Girão tried to do a spin and ended up with a platform.

The Brazilian Parliament often seems not like a gathering of people elected to legislate on behalf of the people, but rather a shop of horrors. It is not uncommon for us to be astonished by the absurd, mediocre, empty speeches, completely disconnected from reality, delivered by our representatives in the National Congress. Stunned, we continue as if that kind of abject behavior were in accordance with any acceptable form of normality.  

And so, the farce continues without us demanding respect from the people we pay handsomely to be examples of decency and republicanism in the exercise of their mandates. It is always good to make it clear that those people are not doing the nation any favors by taking seats in those Houses; on the contrary, they cost a fortune to the public coffers and are paid by people who don't always even have enough to eat. Therefore, any conduct that deviates from what is expected of a parliamentarian is, at the very least, degrading.

The bizarre behavior reflected in many of the people who make up the legislative bodies across Brazil is, more often than not, explained by the defense of self-interest rather than by support for the rights of the Brazilian population. While criminal homophobic, misogynistic, and racist speeches have become commonplace today, physical attacks, threats, and assassinations have always been part of the national political scene. Who doesn't remember, for example, the senator who shot and killed a colleague in the Senate in 1963?

Almost sixty years after the tragic December 4, 1963, what do we have? We have a congresswoman running down the street, pistol in hand, chasing a black man. We have a senator posting idiotic memes with threats against the President of the country. We have men and women using and abusing their powerful credentials to spread hatred and attack the Democratic Rule of Law. We have a black politician being impeached for... being black. And we have and we have and...

Last July 27th, it was the turn of the petty Senator Girão (Novo-CE) to make a fool of himself by attempting to hand Minister Silvio Almeida, of Human Rights, a replica of a fetus. The minister, refusing to participate in the politician's clumsy charade, called the parliamentarian's failed attempt a mockery. Period. By saying, "this type of performance is not in keeping with my view of politics," Almeida completely dismantled any possibility of being embarrassed or becoming part of a lamentable and grotesque spectacle. Popular wisdom says that one shouldn't poke a jaguar with a short stick. Girão ignored the saying. He tried to make a turn and made a mess of it. Without pity, the jaguar devoured him. May he rest in peace!