How are things going in Brazil? – صحيفة الصوت

I’m asked this question a lot at the moment, always with concern in the voice. Hardly surprising really when you look at the headlines (recent examples: “We are facing extermination”, “Brazil tops 50,000 deaths”). So the short answer is “Not great”.

Covid infections are growing at an alarming rate, graveyards are overflowing in the larger cities, and a lot of people have lost their jobs. Add to that all the other knock-on effects such as increases in domestic violence, depression, anxiety and loneliness brought on by social isolation, and you have a grim picture.

But in a surreal way, life goes on. I don’t want to diminish the massive impact the virus has brought to many, especially to those less privileged than me (I’m not in an ‘at risk’ group and I have the luxury of being able to stay at home for the time being). But sometimes it seems that people are expecting horror stories about how half my friends have died or how there are bodies in the street.

My personal experience has been more mundane: boredom, coupled with sadness (and at times, mild despair) that my food tour business, which I built up over 7 years, is out of action for the foreseeable future. Oh, and you can throw in some financial worries as I haven’t earned anything since March.

The mood I detect on the streets is that people are just done with lock-down. Shops and informal corner bars which were deserted a couple of months ago are starting to fill out again. I’ve been shocked at how the street markets are actively bustling now:

Why aren’t people socially isolating?

Although plenty of people are socially isolating (and have been for a long time), I’ve been startled by the volume of people who don’t seem to be going for it. Although it’s easy to judge (and how people love to judge – frankly I’m tired of the morally superior, social media outrage, which generally boils down to someone saying “Look at these stupid, selfish people!”), there are a bunch of reasons people aren’t observing strict lock-down, several of which go beyond a simplistic “people are idiots” explanation:

• Some people don’t have the option of staying at home: Essential workers obviously top the list in terms of media coverage and plaudits. But there are a lot of informal workers here who don’t have the option to work from home or stay in and live off their savings (what savings?). As one favela resident explained, “Here we work in the morning to eat in the afternoon”. While a small state allowance has been granted (R$600/month I believe), this has not been received by all and simply isn’t enough for many to cover their monthly outgoings.
• Mental health: Social isolation affects people in different ways. Before jumping to condemnation and finger pointing (which is often nothing more than virtue signalling), consider people suffering depression, anxiety, abusive relationships and other conditions or situations that are exacerbated by staying inside for extended periods.
• Zero support for social isolation from the president: At the start, President Bolsonaro downplayed Covid-19 as a gripezinha (little flu). Later on, as the casualties mounted, his response shifted to shrugging off the deaths as mildly unfortunate but unavoidable: So what? What do you want me to do about it? It’s everyone’s destiny to die at some point. He was also a vocal supporter of hydroxychloroquine as a covid treatment (does any of this sound familiar?). When the country’s leader does not support social distancing, it’s clearly not going to get full traction.
• COVID-19 denial from the far right: Bolsonaro has encouraged large protests against congress and the supreme court (which coincidentally has been leading investigations into him and his super-shady politician sons). He has joined many of these protests, often without any face mask, and freely mixed with supporters. This has done nothing to dissuade the far-right from indulging in conspiracy theories, often suggesting Coronavirus is some kind of hoax.
• Lack of education and/or consideration for others: This obviously isn’t exclusive to Brazil – I’ve seen reports from all over the world of people flouting isolation rules/guidelines/laws. I guess we can all speculate on the reasons behind this. Perhaps people just haven’t grasped the concept, don’t believe (or don’t want to believe) in the concept, or simply don’t feel that the rules should apply to them.
• Lock-down fatigue: I don’t have any hard evidence for this, but on an anecdotal level I get the impression increasing numbers of people who were isolating back in March and April are getting impatient with the ongoing restrictions. In line with this, restrictions on bars and restaurants were lifted in early July. Tragically, this happened as the rates of infection were still rising rapidly. As one Brazilian epidemiologist recently commented, it’s like we’re challenging the virus to do it’s worst.

Where is this all going?

Honestly, I find it hard to be optimistic at this point. It seems that, on many levels, things will get worse before they get better. But then the way the media seems to be going nowadays, you can find articles and evidence to support pretty much any opinion you happen to hold.

Well, that was depressing wasn’t it? If you feel that I’m being overly negative, I’d love to hear from you. Cheer me up with your alternative optimistic opinion! In any case, the next post will be positively cheery I promise! I’ll leave you with another shot of my new favourite view in Rio.

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