This year, with half a million tourists expected, the theme for the Pelourinho carnival is ‘Black Carnivals’ and the main stages will be in Municipal and Sé squares, as well as in the famous Pelourinho. This last, in the historical centre, is the most fabulous, most fun and best-organised.

The traditional Pelourinho Carnival will gather a variety of musical attractions of different styles, such as samba, reggae, percussion and the Bahian guitar (theme of Salvador Carnival in 2013). All of these, of course, have African roots.

Party revellers enjoying carnival in Pelourinho. Photo by Carlo Alcantar on El Cabong website (used with permission).

Known as the main generator of Bahian culture, Pelourinho is the base of a number of Afro carnival ‘blocks’ (groups) [pt] from Salvador, such as the famous Ile Aye, Filhos de Ghandi (Ghandi’s sons) and Olodum. Preserving Afro-Brazilian culture is key to the Bahian carnival, which carries with it the influence of African cultures and the struggle of those kept on the margins of society. The crowd goes mad and the tourists want to connect with Bahia, land of Dorival Caymmi and Jorge Amado, to the sound of the hypnotic and happy beat and the sound which takes over Pelourinho.

Ilê Aiyê, founded in 1974, is the main headline of the Afro carnival ‘blocks’ (groups). As its objective is to value black culture, it doesn’t accept white people into its group and has been responsible for the so-called ‘re-africanisation’ of the Salvador Carnival, to the extent that it’s brought items from African culture to its parade, such as ‘atabaques’, ‘timbaus’ and ‘repiniques’, percussion instruments which give it a sound which harks back to African roots.

Check out the clip below from Ile Aye, in partnership with the Sao Paulo rapper Criolo, on the project ‘What block is this?’ [pt], an initiative from Petrobras which intends [pt] to ‘bring the music and world of the Salvador Afro blocks to the world of national pop’. This show took place in Liberdade district, in Salvador:

Is there anywhere in the world which has a Candomblé [Brazilian cult of African origin] following of almost 10,000 people parading through the streets? Salvador does. It is the Afoxé, Filhos de Gandhy (Sons of Gandhi) [pt] block, founded by 33 stevedores in 1949, who watched a film about the Indian leader and decided to found a block in his honour. The success of handing out bead necklaces in exchange for kisses during carnival has grown, and seems to have become the main focus of the club. It is a candomble without an overly religious link, which brings agogôs [a Ghanaian musical instrument] and atabaques [an Afro-Brazilian hand drum] to honour the Orishás [spirits or deities in the Yoruba religious faith] directly to the people, with a flavour of the peace preached by Mahatma Gandhi.

Image of Filhos de Gandy from Facebook (used with permission)

Based on percussion, the musicality of the Olodum block, is based on beats such as ‘ijexá’ [pt], samba, ‘alujá’, reggae and ‘forró’, amongst others. The fusion of these various rhythms, mixed with samba reggae, is the basis for Olodum’s music, which, with the creativity of using these elements, has influenced numerous bands and national and international artists, such as Jimmy Cliff, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Leci Brandao, Zig Marley and many others, including those in the Bahian carnival. The following clip shows some of the best of Olodum:

About 130 groups will entertain at Pelourinho point during carnival. The Salvador blog by Estefano Diaz, posted about Muzenza block’s rehearsals [pt] on 30 January. While rehearsing in the streets where it will parade, the beat of its drums apparently piqued the curiosity of Bahians and tourists alike: ‘Perfect sound, beautiful!’ was how he summed up what one of the French tourists he met who was following the parade, said.

O Pelourinho é um grande fomentador da cultura. Este espaço é uma referência para nós do Muzenza e é sempre muito especial fazermos nossos ensaios aqui”, define Jorge dos Santos, presidente do Muzenza. “Nós não temos repertório definido, vamos sentindo a resposta do público e tocamos os grandes sucessos como ‘Guerrilheiros da Jamaica (Mama África)’, ‘A Terra Tremeu’, ‘Brilho e Beleza’, dentre outros”, finalizou Jorge.

Pelourinho is a great ‘hatching’ of culture. This space is a reference for us, from Muzenza, and it’s always special for us to have our rehearsals here’ says Jorge dos Santos, president of Muzenza. ‘We don’t have a pre-defined repertoire, so we go by the public reaction and play great successes such as ‘Guerrilheiros da Jamaica (Mama Africa) (Jamaica warriors)’, ‘A Terra Tremeu’ (The Earth Shook), ‘Brilho e Beleza’ (Sparkle and Beauty), as well as others’. Jorge adds.

The theme ‘Black Carnivals’ is part of the ‘African descent decade’ in Salvador. Just like the First Meeting of Black Cultures [pt], the choice for the theme of the Pelourinho carnival slots into the International Decade of People of African Descent [pt] in Salvador, as set up by the United Nations after the Ibero American Meeting of the International Year of African Descent (Afro XXI), carried out in 2011. This was an opportunity for themes of racism and the social, economic and political situations of black people throughout the world today to be discussed.

During Afro XXI, the Bahian capital was given the title ‘Ibero American Capital of African Descent’. For the director of CCPI, Arany Santana, ‘the theme of the Pelourinho Carnival matches with the United Nations’, agenda, with the reality of Salvador and its cultural policies which Secult is supporting, such as the Black Gold Carnival. Carnival is an excellent opportunity to showcase these actions in the best way, giving recognition to the shaping of its (Salvador’s) identity as the city with the second largest number of black people in the world’ (outside the African continent) Arany points out.

Written by Inês Pontes · Translated by Nicola Gardner · View original post [pt] · comments (1)
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Porto Alegre, 27 January 2013. It was meant to be a Sunday like any other. The Gaucho Football championship mood was taking over the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Those who’d passed in the main university entrance exams were celebrating yet another hard day’s study. Everything seemed fine. A start to the year like any other.

However, the worst tragedy in the history of the state was about to take over the news in the midst of this Sunday mood. In the city of Santa Maria, in the Kiss nightclub, a fire wiped away the lives and dreams of more than 230 young people [en]. And as the columnist Juremir Machado da Silva said in the Correio do Povo (the People’s Daily), on the morning of 27 January, ‘all they wanted to do was have fun’.

Once the initial shock was over in the gaucho [en] interior, solidarity took hold.

Vila Liberdade, Porto Alegre. Collection of donations being carried out at Giudice Gymnasium (CC BY-SA Overmundo)

The main social networking sites were used as a tool for the gathering of information about the incident, as well as a way of asking for help for the victims. There weren’t enough doctors, psychologists. There wasn’t enough food and drink. The injured needed blood.

On Monday 28 January, the Hospital de Clinicas in Porto Alegre sent out a message on Facebook, so that people would stop donating blood, as stocks had been completely replenished in less than a week:

O Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre esclarece que não está solicitando doações de sangue para esta quarta-feira. Centenas de pessoas mobilizaram-se em solidariedade às vítimas de Santa Maria e o Banco de Sangue do hospital recebeu mais de 500 doações só nesta segunda e terça-feira.
O hospital agradece a disposição de todos e conta com a compreensão dos doadores para que se organizem para procurar o Banco de Sangue nas próximas semanas.

The Hospital de Clinicas in Porto Alegre would like to clarify that it is not requesting further blood donations on Wednesday. Hundreds of people have already helped out in solidarity of the Santa Maria victims, and the Blood Bank has already received more than 500 donations on Monday and Tuesday alone.
The hospital would like to thank everyone’s willingness to help and would like to count on those who’ve already donated blood to return to the Blood Bank in the next few weeks.

Nathalia Guarezi (@naguarezi), editor of the De Chaleira blog, one of many who asked for help to try and find those who’d disappeared, tweeted:

Pessoas, a @luanamag pediu ajuda para encontrar essa garota em alguma lista de feridos de Santa Maria: http://facebook.com/faccoferreira. Vamos ajudar!

People, @luanamag has asked for help to find this girl on any of the lists of injured in Santa Maria area: http://facebook.com/faccoferreira. Let’s help out!

International press coverage came out in force too. The incident was the main headline in the New York Times on 28 January. Simon Romero (@viaSimonRomero), head of the North American newspaper in Brazil, tweeted one of the articles that the NY Times wrote about the case on 29 January.

The Observatório de Imprensa (Press Watchdog), one of the main Brazilian organs aimed at criticising the media, commented on the main press coverage of the story on 28 January. According to Luciano Martins Costa, who published the article about the incident in OI ‘the numbers give the scale of the tragedy, the different elements which came together to aggravate the situation give way to fury, but even so were finding it hard to comprehend the meaning of the incident in its entirety.’ Costa went on:

Os jornais de segunda-feira (28/1) tentam superar a perplexidade, mas essa é a expressão que define exatamente até onde pode chegar a narrativa especializada: quanto mais as palavras e as imagens nos aproximam da verdade, menos aceitável ela se torna.

The Monday (28.1) newspapers tried to overcome the perplexity, but this is the term which defines exactly what happens with regard to a very specialised account of what happened: the more words and images bring us closer to the truth, the less acceptable it becomes.

Flames consume Vila Liberdade

And so, at the beginning of the night on that Sunday, with a huge roar, a siren went off at Vila Liberdade, in the north zone of Porto Alegre. The community is only a few metres from the recently inaugurated Gremio Arena. The splendour of the new stadium contrasts starkly with the misery of the local area. According to Sul 21, 90 of the 150 houses were consumed by flames. At least 50 of them were totally destroyed.

Vila Liberdade – Porto Alegre – 27/01/2013. Around 800 people are now homeless. (CC BY-SA Overmundo)

According to the Civil Police and the local population, the fire had broken out after a fight between a couple in Vila Liberdade. Samir Oliveira’s report, from 29 January, explains:

Valéria é apenas uma das dezenas de moradores da Vila Liberdade que se amontoavam entre os escombros do incêndio(…) Em meio a cacos de vidro, tijolos quebrados, ferros retorcidos, esqueletos de geladeiras e carcaças carbonizadas de porcos, gatos, galinhas e cães, os moradores buscavam recuperar materiais que pudessem ter resistido às chamas.

Valeria is only one of dozens of Vila Liberdade residents who were huddled together in the fire debris (…) amongst shattered glass, broken tiles, twisted tools, skeletons of fridges and burnt bodies of pigs, cats, chickens and dogs, everyone desperately trying to recuperate anything which had survived the flames.

Vila Liberdade (CC BY-SA Overmundo)

While the traditional media worked overtime to try and cover one more catastrophe after such a short interlude, it was clear to see that the force of the feeling to help those in the Santa Maria incident, immediately extended to the Vila Liberdade victims. In amongst the protests against the Arena and the condolences, appeals for food and clothing dominated the digital media, principally the following day.

Vila Liberdade: the checking and distribution of the donations is carried out in the sports gymnasium at the Municipal School of Antonia Giudice. On 2 February a group of volunteers went to the shanty town en force to take statements of the incident from those who had been affected by the fire. (CC BY-SA Overmundo)

That Sunday will never be forgotten. And neither will the solidarity.

Written by Pedro Henrique Tavares · Translated by Nicola Gardner · View original post [pt] · comments (1)
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Since the beginning of the year, thousands of students have been protesting against the increase in bus fares in the city of Teresina, the capital of the state of Piaui. The demonstrators are forcefully kept down by the RONE (specially trained troops) of the Military Police. They have reacted by setting fire to at least one bus, and dozens of students have been arrested.

Photo of the first days of the protest, students ransack a bus in response to the police violence. Photo by Regis Falcao (permission granted for use).

The protests, however, had begun back in August 2011 and there was a short truce at the end of the year because of the Xmas and New Year festivities, as the blogger Filipe Saraiva explains:

Desde o dia 29 de agosto, uma segunda-feira, estudantes e moradores de Teresina fazem manifestação por qualidade no transporte público municipal. Serão agora, 5 dias consecutivos de manifestação. O estopim do ato foi o aumento do preço da passagem no apagar das luzes do dia 26 de agosto, sexta-feira, que elevou a tarifa para R$ 2,10 [O valor anterior era de R$ 1,90 - Nota GV].

The blogger goes on to explain that the Teresina buses have been running without further tendering since 1988, and since 1994 a spreadsheet has been used to justify increases. Yet no local resident has seen it and it has come to be seen as fictitious.

Every year there are peaceful demonstrations, with the exception of the 2005 protests, when the police opened fire on students, who responded by setting fire to the buses in the city streets. The protests aren’t only about the increase in fares, but also about the upkeep of the buses:

Teresina é uma cidade pequena, esse aumento não se justifica!
Uma mãe que ganha um salário mínimo não tem condições de pagar essa tarifa absurda.
Ônibus lotados.
Ônibus atrasados.
Ônibus sujos.

In 2011, the Piaui Public Ministry managed to get a court order to agree to put a stop to the fare increase and insisted on carrying out an audit of the doubtful spreadsheet, but the city council ignored the passing of this ruling. So the protests started again in the midst of the police violence. There were also denunciations of police infiltration into student groups who accuse the police of pinpointing the movement leaders to arrest them, in an effort to dismantle the protests.

This year, history repeats itself

According to the journalist Renato Rovai, after the measures promoted by the mayor Elmano Ferre of the PTB (Brazilian Worker Party) – ‘increase in bus fares and integration of casualties into the local public transport’, ‘Teresina streets have become a war zone’ and ‘the students have been treated like criminals by the local media’.

The blogger Romulo Maia opens up about the police violence, and has also produced a series of videos about the protests:

Polícia Militar truculenta. Fotos e vídeos mostram jovens sendo pisoteados pelos coturnos da tropa de choque. Spray de pimenta no rosto de manifestante sem reação. Bomba de efeito moral em gente sentada. Bala de borracha também. Intimidação. Celulares quebrados. Dedo na cara. Gritos autoritários.

Video from the user AcessePiaui shows images of police repression on the second day of protests:

Dozens of students have been arrested since the beginning of the protests, and as well as the Military Police, extra security guards contracted by the Teresina Urban Transport Companies Union are also keeping the students down.

For the photo journalist Regis Falcao ‘it’s worth the fight’:

Os métodos são válidos e a realidade do movimento não é aquilo que você vê de longe.
Incomoda? sim, muito! e deve incomodar! parar o trânsito, atrapalhar a ida e vinda de terceiros faz parte. Infelizmente não há como ser brando quando a questão é tão séria.
Restam duas opções: continue criticando o movimento, os “estudantes arruaceiros” do conforto de sua casa, do frescor do ar-condicionado de seu carro, alienado pela própria ignorância, pela própria falta de vontade de fazer alguma diferença no mundo, acorrentado pelo seu comodismo vergonhoso ou vá pra rua e veja com quantos gritos se faz uma mudança.

Student hit by shrapnel from police bombs. Photo by Leonidas Freire J (@leofreirejr), on TwiPic. More photos of the protests can be seen here.

Regis Falcao shared a number of his photos in his Facebook album, in which he calls the students ‘outraged’, like Igor Prado, who posted photos on the fourth day of the protests. Sinesio Soares posted a photo of law student Lucas with his face covered in blood after being savagely beaten by the police.

On Facebook, some users, like police officer Gilberto Carlos de Sousa, criticised the demonstrators:

A TROPA DE CHOQUE BOTOU PRA QUEBRAR , MOSTROU PRA QUE VEIO, BOTOU VAGABUNDO PRA CORRER , PRENDEU VÂNDALOS E ANARQUISTAS , BELEZA , A POPULAÇÃO QUE SOFREU POR CONTAS DESSES VÂNDALOS, AGRADECE , VALEW MESMO!!!!

The blogger Herbert Sousa criticised the demonstrators too:

A população de Teresina ficou atônita com a onda de terror patrocinada por partidos reacionários de esquerda, que tem como ideologia o Stalinismo.

Vice magazine published a series of photos about the protests on the second day, in which one could see the police hitting unarmed and peaceful protesters. And the Centre for Independent Media published a number of photos on the second and seventh days of the protests here, here and here.

The journalist and blogger Leonardo Sakamoto comments on the inability of the police to accept the rights of the people to protest:

No Brasil, há governos que não entenderam que o direito de protestar é parte da democracia. E que o povo não serve apenas para votar a cada quatro anos, pagar impostos e fornecer mão-de-obra barata. Mas, como se vê pela notícia acima, o Estado nos lembra diariamente que não somos cidadãos mas gado, que pode, eventualmente, ser marcado para identificação.

The protest on 10th, the seventh of the series, may have been the most violent of all and was called #MassacreTeresina and #DiadoLuto (Mourning Day). The profile @contraoaumento (against the protest) which has been gathering information about the protests and helping in its coordination, states:

@Contraoaumento: São 17 presos na Central de Flagrantes. Cada fiança é de R$ 6.220,00, o que totaliza R$ 115.740,00. #contraoaumento #massacreteresina

Students and even journalists were attacked by the Piaui military police. The user YouTube akase51 posted a video showing the extent of the police violence against the peaceful students on the seventh day of protests:

Other videos showing the exact moment when the military police started to attack the students can be seen here and here.

On Twitter, there were criticisms of the police too, with accusations of extreme violence, and to the politicians and to the media, accused of being favourable to the repressions and revolt, as expressed in the tweet by Daniel Solon, UESPI professor:

@Daniel_Solon: Neste momento, o Piauí tem 16 presos políticos. Foram criminalizados por lutar #contraoaumento da passagem de ônibus.

The students will stand trial by the state.

Cornered students being attacked by the police. Photo taken from the CMI site – Centre for Independent Media. Copyleft.

The journalist Daniel Santini compiled a list of other cities which had undergone public transport increases and criticised the lack of public investment in the sector, as well as incorrect decisions by politicians, like the President Dilma Rousseff.

And the journalist Renato Roval states that the number of arrested students, which he calls ‘political prisoners’, has reached eight. Their names are on his blog.

The tags #Contraoaumento and #ContraoaumentoTHE continue to be frequently used by demonstrators and interested parties for spreading information, videos and photos. The sites #Contraoaumento and Forum Estadual em Defesa do Transporte Publico are a constant source of news.

Written by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · Translated by Nicola Gardner · View original post [pt] · comments (0)
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On 7 April 2011, twelve adolescents at the Tasso da Silveira City School in Realengo [en] in the west of Rio were shot dead. The culprit was ex-pupil, Wellington Menezes de Oliveira, 23, who then turned the gun on himself.

The tragedy stirred up strong feelings of ‘indignation, disgust and consternation’ throughout Brazil, and the blogosphere was immediately filled with expressions of regret and demonstrations of revolt towards the killer.

Questionnaire hung outside Wellington’s house. Photo by the author, Saulo Valley

Detective Chief Inspector Marcus Moura, in a posting on Facebook, showed his disgust and foresaw that the debate which followed the school massacre would prompt deep-rooted questions about Brazilian society:

(…) uma tristeza profunda, uma sensação de total impotência por saber que, nesse tempos estranhos que vivemos, é muito difícil evitar que a sociedade continue a gerar seus monstros. Impotência por fazer parte de um mundo que abriga esse tipo de distorção, essas manifestações exacerbadas não de ódio, mas de infelicidade.

A past of being misunderstood

The growing speculation about the killer’s profile, in both the blogosphere and traditional media, raised various hypotheses about Wellington’s motivation for committing the crime.

Photo of Wellington holding his suicide note. Circulated by the police

Rumours ran wild that he might be Muslim because of his ‘special Islamic dress’, and other stereotypes were cited.

In the suicide note that Wellington left, together with a fundamentalist speech, he referred to the ‘pure ones’ and the ‘faithful ones’, generating further discussion. The cinema critic and blogger Inacio Araujo in his blog:

Ele faz uma salada de Corão, Bíblia, retórica dos programas evangélicos da TV ou manifestos da Al Qaeda.

When videos from Wellington’s computer began to be made public, it was clear that the various references to the ‘faithful’ and ‘unfaithful’ showed the burden he had carried since childhood, and not any kind of religious leaning. This was a href=”http://jorgewerthein.blogspot.com/2011/04/tragedia-de-realengo-bullying-e-assunto.html”>put forward by the journalists Rodrigo Rotzsch and Diana Brito. They go on:

“Fiéis” ou “irmãos” são os que, como afirma Wellington, sofrem bullying. “Infiéis” e “fornicadores” são os que praticam o bullying ou compactuam com a prática.

In one of his final videos, Wellington, denying responsibility for the deaths which would take place ‘even though [his] fingers [might have been] responsible for pulling the trigger’ put himself up as a spokesperson for all those who had been victims of bullying [en]. This had become an increasingly common kind of physical and moral violence, which not only happens in schools but also in adult life:

Eu ainda me lembro de todas as humilhações que passei por estes covardes…
Todos precisam saber que existem irmãos dispostos pra matar e pra morrer em defesa dos mais fracos… Que ainda estão na condição de ser incapazes de se defender…

‘Bullying’: the cause and effect

This debate had already started in 2003, when Edmar Aparecido Freitas, ex-pupil at the State School Colonel Benedito Ortiz, in Taiuva, a small town in the state of Sao Paulo, opened fire on his ex-classmates. He injured seven of them and then shot himself. It seems that ‘during his childhood and into adolescence [Edmar] was the target of sneering and bullying by his ex-classmates’. In one of his videos, Wellington paid homage to Edmar for this fact, and indicated that his ‘followers’ revered him, always remembering him in their prayers.

Anderson, one of Wellington’s ex-classmates, commented in Diálogos Políticos (Political Dialogues), saying:

Eu estudei com esse rapaz e ele tinha problemas psicológicos, ele sempre ficava sozinho e os demais alunos zombavam dele pelo motivo de sempre andar com a cabeça baixa.

Specialists’ opinions show that ‘even though he suffered from bullying (…) Wellington committed the killings because of his psychological problems’.

Cleodelice Fante, bullying researcher and currently doing a doctorate in Educational Sciences at the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain, has published an in-depth analysis of motivations and consequences as much as regards the bullies as the bullied:

Este fenômeno comportamental atinge a área mais preciosa, íntima e inviolável do ser, a sua alma. Envolve e vitimiza a criança, na tenra idade escolar, tornando-a refém de ansiedade e de emoções, que interferem negativamente nos seus processos de aprendizagem devido à excessiva mobilização de emoções de medo, de angústia e de raiva reprimida. A forte carga emocional traumática da experiência vivenciada, registrada em seus arquivos de memória, poderá aprisionar sua mente a construções inconscientes de cadeias de pensamentos desorganizados, que interferirão no desenvolvimento da sua autopercepção e auto-estima, comprometendo sua capacidade de auto-superação na vida.

The blogger Vinicius Fleury, in his blog Livro Mecânico (Mechanic Book), believes that the fact that Wellington had been a victim of ‘unusual problems’ at school, had ‘a tendency towards psychological problems’ and the fact of his ‘not having had any support’ are ‘explanations’ for the shooting, even though they do not justify it:

o bullying que ele sofreu naquele colégio teve uma grande parcela de culpa, assim como os envolvidos em causar o bullying. Todo mundo era moleque, ninguém sabia o que estava fazendo direito, mas isso não exclui um fato. Se aconteceu, não da pra voltar no tempo. Agora vai de cada um saber conviver com sua parcela de culpa, mesmo que ninguém tenha tido essa intenção.

Girls paying homage to the victims of the massacre at Tasso da Silveira School, in Realengo. Photo by Daniel Marenco on Flickr with Creative Commons License

For the blogger and educationalist Maria Frô, school has to be the most sacred place at any time, and concludes:

o mundo adulto é responsável pelas gerações futuras. Não fujamos de nossas obrigações. Isso significa que todo adulto deve ser responsável por qualquer criança. Isso significa, por exemplo, olharmos para além dos nossos umbigos, de nossas crias, de nossos alunos, isso exige de nós um compromisso maior e real com políticas públicas que sejam capazes de incluir, educar, prover de espaços culturais e de lazer, formar e amar todas as nossas crianças. Elas merecem um futuro melhor que balas na cabeça em seu espaço escolar.

Written by Saulo Valley · Translated by Nicola Gardner · View original post [pt] · comments (0)
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