Hello, as a Brazilian raised, I am pasting a post that appeared on a different thread that really specifies what the greatest problem is with this case and everything else related to the problems in Brazil.....it is very painful to have admit this, but this is the absolute truth: I had some Brazilian visitors at my house and they know my activism within BSH. I asked them their position on David's case and they are in favor of Sean being returned to his father ("obviously", they pointed out).
However, their attitude is of "defeatism" and "apologism". They gave me a very grim picture of Lula's government and the ever existing corruption in the country. They said Lula is almost dictator-like and the poor population loves him due to popular actions like a "basic basket" of free monthly food items to those who have an income lower than a certain amount, the "school-scholarship" which is a certain amount of money given to parents who guarantee their kids go to school, etc.
They also told me Minister Toffoli is very close to Lula and does what he wants (??). And that Lula bailed out the Globo media group, which was struggling, and now they never badmouth him.
Meanwhile, corruption runs wild in a big scale, and most Brazilians feel helpless.
Even though I lived in Brazil most of my life, it still shocks me to hear that the population accepts the corruption passively. They complain and complain, decade after decade, but they simply do not get together and act against it. They claim is has gotten better than in the past, but still has a long way to go.
I tried to argue that Brazil is an avid internet user and that widespread information is the best weapon to bring corruption to light and provoke enough ire that public opinion forces change. I gave as an example Twitter, extremely popular in Brazil, which has corruption stories availabe for all to see.
My visitors said it doesn't matter. The majority of the population just doesn't care. All they want to watch or read about is SOCCER, Formula 1 and SOAP OPERAS. If you try to discuss something more serious with many people, even the "educated" ones, they immediately lose interest. Girls are raised to try to be "models" and boys aspire to become soccer players.
They accept corruption with passiveness. They shrug their shoulders and say "fazer o quê, né?" ("do what, right?"). There is little sense of organization, community and activism. They say that it will take "100 years" to change the mentality, instead of trying to change things NOW. I blame only one thing for the state of affairs and corruption in Brazil: the Brazilian population.
Finally, they did not try to find out more and showed no interest when my husband and I talked further about David's case. I think they think this is small potatoes in the grand scheme of corruption. I believe that is the attitude of many educated middle class Brazilians now.
Too bad they won't wake up until it is one of their family caught in some unjust and futile position or some kind of international affair. Then, they will be crying and asking everyone to stand up and help them.
History shows that only a small percentage of a population will actually fight for their rights, while the rest hang back waiting for the sacrifices of others to benefit them. But they will never truly be free, because they have that 'save me' mentality.
