that is valid gets lost.

[EFerrari]

135. Except he wasn't talking about genetic oppressors

he was talking about the interests that have sucked the blood out of Latin America for the last 500 years.

[mvd]

137. I'd just say "the rich bankers"

It's a rich vs. poor problem when it comes down to it.

[EFerrari]

139. Not insofar as colonialists targeted people of color all over the world.

This is something that we just have to accept because it's historically true. There is really no use in denying it. Where does that get anyone?

People that are finally getting some of their own power back are going to be pissed and they're going to be vocal -- especially during this meltdown and especially when leaders of these countries have been told over and over again that they are incompetent and to trust their American/European sponsors who all know better. Who wouldn't be mad in that situation?

That's where Lula was coming from. If you search his images, you see him with all kinds of people in the rainbow that is Brazil. This man is not a racist and he is not stupid and he didn't misspeak. He said a truth that is ugly and uncomfortable. That's life.

[mvd]

141. Not the right way to say it

I cannot defend it. Sorry.

[Hosnon]

140. Then he should have said that, instead of targeting a group of humans for the color of their

skin and eyes.

It's simply racism to imply that those (or any similar) characteristics have anything to do with the bad decisions of individuals with those (or any similar) characteristics.

[mvd]

142. True

1) I have brown eyes. If I was a rich white banker exploiting the poor, I would be no different than those with blue eyes.

2) Implying that is stereotyping. If a white person said "the black criminals" in big cities are responsible for city crimes, that would horrible. I can't approve of something that goes the other way.

[EFerrari]

144. Well, no. Latin America was not oppressed by random people

but by white Europeans and by white Americans for five hundred years. There is no wiggle room. And it's not racism to describe racism.

If you have a problem with that, you have a problem with history, not with Lula.

[Judi Lynn]

163. EFerrari, I came to read this thread late, Sunday morning, and appreciate so intensely your demeanor

and patience while speaking openly and truthfully with various people who aren't able to get the point.

I just got the image a moment ago, just before this post, of someone trying to give a dog his pill. I'm sure you've been there. They lock their teeth. They turn their head away. You hide it in bread, and they take the bread, eat it and throw out the pill.

You have done beautifully throughout, and it's astonishing people are pretending they just can't grasp the simple truth, and they aren't willing apparently to invest some of their time getting educated on the subject by reading any history.

Gotta hand it to you, your words are NEVER wasted for those of us who have been following Latin American events, have been trying to learn about all the US policy and history regarding Latin America, as quickly and accurately as we can manage in the time we have available.

We have been stonewalled on almost ALL American machination in Latin America, and for good reason: there's not much to be proud about there, that's why they've classified mountains and mountains of documents regarding grotesque actions we have only begun to discover decades too late, when a few documents have finally been declassified, and an apology offered by Bill Clinton to Guatemala, f'r instance on a trip there for the brutality unleashed upon them by U.S. politicians.

Here's an article I just found you may find worth scanning:

Obama's Dubious Praise for Reagan
By Robert Parry
January 19, 2008

~snip~
....regarding Reagan’s approach to the world, the documentary record reveals a foreign policy that was one of the most brutal, most corrupt and least accountable in American history.

~snip~
The Guatemalan Genocide

Once in office, Reagan chipped away at an arms embargo imposed on Guatemala by Carter who was offended by its ghastly human rights record. A fundamental part of Reagan’s strategy was to silence criticism of the atrocities whether the accusations were coming from the news media, human rights groups or the U.S. intelligence community.

In April 1981, for instance, a secret CIA cable described a Guatemalan army massacre of peasants at Cocob, near Nebaj in the Ixil Indian territory. On April 17, 1981, government troops had attacked the area, which was believed to support leftist guerrillas, the cable said.

According to a CIA source, "the social population appeared to fully support the guerrillas" and "the soldiers were forced to fire at anything that moved." The CIA cable added that "the Guatemalan authorities admitted that 'many civilians' were killed in Cocob, many of whom undoubtedly were non-combatants."

While keeping the CIA account secret, Reagan permitted Guatemala's army to buy $3.2 million in military trucks and jeeps in June 1981. Confident of Reagan’s sympathies, the Guatemalan government continued its political repression without apology.

According to a State Department cable on Oct. 5, 1981, Guatemalan leaders met with Reagan's roving ambassador, retired Gen. Vernon Walters, and left no doubt about their plans. Guatemala's military dictator, Gen. Fernando Romeo Lucas Garcia, "made clear that his government will continue as before – that the repression will continue," the cable said.

Human rights groups saw the same picture. The Inter-American Human Rights Commission released a report on Oct. 15, 1981, blaming the Guatemalan government for "thousands of illegal executions."

But the Reagan administration sought to confuse the American public. A State Department "white paper" in December 1981 blamed the violence on leftist "extremist groups" and their "terrorist methods," inspired and supported by Cuba’s Fidel Castro.

Yet, even as these rationalizations were sold to the American people, U.S. intelligence agencies in Guatemala continued to learn about government-sponsored massacres. One CIA report in February 1982 described an army sweep through the so-called Ixil Triangle in central El Quiche province, an area where descendants of the ancient Maya lived.

"The commanding officers of the units involved have been instructed to destroy all towns and villages which are cooperating with the Guerrilla Army of the Poor and eliminate all sources of resistance," the report said. "Since the operation began, several villages have been burned to the ground, and a large number of guerrillas and collaborators have been killed."

The CIA report explained the army's modus operandi: "When an army patrol meets resistance and takes fire from a town or village, it is assumed that the entire town is hostile and it is subsequently destroyed. … The well-documented belief by the army that the entire Ixil Indian population is pro-EGP has created a situation in which the army can be expected to give no quarter to combatants and non-combatants alike."

Rios Montt Coup

In March 1982, the violence continued to ratchet up when Gen. Efrain Rios Montt seized power in a coup d’etat. An avowed fundamentalist Christian, he was hailed by Reagan as "a man of great personal integrity."

By July 1982, Rios Montt had begun a new scorched-earth campaign. In October, he also gave secret carte blanche to the feared “Archivos” intelligence unit to expand “death squad” operations.

The U.S. embassy was soon hearing more accounts of the army conducting Indian massacres. But the political officers knew that such grim news was not welcome back in Washington and to report it would only damage their careers.

So, the embassy cables increasingly began to spin the evidence in ways that would best serve Reagan's hard-line foreign policy. On Oct. 22, 1982, the embassy sought to explain away the mounting evidence of genocide by arguing that the Rios Montt government was the victim of a communist-inspired "disinformation campaign."

Reagan picked up on that theme. During a swing through Latin America, he discounted the growing evidence that hundreds of Mayan villages were being eradicated.

On Dec. 4, 1982, after meeting with Rios Montt, Reagan hailed the general as "totally dedicated to democracy" and declared that the Rios Montt government was "getting a bum rap."

On Jan. 7, 1983, Reagan lifted the ban on military aid to Guatemala and authorized the sale of $6 million in military hardware. Approval covered spare parts for UH-1H helicopters and A-37 aircraft used in counterinsurgency operations.

In February 1983, a secret CIA cable noted a rise in "suspect right-wing violence" with kidnappings of students and teachers. Bodies of victims were appearing in ditches and gullies. CIA sources traced these political murders to Rios Montt's order to the "Archivos" in October 1982 to "apprehend, hold, interrogate and dispose of suspected guerrillas as they saw fit."

Sugarcoated Facts

Despite these grisly realities on the ground, the annual State Department human rights survey sugarcoated the facts for the American public and praised the supposedly improved human rights situation in Guatemala. "The overall conduct of the armed forces had improved by late in the year" 1982, the report stated.

A different picture – far closer to the secret government reports – was coming from independent human rights investigators. On March 17, 1983, Americas Watch representatives condemned the Guatemalan army for human rights atrocities against the Indian population.

New York attorney Stephen L. Kass said these findings included proof that the government carried out "virtually indiscriminate murder of men, women and children of any farm regarded by the army as possibly supportive of guerrilla insurgents."

Rural women suspected of guerrilla sympathies were raped before execution, Kass said. Children were "thrown into burning homes. They are thrown in the air and speared with bayonets. We heard many, many stories of children being picked up by the ankles and swung against poles so their heads are destroyed."

Publicly, however, senior Reagan officials continued to put on a happy face.

On June 12, 1983, special envoy Richard B. Stone praised "positive changes" in Rios Montt's government. But, in reality, Rios Montt’s vengeful Christian fundamentalism was hurtling out of control, even by Guatemalan standards. In August 1983, Gen. Oscar Mejia Victores seized power in another coup.

Despite the power shift, Guatemalan security forces continued the killings.

Guatemala, of course, was not the only Central American country where Reagan and his administration supported brutal military operations and then sought to cover up the bloody facts. Reagan's falsification of the historical record became a hallmark of the conflicts in El Salvador and Nicaragua, too.

In one case, Reagan personally lashed out at a human rights investigator named Reed Brody, a New York lawyer who had collected affidavits from more than 100 witnesses to atrocities carried out by the U.S.-supported contras in Nicaragua.

Angered by the revelations about his contra "freedom-fighters," Reagan denounced Brody in a speech on April 15, 1985, calling him "one of dictator Ortega's supporters, a sympathizer who has openly embraced Sandinismo."

http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/2008/011908.html

In calling out the reporter Reagan sounded very much like Colombia's Álvaro Uribe, whose open hand out has been receiving the 3rd largest foreign aid package in the entire world from already bleaguered U.S. taxpayers. The only difference would be, perhaps, the reporter wouldn't get assassinated afterward.

[EFerrari]

96. Lula's protest can be understood in terms of the first Durban Conference Against Racism, notably:

11. Considering that the roots of many contemporary manifestations of racism and racial discrimination can be located in the legacy of the slave trade, slavery, colonialism and foreign occupation which led to forced transplantation of peoples, massive dispossession of territories and resources and the destruction of political, religious and social systems for which acknowledgement and reparations were never made, and which created historical injustices based on ideologies of superiority, dominance and purity, the consequences of which continue to this day.

24. Recognizing that globalization is a historically uneven process based on colonial and imperialist integration of the world economy and on maintaining and deepening unequal power relations between countries and regions of the world that exacerbates, global inequalities and conditions of poverty and social exclusion.

25. Deeply concerned that current forms of globalization and policies of international financial and trade institutions as well as the activities of transnational corporations prevent the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights of all peoples, maintain and deepen the social exclusion of groups that are most marginalized and heighten tension and manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

35. Denouncing strategies of some international agreements and international cooperation, such as the Andean Initiative and the Free Trade Area of the Americas project, as well as the Plan Colombia, which, under the guise of carrying out a war against drugs promotes large-scale internal displacement, accelerates dispossession and aggression against the Indigenous, Afro-descendants and peasant communities, leading to the denial of human rights including the right to self-determination, causing environmental degradation and the growth of militarization in the region

http://i-p-o.org/racism-ngo-decl.htm

[Deja Q]

97. Nice to know she found a new career after that pop singing one ended...

:hide:


Wait, that's Lulu, never mind...

[cali]

99. I have never seen such pathetic excuses for a racist utterance in my life.

All the dodging and justifying is as lame as it gets.

[EFerrari]

100. Many white Americans of good will have never connected bigotry with economic exploitation.

Many white Americans of good will have never connected bigotry with economic exploitation. They have deplored prejudice but tolerated or ignored economic injustice. -- MLK

[bemildred]

111. Well, he makes a good point, but he needs to learn more about who runs these companies.

A lot of them are not "white and blue-eyed" anymore. But it definitely is the "developed world" that is responsible for this mess, and it definitely is not a new thing for that to be so. "Free market" capitalism has fallen flat on its ass every time it has been allowed to.

[EFerrari]

118. My hunch posted to another flame fest was right. This WAS about

WB / IMF and not just some wacky ungrounded slam. Gordon Brown says this the day after he stood next to Lula while Lula made those statements:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3802359&mesg_id=3805146

Context matters.

[cali]

119. Of course Lula had a good point. Unfortunaltely he couched in what can

only be said was an unfortunate choice of (racist) words.

[mvd]

146. Racism is never a good response even if something he had in mind is racist

And I can not think of the statement as anything but bigotry.

[EFerrari]

148. The term "history" comes to mind. And, ongoing as Gordon Brown's

tacit acknowledgment demonstrates.

In South Africa, only about 48 million people in toto were affected by Apartheid.

In South America, 382 million were and are to this day. And, that's not counting Central America or Mexico.

It's beyond bizarre for anyone to chastise Lula for saying what everyone knows.

[mvd]

149. I think it's bizarre to defend a bigoted statement

We're not going to get anywhere here, so good night.

[EFerrari]

150. It's not bigotry to accurately describe your situation. n/t

[mvd]

151. It didn't accurately describe anything

I've already shown how silly it is, just focusing on the eyes part of the statement alone. And saying the same thing/trying to get the last word in won't change my mind.

[EFerrari]

152. 380 million people probably disagree with that. n/t

[mvd]

153. I'm sure there's plenty of division over the comment even in Brazil

Look, I just do not think it was the right way to say it. If I thought I was wrong after we discussed, I would post that. But I do not think I was wrong, and I stated a few reasons why.

[mvd]

154. And I can't discuss this all night.

Really, take care. We can't agree on everything, even as progressives.

[EFerrari]

155. There is no flap in Brazil at all.

Mostly, what this whole thing has taught me was, a lot of us knew about South Africa but we didn't know about something 7 times worse just to the south of us on the same continent. Have a good night, mvd.

[mvd]

156. Good night!

Actually, I have seen plenty of differing comments from Brazilians on message boards I have visited. I have relatives down there in fact who were born Brazilian, and they don't like their own Presidents. :hi:

[EFerrari]

157. Brasil!

My husband was from Brazil. The very sweetest people on the earth. :)

[mvd]

159. Oh yes - I'd like to take a trip down to see those relatives

The people seem very nice in Brazil. :hi:

[applegrove]

131. He's not wrong that it is rich white people who are behind this mess.

A few brown rich people too. Not all of them have blue eyes. But those who came up with the idea to unregulate markets are responsible. Cause there is always the example of unregulated Latin American markets to show anyone..what a country looks like when it is less equal and less policed. And the rich in america and europe thought they could get the wealth of rich people in Latin America without all the problems that come with rich people running the show.

[Mr. Hyde]

143. bullshit. This is the end result of NAFTA.

[EFerrari]

145. Really? And whose idea was that?

And, you know that you're taking only the last few years out of hundreds, right?

[Mr. Hyde]

158. who sold it to the American voters on Larry King Live? Who signed it into law?

And it was the last decade and a half that got us where we are today and, as I said upthread, there's plenty of blame to go around.

[EFerrari]

168. By the time it's sold on Larry King, it's far along down the pike.

And NAFTA is only a small piece of this.

[Mr. Hyde]

175. Like I said, everything is always someone else's fault with you.

Al Sold it and Bill signed it. And I strongly disagree that NAFTA is "only a small piece of this." It is a large piece of this.

[EFerrari]

176. Accurately tracing a system is not assigning fault to someone else.

But don't let me disturb your little authoritarian worldview.

[Judi Lynn]

177. B-b-b-b-but I thought Larry King is the cutting EDGE, EFerrari!

Anytime I need to know what the movers and shakers are doing, what's happening in world events, I have no choice but to tune in Larry King!

http://weblogs.newsday.com.nyud.net:8090/entertainment/tv/blog/larry_king.jpg

Young Larry

[EFerrari]

178. That must have been his Elvis Period!

lol

[Prometheus Bound]

165. Here are pics of the principal poster boys from another thread.

From a thread by underpants: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x437001

In order, left to right

The Enabler, ALAN GREENSPAN, WAS Chairman of the Federal Reserve (1987-2006)

The Pioneer, SANDY WEILL, WAS CEO of Citigroup (1998-2003)

The Ideologue, PHIL GRAMM, WAS Senate Banking Committee chair (1995-2000)

The Arsonist, JOE CASSANO, WAS Chief of AIG Financial Products (2001-2008)

The Bagman, ROBERT RUBIN, WAS Treasury secretary (1995-1999)

The Card Shark, JIMMY CAYNE, WAS CEO of Bear Stearns (1993-2008)

Mr. Buck Passer, CHRISTOPHER COX, WAS Chairman of the SEC (2005-2009)

The Predator, ANGELO MOZILO, WAS Head of Countrywide Financial (1969-2008)

The Decorator, JOHN THAIN, WAS Chief of Merrill Lynch (2007-2009)

The Maestro, HENRY PAULSON, WAS CEO of Goldman Sachs (1999-2006); Treasury secretary (2006-2009)

The Big Loser, DICK FULD, WAS CEO of Lehman Brothers (1993-2008)

Mr. Too Big, KEN LEWIS, Bk of America

[ronnie624]

198. They epitomize Lula's colorful, metaphorical language.

Many on this thread, take their pasty white butts a little too seriously.

[Prometheus Bound]

200. LOL. Yes, metaphorical. There's so many issues to be outraged about.

I can't imagine getting so worked up about this 'metaphor'. Here in Asia it is more the phrase 'white skin', not the 'blue eyes' part, that would be used in a similar way to refer to the West, which would include Western Europe and North America. Of course those regions comprise enormous populations of yellow, black and brown people, but they still seem to be identified by their dominant group. I've never sensed racism behind such comments. Until recently, it tended to have positive connotations - that is until those white, blue-eyed bankers and their white, blue-eyed political enablers fucked up the world. It may be used in a more disparaging way in future.

[ima_sinnic]

166. oh blah blah blah with the fauxrage on this thread. He's indicting the PTB & the imbalance of power

that has been stacked in favor of war mongering, bloodthirsty Europeans & their ancestors.
In the overall course of history, which "part of humanity" has continuously subjugated, tortured, enslaved, and wantonly plundered, robbed, and murdered the rest of the world?

[Bryn]

169. I am white and gray-eyed

So I am off hook :P

[Nikia]

172. Late to the thread, but I don't think that it is racist

For around 500 years, white people have been oppressing poor people of color throughout the world. In many multi ethnic countries like Brazil to a greater extent than the US, this oppression continues. In his comments, he was obviously speaking of white people with power, in Europe and the socioeconomic elite of the Americas. When one comments on the reality of oppression that is not racist.
It would be racist if he said death to all blue eyed white people or took away their rights in his country. It might also be racist if he wouldn't give someone a job because of that.
I can't believe people here can't tell the difference between these things.

[Fumesucker]

173. No one knows what it's like to be the bad man

to be the sad man
behind blue eyes


Blue eyed, blond haired white man here, I understand what Lula is saying, he isn't pointing the finger at powerless little old me, he is pointing the finger at the overwhelmingly racially unbalanced financial system the manipulation of which by a few mostly white men is going to cause untold misery around the world.

If I swallow anything evil
put your finger down my throat
if I shiver please give me a blanket
keep me warm let me wear your coat

[ProudDad]

182. Lula hits the nail right on the pin-head!

White Europeans inventing this phony house of cards "economy", used it to exploit the HELL out of those of darker hue and are now trying to prop up the failed system on the backs of the poor.

Viva Lula

[EFerrari]

185. President Lula de Silva, "most popular leader in the world", interviewed by Fareed Zacharia:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/03/29/gps.president.lula.interview.cnn

[Judi Lynn]

202. President Lula.was matchless. No wonder his popularity is over 80% in his own country.

Really glad to have seen this video.

Thank you for taking the time to post it.

[MellowDem]

187. Not racist, but definitely ignorant and bigoted...

Oh sure, I get the point Lula is making. But it doesn't make it any less bigoted or ignorant of a statement. What a bad way to get across what he was saying. And those defending it here... well, it's no surprise really. A lot of people have prejudice in their hearts and have justified their hate long ago.

The only thing this comment was effective at doing was scapegoating and dumbing down the problem. Something racial language is best suited for.

[EFerrari]

190. LOL

[MellowDem]

192. HaHaHa

HeeHeeHee

HoHoHo

Go EFerrari, Go! ;)

[EFerrari]

195. Lula enjoys a popularity rating in Brazil 20 points higher than Obama's is here

and Gordon Brown fell all over himself reassuring Lula that the vampires were going to stop sucking Brazil dry. I don't think he needs your approval. I certainly don't. :)

[MellowDem]

197. Good for him...

George W. enjoyed similar popularity ratings at one time. Don't mean squat to me. Gordon Brown is diplomatic and understood what Lula was saying, which I essentially agree with as well. But since I'm not a diplomat, I can call Lula out on his bigoted and ignorant (and politically expedient) "explanation" of the financial crisis. I don't think Lula is a bad guy, overall I think he's great and he has my approval. But this comment does not.

[Judi Lynn]

188. Very useful information posted by a DU'er who knows Brazil:

In Brazil, this is an anti-colonial expression reffering to Norther Europeans. "Lindo, loiro de olhos azuis": Beautiful, blonde, with blue eyes.

It's used when someone who has exhibited arrogance and snobbery makes a mistake, but refuses to admit it. The phrase basically means "you think you are so smart, but look at what you've done."

Thanks to DU'er Idealism, post #17 in the Latin America forum:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x13281#13366

[MellowDem]

189. Interesting...

so, it's similar to saying, "that's mighty white of you?" Hmm, still a very bigoted and ignorant statement, and definitely not something a president should be saying in trying to describe the financial crisis. Unless he wants to scapegoat and dumb down.

Also, I find it hilarious that it's an "anti-colonial" expression that relates specifically to Northern Europeans! That one really gets me. I guess the Portuguese were behind this saying! "Hey guys, we'll say that Northern Europeans are the REAL colonists! Not us Southern Europeans that actually colonized this land!" Haha, real smart!

[EFerrari]

191. Maybe you need to read up on Dutch activity in Brazil

before you embarrass yourself further.

[MellowDem]

193. I'm aware...

and it changes nothing I said. If anything, it reinforces it.

Hmm, kinda like when the US was dominated and colonized by mainly Northern Europeans, and the Southern Europeans were not considered "white" but evil imperialists who oppressed Cuba. In fact, that sort of propaganda was used to take us to war and justify more imperialism by the US! Remember the Maine! Huzzah! Huzzah! That's the kind of yellow journalism you can get behind!


:rofl:

[EFerrari]

194. We can't have the oppressed people of the world speaking up

now, can we?

lol

[MellowDem]

196. Au contraire

but I don't find the President of Brazil speaking for the oppressed. And the oppressed can be brainwashed and propagandized. There are plenty of examples of that right here in the US. Rush Limbaugh speaks for the oppressed all the time. Many of his listeners are truly on the outer reaches of society and oppressed by Rush's own ideals. And he uses similar scapegoating and historical bigotry to justify his worldview and convince the oppressed to help out in their own continued oppression.

Here's a good example: In keeping with the theme, in the war with Spain, the US used all-black regiments to help fight in the Philippines, where we put down an independence movement in a very imperialistic manner. Now, that's a great example of playing the oppressed off each other. Beware those who speak for the oppressed. Be critical, be cynical.

The president of Brazil using historically bigoted language aimed at "outsiders" to explain (blame) the financial crisis on? Hmm, he's not speaking for the oppressed, he's scapegoating and playing to his audience. If he wanted to speak for the oppressed, why would he use bigoted language, something that has been used as a critical tool to keep others oppressed?

[heliomx]

204. A brazilian point of view

Hi!

I'm a brazilian and I'd like to share my point of view to maybe shed a little light on this subject.

But first watch Lula's interview: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/03/25/zakaria.gps.lula/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Lula certainly made a very polemic declaration, and I think it was perfect timing. In Brazil he brought up the race subject for a long time now. He was the first brazilian president to put a black person to serve in the country's cabinet as a ministry of state (Gilberto Gil) and another one (Joaquim Barbosa) as a Ministry of The Supreme Court in a country where most of the prisoners population are black and poor.

Brazil has a long racism history and Lula was the first president to seriously bring up the racism issue from the State perspective. From the political stand point he's anti-racist.

So why he would say such thing?

I'll try to answer this with more questions.

Answer these (seriously):

How many billion dollars the U.S. Government used to "bail out" New Orleans?
How many African countries are participating the G20 meeting?
How many African children are dying while executive bonuses are being paid with public money?
How many wars will US start in poor countries to maintain it's economic standards?

I think sometimes we find ourselves dazzled and focused on the wrong aspect of the text.

The relationship between the financial crisis with racism is the same relation with the environmental issues. We should all know by now that everything is connected. And thanks to Lula, we are discussing it here and in the G20 meeting.

[Judi Lynn]

205. So glad to see your post. Delighted to hear from someone who really KNOWS about Brazil.

Just watched that CNN interview in the last couple of hours, and President Lula da Silva looks impeccable. He is more at ease, more capable in interviews than very MANY other officials in political life. He wears the responsibilities of his position beautifully.

Not so impressed by the idiot interviewing him, however. He should have been more professional, less ridiculous.

It's terrific seeing you've joined the ranks here. Looking forward to your future presence. Welcome to D.U. :hi: