Beyond the Brazilian Vote: Three Decades of Activism and Counting

Heitor Loureiro 

 

On May 29, 2015 many Armenian news outlets reported with enthusiasm that Brazil had joined the list of nations that recognize the Armenian Genocide. Although the basis for the announcement in the Armenian press was information provided by Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs —which in turn was based on information disseminated by Armenia’s Embassy in Brazil—no Brazilian press agency had confirmed the recognition; neither had Brazil’s Embassy in Yerevan. A few hours later, the Brazilian Senator from São Paulo, Aloysio Nunes Ferreira, from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) posted on his Facebook page that the “vote of solidarity” (request no. 550/2015), which was co-sponsored by himself and José Serra (also from São Paulo’s PSDB), had been adopted by the Federal Senate. Yet, the request was only submitted to and approved by the Committee of Foreign Relations and National Defense of the Senate, chaired by Aloysio Nunes himself.

The Revolt of the Rising Class

Bill Keller

In the upscale Istanbul suburb of Bebek, at 9 p.m. sharp, the diners began drumming on the tables or tapping their wineglasses with forks. The traffic passing along the Bosporus chimed in with honking horns and flashing headlights. It was a genteel symphony of solidarity with the protesters who a few days earlier were confronting fire hoses and tear gas in the heart of the city and elsewhere around Turkey.

Those street battles that caught our attention this summer have mostly been policed into submission, and the world’s cameras have moved on, but the afterlife is interesting.