Brazilians Use the Power of Masses

I'm sure that you've heard about the protests here in Sao Paulo, Rio and in other cities of Brazil, which has lots of people talking. Here are points made by bloggers and people I've talked to these days.

1. Increasing transportation fares ignited the protests, but of course this issue is accompanied with other issues, blowing the budgets for the World Cup and the Olympics by several billion dollars, corruption etc...

2. The hike in fare is only by 20 centavos which brings up the total fare to about $1.50 US, so what's the big deal? Well, compared to other countries, it means that the average Brazilian has to work 12-13 minutes to afford a ride home while a Canadian only has to work 5.84 minutes.

3. It's very hard to see how fare hike in the past have been put back into improving transportation systems and what about taxing drivers instead of those using public transportation?

5. And what about the other issues? Here's one young woman's perspective.

6.  The outrage surrounding the fare hike, the World Cup and the Olympics has shown the Brazilian government that Brazilians can take a lot of "sh*t", watch the game and complain, but at some point, when enough of that "sh*t" hits the fan they can take to the street and make themselves heard.

I support the protests (despite some radicals destroying public property). It seems that the only way to be heard in Brazil is to use the power of human mass. (Somehow I just get the feeling that writing a letter to your local MP just doesn't work here.)

Some have complained that the same people who are protesting now, were the same people who were partying on the beach on the day Rio won the bids. That may be true, but since then, it's clear that those in charge have screwed up. It will be interesting to see what will come of this. This morning the fare hike was reversed... I'm not surprised that the government chose to address this over the less manageable issues of corruption, violence and police repression....