Brazil Political and Business Comment - October 23

October 23 – the Day the Music Died

27 October 2005

by John Fitzpatrick

By voting not to ban the sales of guns and ammunition in the referendum held on October 23, Brazilians have condemned thousands of their fellow citizens to death in coming years. Angry husbands will shoot their wives during domestic rows, irate middle-aged men will shoot their teenage neighbors because they are fed up telling them to reduce the volume of their CD players, motorists will shoot other motorists for denting their cars, while physically or mentally ill people will shoot themselves in moments of despair. The killers and thieves among us will see the vote as a declaration of war and become even more trigger happy. The flow of guns into private hands will continue, enriching arms manufacturers, gun dealers and feeding Brazil’s parasitical private security industry. The pro-arms lobby was so effective in selling the message that guns are good that one can expect to see a surge in sales. Perhaps guns will become popular Christmas presents this year along with cellular phones and ipods. Members of the family can then compete to see who will be the first to fire the weapon and kill a criminal.

The sheer size of the majority against the ban – 63% to 36% - was almost unbelievable considering that polls showed an overwhelming majority in favor at the start of the campaign. Not one of the 26 states and Federal District returned a majority in favor and even then only seven states had more than 40% voting “Yes”. The “Yes” vote was highest in violent states like São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Alagoas and Bahia. On the other hand, voters in the equally violent “Wild West” states of Acre and Roraima voted against the ban by 83% and 85% respectively. Rio Grande do Sul had the dubious distinction of the highest “No” vote in the whole country (almost 87%) showing that the gauchos still revel in their historical martial image.

The “Yes” camp has been asking itself what went wrong. There has been no shortage of gleeful commentators in the media, which was overwhelmingly biased and against the ban, telling them. According to these pundits, the vote showed that the people were not prepared to have a legitimate freedom taken from them by a bunch of left-wing do-gooders pandering to drug traffickers, kidnappers, bank robbers, MST agitators and squatters. Both sides tried to simplify the issue but the "No" camp and its supporters in the media oversimplified it to such an extent that it virtually brainwashed a section of the population.

President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva was blamed, of course, since a part of the media is still furious that Lula has survived the ongoing political crisis unscathed. According to this view, voters were protesting against the government’s failure to protect them and to show their disdain for the inefficiency of the police. Others said the referendum had been unnecessary since it was up to the legislators in Congress to make the laws and not the people as a whole. There may be some merit in some of these points but, at the end of the day, people did not vote for peace and love but for guns and death.

This was a depressing result for someone like me who has always been impressed by how Brazilians manage to get along with each other in this disorganized, semi-lawless society. Violent crime has always been the dark shadow which hangs over Brazil and everyone knows that. However, this vote has blighted the spontaneity and innocence which is one of the greatest attractions of this country. October 23 was the day the music died - a sad day for all of us and for future generations.

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