Lula, the Ugliest Face of “the Brazilian Way of Doing Things”
By Julio Severo
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva is,
with his socialist Workers’ Party, facing a multitude of scandals of
corruption.
Brazilians face a confusing and inefficient bureaucracy,
which affects everybody: rich and poor. The rich use their huge power and
influence to bypass difficulties while other people have their own way to
practice their “jeitinho brasileiro”: traveling with more luggage than it is
allowed, parking in spots for disabled people, forging documents of a
businessperson to get a U.S. visa when he is not a businessperson, etc.
In legal and political matters, if a Brazilian wants
something that is not permitted, he will try to figure out a loophole until he
finds an alternative way.
Since the colonial period, everything in Brazil has
been done through a nasty bureaucracy. So people have always to find “alternate
ways” in order to survive and get things, whether good or not, done. Both
left-wingers and right-wingers suffer this malady in Brazil, but only the
former present its ugliest form.
These “alternate ways” are the “jeitinho brasileiro.” In
other nations, this is called trickery or corruption. In Brazil, it is called
“jeitinho brasileiro,” which can be translated to “the crafty Brazilian way of
doing things.”
In a smaller scale, these “alternate ways” produce small
corruptions and trickeries. In a greater scale, they produce a Lula, who is being prosecuted for big trickeries and corruption.
The Brazilian people protest and slam the massive use
of the “jeitinho brasileiro” by politicians and businesspersons, but they do not
give up their own “crafty Brazilian way of doing things.” They do not like it in
others, but they tolerate it in themselves. It is a national vice as popular as
samba, football and Carnival. It is an ugly face, not only of a former Brazilian president, but also of a people.
Portuguese
version of this article: Lula,
a face mais feia do jeitinho brasileiro
Source: Last Days Watchman
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