|
 As if accusations of corruption and public funds misappropriation weren't enough for Brazilian Senate President José Sarney, he has just made more headlines on Brazilian news this week. This time it involved physical aggression towards a journalist from one of São Paulo major TV channels - Rede Bandeirantes de Televisão.
Danilo Gentili, who is a journalist from popular humoristic TV Program CQC - (Custe of que Custar - Cost What It May), was pushed onto the ground and kicked by the Senator's security guard, in an attempt to prevent Gentili from interviewing the senator.
CQC show in Brazil from Bandeirantes TV network has become a huge success and it is the only TV program in Brazil that interviews politicians and Brazilian famous personalities about polemic topics such as corruption, violence or poor administration.
At the time of the incident, Gentili was trying to ask Sarney, whether the Brazilian Senate crisis could possibly become any worse if he were to leave the Senate. The senator refused to answer the question, alleging he was not able to walk with so many people around him.
When the reporter asked him "what it was like to feel not as powerful as he thought he was" security guards immediately pushed him onto the ground, trying to block the interview.
The episode aggravates Brazilian Senate crisis, as the movement "Fora Sarney" ( Get out Sarney) is gaining strength and more Brazilians are pushing for change in Brazilian politics.
Despite the political chaos, popular São Paulo daily O Estado de S. Paulo published on it first page July 3rd that, President Lula is not in favor of Sarney's dismissal. This despite the fact that the senator is also being accused of nepotism as well as tax evasion for not having declared a US$ 2 million-dollar mansion on his income tax.
The crisis has also affected president Lula's Party, as Aloizio Mercadante, Workers Party leader in the Senate, has declared not being in favor of Sarney resignation, but he would consider in the country's best interest that Senator Sarney would leave the presidency of the Senate temporarily.
Images of the incident involving Daniel Gentili can be seen at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXo10BYef-0
Edison Bernardo DeSouza is a journalist, having graduated in Social Communication Studies at Pontifical Catholic University in São Paulo, Brazil . He lived in the US and Canada for close to 10 years and participated in volunteering activities in social works agencies. DeSouza currently lives in São Paulo where he teaches English as a Second Language for both private English Language Institute and Private High-School. He has already participated as an actor in three English plays in Brazil and is pursuing further advancements in his career. He is particularly interested in economics, history, politics and human rights articles.
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.