March 28, 2006
Friends,
Since readers of this newsletter keep saying they enjoy getting
news about Brazil itself, I’ll mention that, in the current
(March 26, 2006) opinion of Brazil’s major newspaper, the
Folha de São Paulo, Lula’s government has
recently reached new lows in “shamelessness, systematic
use of lies, ethical degradation, institutional violence, and
insult to the norms of democratic society.” The latest examples
of such are Lula’s legal and parliamentary maneuvering to
prevent opening the bank records of Paulo Okamotto, a Lula associate
indicted in several corruption schemes, while at the same time
Lula has abused the power of the state by violating the banking
privacy of a humble houseboy who dared testify against Antonio
Palocci, Lula’s treasury secretary. The houseboy continues
to be harassed by several government agencies. In these and other
ways Lula has, according to the Folha, gone beyond his
usual arrogance, chicanery, and cynicism to venture into blackmail
and blatant abuse of power.
At the same time, strangely, the polls show Lula recovering from
his low popularity ratings. Part of the reason is that the opposition
parties and their potential candidates have been fighting among
themselves about who’s going to run against Lula and about
what political bargains have to be struck before the opposition
can present a united front. This infighting has not been pretty
to watch. Another reason for Lula’s recovery is that the
emerging slate of opposition candidates, though moderate and respectable,
has had to seek support from parties and politicians that are
not. A final reason is that Brazilians have a very short memory
for corruption and are afraid of change. But it’s too early
to tell. The election is not until October. All I can say for
sure is that Brazil desperately needs a decent government.
At ITEBA the new semester and the renovation have both begun.
The interior of the ground floor of the building has been re-cemented,
re-plastered, and repainted. The results look good, but this is
only the beginning of the necessary remodeling. It’s an
old, in fact historic, building with a lovely façade in
need of restoration, a job we’ll ask the city government
to do. Unfortunately, the exterior walls are also old and porous
and need to be re-plastered and sealed. Until that job is done,
the chances of water damage are great. Since work on the exterior
walls would require extensive scaffolding and shafts for disposing
of old plaster—not to mention insurance—this would
have to be done professionally and would cost money we don’t
have.
Academically speaking, the situation is very good. As in the
past, I am teaching three courses, but the classes are smaller
than usual. And that makes a huge difference. The quality of instruction,
mine at least, has gone way up. My students also like the change.
Meanwhile Keiko has been heavily involved in painting the building,
helping Aguinelza organize the new library, and teaching English
at Quilombo Zeferina, the community center in the poor suburb
of Pirajá. She continues to enjoy doing t’ai chi
in the park every morning and has made many good friends in that
group. In fact, they have become her main support group. I work
out in the park too but not doing t’ai chi.
We had a long summer break here from Christmas 2005 through March
13, 2006, the start of classes, but during that time there was
only one week in which Keiko and I were not either hosting a group
(or two) of foreign visitors or remodeling ITEBA. Under the circumstances,
it’s something of a miracle that I was able to do some reading
and recharge my mental and spiritual batteries: Hamlet,
The Tempest, and King Lear (all in Portuguese
translation); books by Joseph Campbell and Harold Bloom; my fourth
or fifth novel by José Saramago; a huge collection of Isaac
Bashevis Singer stories in Portuguese; more classics of Brazilian
lit, especially Machado de Assis and Moacyr Scliar, whose novel
A mulher que escreveu a Bíblia (“The Woman Who
Wrote the Bible”) is absolutely wonderful. Keiko is reading
in Portuguese now too, I’m happy to say.
Presbyterians, please keep giving to Basic Mission Support, which
the Worldwide Ministries Division counts on. We couldn’t
do our job here without them.
Yours faithfully,
Bob Butterfield
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
P.S. Our daughters Sarah and Rachel will be visiting us here
in April for a week. We’re really looking forward to seeing
them.
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
45 |
