Brazil's time is now.
Despite the increasingly gloomy presidential rhetoric (pessimism, nervousness, psychological warfare, etc.), 2014 has all the ingredients to be memorable.
The beginning of the year is traditionally a time of optimism and hope. It's when plans are renewed and there's enough willpower for new impulses and movements. I believe that 2014 will be a great year for Brazil. And I think you, the reader, have good reason to believe that.
Despite the increasingly somber presidential rhetoric (pessimism, nervousness, psychological warfare, etc.), 2014 has all the ingredients to be memorable. It will be intense and dramatic, with major collective meetings and heated decisions. The sentiment may manifest itself in one way or the other. It's impossible to predict.
Regardless of what comes next, the capacity that national decisions have to mobilize (and move) us has nothing to do with those sinister images of rupture and irreconcilability. We are a young, sunny, and impetuous republic. No one will give up thinking and acting because of these authoritarian specters.
An old and retrograde government necessarily needs to embody this feeling of repulsion towards change. For those who celebrated the victory of hope over fear, it is bizarre, to say the least, to observe the reconstruction of this obscurantist discourse. The bigger the monster, the better justified it is to maintain the status quo.
But can the current government's grand achievements be hidden? In the economy, a whole lot of nonsense. The record will be the lowest GDP since Collor.
Surprisingly, privatizations saved the year – although they were so poorly executed that Galeão Airport was worth more than the pre-salt oil reserves. In public services, zero progress. Poverty ended (but only by decree).
History is fortuitous and random. 2014 could turn into something no one expected. Or rather, finally become what everyone desires.
The somber language emanating from the Presidential Palace foreshadows the state of mind of this government in the face of the (unavoidable) possibility that Brazilians face of change.
This vibrant democratic spirit in Brazil is as strong as a current. No marketing strategists or government manipulation of numbers can withstand it.
In the blink of an eye, the tide turns. What was clear and certain ends up being rejected and swept away. Despite the bubbling cauldron of the government, 2014 has all the makings of a great year.
* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.