Taking Back the City - My Rio

For our afternoon lecture, we were fortunate enough to have a founder and local political activist, Miguel Lago, join us to discuss his recently launched non-profit civic engagement project: Meu Rio (“My Rio”).  The 24-year-old Brazilian began his education in economics at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC-Rio, our host university here in Rio), but opted to finish his undergraduate studying political science in France, where he too earned his Masters Degree. 

As a result of our “daily debriefings,” or day-end group reflections, I’ve become accustomed to critically thinking about each and every speaker’s incentive, purpose, and overall goal … be that a university professor, NGO speaker, business professionals, etc.  Professor Miranda and Dr. Arbaláez have assisted me in trying to think outside the box by not simply accepting everything that Professionals/Scholars are putting on the table.  While Brazil has much to be applauded for, there are underlying factors and not all of these organizations are “in it” just out of the goodness of their heart.  Reading between the lines can be challenging, but I’m thrilled to be engaged in such critical thinking … I can feel my brain growing!! :) 

However, I found Miguel’s lecture on Brazil’s current political landscape to be innocently refreshing.  He’s a young university graduate, which made him more relatable.  Furthermore, he was just a happy youngster excited to share his vision: engaging Rio citizens into the political system independent of any political coalition affiliation/funding/influence.  Is that the reality? We’d never know. But the fact that he kicked off his presentation by explaining a very complex Brazilian political system in layman’s terms indicated to me that he found it important that we know the skeletal structure and from there on evaluate for ourselves.  He didn’t pitch us on anything.  

Much like the U.S., Brazil has a presidential system with a house of representatives (Chamber of Deputies) and state senators (Federal Senate).  Different, however, is the multitude of political parties, which is typical of Latin America in general.  According to Miguel, Brazil currently has around thirty recognized political parties.  With such a large political spectrum, it’s near impossible to ever win a majority vote and as such, coalition governments have emerged as the norm here.  For instance, although President Dilma Rousseff won the majority population’s vote in 2011, her party (PT – Partido dos trabalhadores) doesn’t have a majority in congress … where the diverse political party affiliation/representation is most prevalent.  As a result, getting initiatives passed through congress is immensely difficult … concessions have to be made; thus the formation of coalition governments, what Miguel then referred to as practically parliamentary.  In other words, given the amount of political parties no majority will ever win and as such, political parties join forces conceding ideals along the way … resulting in (depending on how you look at it) a very representative government or one that is fractious and simply unsuccessful given how many voices are in the equation.   

The primary challenge with the coalition practice is once it is established (case in point the Mexico’s PRI), it then becomes near impossible for opposition governments to penetrate the current system. 

After presenting the skeletal structure of the Brazilian political system and some of the challenges it faces, Miguel explained the mission/purpose of the non-profit civic engagement project Meu Rio, which according to the website is: … é um movimento criado para incluir o cidadão comum nos processos de decisão que estão transformando o Rio de Janeiro (… is a movement created in order to include the common citizen in the decision processes that are transforming Rio de Janeiro).   As mentioned previously, Miguel had said that the organization is not affiliated with any government coalitions or unions, and doesn’t receive any public funding at this time.  However, it is just in its start-up phase (having begun in Oct. 2011).  The organization received it’s initial funding from “think tank” type institutions.  Miguel did state that Meu Rio’s goal by 2016 is to reach at least 25% of Rio’s population and be totally member-funded. 

Despite its relatively short existence, Meu Rio’s future appears bright given the young generation at the helm and the organization’s call for a transparent government in everyday affairs.  While it receives a lot of tips on government corruption cases, Miguel assured us that the non-profit organization is not a sensational newspaper and creating trouble is not their goal.  They simply wish to engage (primarily through media) the Rio population so that cariocas can have a voice in the rapid changes taking place in their city today.

Courtesy of http://meurio.org.br/ -
"Mesmo após mais de 20 anos de democracia, continuamos vendo denúncias relativas à corrupção na administração pública (municipal, estadual e federal). Cabe à nós cidadãos ficarmos de olho para cobrar transparência e boa gestão dos recursos públicos." (After more than 20 years of democracy, we continue to see accusations related to corruption at the city, state, and federal levels of public administration. It is up to us as citizens to become the eye to force transparency and good management of public resources.)