Paper # 3 Why Brazilians deserve to life in a poor and violent country.

Many people say it is terrible to live in Brazil. They are completely right and deserve it. Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world. The unemployment rate is about 20%. The prisons have more prisoners they could support, which make them feel as an animal. Many children who graduate from school are not able at least to read; and not rarely they go to school starving. On the other hand, São Paulo has the biggest number of helicopters and armored cars in the world. Rich people get locked inside a bubble, with no contact to the real life. It is really difficult to have a good life with such contrasts and it will probably never change. However, Brazilians do deserve to live in a poor and violent country because most of us have lack of care for other citizens, lack of commitment to vote and lack of a culture of a developing country.

 

The first reason why Brazilians deserve to live in a poor and violent country is related to their lack of care for other citizens. Brazilian tends to think that they don`t have anything to do with other people`s problems, while they should note that those problems frequently have effects in our private life. Public issues must not be considered as an exclusively governmental task because every individual has their role in society, which is certainly more than live inside a bubble and just care for their family and friends. President Lula, for example, took ten days to visit the recent catastrophe in Santa Catarina. But he only reflects the major thought in our country. Therefore, it is time to note that problems will not be solved by itself and Brazilians should neither expect a government action nor think they don’t have anything to do with the public matters. Every single citizen is responsible for and contributes to keep the poverty and violence the way it is.

Secondly, Brazilians in general have no commitments and concern with vote and politics. Voting is an obligation in our country and Brazilian citizens really consider it is an obligation, instead of thinking it is an important right to develop the country. Politics is one subject which does not stir passions in Brazil. We prefer to talk about sports, tragedies in general (Brazilians really love this subject) and other people`s life.  A recent research showed that the expression “BBB8””, which means the eighth version of Big Brother Brazil, was the expression that most appeared in Google in November, even if we had municipal elections in Brazil and the USA election in this period. Most people certainly don’t have an idea who they voted four years ago and they probably can`t answer a simple question, such as “who is the treasury minister?” or “how many senators do we have in Brazil?”. As we have no commitment with politics and with whom we elect, Brazilians must pay the price for their omission.

The third reason why Brazilians deserves to live in a poor and violent country is our own historical condition. Brazil was “discovered” by the Portuguese and the country was used as a colony to explore and sell our natural resources, such as gold, pau-brasil and rare stones. It seems that this exploitation culture remains until now. For example, a homeless may ask you R$ 10.00 to park in a public place, or some import persons may use their fame or power to take advantages. No matter how much money and education we have, Brazilians have a tendency to take advantages of what they want to and don`t care for the country development. This is a cultural behavior and it looks like we are very far from changing it.