Brainstorming #1

Night Brainstorming

Since while I've been thinking constantly about politics. Topic that wasn't interested at all in the past, just living my life and seeing and ignoring what was happening around me.

I was born in a neighborhood in Brazil called as Liberdade, the second biggest afro neighborhood in my hometown, Salvador. This neighborhood is a shanty town in a city with 3 million people, symbolizing well how the Brazilian is unequal.

I don't have that much memories from the first 8 years of my life when I was living close from one of the most dangerous spot of the city, Rua do Céu, "Sky Street". I remember a little bit this small house that when I opened the main door there was living room that was divided in two parts, the bed that my parents use to sleep together and the space that I used to spend the first years of my life there and sometimes my grandma use to sleep with me when she used to come to visit us, there was nothing dividing the private space of my parents, me, my grandma and the rest of the house. After this living room there was a tiny kitchen where could barely fit two people and just on the left there was a plastic curtain that separated the toilet from the kitchen. It's pretty hard to remember details from this moment, but I'm exercising it in this moment. The toilet was a whole in the floor and a place to have shower next to. There also was a backyard where there was some vegetables and chickens around.

One of the stories that my mom told me was that when I was baby the cops broke in the house looking for a drug dealer called as Alexandre and by disinformation my mom needed to show then that I wasn't able to sell drugs using diapers.

This drug dealer actually was around, my mom told me that he was living just in the house next to us. I don't know what happened to him, but probably what happens with many of people from the ghetto that start to deal with drugs is ending up in a prison, death or just both combined.

Consume and commercialized illegal substances in Brazil is a crime. Theoretically in Brazil by law it applies for everyone, but practically depending of your color skin and your political connections your have, this law doesn't apply for you.

This Alexandre, if he was luck, he would be able to sell drugs for few months or years after winning against his enemies or making partnerships and hiding theirselves well or just making agreements with the cops. However this career isn't that long, since the big drug dealer until a guy that's carrying 50 grams to sell in the street. Teenager, could scape few times because of the law that protected younger than 18 years old in Brazil. Currently a group of Brazilian with right wing or far right wing views supports the reduction from 18 to 16 years old the penalty age. If older than 18 years old, this guy if doesn't die after a confrontation with the cops, they will go to the jail. In 2016 there was 726 thousand prisoners, the 3rd world largest prisoner population. What's more scaring is from this amount 40% are in jail without having a judgment. People that didn't have the chance of be judged if they are innocent or guilty. It's the same amount of people that are the deficit of vacancies, once the prisons are overpopulated. The Ipea, a research economic institute estimate that in 2019 around 93 thousand people that are provisional arrest are actually innocent

This young guy should have the same opportunities as many of us had in our life, probably gonna have a short life, going or not to the prison in part of his life. This guy has 77% of chances to be black, once in Brazil for each 23min a black person between 15 and 29 are murdered, something like 63 per day.   

Often in the Brazilian news we hear about someone that was caught carrying or selling illegal drugs and by money, influence or both have the chance to wait for his/her judgment in freedom. In 2013 were found 450kg of cocaine paste in the helicopter of one Brazilian deputy in the same day the helicopter was fueling its gas in the farm of ex-senator that ran as president in 2014.

Norwardays the Helicopter owner got it back by the justice and he and his family were indicted by any crime, that theoretically in the Art. 62 of the Anti-drug Law contradict the reality. Now Gustavo Perrella is working as director in the Brazilian Soccer Federation, Aécio Neves at the time Senator, that coincidentally the helicopter put some gas in the airport of his family that coincidentally was build for him when he was governor of the state, an airport in a city with 25 thousand people.

Brazil is a war of classes. Classes from the result of all our history, in disadvantages there are a lot Alexandre, Maria, João, Pedro, Priscila... Since long time, we are mostly losing this war, that's not between the cop and the drug dealer or between someone that is stealing with the one that's getting stolen. This war is between who has the power and wanna maintain it and ambitiously expand it and the majority of the population that wake up early to grab the bus, go to work and come back home with different life expectations, different dreams and different years of life.

Why am I interest in politics? This is the way in which I leave from the chair watching the life running and try to do something that could give to each of us the same opportunity and same rights in the democratic society.

 


https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-36461295
https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/brasil-dobra-numero-de-presos-em-11-anos-diz-levantamento-de-720-mil-detentos-40-nao-foram-julgados.ghtml
https://www.conjur.com.br/2016-abr-26/40-presos-brasileiros-sao-provisorios-aponta-levantamento
https://g1.globo.com/monitor-da-violencia/noticia/2019/04/26/superlotacao-aumenta-e-numero-de-presos-provisorios-volta-a-crescer-no-brasil.ghtml
https://www.pragmatismopolitico.com.br/2016/11/helicoptero-cocaina-3-anos-ninguem-preso.html
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Perrella