Commentary by Alexandre Marinis
April 2 (Bloomberg) -- As one of eight children born to poor parents in a small town and whose formal education ended in the fourth grade, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has come an astonishingly long way.
Relying on a mix of charisma and keen political instincts honed during his years as a labor organizer, Lula enjoys widespread support at home. His approval rating is 76 percent, according to the latest national poll.
Now in his second term, he aspires to be an influential leader on the world stage.
It will never happen. That’s because he can’t stop saying things that are highly inappropriate, often embarrassing or just plain stupid.
Lula’s gaffes are so frequent Brazilians have a name for them: pearls. Here are some especially memorable examples: -- “My mother was a woman who was born illiterate.” -- “Reading is like having a treadmill at home. At first we feel lazy to start the walk, but once we get the hang of it, we don’t want to stop.” -- “The head has this shape for the ideas to circulate.” -- “Those who arrive at Windhoek don’t feel like they’re in Africa,” referring to the capital of Namibia. “Few cities are so clean and beautiful.”
Until recently, these pearls escaped the attention of the international media, though that’s likely to change after last week’s episode.
At a March 26 press conference in Brasilia with Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Lula said the global financial crisis was “caused and encouraged by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes, who before the crisis appeared to know everything but are now showing that they know nothing.”
Racism and Recession
Lula’s racist remark, widely reported by the international press, came only days before today’s start of the G-20 summit of the world’s leaders in London. Brown was visiting Brazil in preparation for this meeting when he was caught off guard by Lula’s unhinged comments.
The timing of Lula’s words couldn’t have been worse. Violence tends to increase when a nation’s economy is in recession, numerous studies show. Lula should know, for example, that the depression in the 1930s fueled a massive rise of racism and anti-Semitism in Germany, with horrific results.
Since becoming president in 2003, Lula’s hatred toward the developed world, the rich and the educated has been steadily contaminating Brazilian society. A rising number of Brazilians believe they don’t need to study or work hard to be successful.
Passing Up Opportunities
In November, 84 percent of public school students in the state of São Paulo didn’t even bother to take a test that could facilitate their admission to the country’s most prestigious tuition-free university. Last year, only 5 percent of the beneficiaries of Bolsa Familia, Brazil’s largest cash transfer program for the poor, responded to the government’s invitation to enroll in free courses to learn new job skills.
Last week, the owner of Daslu, a chain of luxury stores in Brazil, was sentenced to 94 years in prison for evading taxes. Respected criminal lawyers, quoted in Brazil’s Isto E magazine, said that the defendant’s punishment matched that given to Brazil’s most dangerous drug lord. They called the penalty excessive and the result of a prevailing attitude that the elite must be punished more severely than others.
Lula’s racist comments don’t necessarily mean he dislikes people based on their skin or eye color. I believe much of Lula’s odd behavior stems from a severe case of cognitive dissonance. Psychologists define this condition as the uncomfortable, occasionally unbearable, feeling caused by holding onto two contradictory ideas simultaneously. One classic example: a smoker who believes he will live a long and healthy life.
Irrational Behavior
Everyone experiences cognitive dissonance now and then. Most of us deal with it by simply changing our attitudes or beliefs. Tobacco smokers, for example, can solve their dissonance by quitting.
For politicians (and lawyers), cognitive dissonance can become particularly severe and hard to fix. They must display power and resolve at all times. That’s why they rarely admit to having doubts and seldom change their minds. Doing so would signal insecurity or incompetence, scare away voters and expose a flaw rivals might exploit.
Whenever a person with cognitive dissonance becomes aware of self contradiction, negative emotions arise such as anger, anxiety, guilt, shame and, in Lula’s case, idiotic remarks.
Blame Game
Lula now blames white blue-eyed bankers in the developed world for the global financial crisis, but he kept quiet while these same bankers boosted the price of commodities that Brazil exports, helping the country pay its foreign debt, accumulate cash reserves and finance the social programs that lifted millions of Brazilians out of misery.
Unless Lula recognizes that everybody, rich or poor, black or white, educated or not, developed or not, has their own share of responsibility for the current global crisis, he will never acquire enough respect to influence global policy making.
I am white and blue-eyed. According to Lula, I’m responsible for the crisis, but that’s not the real reason Lula blames me. His cognitive dissonance prevents him from telling the truth.
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