#CHANGEBRAZIL Masterpost: Understanding the cause
I sure hope you are seeing a bunch of stuff about Brazil, either on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook or TV. But I need you to understand what is going on. What’s truly going on around here. So I prepared this masterpost, a list of links that should explain this to you!
Some background:
- Brazil is one of the most corrupt governments in the world
- Our government doesn’t take care of us
- And goes unpunished, leaving us conformed
- Mostly because we have laws that they can manipulate to protect themselves, seen here and here.
- There’s so many problems with our government it’s hard to list everything.
What triggered the people:
- Is Brazil ready to host the 2014 World Cup? (With this government? No.)
- Football being used to distract the people from the World Cup and corruption issues
- In Brazil, you work 5 months a year to pay tax. By the age of 70, the average Brazilian will have worked 30 years just to pay tax. Brazilians pay around 61 different taxes
- “Several of these stadiums risk becoming white elephants,”
- José Sarney, an undistinguished but influential former president, earns 62,000 reais a month
- 81 senators in the upper house will have parity with the country’s Supreme Court judges, earning R$26,723.13 (£10,063) a month.
- The bus pass is now 20 centavos (10 cents) more expensive in 22 May. 10 cents for each bus ride (some people take 2 different buses to get to work, so that would be at least 4 bus rides a day) for each person in São Paulo alone (with a population of 11.32 million), we know damn well what are they doing.
Where the protest begins
- First protest in Porto Alegre in March 2013, when protesters convinced the local city hall to reduce the fare price.
- In Goiania, 16 May also before the prices were officially changed, where two buses were incinerated and two buses were stoned, but leaving no victims on behalf of the protesters.
- There was another protest in Goiania, on 6 June, where the fares were brought back to their previous price by judge Fernando de Mello Xavier.
- An then finally, São Paulo.
- I say finally because the São Paulo protests were everywhere in the news.
- The city hall announced the raise of the tickets prices from R$3,00 to R$3,20, starting on 2 June. It’s one of the most expensive bus tickets in the country.
- Not just the bus tickets, but healthcare, economy and education are being left aside in order to steal from us and invest as much money as possible in the 2013 Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.
- 13th June 2013: The day 5 thousand protesters occupied Avenida Paulista, one of the most important avenues in São Paulo. There was a worldwide repercussion to it.
- There was also a protest on 16 June in Brasília, our capital, right before a Brazil vs Japan football match. “They are building these overpriced stadiums and are not worrying about the situation of their own people.”
- There was a protest today on Maracanã, one of the stadiums where 2013 Confederations Cup is taking place, a match between Italy and Mexico. And yes, it was violent.
- In all of these cases, most of Brazil’s media websites (like Veja, one of the most important and influential Brazilian magazines) blamed the protesters, saying the police was violent because they were violent first, saying the protesters deserved what they got, calling them troublemakers (among other names)
- Even though “innocent people” (non-protesters) were injured by the police, like people passing by and reporters.
- I won’t link you pictures of the victims specifically, but you can see some here. TW violence TW blood TW bruises.
Examples of the police being violent with protestants (TW violence):
- A group of people are yelling “no violence” in portuguese, as the police shoots rubber bullets at them
- Same scene, from another point of view
Repercussion:
- Please Help Us Change Brazil: Why we are saying #changebrazil
- There are protests about this all over the world!
- Dublin, Ireland, scheduled for 1pm local time Sunday in sign of solidarity with Brazilian protesters, many of whom are university students.
- Dozens of demonstrations are also being organized in other cities, including Paris, Madrid, London, Berlin, Brussels, Boston, Chicago, New York, Toronto, Montreal, Mexico City and Buenos Aires. In general, the actions are scheduled for Tuesday.
So please, hear us out! Don’t let the media fool you about what is going on. Support us, we want to change Brazil! I will be updating this post with more information and news! Please reblog, watch this video and support us!