Brazil’s unfinished independence

On September 7 of each year, we celebrate Brazil’s Independence Day. But this is an unfinished independence. It was made by Dom Pedro I riding on a donkey and is not so epic and falsely portrays Meireles riding a beautiful horse.

When Brazil became independent, the same relations of the colonial period were maintained, between the masters of Casa Grande and the slaves of the slave neighborhoods. Let us not forget the fact that Independence was still achieved within the framework of slavery, which was brutal and cruel to millions of people brought from Africa and enslaved here.

Even after the Golden Law of 1888, the enslaved had no compensation in terms of land, labor, or opportunity. They were thrown into God with absolutely nothing. Today Afro-descendants constitute 54% of our population so we have never paid our debt for everything they suffered and helped build this nation.

As a country, we have always been dependent. First from Portugal, then from England, then from the US and currently from the opulent countries with their mega corporations that exploit our wealth.

There was never a national project. There has always existed, as has been amply demonstrated by historians, a policy of conciliation of the rich classes with each other and with their backs turned to the people, excluded and cowardly despised and hated. They occupied the state and its apparatus to guarantee their privileges, to take advantage of large projects, bribes, and simply naturalized corruption. That is why we have a country deeply divided between a small number of millionaires and billionaires with a portion of the middle class, and the great majorities marginalized and excluded from the goods of civilization.

In colonial times, there were resistances and revolts of the common people, blacks and indigenous people, all of them violently crushed with hangings, executions or, in the best of cases, exiles and coups d’état and dictatorships in the republican era.

Indeed, here delegated democracy was and continues to be of low and even very low intensity, with only formal and legal freedom, but without its irreplaceable complement, equality. That is why there is a shameful inequality, one of the largest in the world, which is a social injustice so serious that it cries out to heaven for the victims it produces.

Looking back, the history of our homeland is marked by dark shadows, of indigenous genocide, colonization, slavery and domination of backward elites, as sociologist Jessé Souza describes, those who cling to power.

When someone from below, a survivor of the great Brazilian tribulation, came to power, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and his successor Dilma Rousseff introduced social policies for the inclusion of millions of poor and hungry, a legal-parliamentary-judiciary coup was soon mounted against them.

In this way, the old order (of social disorder) was saved and continued by an insane and psychopathic figure who took out of the closet of important sectors of the population everything there was of hatred and perversion, repressed and late fruit of the time of slavery. The enslaved were simply “pieces” to sell and buy in the market and treated with the famous three feet: stick, bread, and cloth: stick like inhuman whips, bread so as not to starve, and cloth to hide shame.

Fine finaliter: here our independence was lame and unfinished, which takes away any sense of celebration. As there has never been a revolution, as in the great countries that have made their leap in quality, which would deprive the ruling power class of privileges and easy enrichment, we were never given the opportunity to found a nation with a project for all, proud and active. We only extended the regime of dependency of several other foreign powers until the present date.

What would be our opportunity and our destiny? Looking ahead and to the future. We are a continental nation, with the greatest ecological wealth on the planet in terms of fresh water, tropical forests, fertile soils, immense biodiversity and an open, skillful and intelligent people that has managed to survive all kinds of oppression.

We know that the Earth has reached its limit. On July 28, 2022, Earth Overshoot Day (The Eat Overshoot Day) took place, that is, we used all the natural goods and services indispensable for life.

We went into overdrawn. We used in the last seven months, all the stock of water, minerals, vegetables and energy that the planet can produce and regenerate in a period of 365 days. To continue living we would need the biocapacity of 1.75 Earths that we do not have.

With the unexpected growth of global warming and with what already exists of CO₂ and methane accumulated in the atmosphere, extreme events will be inevitable. We arrived late. With science and technology, we can only mitigate the extreme effects that will come with the destruction of ecosystems and thousands of human lives. According to this year’s IPCC data, this could happen in the next 3 or 4 years.

There will be social tipping points such as the erosion of people’s way of life, increased conflicts, violence, migration and humanitarian crises, which will affect the security of infrastructure, food, water and energy. Many nations cannot produce what their people need, a situation made worse by the outbreak of Covid-19.

This grim reality could turn into a global catastrophe. It is at this point that the possible and real independence of Brazil comes in, which can help solve the hunger and thirst of all humanity. This will depend largely on Brazil, the humidity of our Amazon, the protein of our livestock and poultry, and the food production of our soils.

Most of the countries that are independent today will depend on us. We will have finally achieved our true independence, not for our pride and benefit, but as a service to life on Earth and the survival of humanity.

Finally, we can sing the carnival song: “Freedom, Freedom! Spread your wings over us. And may the voice of Equality always be our voice” and that of all humanity.

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