“When we look, especially at the Brazilian impoverished neighborhoods, we see that it is by combining struggle and sequins [used to adorn clothes common in people’s cultural manifestations] that these populations and groups survive. One way of doing [progressive] politics is to pay attention to these groups – congadas, maracatus, samba jamming sessions – which are phenomena created by Black and impoverished populations and which have been there since slavery, surviving. This survival doesn't happen without culture.”
That’s the idea of journalist and professor Fabiana Moraes, who recently launched the book Ter medo de quê? Texts about struggle and sequins (“Afraid of What? Texts About Struggles and Sequins” in a rough translation). The book brings together texts she published in Brazilian magazines and websites such as The Intercept Brasil, Gama and Piauí magazine. In an interview with the Bem Viver show, Fabiana explained that the idea behind the title of her new book refers to the importance of festivals and people’s cultural manifestations for surviving, especially when talking about the most vulnerable.
Assessing Brazil’s current political situation, Fabiana says the country is living under “market terrorism”. “We can't help but notice how market terrorism has been going on repeatedly and in a dishonest way, when the country has shown rates of inflation control, falling poverty and an increase in employment rates. There's hijacking by market agents, who are very unhappy about the income tax issue. What is happening now, with the historic rises in the dollar, is almost a way of artificially producing an overvaluation of food prices, and this is a rebound effect of how the population will see this government,” she considered.
Fabiana Moraes, the author of six books, has won three of Brazil's most prestigious journalism awards, the Prêmios Esso de Jornalismo, which are given to journalists who produce outstanding articles and reports in the social aspect area / Press Release
The journalist believes that the current government should more actively confront this narrative. “This perception that things aren't going well has been called collective cognitive dissonance. Some authors have researched it. That's why I think communication is one of the fronts the government needs to look at. Faced with this cognitive dissonance and the action of these market agents, I think it has to act very carefully, and communication is one of the possible tools,” she argued.
