S. Paulo: Situations Arise Because of the Weather

The press has dubbed it the alagão, rhyming it with the apagão (chronic electricity shortages) of 2000-01 or so. Some wag has framed a neat little political satire here: The sign reads "The New Tietê River: a project of the state government of S. Paulo. Budget: R$1.3 billion."

Situations arise because of the weather
And no kinds of love are better than others
–The Velvet Underground

Twitter correspondent @Bringo hears tell that we are flood-ravaged and underwater here in S. Paulo.

Not quite true, although the Zona Leste (eastern district) community of Jardim Pantanal,– Swamp Gardens, appropriately –, pop. 60,000,  is receiving a lot of media attention.

The city plans to start removing residents from the persistently flooded area while registering them for a temporary rent subsidy and subsequent placement in public housing.

(Our old cleaning lady, Val, once commented that she would rather die than move out of her eastern district squatter’s shack into a COHAB.)

Political opponents of Mayor Kassab have been heard to use the phrase “ethnic cleansing.”

Meanwhile, in the Observatório da Imprensa, Luciano Martins Costa looks at the drabbest but most essential topic and the deluge of loaded language used to describe it in recent days.

Os jornais paulistas voltam a se ocupar das fortes chuvas e das enchentes que neste mês já fizeram quase duas dezenas de vítimas fatais. Novamente ocupam as primeiras páginas imagens fortes de cidadãos enfrentando a água imunda que cobre as ruas para tentar chegar ao trabalho ou voltar para suas casas.

The S. Paulo papers are once again focusing on the heavy rains and floods that have already claimed nearly two dozen lives this month. Once again we see the front pages occupied by powerful images of citizens coping with the filthy water that covers their streets, trying to get to work or return home.

Como sempre, os repórteres colhem depoimentos desalentados daqueles que são humilhados, dia sim, dia não, pelas circunstâncias da cidade onde tentam realizar seus sonhos. Como em todas as ocasiões anteriores, a imprensa faz o relato dos transtornos e dos danos, mas não consegue relacionar efeitos com causas.

As always, reporters are out collecting the same old eyewitness statements from residents humiliated by the state of the city where they strive to realize their dreams. As aways, the papers register the damages and havoc, but cannot manage to tie effects to their causes.

A  cobertura dos fatos é apenas parcial, pela impossibilidade de registrar todos os problemas que ocorrem na região metropolitana de uma cidade como São Paulo. Na Zona Leste da cidade, um bairro inteiro com mais de doze mil moradores permanece sob a lama há uma semana.

The reporting of the facts is merely partial due to the impossibility of recording all the problems that occur in the metro area of a city as large as S. Paulo. In the eastern district, an entire neighborhood remains buried under the mud a whole week after the storm.

The Commerce of Carnaval: Hush-Hush Slush Funding for the Mighty Hummingbird?

All honor and glory to the mighty Black Pearl! (Also Vai-Vai and Gaviões da Fiel.)

Quem me vê sempre parado, distante garante que eu não sei sambar
Tô me guardando pra quando o carnaval chegar
Eu tô só vendo, sabendo, sentindo, escutando e não posso falar
Tô me guardando pra quando o carnaval chegar
–Chico Buarque

… Muncipal Law 1,276/1988, in Article 7, Paragraph VI, provides that “it is prohibited to guarantee exclusivity in the transmission of the parades via electromagnetic broadcasting of sounds and images.”

Brazilian Carnaval rocks the entire universe, no one can possibly deny this once they have actually pulado Carnaval.

Go rent Black Orpheus.

Between Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, Carnaval brings out the best and the worst of Brazilian civilization. I can hardly wait.

Still, one of the worst things about Carnaval may well be the contract granting exclusive WORLDWIDE distribution rights to the GLOBO NETWORK over images of the folia.

The contract, which includes what opponents claim is an illegal waiver of rights held by the city government of Rio, puts TV Globo in business with LIESA, the association of Rio de Janeiro carnival societies … an organization that would have long ago been the subject of a vast RICO case if it were headquartered in New York City, say.

See

• Carnage and Carnaval: New Newsflow on Rio Revelry Racketeering
• Rio: “Carnaval Judging System Was Tom(Jobim)foolery-Proof!”
• Rio: “Why Does Globo Monopolize Carnival?”
• Rio: Carnival of Indignation!
• Rio: Carnaval Carnage Goes on the Record
• Bingo! Hurricane Blows Up More Mafia Spreadsheets
• Rio Carnaval: Riotur, LIESA Contracts Probed

Leandro Colon of the Estado de S. Paulo notes today (via Blog de Noblat (O Globo) a possible connection between the follies of 2010 and the political corruption scandal of the hour, involving the political party of former Rio mayor Cesar Maia and his son, Rodrigo, leader of the DEM contingent in the federal congress:

O patrocínio do governo do Distrito Federal para a escola de samba Beija-Flor fazer seu desfile no carnaval de 2010, no Rio, virou uma disputa entre os deputados “mensaleiros”, o carnavalesco Joãosinho Trinta e o grupo político do vice-governador Paulo Octávio (DEM), responsável pelas festividades dos 50 anos de Brasília no ano que vem.

The sponsorship by the federal district government of the 2010 carnival parade by Beija-Flor has turned into a dispute among federal deputies accused of corruption; the carnival artist Joãosinho 30; and the political allies of vice-governor Paulo Octávio (DEM), all of them  responsible for the festivities celebrating the 50th anniversary of the DF in 2010.

Os parlamentares envolvidos no chamado “mensalão do DEM”, liderados pelo deputado Leonardo Prudente (DEM), atravessaram a negociação para superfaturar a verba e negociar propina com o governo do DF e uma das mais vitoriosas escolas de samba do Rio. “É um dinheiro maldito”, afirma Joãosinho Trinta, que também tentou ganhar dinheiro no negócio, mas foi passado para trás. Antes de entrar na negociação, deputados como Prudente – flagrado colocando nas meias propina do “mensalão do DEM” – criticavam publicamente o patrocínio à Beija-Flor, comandada pelo bicheiro Anísio Abraão David. Após as conversas com o governo e a escola, silenciaram.

The lawmakers accused in the “big monthly allowance of the DEM” scandal, led by Leonardo Prudente of the DEM party, monopolized the negotiations in order to inflate the budget and work out a series of bribes to DF authorities by one of the winningest carnival societies in Rio. “This money is cursed,” said Johnny 30, who also tried to make money on the deal but got cut out. Before the deal was made, lawmakers like Prudente — caught on video stuffing his socks with cash in the DEM slush fund scandal — publicly criticized the sponsorship of Beija-Flor, which is led by gambling king Anísio Abraão David. After talks between Beija-Flor and the district government, however, their criticisms ceased.

Carnaval aficionados are wont to deplore the commercialization of the festivities, with the entry of corporate sponsors now, but this argument tends to mask the continued influence of organized crime (including, in São Paulo, the PCC narcovarejo).