Paz e justiça....

Troquei uns e-mails com o autor do comantário no Guardian sobre a troca de Bush or Lula.

Ele brincou perguntando se aguentar o W. não valeria a paz mundial e que o Jorge Arbusto enjoaria logo pq não temos baseball por aqui... Essa foi minha resposta...

Yes... world peace is something that really worth my personal the sacrifice.

But, poor people here have suffered enough.

There is something that the brazilians learned the past decade that the G-7 countries should take seriously: you cannot have peace if there is injustice.

Part of the elite "drives armor-plated Range Rovers and chauffeur-driven Jaguars in the streets" (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/31/international/americas/31BRAZ.html) live behind walls, electrified fences and security guards trained by the Mossad.

These are hopeless.

They will never care about the other fellow humans, as long as they can fly to private islands in their own helicopters in weekends, go to Europe for longer vacations and shop at places like Daslu.

They are the equivalent of Mr. Bush - and unfortunately in the last months Mr. Blair, too.

But the rest of us don't want this stupid lifestyle and we are sincerely committed to try bringing a better standard of living for the poor.

It's not an altruistic or moral initiative. The traditionally conservative middle class is simply tired to be afraid of walking in the streets. Maybe is the
same fear that the americans felt after 9/11.

The violence is not caused only by poverty. Bolivia, for instance, is one of the poorest countries in the world, but have much less violence than here.

The difference is that there isn't a market big enough for luxury products.

So there isn't mass media advertising for them like here.

Kids who simply want Nike shoes or clothes that the rich uses cause most of violence in my city, São Paulo.

The advertising brings the dream of the "american way of life", but soon they are shattered by reality, social immobility, injustice and prejudice. They are the equivalent of the Islamic radicals.

Here in Brazil we don't live in peace yet, but we are learning. BTW, GB is a democracy. Is there any constitutional impediment to start a war on Iraq?

Mr. Blair and his cabinet can bomb Mr. Hussein, even if most of the british are against it? Are most of british against it like the guardian makes me believe?

Sorry for the long. long. e-mail. but as an unemployed journalist I've got more things to say than opportunities to do it.

Peace,

China

PS: We've got baseball here due to the huge japanese immigration. It' not professional but the teams of kids under 14 have won some international championships. Some players went professional in Japan and US.

Unfortunately, we also have rodeos, leather boots, country music, huge cattle ranches and bad beer. And we even have some fundamentalist christians conservatives to fight against abortion (still ilegal here) and sex before marriage (now legal) ;)