What’s Happening in Brazil Right Now Is Terrifying
Brazil is currently in free fall and it’s terrifying to watch. The daily number of COVID-19 deaths has reached more than 4,000, and new daily death toll records continue to be set. More than 330,000 lives have been taken in Brazil by this deadly virus and its mutations so far. And the government isn’t doing much to help. If anything, the federal government is denying the pandemic is that bad. And, if it wasn’t for the local free health care system, the actual situation would be much worse.
But there is another silent tragedy happening right now. And it will get worse: hunger is back. I’m not saying it ever completely disappeared. Throughout the decades it’s always been there. The internal migration from the northeast down to the southeast, which both my parents took part in during the early 1970s, demonstrates people escaping from what seemed to be the endless drought and seeking a better life rather than starving to death.
Brazil only tackled this social shame once the dictatorship came to an end and a new constitution was implemented in 1988. Internal migrants eventually started to go back to the northeast. It became possible to thrive and to dream big in other parts of the country.
Brazil eventually fell off the hunger map when around 40 million Brazilians were lifted out of poverty under new social programs, like Bolsa Familia, implemented by former President Lula in the early 2000s.
The very point is that famine should never exist in the world. The leading nations once agreed to follow and implement the guidelines of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations
Act 25
1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
We know we failed.
Earlier this year, The New York Times published a disturbing article by Nicholas Kristof entitled “Starving Children Don’t Cry”, which tells us starvation cannibalizes your body: you are likely to go blind, you hallucinate, it consumes your muscles, even the heart! The Associated Press also released an article by Noha Elhennawy on February 12, 2021, based on UNICEF report, entitled UN: Over 2 million Yemeni children may starve in 2021. Places like Yemen, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, among other countries, mostly on the African continent, are part of this catastrophe.
Yes, we failed.
In Brazil, the 9th largest economy in the world, over 50% percent of households experienced food insecurity in 2020. That’s roughly 115 million people. How is that possible in a country with such wealth? Every day, thousands of food-deprived human beings line downtown streets in major cities like São Paulo begging for something to eat for the first time in their lives. They can’t find work. There’s next to zero Government support. And, so far this year, 19 million Brazilians are facing hunger. Social chaos is around the corner.
The other week, I spoke with a good friend of mine in São Paulo. He was extra emotional. He too is terrified of what’s unraveling right now in Brazil.
“People are now breaking into other people’s homes just to steal food,” he told me. “It doesn’t even matter if you’re in the house or not now for a robbery to happen.”
“Of course, that’s only in the working-class and poor areas,” he went on. “In the nice neighborhoods, there’s even more police presence.”
The blunt truth is that this will likely get worse before it gets better. Both COVID-19 and the famine in Brazil. This still happens because it will never affect the Brazilian elite. And, until pressure is applied to the country’s elite to create lasting change, it isn’t likely to come any time soon.
