SustainabiliTank: Argentina

Brazil Is Clearly Becoming Also A Cinematography Great - And There Are Several Reasons For This As The Just Concluded New York Film Festival Has Proven.

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 20th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz (PJ@SustainabiliTank.com)

Our two previous postings on the subject of the Brazilian Film Festival were as we mention bellow. This posting is intended as a summary and evaluation. We feel entitled to post such an article on www.SustainabiliTank.info because we clearly view the evolution of this young Brazilian film industry as part of the country’s progress towards sustainable development.

*****

Brazilian Film comes to New York; Introduced by Maria Rita in Concert in Central Park, New York - Movies at Tribeca Cinemas.

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 8th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz ( PJ at SustainabiliTank.com)

Maria Rita in Concert in Central Park, New York and Bossa Nova Memories: Movies at Tribeca Cinemas and an Upcoming Event at the UN. The Progress of Brazil.

Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 12th, 2008
by Pincas Jawetz ( PJ at SustainabiliTank.com)

OK, The event at the Dag Hammarskjold library in the UN basement, and the movies we saw at the Tribeca Cinemas, proved the point that Brazil is not just a producer of music and soccer geniuses, but in effect a whole new generation was set loose by the political and economic progress that the country is making. We clearly found from the content of the movies that the dry time of generals-in-command is now seen as just a temporary stage in the country’s history.

***
The opening party was in the bar at the Tribeca Cinemas - that was renamed for the occasion “LOUNGE PETROBRAS.”

The Brazilian Film Festival is a registered name for the “Circuito Infinito de Festivais” or a continuing traveling trade show that defines itself by: “the focal point of the Infinito Group is the cultural promotion and diffusion of Brazilian artistic productions abroad.” Claudia Dutra is the manager of this effort, and they have been to: Canudos, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Miami, Milan, Rome, New York, Vancouver, and Barcelona. In New York they are presented by the National Petroleum Company - Petrobras - under the name - VI Festival Petrobras De Cinema Brasileiro De Nova York - Infinito Foundation 2008.

In effect this is indeed a tour of goodwill, out of which Brazil hopes not only to enhance the World interest in Brazilian movies, but also in Brazilian culture in general, tourism, and investments. For one thing, the great gift Brazil has in its nature and beaches makes for perfect sites for filming and thus, among other material I picked up, I was not surprised to find also:

And Embratur made sure we have all the information one needs to plan a visit to Brazil - “Brasil Sensational!” Guide for Tourism Professional” - that includes three different 21- day itineraries and complete information about the best beaches, cultural sites and events and the 19 UNESCO World Heritage sites of Brazil.

The festival program:

Out of these films I saw “Out of Time” (“Os Desafinados”) that was the Sunday August 10, 2008 opening movie at the Maria Rita concert in Central Park, and also the last movie on closing day. We wrote about the movie in our reporting on the concert;

The movie at the UN was “The House of Tom - Mundo, Monde, Mondo” - a documentary and memorial - the celebration of the life of Tom Jobim directed by his widow, Ana Jobim;

“Boda de Papel” or “Paper Wedding” at the Monday opening, and because I was not able to stay to the end that evening, I returned on Thursday night - in effect I incorporated that movie also in the previous reporting;

“Panair do Brasil” - a documentary/memorial to an airline that was closed by order of generals who declared it bankrupt, even though it was neither short of cash, nor short of enormous wealth;

“What Ever Happened to Dulce Veiga” - a movie of camp culture - very beautiful and different from the other movies;

“5 Pieces of Almost a Story” that I actually did not see, but had a long conversation with a friend that saw it and thought this to have been the most interesting in human terms - it was in effect a collection of 5 shorts about the life of ordinary people and how they reacted to unordinary events. It turned out that these pieces showed that these simple ordinary people where not passive to what goes on, and in their ways stood up against perceived injustice.

So, I can say that I speak here about 6 full length events out of the 14 that were offered. My reaction to the material shown, to my amazement, I found a common line - and that line was political.

All 6 movies dealt with things that had to do with events that were started, or happened, at the time the generals ruled Brazil. We learned that there was once a freer Brazil, when the great music of the Bossa Nova was started, the Brazilian soccer team won the World Cup, Panair was indeed in the air, and people were happy. Then there was a military coup in Brazil another one in Argentina - and people got harmed, some disappeared, and even an airline was pushed under. The movies were not made in anger, they simply played an ode to the older better days, from the angle of standing now in a place that has promise again. The US was a country they looked up to - and they do also today - but there are hints of unfairness. These people now are self confident and do not live from nursing on the negatives from the past. Yes, all these movies have a nostalgia to times before generals and the US acted to stop that potential growth. There is a hint to communism (In What Happened to Dulce Vega)’ there is a hint to the suspicious American concierge, not exactly McCarthy, but very much a McCarthy type - that made sure the musicians in “Os Definados” are sent back to Brazil - she did not want a commune in her New York house. The days were not bad only for the Brazilians, but also for the Americans.

***

The realization that there is a political undertone in this unifying line of the new Brazilian cinema, convinced me that our kind of review I like to keep alive on www.SustainabiliTank.info, needs some political background to the history of Brazil. So here we come:

Brazil: Population estimate - (2007) - 189,335,000
Total area: (sq mi) 3,287,612, or (sq km) 8,514,877

chief of state: President Luiz Inacio “Lula” DA SILVA (since 1 January 2003);

***

We will start history from 1930 - that is from the time of the Great Depression in the US and the shadow it spread out all the way to Brazil. We start with Getulio Vargas.

Unsuccessful in his bid for the presidency in 1930, Vargas led a revolt that overthrew the government. Over the next 15 years, he effected massive transformations in the public and private sectors.

Vargas was a mixture of Mussolini and FDR. Between 1934 and 1945, Brazilian populism was a surprisingly reactionary phenomenon, exhibiting remarkable parallels to European fascism. He came up with his own fascist-influenced idea of an Estado Novo regime.

Today he is the hero of left wing activists and politicians, but his secret police brutally tortured communists in the 30s. Olga was a German communist jewess who met and married the Communist Party chief, Luís Carlos Prestes in Russia, and returned with him to bring the joys of Stalinism to Brazil. Prestes - who lived to be a ripe old age, is best known for a long march undertaken in the 30s, traveling thousands of kilometers and holding off government forces and proving that most people did not care for either Vargas or Prestes. What happened to Olga? She was captured by Vargas’ police and shipped back to Nazi Germany. She died in a concentration camp, but not before delivering a baby girl, that eventually became a university professor in Rio.

The Getulio Vargas style was authoritarian, and his appeal populist: unionization, industrialization, and social welfare programs gained him the working - and middle-class backing. He was similar to what we are more familiar with - the Argentinean Peronism. Vargas gave support to the Allies during World War II, specially in search for German submarines, and Brazil became a founding Nation of the UN. As World War II ended with Brazil participating on the Allied side, President Getúlio Vargas moved to liberalize his own fascist-influenced regime. Vargas decreed an amnesty to the political prisoners, including the chief of the Communist Party. Nevertheless, his popularity declined as democratic sentiment grew.

In 1945 he was ousted by the army. The Estado Novo ended when two of the most rightist supporters, the Minister of War Pedro Aurélio de Góis Monteiro and Eurico Gaspar Dutra, led a military coup on October 29, 1945. The president of the Supreme Federal Tribunal, José Linhares was inaugurated as president of Brazil. Linhares guaranteed free and regular elections. Vargas was forced to take a temporary retirement. General Eurico Gaspar Dutra was elected president and served from 1946 to 1950 when Vargas returned to power. His second turn of holding power ended in 1954.

Vargas’ government, hoping to ensure domestic control of key industries, spearheaded a host of nationalistic policies as a result of the lessons from the Great Depression of the 1930s. It took ownership of some of the country’s largest companies, usually in partnership with one or more local or foreign corporations, and subsequently sold stock to private investors. The government’s growing involvement in the industrial sector was criticized for promoting political and social objectives rather than economic ones, and for its cumbersome and inefficient bureaucracy; however, some industries attributed their successes to government measures, which included direct investments, tax and other incentives, protective tariffs, and import restrictions. His government initiated several key industries, including a modern shipbuilding program.

Vargas returned to politics in 1950 to win the presidential elections as the candidate of the Brazilian Labor Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro), taking office on January 31 1951. By 1954, Vargas faced opposition from the National Democratic Union and the military. The murder of Major Rubens Vaz, an associate of opposition newspaper editor Carlos Lacerda, by some of the president’s bodyguards, known as the crime of “Rua Tonelero”, led to a reaction against Vargas. Army generals demanded his resignation. After failing to negotiate a temporary leave of absence, the isolated Vargas shot himself on August 24 1954. But whatever Getulio Vargas did there was a Vargas’ ever-shifting populist dictatorship that helped to reign in the agrarian oligarchs, thus paving the way for the democratization of the 1950s and 1960s which was ended by the right-wing 1964 military coup.

Vargas return to power as President in 1950 was in a reasonably democratica election, but his second tenure was beset with scandals and economic difficulties.

Vargas’s tenure marked the start of modern industrialization for Brazil. A petrochemical sector was established led by the huge Petrobrás company (created in 1953), a burgeoning microelectronics and personal computer industry, and aircraft manufacturing by the Embraer corporation, including commercial jetliners, aviation and surveillance equipment, and aircraft for the Brazilian air force. It established a motor vehicle industry in the 1950s to replace U.S. and German imports and assembly plants. For a period during the late 20th century, manufacturing accounted for the largest segment of the gross domestic product (GDP) before it was overtaken by the service sector.

From 1954 we jump to 1956 when Juscelino Kubitschek wins the presidency (1956-1961). Campaigning on a platform of “fifty years of progress in five”, Kubitschek sought to achieve this progress with the aid of foreign investment, which in turn would be given generous incentives, such as profit remittances, low taxes, privileges for the importation of machinery, and donations of land. This influx of capital rapidly conquered domestic industry, unable to compete with the greater efficiency and expertise of foreign capital. Domestic manufacturers, once the core base of support for economic nationalism, were idly contented to become managers or partners of the multinationals. The urban bourgeoisie—the original base of Vargas’ coalition—had little use for Brazilian populism any more, having outgrown state planning and having lost its autonomy. In a sense, Brazilian populism was a victim of its own success, fostering a middle class that would soon find state control threatening rather than protective.

The most notable manifestation of the nationalistic aspirations of the Kubitschek’s was the construction of Brasília, Brazil’s ultra-modern capital.

He was followed by João Goulart (1961-64)—a protégé of Getúlio Vargas and another gaúcho from Rio Grande do Sul, the closeness of the government to the historically disenfranchised working class and peasantry and even to the Communist Party led by Luís Carlos Prestes was equally remarkable. Goulart appeared to have been co-opting the Communist movement in a manner reminiscent of Vargas’ co-optation of the Integralists shortly—and not coincidentally—before his ouster by reactionary forces.

Eventually, the 1964 junta and the ensuing military dictatorship proved that the establishment forces that ushered Goulart’s mentor into power in the first place, and the bourgeoisie that Vargas helped rear, found the left-leaning turn of Brazilian populism intolerable.

Actually, after Kubitschek’s retirement, the elected president was Jânio Quadros, a right-wing figure who based his electoral campaign on criticizing Kubitschek and his followers of PDT for being corrupt. Quadros’ slogan was a broom, with which the president would “sweep the corruption”.

In his brief tenure as president, Quadros made moves to resume relations with some communist countries. He also instituted some unusual laws, the most notable being one that banned bikinis from the beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

In the last days of August 1961, Quadros resigned from the presidency. The situation was very unusual, since the vice-president, João Goulart, at that time was outside the country in a mission visiting Asia. Some military chiefs tried to prevent the nomination of Goulart as a president, accusing him of being communist. (Goulart was directly linked to worker’s parties and associations.) The crisis was solved by what would be called “parliamentarism solution”: the parliamentary system was implemented to reduce Goulart’s powers as president, placating the military officials.

João Goulart was forced to shift well to the left of his mentor Getúlio Vargas, and was forced to mobilize the working class and even the peasantry amid falling urban bourgeois support. The core of Brazilian populism—economic nationalism—simply was no longer that appealing to the middle classes. Mild structural reforms under Goulart cumulated in the watershed 1964 military junta supported by a “dependent bourgeoisie” that restored the same acceptance of neocolonial dependency that Vargas, however conservative, had attempted to overcome. Effectively, this political crisis stemmed from the specific way in which the political tensions of Brazilian development had been controlled in the 1930s and 1940s under the fascist Estado Novo.

Vargas’ dictatorship and the presidencies of his democratic successors marked different stages of the broader era of Brazilian populism (1930-1964), an era of economic nationalism, state-guided modernization, and import substitution trade policies. Vargas’ policies were intended to transform Brazil into a capitalistic First World nation by linking industrialization to nationalism, a formula based on a strategy of reconciling the conflicting interests of the middle class, foreign capital, the working class, and the fazendeiros. The landed gentries—the formidable forces of the old order, were won over by the lack of structural changes (agrarian reforms) under Vargas.

Essentially, this was the epic of the rise and fall of Brazilian populism from 1930 to 1964: Brazil witnessed over the course of this time period the change from export-orientation of the Old Republic (1889-1930) to the import substitution of the populist era (1930-1964) and then to the dominance of the multinationals of the neoliberal era (1964-present). Each of these structural changes forced a realignment of class forces and opened up a period of political crisis. The 1964 coup also ended a cycle in Brazilian history that began with Vargas’ 1930 Revolution, a now bygone era marked by the marriage of middle class aspirations, nationalism, and state-guided modernization in Latin America. A period of right-wing military dictatorship marked the transition between this era and the current period of re-democratization.

***

The Army could not find a civilian politician acceptable to all of the factions that supported the ouster of João Goulart. On April 15, 1964 fifteen days after the coup, the Army Chief of Staff, Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco became the appointed president with the intention of overseeing a reform of the political-economic system. He refused to remain in power beyond the remainder of Goulart’s term or to institutionalize the military in power. However, competing demands radicalized the situation. Military hard-liners wanted a complete purge of left-wing and populist influences while civilian politicians obstructed Branco’s reforms. The latter accused him of hard-line actions to achieve his objectives, and the former accused him of leniency. He recessed and purged Congress to satisfy military hard-liners, removing objectionable state governors and decreeing the expansion of the president’s, and by extension the military’s, arbitrary powers at the expense of the legislative and judiciary branches. His gamble succeeded in giving him the latitude to repress the populist left but provided the follow-on governments of Artur da Costa e Silva (1967–69) and Emílio Garrastazu Médici (1969–74) with a legal basis for authoritarian rule.

***

The fall of João Goulart resulted in a radicalization of student groups by cultural freedom and other left-wing ideologies as they began to look for alternative ways to the status quo. Unable to mobilize the apathetic lower-class Brazilians, they began to look for forms of direct action, much like the contemporary Red Army Faction in Germany.

The first signs of resistance were seen in 1968 with the appearance of widespread student protests. In response to this upsurge, the government issued Institutional Act Number Five in December 1968, which suspended habeas corpus, increased the power of the executive by shutting down the other branches of government, and declared a nationwide state of siege. Protests were suppressed with violence. The anti-military movement descended into the political underground and eventually armed action.

By the end of the decade there were twenty organizations involved in the urban guerrilla movement. The old-left, particularly in the shape of the Brazilian Communist Party, was seen as irrelevant and outdated, as Marxist-Leninist, Maoist, Trotskyist, Castroist, and all the other shades of left-wing ideology competed for the loyalty of the young militants, especially in places like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Recruitment drives were carried out in schools and universities, initially with lectures in Marxist theory. The most determined were drawn deeper into activism, some taking the decision to leave their families and go underground altogether.

According to a government-sponsored truth and reconciliation commission in 2007, by the end of the dictatorship there were at least 339 documented cases of government-sponsored political assassinations or disappearances. Countless more were questioned, tortured, and jailed.

The third military government (1969–74) led by general Emilio Garrastazu Médici and guided by directives already adopted in the previous period, intensified the transformation process of Brazil’s foreign relations. Nevertheless, as domestic politics hardened, the scope of the country’s foreign influence remained restricted.

The decreeing of Institutional Act #5 (AI-5, 1968) marked a new phase of restrictions in the country’s political freedom. The succession of kidnappings of foreign ambassadors in Brazil created embarrassments for the military government. The anti-government manifestations and the action of guerrilla movements generated an increase in repressive measures. The “ideological frontiers” of Brazilian foreign policy were reinforced. At the same time, the results of the economic policy consolidated the option for the national-development model. Because of these results, the country’s foreign economic connections were transformed, allowing its international presence to be broadened.

From 1964 to 1985, the country was ruled by a Military government, which restrained many individual rights in the name of what they called democracy (read comments to the Constitution of 1967). As we shall see, the hand of the US was in the 1964 Coup d’Etat. As we shall see these facts were revealed in 2004, when the 40 years of CIA secrecy on these issues ended.

In the mean time, In 1984, when it became clear that the Military would agree to leave the government, Brazilian population engaged in a massive campaign, trying to change the old Constitution so that the new civilian President should be elected directly by voting; this campaign became known as “Diretas Já” (Direct Now). Despite the popular movement, however, the old system was maintained, and the new President, Tancredo Neves, was elected by the votes of the Representatives in the Parliament. The facts were that though intent on negotiating their exit, the generals were not yet ready to take the needed steps. Neither did Tancredo Neves become President. He mysteriously died before he could take over from the generals. The poor ma, whom I had the honor to see twice, the first time at an ethanol/renewable energy meeting in Bello Horizonte, and the second time, at the Pierre Hotel in New York City, where Nelson Rockefeller and the Americas Society, had organized a meeting to acquaint him with the US business people and many of the politicians.

Many politicians who had been persecuted (or exiled) regained their political rights (or returned to Brazil) and were elected to a Constituent Assembly. Among the list of the Constituents, there are names of Ulysses Guimarães (President of the Assembly, one of the main oppositions to the military regime), Afonso Arinos, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, José Serra, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Márcia Kubitschek (daughter of ex-President Juscelino Kubitschek), Teotônio Vilela and others who courageously voiced their opposition during the dictatorship.

The Constitution turned out quite liberal, politically speaking; A chapter was dedicated to “Individual and Collective Rights and Duties”; article 5, which lists individual rights, comes with 78 clauses; moreover, another article states that this article 5 can not be changed, even by another Constitutional Amendment. This was a reaction against the former Constitution of 1967, by which the Militaries reduced the express individual rights, and made some of them relative values.

In theory, the Constitution became very libertarian. Ulysses Guimarães dubbed it as the “Constitution-Citizen”. The idea seemed to be “the State mistreated their citizens in the recent past; now, it is time to repair their damages”.

The constitution was approved in 1988, before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Gorbachov had just taken office, and the Soviet Union was still a super power.
In the 1970s, Brazil had been the fastest growing country in the world. This growth had been funded mostly by federal resources; the biggest Brazilian corporations were State owned. In the 1980s (after successive oil crises), the growth curve was declining sharply.

So, in line with the social preoccupations, the Constitution attempted also to put the economy in favor of the citizens. Under the generals, large monopolies were created because (this was the thought), as these large companies were State owned, they could only do well for the citizens. Petroleum and telecommunications became State monopolies. Private banks were allowed to compete with giant State banks, but, to prevent abuse, a limit of 12% p.a. was imposed to the interest rates.

Civil servants, whose lobby in Congress is much stronger than private workers’, gained also many rights, while in service and also after retirement. Over time, the real world imposed reality to the Constitution. It became more and more clear that, to fulfill the social rights granted by the very same Constitution, the economy would have to adapt to the globalization era.

A good number of the 48 amendments made until Mid-2005 were related to changes in the economic order and in the government structure (in particular, civil servants). With the amendments, Brazil is adjusting the Economy, without restraining political and social rights.

Now to the United States involvement in the 1964 Coup:US Role in 1964 Brazilian Military Coup Revealed - National Security Archive released information in 2004.

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/internationa…
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAE…

An anti-Goulart press campaign was conducted throughout 1963, and in 1964 the US Johnson administration gave moral support to the campaign. Ambassador Lincoln Gordon later admitted that the embassy had given money to anti-Goulart candidates in the 1962 municipal elections and had encouraged the plotters, that many extra United States military and intelligence personnel were operating in Brazil, and that four United States Navy oil tankers and the carrier Forrestal, in an operation code-named Brother Sam, had stood off the coast in case of need during the 1964 coup. A document from Gordon from 1963 to the US president also describes the ways João Goulart should be put down, and his fears of a communist intervention by Cuba. Washington immediately recognized the new government in 1964 and hailed the coup d’état as one of the “democratic forces” that had allegedly staved off the hand of international communism. In retrospect, it appears that the only foreign hand involved was Washington’s, although the United States was not the principal actor in these events. Indeed, the hard-liners in the Brazilian military pressured Costa e Silva into promulgating the Fifth Institutional Act on December 13, 1968. This act gave the president dictatorial powers, dissolved Congress and state legislatures, suspended the constitution, and imposed censorship.

In 1968 there was a brief relaxation of the nation’s repressive politics. Experimental artists and musicians formed the Tropicalia movement during this time. However, some of the major popular musicians of this time were arrested; some of them (Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso) left the country, in self proclaimed exile.

***

Declassified files reveal that Lyndon B. Johnson wanted the US to “take every step” to support a military coup in Brazil in 1964.

2004 declassified documents posted online by the Washington-based National Security Archive (NSA) revealed the full extent of US support for the 1964 ouster of Brazilian President Joao Goulart. On a declassified audio tape, President Lyndon Johnson said “I think we ought to take every step that we can, be prepared to do everything that we need to do,” in reference to preparations for the coup.

Through the CIA, the US provided supplies and funding for the coup, and provided a naval task force to “intimidate Goulart’s backers and be in position to intervene militarily if fighting became protracted,” the NSA said in a news release. The support for the military coup was part of a broader program of anti-communist actions. According to the NSA’s documents, Johnson feared Brazil becoming “the China of the 1960s.” President Goulart was known to be friendly to labour unions, limited the profits multinational corporations could remove from Brazil, and had plans to trade with communist countries.
High-ranking US officials had previously denied involvement in the coup.

General Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco, who seized power in the coup, moved immediately to ban labour unions, round up and torture “suspected communists”, and ban criticism of the government. Brazil’s military government (which lasted until 1984) assisted General Jorge Rafael Videla in his successful Argentinean coup.

In December 2003, the NSA posted declassified documents that demonstrated US involvement in the Argentinean “Dirty War” of the mid-1970s. Records show Henry Kissinger and other high-ranking US officials told the Argentine military junta to get the “dirty war” over with as quickly as possible, before US Congress could cut military aid. The NSA writes: “a post-junta truth commission found that the Argentine military had ‘disappeared’ at least 10,000 Argentines in the so-called ‘dirty war’ against ’subversion’ and ‘terrorists’ between 1976 and 1983; human rights groups in Argentina put the number at closer to 30,000.”
» National Security Archive: Brazil Marks 40th Anniversary of Military Coup: Declassified Documents Shed Light on U.S. Role
» National Security Archive: Kissinger to Argentines on Dirty War: “The Quicker You Succeed the Better”

In a nut-shell: In 1964 the military overthrew President Joao Goulart, who was rapidly moving to the left, or so the cold war mentality of the US thought at that time. For the next 21 years, Brazil was ruled by a succession of military governments. Although the country’s economy prospered, the military suspended constitutional guarantees and imposed press censorship. Civilian government was restored in 1985 when an electoral college chose the very popular Tancredo de Almeida Neves as president. He died before taking office and was succeeded by Jose Sarney, a well connected and powerful politician from the North of Brazil.

***

REDEMOCRATIZATION

Brazil got a new constitution in October 1988. A year later Fernando Collor de Mello was elected, after a close electoral race with Luis Ignacio de Souza (always called LULA) representing the always very vocal left. Lula might have won, except for:

(1) Eastern Europe deciding they had had enough of the very thing Lula wanted for Brazil. This was very embarrassing for Lula and his supporters, who went on TV to try to convince the people that the PT’s (Worker’s Party) had nothing to do with Communism in Europe.

(2) Roberto Marinho, the owner of the Globo network and most powerful man in Brazil, was afraid that a left wing government would nationize his property, so he backed Mello.

(3) some of the usual dirty tricks all politicians do.

Mello was elected and soon launched a “shock” program to reduce inflation and government spending (these programs are called pacotes, meaning packages, a term you must learn if living in Brazil). People soon found that Collor was corrupt, and so he lost all support, even that of Marinho. Out went Collor, under a cloud of impeachment. These last two presidents are representative of everything that is bad in traditional Brazilian politics, where nice words are used to cover the ugly face of power, privilege, self-interest and corruption.

Fernando Henrique Cardoso, was elected in 1994, and whose pacote, called the Real Plan, named after the new currency, has held inflation under control and generated growth.

Eventually Lula was elected in 2002

******

Now we saw the 21 lost years in the cultural development of Brazilians in Brazil. We also saw the impact the US had by promoting the 1964 coup. The beginning of the formation of a new Brazil in 1985, but the kicking in of real change only following the new constitution of 1988 and the transition time to the present Lula Presidency that started in 2003. Sure, there were ups and downs in the economy and the evaluation of what went on is dependent on your point of view - but the internal market that gets a country moving, is a rather new Brazilian phenomenon, like it is a rather new Chinese phenomenon. The difference between the two is that in Brazil people are now free to create also intellectually and that is how Brazil creates not only a steel industry, but also a cinematography. The movies we saw do not react clearly to the question if the time lost was 21, 30, or 40 years. They just tell us that time was lost.

***

Take for instance “Panair do Brasil.”

The company started out as NYRBA in the 1920s and did the New York-Rio - Buenos Aires flights. In 1929 -1930 depression, Panam bought into it and it became basically the Brazilian arm of Panam under the Panair name, with bases in Rio and Lisbon, and flights all over Europe and the Middle East. Jocelyn Kubitchek and Janio Quadros wanted to nationalize all aviation, so they arranged for two Brazilian families, one of them Dr. Mário Wallace Simonsen (owner 1961-1965) the other Celso da Rocha Miranda (owner 1961-86) to buy 30% of the company. The Americans did not like this, but did not put up an opposition, but when the 1964 coup happened, Castelo Branco declared on February 10, 1965, practically one of the first acts of this American inspired takeover of Brazil, the insolvency of the company. The draconic measure was so that no bankruptcy was allowed, even though the company was neither insolvent nor bankrupt. The documentary parades before our eyes some of the people involved with Panair back in the 60s, and in some cases their descendants. Not only that the company was not in financial troubles, in effect it owned 80% of the Brazilian airports at that time. The families got large payments now, by judgement of the Brazilian courts. They kept the cases running for 40 years.

Sure, this documentary was one-sided, but it was not clear at all why Castelo Branco had to take their planes and give them to Varig? He did in effect not just punish the two families he hated, but he did in effect also harm Panam. Now that is not clear to me - but the basic facts are true, and the aura around Panair is palpable.

Panair do Brasil (or simply “Panair”) was Brazil’s flag airline and Latin America’s largest carrier from the 1940s through the 1960s. It began operations in October 22nd, 1929, as NYRBA do Brasil S.A., a local subsidiary of NYRBA, Inc. (New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line). One year later, as the parent company was acquired by Pan American World Airways, this affiliate was renamed Panair do Brasil S.A. It ceased operations abruptly in February 10th 1965, when the Brazilian military government instated the year before suspended its routes and alloted them to Varig. The controversial decision to liquidate Panair so suddenly originated a long dispute in Court. Finally, in December, 1984, it was recognized that the airline operated within regular technical and financial parameters when shut down, and the government was sentenced to pay reparations to its former owners. The forced bankruptcy was suspended on May 5th, 1995, and the company now seeks indemnizations in Justice.

Facts

Panair do Brasil was the first non-US airline to acquire the Lockheed Constellation.
In the 1940s, the airline had the most extensive network of domestic routes in the world.
Panair was the first international airline to land on the then newly-innaugurated London Heathrow Airport, in April, 1946.
Panair seconded only UK’s BOAC in placing orders for the de Havilland Comet, the world’s first commercial jet airliner. The orders were later cancelled due to flaws on the plane’s original design.
Just as Pan Am called their planes “Clippers”, Panair do Brasil baptized its fleet with the names of “Bandeirantes”.
Panair do Brasil DC-8s can be seen in a handful of movies, including French productions “La Peau Douce” (1964) and “Homme de Rio” (1964).
The abrupt shutdown of Panair was so traumatic to Brazilian society under dictatorship that celebrated musicians Fernando Brant and Milton Nascimento composed a song called “Nas asas da Panair” (”On the wings of Panair”) as a tribute to the airline.
Part of Panair’s logo is still visible at the company’s former hangar at Santos Dumont Airport.
Former employees of Panair do Brasil, their families and friends attend an annual reunion on the week of October 22nd, the airline’s birthday. This tradition has been religiously preserved since 1966 and there is a movement to include it in the Guinness World Records.
The airline has been the theme of a number of books. The most recent, “Pouso forçado” (2005), made it to the finalists of Prêmio Jabuti, Brazil’s most important literature award.[1]
“Panair do Brasil”, a documentary about the company, was exhibited at Festival do Rio (2007). It is due to be released in 2008.[2]

This years, Brazil CineFest Petrobras was very much under the sign of the 50th Anniversary to Bossa Nova.

Tom Jobim (Antônio Carlos Jobim) is the name that best represents Brazilian music on the second half of the 20th century!
Bossa Nova combines samba rhythms with sophisticated harmonies and quiet, understated melodies, producing music that has charmed listeners worldwide.

He was born in the north part of Rio de Janeiro, and soon his family moved to Ipanema. Among his piano and guitar teachers was Koellreuter, the German man who brought the concept of dodecaphonic technique to Brazil. Tom considered working as an architect, even getting a job in an architecture office. Meanwhile, he performed in bars and clubs in the early 50s, in Copacabana, and eventually got hired by a record company. Besides writing the arrangements for other people’s songs, he also had to transcribe melodies written by composers who were illiterate in terms of musical notations.

He started writing his own compositions. His very first recorded song was “Incerteza”. “Tereza da Praia”, which Jobim wrote with Billy Blanco in 1954, was his first hit. In 1956 he wrote the music for Vinícius de Moraes’ play, “Orfeu da Conceição”, and they both became constant partners. A popular song from that play is “Se Todos Fossem Iguais a Você”, which has been recorded over and over by different artists around the world.

Tom Jobim was part of the embryonic nucleus of bossa nova. The album “Canção do Amor Demais” (1958), featuring music by Tom and Vinícius, sung by Eliseth Cardoso and accompanied by João Gilberto’s guitar, is regarded as a landmark for bossa nova, due to the freshness of the arrangements, harmonic and melodic patterns. It features, among others, “Canção do Amor Demais”, “Chega de Saudade” and “Eu Não Existo sem Você”. Bossa nova’s solidification as a musical style came soon, in 1958, with the track “Chega de Saudade” interpreted by João Gilberto. In the following year, Gilberto’s album “Chega de Saudade”, arranged and directed by Tom Jobim, defined the paths that Brazilian music would take from then on. That same year, singer Silvia Telles made an album exclusively out of Jobim’s material, picking 12 songs like “Só em Teus Braços”, “Dindi” and “A Felicidade” (with Vinícius). He was also one of the hyped performers at the Carnegie Hall Bossa Nova Festival, in 1962.

In 1963, he and Vinícius committed one of their greatest hits and very likely the most aired Brazilian song of all times: “Garota de Ipanema”. In 1962 and ’63, the amount of “classics” produced by Tom is amazing: “Samba do Avião”, “Só Danço Samba” (with Vinícius), “Ela É Carioca” (with Vinícius), “O Morro Não Tem Vez”, “Inútil Paisagem”, “Vivo Sonhando”. Spending time in the US, he made albums - his first solo was “The Composer Of ‘Desafinado’ Plays”, from 1965, played shows and started his own publishing house, Corcovado Music.

The popularity of his songs outside of Brazil helped his way back to the US in 1967, when he recorded with the great American myth, Frank Sinatra. The album “Francis Albert Sinatra and Antônio Carlos Jobim”, arranged by Claus Ogerman, included English versions of Tom’s songs (”The Girl From Ipanema”, “How Insensitive”, “Dindi”, “Quiet Night of Quiet Stars”) and American standards, such as Cole Porter’s “I Concentrate On You”.

By the late 60s, after releasing the record “Wave”, he went on to compete in music festivals, being placed first with the song “Sabiá”, which he wrote with Chico Buarque. “Sabiá” captivated the critics, but not the audience, which fiercely booed the song right in the face of the embarrassed composers. Going deeper in his music studies, acquiring taste for classical composers like Villa-Lobos and Debussy, Tom Jobim went on writing and recording exquisite, finely inspired music, merging jazzy harmonies with typically Brazilian elements that he researched quite seriously. That’s the case with “Matita Perê” and “Urubu”, released in the 70s, both emphasizing the link between Tom’s harmonic sophistication and his quality as a lyricist. Those two records feature “Águas de Março”, “Ana Luíza”, “Lígia”, “Correnteza”, “O Boto”, Ângela”. In the same period he started making duo albums: “Elis e Tom”, “Miúcha e Tom Jobim” and “Edu e Tom”. “Passarim”, from 1987, is the masterpiece of an established composer, who, by then, was able to dwell on his music without fear of experimenting. Besides the title track, “Gabriela”, “Luíza”, “Chansong”, “Borzeguim” and “Anos Dourados” (with Chico Buarque) also made their way into the charts. It isn’t an easy task to pick Jobim’s most significant albums. All of them bring at least a little something that is different, innovative or special. His last CD, “Antônio Brasileiro”, was released little before his passing away in December 1994, in the US.

Ana Jobim and Tom and Ana’s daughter. (Photos by Pincas Jawetz)

Petrobras took over the UN Dag Hammarskjold library auditorium in order to celebrate the Tom and Anna Jobim House and Bossa Nova. Anna received a prize for her work. (photos by Pincas Jawetz)

The movie is a monument to Tom (Antonio Carlos if you want to be formal). It showed his relations to friends and family, and the way his songs were the way of life in his circle of friends. He was Brazilian to the bone. When in New York, that those days was a potato town, he had to ask directly the Mexican and Puerto Rican cooks to get with his food rice instead of potatoes.

His free spirit did not recognize borders - Frontiers he said are fictitious - vultures fly over them. 1958 was a blessed year for Brazil. Kubitschek was president, Brazil got the World Cup, and Bossa Nova was born.

Jobim said that all his works were inspired by the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. His home was next to the Botanic Garden under the arm of the big Christ on Corcovado. He hated forest fires and was saying that one should need a license to carry a matchbox like there is a license to carry a gun.

****

This movie is about a Bossa Nova group that was not as lucky as Tom Jobim. They lost their leader in the post 1964 revolution days, albeit, he was not killed in Brazil, but “disappeared” in Buenos Aires - probably mistaken for a communist or an anarchist. The young group of performers is excellent. The director Victor Lima, and musician Jair Oliveira were in New York.

***

As we said earlier, this is a high quality camp movie. It also has its start in the days of the military dictatorship, and the political angle is that a gay actor is being bludgeoned because he was a communist. Dulce Veiga, a famous actress, who had also an involvement with this actor, as well as with his male lover, decides to give it all up and hide in the Amazonas where she sings at local lodges. She lives now a pure life in the middle of nature, away from the human beasts that roam Sao Paulo. The acting is excellent so is the music.

This is about strength normal people discover in themselves in the face of adversity.

This is about the power of the generals to condemn a whole town if they believe that a dam is needed. Then if they change their mind after three years - people are allowed to return. The people are so trained that they even do not show the anger that we could have expected from them - they are wiser and live their lives as if nothing unjust is being planned without them having a recourse. Then eventually a real accident happens and their patience looks more justifiable to us.

As said at the out-start, there are several reasons for the surge in the Brazilian cinematography. we dealt above by the push that came from the previously pent-up young people and from the sort-of nostalgia to the pre-1964 coup times. The feeling existing that in those days Brazil, and the other ABC Countries of the South American Cone, were sort of on their way to becoming developed countries at par with the reconstructing Europe. But this was not going to happen thanks to outside intervention that was in part a reaction to the Cold War, and in part out of plain corporate interests in natural resources of the region and “nada mas.”

But this is not all. Brazil’s present push has to do also with wealth that comes from the prospect of development of its petroleum resources, that came on top of its on-going alternate fuels campaign. Brazil’s Petrobras, and that means Brazil’s government, has the luxury of decided on the pace of the development of its petroleum reserves without being hung on internal use of this resource - thanks to the existing biofuels industry and the strong push for other renewable resources. Nevertheless, there is now money available to the government, and we shall see more on this subject when we report on the presentation August 18, 2008 by Henrique Meirelles, the President of Central Bank of Brazil, on the Macroeconomics aspects of Brazil, that he gave before the Brazilian American Chamber of Commerce.

Further, the Lula Government brought in musician Gilberto Gil, as Minister of Culture, and he is promoting also cinema, videos, audiovisuals, TV … you name it.

Brazil has now nine bilateral Co-production agreements - these are with: Spain, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, UK, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, and is pursuing the signing of similar agreements with India and China. it also started to deal with autonomous regions within those countries, and could do so whenever such provincial governments exist. The first such agreement is with Galicia in Spain. As we will see in a separate posting on sites in Brazil - when money, and will for such outreach are available, and the country is also blessed with scenery and interesting environments, then really the sky is the limit.

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Posted in Reporting From the UN Headquarters in New York, UN Commission on Sustainable Development, Argentina, Reporting from Washington DC, Canada, Brazil, European Union, Archives, New York

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