Accountability (vs. "relaxa e morra")

I found a new, very insightful and interesting blog from Lucia Hippolito. Cientista política, historiadora e jornalista, especialista em eleições, partidos políticos e Estado brasileiro.

http://www.luciahippolito.globolog.com.br/

She also commented on the fact of lack of accountability across Brasil. With the following main observations through the text:

• Accountability contains the idea that authority is a public servant. Elected or not, it has to be accountability for its actions to society.
• Less stage and more debate, less uprisings and more interviews, less "law by ministry" (do other countries have this even?) and more attendance to the Congress.

Well... Accountability. Such a great word, and there is no portuguese translation! (ironic?)

When we look at the disaster of the airplane in São Paulo, some important "political processes" immediately kicked in. Nope. Not what you expect. Immediate investigations were ordered to try to blame it on the runway, but overall, the political world kept rather quite. The president has, unfortunately, not appeared on television in the last 72 hrs to send his condolences and show his commitment and compassion. Bit disappointing.

In February 2007, the airport was closed for 737, Fokker 100 (3 large aircraft visiting the airport) due to concerns about safety. The main concern of safety is the short runway of 1.9 km, which is too short for larger aircraft too land in certain conditions. Some days later however, this closure ruling was overruled by an appeal, stating that the safety considerations to be taken into account did not outweigh the economic ramifications that would ensue due to airport closure. So basically all the people in the jet died because of money and we just found out the exact numeric value that the Infraero, ANAC, government, Justice have considered "equals" human life.

The Airbus A320 is able to land on the runway of that length in dry weather conditions. Not in wet weather conditions. There are accounts of the Airbus failing to engage the reverse thrust, as it happened in Warsaw and some other event (mysterious) in France some time later. In this case with SP, it appears that the airplane had problems with the reversor since the Friday before (which, ironically, was the 13th). According to TAM, this was not prohibitive to still using the airplane. I'll leave this to airplane experts to decide whether this is correct or not. The pilot attempted to take off again, (but very likely due to aircraft logic was unable to). At least someone is looking at flight deck automation problems.

There seems to be a strong will to make money in Brazil and this focus is costing lives of other people. Rather than complying with all standards, assume the responsibility beyond the will to make money, some people are playing russian roulette with other people's lives.

If there is no consequence this time around and the "guilt" remains in the middle as it has been the case for other incidents.... Brazil is hopeless. It will mean there is no accountability for Brazil, no conscience, no responsibility, and not even authority or leadership. If that be the case, get out while you can! Before you become another statistic.

On another note... the PanAm games are there. Millions spent in the Maracanã stadium on some silly sport events when the people outside the stadium are living in atrocious conditions. I'm saying this not to say... let's NOT have the panams... I'm saying this because the money spent on having the games, with the full entourage and so on, seems a bit much. The positive thing is that even the poor living on the famous slums hill can see the fireworks going off in several rounds during the opening concert. It was amazing and beautiful. That should make them at least slightly happier...? Or am I safe in assuming it makes them quite mad to see how money is being wasted on fireworks that could have been used to improve poor health-care or impossible sanitary conditions, or ... maybe... like... ending drugs and violence in Rio?

Ignorance abound! One day or another... Brazil will have to face its consequences. Or rather... the people will.

(image above courtesy Duke Chargista).

Back "home"...

Well, finally made it back "home". I am part of a group called IACE (Instituto Antonio Carlos Escobar) which is a group of volunteers in Recife that are concerned about the rising violence levels. It's a good idea to get acquainted with the group and subscribe and help campaigning.

The site that was passed on the list is this:

http://www.pebodycount.com.br/

It's portuguese, but one post attracted my attention. I will translate it here and you should be aware of these things before you travel to Brazil:

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Balanço da violência nos seis primeiros meses de 2007.
São 2447 homicídios este ano e 2301, no mesmo período do ano passado.
A média atual é de 13 assassinatos por dia no estado. No ano passado eram 12.
Maio e junho de 2007 tiveram 733 assassinatos. O mesmo período de 2006, 718.
Considerando os dados do PEbodycount sobre o mês de junho:

85 assassinatos no Recife.
110 nas demais cidades da RMR. 35 em Jaboatão.
52 na Zona da Mata. 12 em Timbaúba.
49 no Agreste. 8 em Caruaru.
43 no Sertão. 9 em Petrolina.
11 em local indeterminado.

Entre as vítimas, foram contabilizados 330 homens e 20 mulheres.
Cerca de 80% dos assassinatos foram cometidos com a utilização de arma de fogo. Não estamos aqui apenas para fazer cálculos. Por trás desses números está a nossa realidade, que infelizmente, é a traduzida por essas estatísticas como sendo muito violenta. Estamos trabalhando para fornecer um elemento vital para a cidadania: informação. Façam bom proveito.

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Balance of violence in the first six months of 2007. There are 2447 murders this year (up to june) and 2301 in the last year, same period. On average, there are 13 killings per day in this state. Last year the average was 12.

May and June 2007 there were 733 murders. The same period 2006, 718.
Considering the data of PEBodyCount in the month of June only:

85 murders Recife. (3 million people) 110 in other cities of Regio Metropolitana Recife (6 million people, poorer neighborhoods) 35 in Jaboatão. 52 in "Zona da Mata". 12 in Timbaúba. 49 in Agreste. 8 in Caruaru. 43 in Sertão. 9 in Petrolina. (you should be able to find these places on Google Maps). 11 of unknown locality.

Between victims, 330 men and 20 women. About 80% of muders were committed with the utilization of firearms. We are not here to do calculations. Behind these numbers is our reality, that unfortunately, is translated through these statistics as being very violent. We are working to supply a vital element for citizenship: information. Take advantage of it.

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Mind you, I lived here since 2004, but I sense bad changes for the worse over the past couple of months. Today for example, I saw in the news that a shopping centre got totally terrorized by youngsters when cinema tickets went half-price. It's basically a very large group of 13?-2x year olds. Lots of robberies, violent assaults, verbal abuse against shopkeepers, stealing, vandalism, you name it! The shopkeepers were forced to close down, since they were unable to do their work this way. Shouting everywhere, people throwing stuff, damage, vandalism. There were about 60 men to provide security, many of which were off-duty police officers.

The police rep was interviewed at the same day and they saw no particular reason for concern and reinforced that the shopping center was as safe as normal "aqui há segurança sim".

Overall, people have already commented that this state is becoming (or has become), based on statistics, more violent than the state of Rio de Janeiro. Rio actually being the city that is most known for drug trade and illegal fire-arms.
(see "Cidade de Deus" for example).