Sunday, August 16, 2015

TeleSUR on Brazil and Ecuador

TeleSURtv.net

UPDATED: Anti-Dilma Protesters Play Down Low Turn Out in Brazil
A segment of those demonstrating have openly called for the military to mount a coup against the democratically-elected president.
Opposition Demonstrators Shoot, Injure 11 Ecuadorean Officials
“I've never seen them be so violent, so aggressive,” said Correa of Thursday's opposition protests.
Low Turn-Out Marks Start of Anti-Dilma Marches in Brazil
A segment of those demonstrating have openly called for the military to mount a coup against the democratically-elected president.

2 comments:

André said...

As a brazilian MMTer, I want to give a comment.

I've never heard of this TeleSUR site, but it's not imparcial and professional (as most or probably all news agencies).

No one played down a supposed low turn out. Actually, 800 thousand people in protests around the country is not "low turn out", even if lower than 2013 protests and the first protest in 2015.

There were few people calling for a military coup, as there always is in brazilian politics. Actually, there were some people calling back the monarchy, which is so bizarre that's actually funny. (it's something like calling the UK queen to become the USA monarch again - no one can take it serisouly). They are a small group that desperately tries to get media attention. I was there and I saw it. There is no better way to collect evidence about what is going on. Read TeleSUR is the worse way to get information.

That odd news site is trying to imply that the protests are a small ultra-right movement, which simply isn't true.

TeleSUR is right when it says that some people do not want to acknowledge the social progress that Dilma Rousseff (the brazilian president) brought to the country for some time. And it's also right when it criticizes the exceptionaly parcial and unprofessional brazilian maganize called Veja and the biggest and most influential brazilian television network Globo. Globo is trying to convince people that political corruption is something new, inventend by the current governing political party, which of course isn't true.

But they fail to recognize some important issues. First of all, today almost 90% of brazilian citizens reprove Rousseff's government, rich and poor, young and old. Most people know that brazilian politicians are very talented in dismissing people's needs and wants, but maybe the insatisfaction is best explained by the percpetion of raising corruption among our governors. Maybe because important leaders of the governing political party and its coallition were and are being investigated, judged and arrested, in big scandals involving big money.

Also, Brazil's public services are very, very bad. Our public schools are terrible, and most people get to theirs 18 without knowing how to read. We also have a new classification for illiteracy, called "functional illiteracy", that applies to people that know how to read just one word or other. They are officialy accounted as literate. We have the worse hospitals too. And we also have to pay a LOT of taxes.

I could write a book about Brazil's problems, and another book about media manipulation, but I will spare you. We have a big (des)information war between left and right newspapers and news site that leads to denial, blame games, confusion and suffering.

I know that Russia is your primary interest, and that Brazil is not such an interesting country, but I guess we could try to avoid multiplying ignorance as if this blog was facebook.

Tom Hickey said...

Thanks for your comment. Can you recommend some English language news sites reporting on Latin America that are unbiased? Most of the English language news I see is neoliberal.

I would not say that Russia is a primary interest. It is front and center geopolitically at time moment, along with Ukraine.