25/10/2009

It's not Gaza, guerilla or terror

CARLOS EDUARDO LINS DA SILVA
ombudsman@uol.com.br

Coverage of dramatic incidents in Rio was generally insipid, lacking a firm grasp; it barely scratched the surface of neurological topics

Last week, dramatic incidents occurred in Rio de Janeiro, resulting from the chronic lack of public safety provoked by drug trafficking in some parts of the city, which is not exclusive and exists, in different degrees, in other metropolitan areas in the country.

It is a serious national problem, which has not had an effective response by public authorities or society. The commotion provoked by the shooting down of a police helicopter by drug traffickers and combat in which more than 30 deaths occurred was a great opportunity for the newspaper to provide elements for readers to understand the causes and the state of things.

Unfortunately, at least through Friday, the chance was wasted. Coverage of events in general was insipid, superficial and lacking a firm grasp; it barely scratched the surface of the neurological topics in question.

The only good moments on the news pages were an opinion piece on Monday criticizing the merely reactive attitude by police, an interview with on expert on Tuesday telling about mistakes by state police, saying that there was only one commander (for the confrontation) and a story on Thursday revealing that the Rio government has held back funding for public safety and made almost no new investments in the sector. Outside of this, one or another columnist proposed stimulating ideas or offered relevant information.

The stories did not come close to explanations about the intricate relationships between illegal practices, such as the numbers racket and drug trafficking, and informal ones, such as many economic activities, and from established, almost institutional, practices like cronyism and corruption and offering services, such as protection of individuals and assets and even education and health.

Nothing was said about the level of organization of criminal factions which are active in Rio nor about the contacts between them and with other cities and states. It did not make any comparison of the current governor's policy of fighting crime with those of predecessors. Nor did it examine the role of how the federal administration fits in this situation and whether or not it is being fulfilled in this context.

Topics such as the relationship of the regime to developing punishment for people sentenced and alternatives deserve attention. A columnist mentioned expenditures by the federal government in Haiti and the success the Brazilian military had in that country in their role as peacekeepers, but it also was not very deep.

In compensation, there were many inappropriate comparisons, for example, with the environment in the Gaza Strip (in a headline in a story Wednesday), terrorist actions or guerrilla activity. What occurs in Rio and in other Brazilian cities regarding trafficking has nothing to do with this or with holding the Olympics, another constant and mistaken impression.

CESGRANRIO CLARIFIES DOUBTS

Regarding doubts pointed out last Sunday in this column as not being clarified by the newspaper as well as reasons that Cesgranrio agreed to do a new college entrance exam after not having participated in the previous competition because it was defrauded, I received these explanations from the foundation, for which I am grateful.

"The Cesgranrio Foundation preferred to not go ahead at the time because another capable competitor had probable administrative resources for the next steps in the tendering process, which became unviable to meet the deadline for 2009 entrance exam, a project which is considered very important to education in Brazil.

"At the time of the competition, it compared individually and now exclusive procedures for the application and correction of tests to be shared with the Cespe-UnB.

"The test also chose a printer for the tests and the Postal Service to transport it to locations under its responsibility."

The note by the Cesgranrio Foundation above summarized clearly in a satisfactory way, in my opinion, at least this aspect of the lack of coverage about the fraud in the test.

TO READ

"Crime and Violence in Contemporary Brazil," by Michel Missi, Lumen Juris Publishing, 2006 (unavailable for sale, available at libraries)

"Security, Trafficking and the Military in Rio de Janeiro," various authors (available at http://www.global.org.br/)

TO SEE

"News from a Personal War," by João Moreira Salles and Kátia Lund, 1999 (starting at 54.90 reals, or U.S. $31.90)

"Urban Connections," with José Junior (AfroReggae), today at 8:30 a.m., Fridays at 11 p.m. and alternating times on Multishow Pay TV

WHO IS LETTERS TO THE EDITOR? *

Letters
from readers 62
from people in the news 8

Centimeters
from readers 409
from people in the news 111

*from Oct. 17 to 23, 2009

WHAT FOLHA DID RIGHT...

ELECTRIC ENERGY
Sunday's headline provides a public service by showing what Brazilians pay due to an error in calculating rates since 2002

ILLEGAL DONATIONS
Legal authorities remove city council members after revelations by the newspaper in April.

... AND WHERE IT DID BADLY

NEW MINISTER
The swearing-in of Samuel Guimarães as minister for Strategic Affairs on Tuesday appeared in the newspaper only Friday in a note in the op-ed section and a column from Brasília

LINA'S APPOINTMENT BOOK
Stories about the appointment book of the former head of the tax office do not reveal who she told about what she believes

WORTH REMEMBERING
Cases that need to be looked at again

How does the new law on the media in Argentina compare with those in other countries, including Brazil? Without this information, readers don't have any way to evaluate whether or not it is authoritarian

TOPICS MOST COMMENTED DURING THE WEEK

1. Violence in Rio
2. Lina and Dilma
3. Ombudsman column

Translation by John Wright