From Russia with love

From Russia with love

"When evil men plot, good men must plan", Martin Luther King Jr.

Unfortunately it is much more than just macho antics...

 

 

The downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the skies of Eastern Ukraine last week can be blamed, at least indirectly, on the shoulders of Vladimir Putin and the revanchist policy he implemented in Russia. The almost three hundred men, women and children aboard the flight are just the latest victims of a misguided policy that unfortunately seems will go on unchecked. Like the fascists in Germany after the first world war, Putin managed to make the Russian people embark on an alternative reality voyage where Russia was humiliated and stabbed in the back by treacherous Western nations (which finds fertile ground on the Russian pervasive sense of victimisation) and the redemption of its prestige can only be found in the resurrection of something alike to the old Soviet Empire. The free choices of the people of Ukraine, Georgia or other ex-Soviet Republics are irrelevant because in his mind the fact that they might look at his Russian paradise with fear rather than awe is inconceivable. Do not fool yourselves in thinking this is a one off. Starting with the scorched earth tactics in the Caucasus, his invasion of Georgia and now his endeavours to transform Ukraine into a rumpus state, it will not be three hundred bystanders that will stop him. Neither whatever civilized conscience still exists in Russia which lies dormant among the regime's propaganda. I once thought that Europe might encompass Moscow. Today I am sure that it has no place in any civilized concert of Nations.     

 

When myths get shattered....

When myths get shattered....

“Football's not a matter of life and death ... it's more important than that”, Bill Shankly

If there is a founding myth about Brazil, it is football. The national identity of the country, the pride of its people revolves around this sport. That's why the reverberations of yesterday's trashing against Germany go far beyond the realm of football. It is the coup de grace  in the narrative of  a  nationalism that emerged in the second half of last decade, that was fuelled by Lula's second mandate and that has carried PT in power ever since. The Brazilian exceptionalism. So well. The new Brazil has not emerged. It has improved in some aspects but still faces the same old, old problems. The economy sputters failing to fulfill its potential. Instead of finding best practices around the globe, opening the country to the outside and to competition, fomenting talent and meritocracy, the last few years have a been a sucession of depressing choices founded on a parochial view of world affairs and of how wealth is generated. Not so uncommon in this Continent full of misconceptions and with a disturbing tendency to repeat the same mistakes time after time, but particularly poignant for a country that, more than any other in the region, has all the ingredients to be a truly successfull one. The last fragile thread that sustained the illusion of Brazilian exceptionalism as concocted by its leaders and hungrily accepted by a majority of its people was washed away in Belo Horizonte last night. There is no Barbosa to blame like in 1950. There was no lack of passion in the shouting of the national anthem. There was no lack of sweat in the yellow shirts. There was, sadly of all, no lack of talent in the pitch. No. It was just a colective failure so in tandem to what happens elsewhere in the country. That acts of pure will can replace measured and founded reason. Brazil didn't lack attacking spirit last night. It just had a total misconceived perception of its true value in the pitch and when reality bit it really went deep in the flesh.         

 

I am waiting for a new The Economist cover...

 

 

For many months, contrary to the opinion of many, I have thought that this year was going to be a watershed year in Brazil, namely with a political change coming in the next election. Today I am sure of it. But more than just changing its political leaders, Brazil needs a hard look unto itself. Of adjusting expectations to reality and realizing that without fundamental changes in the country, success will be always  outside its reach. No matter the will, the sweat and the talent.