MY MASH MELLOW BRAIN

 Since the beginning of the year, I have been devoid of intellectual concentration, lost in inconsequential pursuits with nothing meaningful to report at the end of each day.   Regaining my intellectual vigor seems insuperable and this state of affairs worries me a lot.  One marker of this cerebral meltdown is my dwindling blog production.  Every year on average I post one blog a month.  My blogs were never intended to be brainy compositions; they nonetheless require a modicum of imagination and resolve and these two abilities are currently in short supply.  

This “mash mellowzation” process started in March 2020 when the Coronavirus crashed into our lives.  Since then, l have been guzzling pandemic information like a drug addict.  Unable to travel and meet friends, I flooded their inboxes with the results of my obsessive research on the virus’ behavior and people’s efforts to protect themselves.  The worse of the pandemic seems behind us, but I am still glued to news websites and check newspapers daily.  It may sound absurd, but I binged on news to occupy my mind and reduce my anxiety level.  My motto is “better informed, better protected!”

In Brazil the pandemic took an even more dreadful turn.  According to a well-known politician, people were conjoinedly facing the assaults of two deadly viruses, Corona and Bolsonaro!  Their joint offensive turned out to be lethal; to date some 610 000 Brazilians have lost their life due to the virus, the world’s second highest death toll.  From the outset, Jair Bolsonaro, the science-denying president of Brazil minimized the pandemic and rejected lockdown.  Worse, he vetoed the advanced purchase of vaccines because he advocated herd immunity.  He compared Coronavirus to a “small flu’ that everyone should get to keep the economy going.  He did everything to torpedo the rational health decisions made by the governors to protect the population of their states.  A staunch foe of social distancing, he goes mask-less around the country to arouse the fervor of his fanatical fan club and organizes large meetings where the virus easily spreads. 

During these meetings he tells lies and touts an unproven medicine, hydro chloroquine, the malaria medicine. It is a favorite of his; he has championed it ad nauseum to the point of praising it for his quick Covid recovery.  Often, and in spite of their tragic impact, Bolsonaro’s erratic actions are laughable.  In July 2020, he was snapped in the garden of the presidential palace in Brasilia chasing a frightened Greater rhea (a small Ostrich) with a box of hydro chloroquine (see pic below).  The malaria pill no longer makes headlines, but Bolsonaro continues to promote it.  Claiming a high antibody level, Bolsonaro declined to be vaccinated and is proud to be probably the last unvaccinated world leader.

To follow Covid and Bolsonaro news matters is both addictive and time consuming.  Bolsonaro is the lead character of a never-ending soap opera packed with unexpected turn-arounds and weird twists.  It is staged in Brasilia, a big backscratching emporium where everybody and everything is for sale if the price is right.  Prices move up and down according to Bolsonaro’s polls and Coronavirus trends.   Brasilia is like the temple of Jerusalem, a den of thieves where Jesus chased the money changers.  There is no Jesus to clean up the place, and like money changers, lawmakers sell their support to the highest bidder. 

In Brazil, political bribery is de facto legal, the government can make use of a special slush fund to this end.  Euphemistically called emendas parlementares[1], its original purpose has, over the years been debased and corrupted to bribe lawmakers to support the government’s objectives.  Everyone understands that the amendments’ principal value is to ensure the continued existence of any given government as well as the lawmakers’ re-election.  In Brasilia, politics outdo art and look even more like a dystopian and chaotic sitcom with a fixed set of characters continuously reincarnated and shifting roles.  In Congress, some thirty parties fluidly cover the left to right spectrum.  Partisan affiliation is an ill-defined concept and to advance their chances of pork and posts, lawmakers are experts at party hopping.  They routinely shift their support from left to right without any état d’ẩme, no ideological questions asked, soulless.  It is only a matter of expediency and price.

Witless, I have been binging on the past episodes and the future ones are expected to be even more scandalous.  Everything is possible in Brazil, even the unfeasible.  A former minister of Finance claimed that “in Brazil even the past is uncertain.”  On purpose, its laws are ambiguously written to allow for various and contradictory interpretations and eventually shoddy revisions.  These twists and turns are responsible for the country’s economic and social stagnation.  

The Brasilia sitcom has an air of déja vu, and I am finally getting sick of it.  The Covid situation is a moving target and I am now fatigued by its cyclic twists and turns.  Even if masks and social distancing cannot be ditched until now, it is time to move on.  I like masks, they make me feel younger.  I am not a touchy-feely type and I dread the end of social distancing.  Summer is coming to Rio, time to enjoy its great outdoors.  I am trying to rally my wit and hope that by the end of 2022, both Corona and Bolsonaro will be old news.  This short blog indicates that I am on the mend.

 

 

 

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[1] Parliamentary amendments. The Rapporteur’s amendment (US$ 3.05b in 2021) is particularly discretionary.