FOOL'S GOLD
This term has two very different meanings. One refers to the mineral pyrite (FeS ₂ ) which shines like gold but has little value. As a female geologist pyrite never fooled me! This blog is concerned with the second meaning: a plan to get money, a stupid plan because it will either fail or cause problems. I have in mind the recently launched mining initiative of the Brazilian government to legalize artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in the Amazon (the so-called garimpos ). Not only it will certainly fail, but it will pile more problems on top of those already affecting this sector. It is hypocrisy doubling up on fallacy since the government wants us to believe that this artisanal mining activity still takes place in the Amazon. In my view, it is a smoke screen for the Bolsonaro government to surreptitiously decriminalizes unregulated and predatory large-scale garimpos . In other words, the state plans to make crime legal and hopes to m...