Caetano Veloso: Dark Times Are Coming for My Country (Brazil)

By artappraiser on Thu, 10/25/2018 - 1:21am |

In the late 1960s, the military dictatorship in Brazil arrested and imprisoned many artists and intellectuals for their political beliefs. I was one of them. The militarists are back.

Guest op-ed @ NYTimes.com, Oct. 24 (Mr. Veloso is a composer, singer, writer and political activist.)

[....] Like other countries around the world, Brazil is facing a threat from the far right, a storm of populist conservatism. Our new political phenomenon, Jair Bolsonaro, who is expected to win the presidential election on Sunday, is a former army captain who admires Donald Trump but seems more like Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines’ strongman. Mr. Bolsonaro champions the unrestricted sale of firearms, proposes a presumption of self-defense if a policeman kills a “suspect” and declares that a dead son is preferable to a gay one.

If Mr. Bolsonaro wins the election, Brazilians can expect a wave of fear and hatred. Indeed, we’ve already seen blood. On Oct. 7, a Bolsonaro supporter stabbed my friend Moa do Katendê, a musician and capoeira master, over a political disagreement in the state of Bahia. His death left the city of Salvador in mourning and indignation.

Recently, I’ve found myself thinking about the 1980s. I was making records and playing to sold-out crowds, but I knew what needed to change in my country [....]

URL:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/opinion/caetano-veloso-brazil-bolsonaro.html

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"It's done"

90% of the votes counted:

Bolsonaro: 55.7%
Haddad: 44.3%

It's done.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 28, 2018

I don't follow Greenwald, I happened across this because it was retweeted by Maggie Haberman.

Begs the question for me if Greenwald (living in Brazil as his partner is a Brazilian citizen) will now prioritize his enemies a little better? One can hope.

by artappraiser on Sun, 10/28/2018 - 8:54pm

Following Brazil's election, read our piece from 2017 on 'Censorship in Brazil', with five responses from artists and writershttps://t.co/ePxAlEnRJz pic.twitter.com/SiOjhozVwh
— frieze (@frieze_magazine) October 29, 2018

by artappraiser on Tue, 10/30/2018 - 6:31am

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