By HOMERO SANTIAGO*
It is unlikely that Trump will try to ambush Lula as he did Zelensky; either way, Ukraine is little more than a sinkhole for American money and weapons.
A group of inmates arrive at the prison. They are rudely received and must learn the rules of their new residence. Out of nowhere, guards choose a young black man, pin his hands to the bars and lacerate his back with a belt. Amidst screams and groans, the only words heard from the victim are a tearful “I didn’t do anything”. I don’t remember the name of the film that featured this scene that left a lasting impression on me. I must have watched it on one of those old “night owls”, where the TV never went off the air between Friday and Sunday; in the pre-streaming days, only westerns, classics and other things that they thought would be a good idea to keep away from the regular viewing audience.
It was this brutal scene that came to mind and lingered in my mind as I watched the news footage of the meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House on February 28. The press generally referred to it as a “squabble” and the more diplomatic ones called it an “unprecedented episode”, while the more caustic ones gave it a more inspired name: “trap” or “arrapuca”.
I won't describe the facts or the details because I imagine that anyone who didn't spend the last month on vacation on Mars is already aware of everything. It would be as useless as saying that the days are hot, very hot. Let everyone call the episode in the White House whatever they want. In my mind, the scenes, at least, were a direct reflection of the film I watched in the past, which had already faded, and whose details only came to life when I came across a parallel that was half-comic and half-macabre in the present.
I try to explain the suggestion of involuntary memory, at least as I understood it. Donald Trump says he intends to impose a new world order and is working hard to achieve this. He wants to “rearrange” the world, and of course this generates friction. Like a new foreman or boss who arrives in a department and starts remodeling everything, resistance inevitably arises. Hence the need to act, hence the need to show who is in charge.
Now, from a point of view consistent with Trumpian ideals (one could also say “Bolsonarista”, aiming at the genre of truculent politics) there is no better way to show who is in charge than by punishing. And preferably by punishing someone who is not guilty of anything, as they did in the film with that young black man. Being guilty is an excuse that tarnishes the supposed purity of punishment; exemplary punishment in its purest form cannot be held hostage to any guilt.
Donald Trump’s real quarrel may be with the big guys, with China and the Europeans, the NAFTA “partners.” But can anyone imagine him publicly humiliating the Canadian prime minister or the French president? Hardly. Donald Trump knows his limits, he knows that even excesses lack a certain measure, without which they would not fulfill their role as an example and would only make things worse.
That's where the exemplary goat Volodymyr Zelensky comes in. He fulfilled the illustrative and enlightening role of that young black man in the film I mentioned at the beginning. The beating he suffered was proof, propagated around the world, that anyone who dares to stand up to Donald Trump will be, even if only in effigy, humiliated in public, using the most brutal methods.
The Ukrainian's humiliation was expiatory and served as a warning to the world, especially to those countries that might eventually want to rise up against Trump's pretensions (Colombian Gustavo Petros tried, in the case of the deportees, but quickly backed out). The fact that Volodymyr Zelenky, a few days later, accepted everything that was proposed to him, while he, wanting to discuss it, was reluctant to accept it at first, shows that Trump's machinations have an effect.
As happened with Gustavo Petros, as may happen with Mexico, Volodymyr Zelenky has literally eaten from the hand that slapped him. A little embarrassed, but without any demerit, it is worth noting. I do not like Volodymyr Zelensky very much, nor the narrative of the war in Ukraine that he and others have opportunely invented (I take the liberty of forwarding an analysis of my own on the war and Brazil's position in 2023, "The war in Ukraine becomes a global problem and the neutrality criticizes Lula".
This does not prevent me, however, from understanding his position, or rather, his repositioning. If neither Canada (the “Governor Trudeau”) nor the European Community break with Donald Trump, it would be crazy to imagine that Volodymyr Zelensky would do so, especially in the current circumstances, in the midst of a war and tactical movements that imply gains and losses of vital territories for a small nation, not to mention the number of lives that are lost in a deadly geopolitical chess game.
All things considered, what remains to be learned from the episode in the Oval Office and the public beating that Volodymyr Zelensky suffered, at least as far as we are concerned, is to prepare ourselves for Trumpian attacks and methods, which recreate all that is worst in terms of geopolitics (how can we not think, for example, of Hitler's "trick" regarding the German-speaking areas of the former Czechoslovakia?). The Foreign Ministry and Lula will have their work cut out for them.
It is unlikely that Donald Trump will try to ambush Lula as he did with Volodymyr Zelensky; in one way or another, Ukraine is little more than a sinkhole for American money and weapons, while Brazil is a huge and politically strategic trading partner in South America. In any case, you never know what will go through that evil head that occasionally still wears a cap with the slogan “make america great again"Just in case, it is best to remain like a good scout: always alert. You can never be too careful and our diplomacy will have to once again demonstrate the traditional efficiency that has always (or almost, since we cannot disregard the mess caused by Ernesto Araújo) made it famous.
* Homer Santiago He is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at USP.
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