As estratégias do homem cordial

No ano passado fiz minha primeira vistoria anual de licenciamento. Fui por volta do meio dia, vestindo uma roupa casual: jeans, camiseta, tênis. Entrei no posto especializado e, depois de ficar alguns minutos em uma fila de carros, fui encaminhado a um dos guichês de inspeção. Um ser humano malhado, com uma camisa dois números menor que o seu corpo, jovem e com o cabelo raspado me recebeu. Olhou meu carro milimetricamente: buzina, faróis, pneus, extintor etc. Pediu que eu retirasse o step da mala e, com um olhar clínico, disse que meus pneus estavam gastos além do limite. Que limite? Gastos quanto? O sulco da borracha estava comido, disse, com uma autoridade não revelada nos músculos que saltavam a roupa vestida como um abadá.

“Você tem cinco dias para comprar dois pneus novos e voltar aqui”, sentenciou. Anh? Cinco dias? Dois pneus? Sabe quanto custam dois pneus? Não teve jeito. Dois pneus seriam minha obsessão naquela semana de abril. A minha frustração de ter sido reprovado foi compartilhada com um punhado de outras pessoas. Um senhor criticava os fiscais. “Está vendo ali? Nem olhou a mala do carro. Nem pediu para ver o extintor! Que absurdo!”. Era verdade. Nos meus bons quinze minutos de penitência, observei que o inspetor fazia vista grossa com: a) engravatados; b) loiras siliconadas; c) malandros em picapes. Eu, jovem, magrinho, vestindo camiseta e tênis não me enquadrava nos critérios estabelecidos.

Hoje a coisa mudou. Como não me enquadrava no quesito “loira siliconada” e nem tenho uma picape, o jeito foi parecer um homem de negócios. Vesti-me mais ou menos conforme manda o figurino: camisa social de botão, calça social, sapatos. Até arrumei o cabelo! Às 8h, com uma pontualidade britânica – os britânicos provavelmente se vestem melhor do que eu – cheguei. Mesmo roteiro, fila de carros, calor dos trópicos, guichê de número ímpar. Dessa vez não encontrei meu amigo da academia, mas um inspetor sem nada especial. Não era feio, não era bonito, não vestia nada que indicasse um possível gosto por micaretas. Melhor assim.

Na minha frente estava um garotão com… Camiseta e tênis. Não deu outra, até o detalhe do macaco do carro dele foi vistoriado. Em seguida foi a minha vez. O cidadão me olhou de cima a baixo, apertou minha mão e pediu gentilmente para ligar as setas e os faróis. Depois, fingiu que viu meus pneus e pronto. Não viu buzina, macaco, triângulo, mala, capô, nada! “Está liberado, pode pegar o novo documento, senhor”. Senhor! Eu fico pensando, e se eu fosse uma loira siliconada vestindo um blazer e estivesse numa picape?

Frases

Dia desses, andando por Copacabana, vejo um garoto ameaçando o outro com o seguinte: “muleque, se tu não parar com isso vou te dar um choque de ordem”.

Tem tudo para virar gíria.

siempre que te pregunto…

Itamaraty

http://www.senado.gov.br/tv/programas/diplomacia/2009/fevereiro.html

Dinossauro semi-feudal

The Economist

JOSÉ SARNEY first ran for elected office over half a century ago. For the past 40 years he has controlled the fortunes of Maranhão, a state on the eastern fringe of Brazil’s Amazon region. He has represented it as federal deputy (twice), governor, and senator (twice). In 1985 he became the accidental, and undistinguished, president of Brazil when the man chosen for the job died before he could take it up. More recently he has been senator for the nearby and newly-created state of Amapá (twice). Time to retire, one might think.

An undermined giant

The Pentagon has asserted that American preponderance created and sustained the foundations for “a market-­oriented zone of peace and prosperity encompassing two-thirds of the world economy.” But the problem with a giant zone of peace and prosperity is that it bites the hegemon that feeds it: by augmenting the wealth and power of multiple states, the United States spurs the relative decline of its own power even as it contributes to the absolute growth of its own (and the world’s) economy. Instead of pursuing “leadership,” these analysts argued, the U.S. would do better to accept and in fact encourage the emergence of a multipolar system of truly independent great powers, which would take care of their own and their regions’ security. Such arguments were barely considered.

Extract of an essay written by The Atlantic’s editor about a new perspective towards America’s foreign policy under Obama’s adminstration.

Reações simbólicas

Todas as vezes que eu assisto vídeos do conflito no Oriente Médio entre Israel e Hamas, eu lembro de uma cena do seriado A Sete Palmos, especificamente aquela em que a mãe, desesperada com a morte precoce do marido, se joga sobre o caixão de seu esposo e começa a chorar copiosamente. Um dos filhos, mente aberta, viajante do mundo e desprendido das convenções sociais, afirma que o gesto é semelhante ao das mulheres sicilianas que choram a morte de seus entes queridos. Diz que aquilo é bonito e que as mulheres ocidentais privam-se de externalizar a dor que sentem pelas convenções sociais. Velam o corpo dos parentes em silêncio, absorvem o sofrimento.

Hoje, no décimo primeiro dia de combates, lembrei da cena ao assistir esse vídeo do New York Times, que comenta a ofensiva por terra das tropas israelenses. Aos 47 segundos de vídeo, uma mulher bate palmas e bate no peito esburacado de um provável familiar. Nesta terça-feira, 30 pessoas morreram em um ataque próximo a uma escola palestina, a maioria das pessoas sem nenhuma ligação com o grupo que luta pela causa palestina.

Como diz a própria reportagem do New York Times, Israeli’s calculation became a bit looser.

The National

I see water on the bridge
Well, you better hold my hand through this
Turn around, turn around, take me back
I can’t calm down
Turn around, turn around, take me back
I can’t calm down

Anyone?

The New York Times came today with an impressive story about Sudanese youths that control part of the country’s territory, specially that one in which thousands of inured refugees receive humanitarian aid. Known as “shabab”, they became another rebel force inside a shattered state. Cartum, the capital, badly controled by government bureaucracy, is the only place where foreigners and members of non-governmental organizations find a way to help Darfur’s population. Divided in three regions and situated in Sudan’s west part, it’s been eschewed by authorities.

UN’s Unamid, the peacekeeping operation that has the Security Council permission to use force and heavy armoury – as article seven of UN’s former document points – isn’t matching the expectations. With few human resources, blue helmet troops and financial suport, Unamid faces the bureaucracy of Cartum’s administration, mainly after it’s former president and dictator, Omar Hassan Ahmad al Bashir, was considered guilty by an Argentine judge in International Penal Court. Like a story published by “Veja”, a brazilian magazine, this weekend (incredibly, something good, written in it’s neoliberal anti-Lula political position), the situation is getting worse daily.

There’s no education for children, constant rapes, lack of water and war crimes constantly seen in a country that has been destroyed by genocide and a dictatorial state. Sudan’s location in Africa, near Egypt, Chad and Libya, states considered to be hubs to terrorist activities, is not a relief. Separatists forces from Chad usually come inside Sudanese borders, most of the times, in Darfur’s region, to regroup and attack it’s former government again.

In Clinton’s administration, America closed it’s eyes to the genocide besides having signed Internacional Genocide Convention. It was not a US problem, said the democrat. These days, China’s got America’s inaction. Being a member of UN’s Security Council with veto power, the asian superpower doesn’t want more armed forces or a peace building operation like the ones that happened in Timor or is behing held in Haiti by a Brazilian commander. It’s economic interests, as a matter of fact, are more important. Beyond, Unamid’s financial support is stuck in state’s sovereignty.

Save Darfur is a good website for ones interested in helping Darfur’s refugees.

Rocky x Drago

Different from the movie, the fight ocurred in Switzerland and Rocky was a bit older and suntanned. Although, Drago was well represented by a gigantic bald Valuev (Now for Russia. Before, Lundgren fought for Soviet Union). Comparisons apart, the political scene is being also related to that one during Reagan’s Era by some specialists. A gaining power America against a weakening communist regime in the 80’s. Paul Volcker, president of Federal Reserve, raised taxes to overcome the consumption crisis that also collapsed Germany and Japanese economies, and the republican president launched the Star Wars Program.

More than 20 years later, the situation reminds that economic convulsion, in which North-America got unilaterally in the direction of global agenda. In the recent republican administration, however, the situation got worse, with the sequence of institutions getting bankrupt and a sequence of desperate banks and industries trying a bail-out. Confidence on Liberalism has been affected and, Bush’s government was questioned. Obama won from an opponent that made extremely bad choices.

Republican party got itself cracked from inside out and a black politician made himself president of world’s largest economy. Wasps didn’t get space in the new transition team that, ironically, had the same Paul Volcker, this time using the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. Foreign policy watched Georgia’s mess and Medvedev’s showed the world the resurgence of a superpower that, despite European Union’s efforts, doesn’t need NATO and reached treats with Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran and other “rogue countries”, like America’s foreign policy uses to point.

Alexander the Great, a Russian nuclear submarine is making war games with Chavez military forces in USA’s backyard, the Caribean Sea. Their unilateralism is also being questioned in multilateral foruns and economic crisis along with a disturbing public deficit made other economies responsible for America’s turmoil. China, for example, has almost 10% of USA’s public debt.

In the fight, when Holyfield tried to seize the world champion’s belt, the Russian opponent won. A juri formed by an Italian, a Swedish and a Panamanian gave victory to the giant. A week after Bush’s disgrace in Iraq, Putin, for sure, had his day.