2016: the year in which they tried to kill the hope of the Brazilian people.

The social, political, and economic situation in Brazil deserves serious reflection on the perverse attempt to kill the hope of the Brazilian people, promoted by a gang (that's the name) of politicians, mostly corrupt or accused of being so, who shamelessly put themselves at the service of the true architects of the coup perpetrated against President Dilma Rousseff: the old oligarchy of money and privilege that never accepted that someone from the lower classes could become President of Brazil and bring about the social inclusion of millions of sons and daughters of poverty.

        Obviously, there are valuable and ethical politicians, as well as progressive businesspeople of the new generation who think about Brazil and its people. But these have not yet managed to accumulate enough strength to give politics a different direction and a social purpose to the current neoliberal and patrimonialist state.

         When referring to corruption, everyone immediately thinks of Lava Jato and Petrobras. But they forget, or it is intentionally denied to them by the conservative media that legitimizes the establishment, the other corruption, much worse, revealed precisely on Christmas Day, which, along with the birth of Christ, recounts the massacre of innocent children by King Herod, a scenario now updated by the corrupt individuals who plunder the country.

         Wagner Rosário, secretary of the Ministry of Transparency, reveals that in the last thirteen years, corruption schemes, fraud, and embezzlement of federal funds, transferred to states, municipalities, and NGOs and directed to small municipalities with low Human Development Index, may exceed one million times the Petrobras scandal uncovered in Lava Jato. 4 bilhões but camouflaged, which can transform, in an econometric study, into a trillion in reais. The areas most affected are health (school meals) and education (school dropouts).

       The Secretary says: "We call this..." The murder of hopeWhen you take away a child's school lunch, you take away the possibility of that municipality's growth in the medium and long term. You're killing an entire generation.".

         The nation needs to know about this massacre and not be deceived by those who conceal, control, and distort information because they are anti-establishment.

         But we cannot live only in the misfortunes that marred much of 2016. Let us turn to that which allows us to live and dream: hope.

        To understand hope, we need to go beyond the common way we see reality. We think that reality is what is there, given and done. We forget that what is given is always done and is not all that is real. Reality is greater. Potential also belongs to reality, that which is not yet and which can come to be. This potential side is expressed through utopia, dreams, projections of a better world. It is the field where hope flourishes. To have hope is to believe that this potential can be transformed into reality, not automatically, but through human practice. Therefore, the utopia that nourishes hope is not antagonistic to reality. It reveals its potential side, the hidden side that wants to come out and make history.

         I adopt the motto of the great scientist and quantum physicist Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, whose society honored me in late November in Berlin with an award for attempting to unite the cry of the Earth with the cry of the poor: "I do not announce optimism, but hope."

         Hope is a scarce commodity today throughout the world, and especially in Brazil. Those who illegitimately changed the course of the country, imposing ultraliberalism, are murdering the hope of the Brazilian people. The measures taken primarily penalize the vast majorities who see historical social achievements being literally dismantled.

         Here we are aided by the German philosopher (Ernst Bloch) who introduced the "principle of hope." This hope is more than just another virtue. It is an engine within us that fuels all other virtues and propels us forward, giving rise to new dreams of a better society.

        This hope will provide the energy for the affected population to resist, take to the streets, protest, and demand changes that will benefit the country, starting with those who need it most.

         Since most people are Christian, the words of the wise Riobaldo from Guimarães Rosa are fitting: "With God existing, everything gives hope, the world resolves itself... Having God, it's less serious to be a little careless, because in the end, it works out. But if there is no God, then we have no license for anything."

         To have faith is to long for God. To have hope is to know that He is by our side, even if invisible, making us hope against all hope.

Leonardo Boff is a columnist for JB online and wrote Liberation and captivity theologyVoices 2014.