Last week we had the opportunity to hear the voice of fear.
"Fear" was one of the words used by city planners from more developed
countries to describe their feelings about contemporary urban transformations.
Their fears denote an awareness of the responsibility not only in managing and
investing the money provided by citizens and institutions, but also in opening
up opportunities and the best possible conditions for communities to realize
and define how they want to live. However, all this fear doesn´t stop them
acting and considering the human cost involved in each decision. Nonetheless,
such a fear doesn´t prevent them from regretting some decisions taken occasionally.
In the meantime, not to deny fear seems to be the first step towards overcoming
it.
In Brazil, the situation is quite different. A generalized attitude of
denial is typical. The chaotic situation is not only denied but spread far and
wide and masked by the manipulation of numbers and land-use. Rhetoric of the
type "we are getting there", apart from representing the
negation of fear, betrays an unbearable ignorance of how lost one is within a
broader scenario, and denotes foolish ideas about how to get “there”. In many
cases, what or where this "there" means is not even dealt with. From some of the words
used on Friday morning one could catch a glimpse of what would become clear in
the afternoon. Maybe Freud can explain it. Fetish, schizophrenia, paranoia are
some of the words in the vocabulary of whoever dares to discuss the urban
makeup in Brazil. None of the terms above relate only to the planning
infrastructure per se, but also, and even more, to the
effects it provokes. Psychotic realities - created through some top-bottom
approaches - don´t necessarily lead to a better quality of life for ordinary
citizens. These parallel realities include large corridors for mass or individual
transport, sets of identical dwellings piled up in undistinguished buildings
stamped over areas often in disregard of their assets (including
topography). Built by private companies with the approval of public
institutions - these city makeup products help to forge parallel realities
disguised by the numbers they produce. Some exclusively residential areas
reveal the manifold senses of "far". Brazil, and not only Rio,
can be even farthest from "getting there" if taken into consideration the effort necessary to
make the public engaged to produce demands (which may then imply action and
effects, eventually resulting in some desired outcomes).
But all this doesn´t take place without being aware of the positive and
negative load of the actual reality. Only a society which
is active in this edifying process can define itself as democratic. A
constitution ready to be used doesn´t replace the need to get involved in the
process of building what it asserts. The procedures applied in these processes
also need radical retrofits. And this cannot be done without considering
peoples´ self-image, attitude and resources available. A distance is not only
measured in miles or kilometers. It´s better expressed by the time and effort
demanded by its reckoning and covering. And the same for the other issues
likewise. The questions are beyond human rights, but rather about the right to
be human**. Therefore, the right to be unique, to go deeper and beyond
predefined social standards of behaviour or desire.
"For the supreme and rarest achievement is not to discover the unknown, to proclaim the incredible, but to explore day-to-day existence, the possibilities open to all, to the full richness of its potential fulfillment in the human spirit." (Lou Andreas-Salomé. The erotic [Die Erotik, 1911], 2012)
Public transport, social housing and traffic figures in Brazil are some of the many metaphors Urban Age Rio (#UARio) helped to outline as a contribution not only for the country´s thinking and "funking" (the Brazilian way of doing things), but also for raising issues on the sinking of its intellect and the faking embedded in its political relations and governance procedures.
Obs:
Picture taken on 22nd October 2013 at favela Vila Nova Ouro Preto, Belo
Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
*Newspaper of UA Rio available at http://rio2013.lsecities.net/newspaper
** To say this, I owe inspiration to Alain Badiou, Slavoj Zizek, David Harvey, José Miguel Wisnik, Freud, Paulo Freire, Nietzsche, Leon Battista Alberti, Agnes Heller, Hannah Arendt, Jacques Derrida, Felix Guattari, Pierre Caye and many other authors spread over history.
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