{"id":11787,"date":"2019-09-19t07:19:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-19t07:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/opinion-bolsonaro-under-fire-a-lesson-in-misplaced-priorities\/"},"modified":"2023-02-28t18:36:58","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28t18:36:58","slug":"bolsonaro-amazon-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/bolsonaro-amazon-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"opinion | bolsonaro under fire: a lesson in misplaced priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>opinion | bolsonaro under fire: a lesson in misplaced priorities<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>perhaps one of the most reported stories in recent&nbsp;weeks leaves much to be desired. in the space of just 48 hours, 2,500 fires had been started in the amazon rainforest, not only placing at risk the trees that absorb 5% of annual emissions, but also the more than 10 million species of animals who claim the rainforest as their home. and, as usual, twitter is abuzz with haunting images of burning trees, most of which come from last decade, but hey, it\u2019s the thought that counts! #prayforamazonas.<\/p>\n<p>which begs the question, considering just how deadly these fires are, brazil&nbsp;<em>must&nbsp;<\/em>be scrambling to stamp them out, right? if this was what you thought, you\u2019d be surprised.<\/p>\n<p>because the only thing that catches faster than forest fires is a viral phenomenon known as the trump effect. it\u2019s crossed the atlantic, reaching so far as england,\/ and now, it could be spreading into south america. the latest victim is brazilian president jair bolsonaro, a long-time opponent of environmental advocacy in brazil, so much so that his people have dubbed him captain chainsaw, which isn\u2019t a becoming title for someone in charge of 60% percent of the world\u2019s largest carbon sink.<\/p>\n<p>with this in mind, it should come as no surprise that when the amazon fires started, he told reporters,&nbsp;\u201cthe ministry of justice can send 40 men to combat the fight<strong>,&nbsp;<\/strong>but do you understand that? forty men. there are not enough resources. we are in chaos.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>his failure to meet fire with fire (or in this case, water) was just one act in a docudrama of negligence.<\/p>\n<p>bolsonaro reportedly spent the evening of aug. 23 watching standup from a prominent christian right-wing comic. and to add to the irony,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/aug\/24\/bolsonaro-enjoys-comedy-club-outing-as-brazils-wildfire-crisis-rages-on\">he did this while his pre-recorded speech was broadcasting<\/a>, the one apologizing for his&nbsp;inaction.<\/p>\n<p>with a national emergency formally declared (48 hours of noxious destruction later), bolsonaro finally had grounds to call in the brazilian army to lend a hand (and pail) to the fire. but a bad taste still lingers in the mouths of many international spectators.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>as early as aug. 28, when these fires first made international news, bolsonaro was calling out environmental ngos in his country, professing that \u201cthere is a strong suspicion that people from the ngo\u2019s lost the teat.\u201d he suggested that environmental protection agencies were intentionally destroying swaths of the amazon to \u201cbring about problems for brazil\u201d&nbsp;after losing government funding. and if that sounds like a crackpot idea, it\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n<p>when reporters asked bolsonaro for the basis of his so-called suspicions, he shot back, \u201cfor god\u2019s sake, there\u2019s no proof of that, nobody writes, \u2018i will set fire to that.\u2019\u201d because of course, no one could possibly be careless enough to leave a paper trail of environmental neglect. except, that is, if you\u2019re bolsonaro.<\/p>\n<p>in the wake of this amazon disaster, open democracy uncovered incriminating powerpoint presentations used at a february meeting between bolsonaro\u2019s government officials and leaders in the para state of brazil, home to the amazonia national park. one slide read,&nbsp;\u201cdevelopment projects must be implemented on the amazon basin to integrate it into the rest of the national territory in order to fight off international pressure for the implementation of the so-called \u2018triple a\u2019 project.\u201d triple a here refers to a group of multilateral conservation projects in the amazon rainforest, the andes mountains and the atlantic ocean, all of which bolsonaro has doggedly opposed.<\/p>\n<p>what\u2019s more? the powerpoint continues, \u201cto do this, it is necessary to build the trombetas river hydroelectric plant, the \u00d3bidos bridge over the amazon river, and the implementation of the br-163 highway to the border.\u201d bolsonaro made it easy for us; there is no prevarication here, nor misdirection. the objective is loud and clear: stymie conservation efforts by damaging brazil\u2019s natural resources. and, if you\u2019ll kindly recall bolsonaro\u2019s unfounded accusations of ngos working in his country, it seems he was guilty of the very behavior he decried.<\/p>\n<p>in spite of all this inculpatory evidence, i think the mainstream media gives bolsonaro a lot of undeserved credit. how much of his decision to confront the amazonian conflagration is attributable to his altruistic and justified concern for brazil, and how much is just, uh\u2026<em>sem bolas<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p>shortly after his whole &#8220;40 firefighters&#8221;&nbsp;statement, france\u2019s golden boy, president emmanuel macron, publicly threatened bolsonaro with an obstruction of the eu-mercosur free trade agreement, a groundbreaking trade deal between the two blocs that eliminates tariffs on agricultural goods from the mercosur bloc. macron, and virtually any other un member state, would have known that this was an incontrovertible pressure point, not just for brazil but also for argentina, paraguay, and uruguay, the other members of mercosur.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the timing of this threat and bolsonaro\u2019s reinstated commitment to the amazon fires just seems too quick, too reactionary, too\u2026apprehensive. and, as usual, bolsonaro made his intentions clear when, in his aug. 23,&nbsp;evening speech he said,&nbsp;\u201cforest fires exist in the whole world and this cannot serve as a pretext for possible&nbsp;<em>international sanctions<\/em>.\u201d i don\u2019t know, what could he&nbsp;<em>possibly&nbsp;<\/em>be nervous about?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>thankfully for him, a few leaders have stepped in to offer a reassuring squeeze. ok, more like one. in a recent tweet, president trump said, \u201cour future trade prospects are very exciting and our relationship is strong, perhaps stronger than ever before.\u201d sounds like trump really empathizes with bolsonaro\u2019s plight. or maybe their priorities just align really well. after all, both are right-wing capitalists, climate change deniers, and have structured their entire campaigns around building stronger, more self-sufficient economies (fine print: through an unadulterated bashing of foreign competition).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>but the similarities don\u2019t end there. bolsonaro\u2019s rhetoric also displays uniquely trumpian tones, occasionally producing bewildering gems like \u201cbrazil is like a virgin that every pervert from the outside lusts for.\u201d in all seriousness, that comment does deserve a second look because it offers us an incisive, behind-the-scenes peek at the primary motive behind his vehement anti-environmentalism: political control.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>bolsonaro has given the logging, mining, and farming industries in brazil clearance to annex land owned by native communities on the sole basis that they manage what he considers unreasonably vast amounts of wealth. similarly, he cannot distinguish between foreign aid and sovereignty infringement. look, for example, at how his administration views norway\u2019s and germany\u2019s generous donations to the amazon fund.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cwe\u2019re not na\u00efve,\u201d said brazilian chief of staff onyx lorenzoni,&nbsp;\u201cthere\u2019s a view out in the world, sponsored by nongovernmental organizations, that relativizes brazil\u2019s sovereignty over the amazon. here\u2019s a little message: \u2018don\u2019t play around with us.\u2019\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>the point is, bolsonaro is digging himself a precipitous hole, especially when he lets his own ego stand in the way of him and a $20 million&nbsp;<em>donation&nbsp;<\/em>from the g7.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>meu deus<\/em>. the good people of twitter may need to change their tune. #prayforbolsonaro.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>a longtime opponent of environmental advocacy, the personal politics of brazilian president&nbsp;jair bolsonaro have made him an international liability.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9844,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5196],"tags":[2861,4343,604,2066,675,4022,608,195,2455,591],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-past-storyfest","tag-amazon","tag-amazon-rainforest","tag-bolsonaro","tag-brazil","tag-government","tag-op-ed","tag-opinion","tag-politics","tag-rainforest","tag-storyfest"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- this site is optimized with the yoast seo plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>opinion | bolsonaro under fire: a lesson in misplaced priorities - planet forward<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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