By Flavio Aguiar*
One of the central marks of the (dis)governance style of the current conquerors of the federal government is contempt. Contempt for everything: for the decorum of government, for good taste, for good Portuguese, for the decorum of language, diplomacy, including the history of Brazilian diplomacy, for good journalism, for the environment, for our coastline, for the Amazon rainforest, for gastronomy, for summer time, for the rights of workers, the elderly, children, quilombolas, indigenous peoples, women, the LGBTI population, for many, many other things, and last, but not least, by the academic world. This last reason for contempt has been the target of a string of attacks by the ministers who serve the area and by the president of the republic himself, who was thus reduced, rewritten with lower case.
One of the last manifestations of this compulsory and compulsive (as well as repulsive) contempt was the appointment to preside over the Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa of the journalist, TV screenwriter, writer, reporter Letícia Dornelles. With that penalty, the minister in charge, Osmar Terra, of citizenship (everything is now like that, with lower case letters), rejected the indication of the House's employees, who was the researcher Rachel Valença, who had already dedicated herself to her for more than 30 years.
Tradition dictated that the person appointed by the House be appointed. But tradition, well, tradition… Tradition is also there to be despised. And so a person was appointed to the house (now like this, with lowercase) a person whose greatest merit for that, judging by past, present and perhaps future statements, is to be Bolsonarista (now yes, a capital letter, perhaps even large capital letters, BOLSONARISTA ) ardent, in addition to a sponsored by federal deputy Pastor Marco Feliciano (apud article by Igor Gadelha https://www.oantagonista.com/brasil/feliciano-emplaca-ex-reporter-da-globo-no-governo/).
Reading the intersections of statements and messages in this regard, we learn that the said nominee asked not to be appointed to any position in Brasilia, preferring to stay in Rio de Janeiro. Therefore, a position was found in Cidade Maravilhosa: the presidency of the Casa de Rui Barbosa Foundation, which, in addition to being a solution, is a rhyme. (“They wanted to find me a job in Brasilia. Then I said: 'no, let me stay in Rio'. The foundation was what we found so I could help” – O Globo, 27/10/2019).
Continuing the research on this desire to “be able to help”, we enter the fast world of Twitter, where we read, under the seal of the nominee, a series of BOLSONARICES (thus, in capitular) of the best kind. One of the most recent deplores the “violence” of the last popular demonstrations in “Chile in flames” and warns: “Stay smart, Brazil”, in an evident and patriotic call to avoid, in our land, engaging in such dangerous street demonstrations .
We found another pearl in the compliment to the “light pink” dress of the “beautiful, jovial, charming” first lady. There is also a certain disdain for “summer time” in favor of “God's time”. In fact, it is God everywhere, without economics. Not even the oil on the beaches is left out, qualified not as a possible accident, but as “a criminal attack on Brazil”. I leave it to readers to ask who this “criminal” could be.
Finally, in those words, between interviews and tweets, we find the declaration of a future effort to “accelerate lectures, which today are very academic”, followed by her statement that as a good “Librian” she will know how to deal with the moods in the foundation in the face of his presidency.
To complete (and end) this defeat (in the old sense of “journey”) we read this profession of faith: “I don't have a master's degree, but I'm also a researcher. I'm not parachuting. I went through interviews, it was almost a reality show”. Well, hats off. In fact, the nominee is not falling, but rising by parachute.
As the late Millor Fernandes said at the end of some of his tirades, “Fast cloth”.
*Flavio Aguiar is a writer, journalist, professor of Brazilian literature at USP
