Brazilians Rise Up Against Country's Ruling Class, Refusing To Be Taken for 'Suckers'

[madokie]

The first surprise about the Brazilian protests is that they have taken place at all. The second surprise is their scale. On reflection, they should have taken place years ago. The recent hike in bus fares was simply the last straw for a nation tired of being treated like otários ("suckers&quot – as a taxi driver put it to me on Sunday – by its ruling classes.

Demonstrations in modern Brazil are usually left to small groups belonging to the country's beleaguered "social movements" and therefore easily ignored by the media, which is dominated by the all powerful Globo conglomerate. Protesters depicted as troublemakers, lazy students, leftists and rich kids without a cause – as one prominent social commentator in Rio described them last week – are quickly discredited and forgotten.

But this time round Globo and its allies are on the back foot. In Rio de Janeiro cracks in the "cordial" facade presented by the city's leaders to the world have been showing for some time. Sérgio Cabral, the once popular state governor, has kept a low profile ever since footage of him engaging in Bullingdon Club-style buffoonery in the Paris Ritz emerged in 2012. Images of him cavorting with powerful business associates (known locally as the "napkin gang", because of what they wore on their heads during the escapade) enraged a substantial proportion of the electorate. The reputation of the city's mayor, Eduardo Paes, previously disliked but respected for his work ethic, has also been dented after an unseemly brawl outside an uptown restaurant last month.

Long, uncomfortable hours in crowded sweaty buses on congested roads, and difficult access to substandard public health and education facilities have been grinding down the patience of easygoing Rio residents, the cariocas, for years. A modern but stuffed-to-the-hilt underground service, and an ancient and absurdly overcrowded overground suburban train service do not ease matters. With a soaring cost of living – many prices in Rio are now comparable to European cities – rapid gentrification of housing, and favela-removal programmes shunting the poor out to the most distant suburbs, the frustration of a large swath of cariocas is understandable.

http://www.alternet.org/activism/brazilians-rise-against-countrys-ruling-class-refusing-be-taken-suckers

[graham4anything]

1. I am a John V. Lindsay liberal.

the legendary JVL walked the streets of NYC the night Dr. King died, and there were no riots.

Why would anyone (and not saying anyone here), but in general, why would anyone find a riot a good thing?

It is pure anarchy, and a riot hurts the poorest of the poor a zillion times worse than anyone else.

All that wasted money and I sure would hope no one in this country would want that happening here like
the anarchy that happens at those worldwide meets each year, with people infilitrating the crowd who actually don't
care about any cause, they are more akin to arsonists who just like to watch a fire.

As John Lennon said about revolutions- Well, NO you can meet out.

The NRA and the BushPaulfamilyinc would love to see a riot and then have an excuse to all become zimmy's from Florida.

I just hope that no one around here is advocating for this.

V for vendetta was a rightwing extremists who killed people and made that country pay millions in repairs.
Yeah, spending money on that would be one less dollar to spend on anything else.
And the Ron Paul/Rand Paul belief is NO SPENDING so all that would be left would be another hole in the ground like
the hole that was left for 7 years after 9-11, before a new president starting moving things forward and now a beautiful tall
shiny new building stands on the rubble of what the terrorists took down on 9-11 (and killed the economy for 10 years that now is so majorly coming back)