Sunday 9 June 2013

Brasília.

                                                                                                                                                                   Up, Down. 
Brasília, plan by Lúcio Costa.During an all night flight to Brazil in the early oughts I wake briefly and look out the window and see the image of an aeroplane outlined in streetlights ... can't believe it! No one awake to talk with but can't get back to sleep for a long time.

The designer, Lúcio Costa, teaches geometry :) and interns Oscar Niemeyer (nobody's perfect).

What I remember seeing is not so symmetrical as the plan at the left, more like a child's drawing. 
Evidently mixed feelings about the meeting in Brasília. A very understandable split among the occupiers looks like. Who can blame them for wavering in the face of annihilation? Eldorado dos Carajás is just 300 miles away and memories of the massacre in 1996 ... linger. Not much of a choice. Unfortunately it's the only card they have to play - as long as work at Belo Monte is stopped the pressure is on the bankers and their politicians; when they leave the problem's essentially fixed.
Munduruku arriving in Brasília.Munduruku arriving in Brasília.Munduruku arriving in Brasília.
They get to Brasília and are grossly disrespected, no surprises there.
Munduruku in Brasília, June 6 2013.Munduruku in Brasília, June 6 2013.Munduruku in Brasília, June 6 2013.Munduruku in Brasília, June 6 2013.Munduruku in Brasília, June 6 2013.Munduruku in Brasília, June 6 2013.Ai ai ai! 
The tone of the blog changes right away: silence, then equivocation about the reasons. Eventually there is a new format - some IT guru has got their hands on it I guess. Not an improvement.
Eldorado dos Carajás near Marabá, Para State, Brazil.Eldorado dos Carajás near Marabá, Para State, Brazil.Eldorado dos Carajás near Marabá, Para State, Brazil.Eldorado dos Carajás near Marabá, Para State, Brazil.
Eldorado dos Carajás near Marabá, Para State, Brazil.Eldorado dos Carajás near Marabá, Para State, Brazil.Eldorado dos Carajás near Marabá, Para State, Brazil.Eldorado dos Carajás near Marabá, Para State, Brazil.
Gwynne Dyer has some good words on violence; Steven Pinker too. But when it comes to guages, indices, rules of thumb around violence, straight counts of the dead may be misleading eh? Nineteen were killed at Eldorado dos Carajás in 1996. 'Only' 19; 'just' 19. A massacre. What does that mean? One is killed in the village of Teles Pires, Adenilson Kirixi, and another, Oziel Gabriel in Sidrolândia; Chico Mendes, Dorothy Stang, Zé Cláudio & Maria do Espírito Santo, so many. Or is it 'not so many'? Not 'millions'.

If the coalition stays at Belo Monte and it is left up to Gilberto Carvalho & José Cardozo and the bankers and their judges, then some will be killed. Between a rock and a hard place; between the flames and the sea.

And there're just 150 on the Ocupação de Belo Monte email subscription list (?). What's that about?
Be well. 

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