terça-feira, março 22, 2011

YES, WEEKEND!

Como eu havia prometido a minha querida amiga Gail um post em inglês sobre as impressões brasileiras da visita de Obama à terras tupiniquins, aí vai o artigo. Have fun!

Like I had promised to my dear friend Gail an english post about our impressions on Obama's visit to Brazil, here it goes! Divirtam-se!







President Obama is on his way back home after a remarkable weekend and all Latin America, including Brazil, is wondering: what did he came for, really?!

Well, that should not be a tough question, since Barack Obama left an announcement in american television last week explaining his trip to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador. Among other things, he well remembered that brazilian consumers themselves kept a quarter million american jobs in U.S. last year. In fact, only considering Miami and Orlando, brazilian tourists left in United States something larger than US$ 4 billion in 2009.

Of course his travel to Latin America was a commercial issue, and our reception for him here had a lot of it either. But, when things are not going well in your own house, and the world is on fire, this Obama’s spring break seems a little out of context. We have to consider that this trip has been planned a couple months before, when Lybia was still sort of quiet, and even the UN decision to create the exclusion air zone was made when Obama was already here. To make it worse for US forces commander in chief, the word on the street is that the french president Sarkozi decided himself that the hour has come to make the Mirages and Rafales justify their investment, without telling anyone about it. So, since Carla Bruni’s husband opened the door loudly, the other countries in the operations had no way to act but improving the attacks to Ghadafi loyal forces.

Brazil’s president Rousseff was in a private meeting with Obama when he authorized american ships to launch a big ride with Tomahawk missiles against strategic targets in Tripoli, but she never told us anything… until Obama left. Hours after Air Force One’s departure from Rio de Janeiro, brazilian diplomatic ministry asked for the immediate stop of attacks in Lybia, wich makes sense when we remember the abstention in the Security Council, but makes no sense at all for a country who wants so badly to be a global player in this very same council and depends, for that, of american sympathy.

In the end, president Obama goes back to America leaving a good image here, for his well known charm, but almost nothing more than that. The conversation to Latin America has changed, not from there to here, but much more “let’s do it together”. There was no way left, really, since the oil reserves in the Arabic world are full of doubts, and we will have a lot of oil to sell in the years to come. Actually, with the chinese talent to take markets which use to be easily american, something had to be made, since jobs back home – and votes too – are directly connected to that.

President Obama and his adorable family probably had an image from Brazil full of make up. It couldn’t be different, actually, since this is the same image brazilian government sells here too. And, if a lie told several times begin to seem like truth, it’s very hard to brazilian people, who never left their ground, to realize that there are other ways to do things, that we may be an important economy in the world, but half brazilians are very poor even in african parameters. Curiously, even Shakira showed up to talk to president Rousseff a couple days before Obama, and honestly, I guess she made a lot more for brazilian people remembering Rousseff of her political promises then Obama did with his subjective but funny speeches. But that’s ok, sir: like a former french president once understood, Brazil isn’t a serious country, and you are welcome whenever you want. I hope you had a great time here, so did we:-)


Enderson Rafael is a brazilian Ya Books author.

3 comentários:

  1. Loved this! thank you for posting :)

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  2. Adorei o post Enderson!!
    Caramba, ainda não tinha lido nada sobre Obama por aqui - não com uma opinião forte por tras... anyway.. Na verdade a unica coisa que acompanhei foi a troca de figurino constante da mrs. Obama (guilty)...
    Sei que é um assunto serio, mas tive que rir com 'Obama goes back to America leaving a good image here, for his well known charm, but almost nothing more than that' alias o povo brasileiro não e conhecido pelo senso de humor mesmo nos momentos mais critico (ou pelo menos os cariocas..)?
    O final falando sobre a Shakira então... rs (><) Pode não ter rendido mt, mas foi realmente divertido acompanhar!

    [ahh, o que mais gostei foi o trocadilho do titulo!]
    bjs
    @cdevellyn

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  3. Oi, Eve, obrigado! A capacvidade oratória do Obama é mesmo admirável, ele é muito bom nisso! Acho que eu até pagava pra assistir hahahaha Beijo! Ende

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