By Dr. Sawraj Singh
Before the start of the Summer Olympics, Brazil saw an opening match played between the team of People’s Democracy and the team of Capitalism, Racism and Sexism. More than 50 million voters, who voted in the government of the President Dilma Rousseff, saw their team lose to the team of Capitalism, Racism and Sexism backed by the Imperialists. She was impeached and replaced by an all-white and all-male team, with no room for the minorities and the women who together form a very big majority in Brazil. This is a coup which can be compared to the coup by General Augusto Pinochet in Chile; the only difference is that this one is sans blood (Bloodless).
The fact that this was a bloodless coup does not give it any legitimacy. Therefore, many Latin American countries which have refused to recognize this government are right that this is an illegitimate government. Just because no blood was spilled does not mean that there was not any murder of democracy. The fact remains that democracy was murdered in Brazil. This pre-Olympic match was no fun to watch because this was not a fair game and the outcome of the match was already fixed by the Imperialists. The fair-minded and justice-loving people all over the world are condemning this coup and the murder of democracy in Brazil. The vast majority of people in Brazil feel that their democratic rights have been violated.
Unfortunately, the spirit of the Olympics has already been heavily politicized. Blatant double standards are applied to the Olympic officials who want to be neutral because they are perceived to be sympathetic to Russia. Similarly, the Russian athletes such as Sharapova seem to be subjected to gross double standards. There seems to be a deliberate effort to prevent Russia from regaining its past glory in the Olympics. The Soviet Union dominated the Olympics for about four decades, starting in the fifties and ending in the nineties (after the collapse of the Soviet Union). The focus of the dominant forces in the Olympics now seems to be to prevent a change in the current status and prevent the Russian revival in order to maintain the American supremacy in the games. These efforts seem to be running parallel to the efforts in trying to prevent Russia from regaining its military and political status in the world.
These forces are trying to hold back history. Russia is regaining its old status in the world and one day it is bound to regain its past glory in the sports. The coup in Brazil seems to have two purposes in mind: to reverse the leftward shift in Latin America and to stop the further erosion of American influence in the region, as well as preventing the growth of the Russian and the Chinese influence in the region. However, the current global and regional trends are running counter to the goals of the coup. Therefore, this coup is unlikely to succeed and more than likely it is going to prove counter-productive. The crisis of western capitalism is not transitory or cyclic anymore; in all probability, it is going to prove to be terminal. The western capitalism is unlikely to survive beyond the middle of the century (2050) without bringing fundamental changes. In other words, capitalism needs radical reforms to survive beyond the middle of the century.
Brazil is an important member of the Latin American community and is also a leading country of the Third World. Its future lies in the BRICS rather than with the western capitalist countries. The shift from the western economic sphere to the BRICS was not sudden but was very gradual. Generally, the change which is slow, insidious and gradual is more likely to be genuine. The reverse is also true. Sudden change is unlikely to last very long. The present coup is a sudden and unexpected change which is unlikely to last very long, and Brazil will soon come back to the track. Another aspect of the change is that its course is generally not smooth and not linear (in a straight line); there are curves and hurdles which it has to overcome. In spite of these temporary road blocks, the genuine change and the long term trends regain their course sooner or later.
The tilt to the left in Latin America is not a temporary fad but is the product of the historical, cultural, social and economic conditions of the region. The region was never integrated into the world capitalist economy as an equal partner but was always considered a second-rated partner by the west. The countries in the region were never respected as full- fledged independent and sovereign countries. The term “Banana Republic,” used by the western countries to describe these countries, says a lot about the western perceptions about these countries. Russia and China have treated these countries with much more respect and equality. The word “Gringo” used by the people in these countries for westerners speaks more of western capitalist exploitation than it is used in the racial connotation. After all, the Russians are also white but their relations with the Cubans were different. Similarly, the people in the region draw a clear line between Americans and Canadians. The experiences of Canadians are very different than the Americans in the region.
The west should learn from its recent experiences of intervening in the internal affairs of the other countries. Most of these experiences have not been good for those countries, the regions and the rest of the world. Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya and Syria are some of those countries where the western experiences range from very bad to disastrous. The bitter truth is that the west now has neither the power nor the will to impose its hegemony or domination over the rest of the world. The sooner it learns the merits of tolerance and peaceful coexistence, the better it is for the west and the rest of the world.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
