The protests in Brazil have now for the most part cooled off a bit (though still alive!), and now the government is tryig desperately to figure out how to respond to the uproar (so far, they seem mostly clueless). Things turned more complicated when the protests became a big umbrella, sheltering anyone and everyone who is against the current government and the status quo in general, including people proposing to return to a military regime! But all in all, it was a huge wake-up call for those in power, and I’m optimistic that positive results will ensue – for starters, the increase in the public transport fare in São Paulo, which got the whole thing started a few weeks ago, has already been reversed.
This week, I’ll post two songs from the 1980s that, again, remain entirely pertinent in their criticism of the structural social and political problems in the country: ‘Brasil’, written by Cazuza and here sung by Gal Costa; and ‘Que país é esse?’ by Legião Urbana. Both songs were some of the anthems of protesters over the last weeks, and the second video is made with images of these recent events. (Well, I can only hope that, in 30 years from now, they will no longer offer a fitting description of the country...)
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