My family has many immigrants. I am the son of an immigrant. I am hurt by the hatred and absurd exaggerations on immigration. Trump uses foreign aid as if it was a weapon to coerce other countries in agreeing to his policies. He sees a competitive and hostile world.
Immigrants are minorities. I see a lot of Trump in Bolsonaro, to the indigenous people of the Amazon. Actually Bolsonaro is worse. Per the Guardian (see link below):
Bolsonaro’s environment policies are tied to racist attitudes toward minorities and Brazil’s indigenous peoples. In a speech last year, he said: “Minorities have to bend down to the majority … The minorities [should] either adapt or simply vanish.”
Expressing a view common to military circles, he has claimed, without evidence, that indigenous land rights are part of a western plot to create separatist Amazonian states supported by the UN.
“Sooner or later, we will have dozens of countries inside [Brazil]. We won’t have any interference in these countries, the first world will exploit the Indians, and nothing will be left for us,” he said last year.
Bolsonaro has promised to open indigenous lands to mining and other economic activities. About 13% of Brazil’s territory is recognised indigenous lands, most of them in the Amazon. They are a major barrier to protect the forest, only 2% of rainforest deforestation has occurred inside indigenous territory.
My advice is that Brazilian should not take this radical move away from international cooperation. It will take a very long time to recover our international bonds once Trump is gone. Fernando Haddad may not be perfect but he is a far better choice than Bolsonaro.
Stay tuned,
Dave
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