On Oct. 31, the day of the run-off election for mayor of São Paulo, I happened to see the incumbent Marta Suplicy ten minutes before the polls and her fate were sealed. She had gone to vote, along with her new husband, a Franco-Argentinean with something of a reputation. I was walking the dog; Marta was waving from behind her tinted-glassed vehicle. She held a small bouquet and was nursing what looked like a cut above her right eye.
Her opponent José Serra had hit hard, as she would find out moments later, but not there. The papers never mentioned the cut, just the defeat. But I'm still wondering about that cut: plastic surgery, a morning mishap, or, as one cruel friend suggested, a marital spat?
There has been talk that Marta lost the crucial middle-aged woman's vote because she did the unthinkable: dump her husband, Brazil's most popular politician, the irreproachable Senator Eduardo Suplicy, a champion of the minimum wage and other worthy causes, in favour of a younger, foreign chancer. Was this some sort of comeuppance?
Her defeat was in some ways inexplicable. She changed the face of São Paulo public transport with two new tunnels in the posh part of town, a rapid bus route to the centre and a new single ticket valid on buses and the metro. True the appalling public health and education systems were far from transformed, but in the run up to the elections her approval ratings were on the rise. But she lost by nearly 10 points. Perhaps it was because she looked too self-satisfied and superior during the televised mayoral debates.
I usually keep these kinds of thoughts to myself, but what the hell. I've lived in São Paulo for two years now, and find myself drawn to the mess, muddle and misconduct that goes on around here. In general it makes up for the sheer ugliness of this sprawling city. In the papers, on TV or around the neighbourhood, there's always something to make you laugh, cry or be afraid: a cliché, of course, but it's only in recognition that we can get the jokes -- and you really need to find something to laugh about here! So, I've decided to make a few notes of the goings-on that pique my curiosity. Put it down to Marta's demise, and that unexplained cut.
I hope it won't be too boring with Serra as mayor. He has a reputation for dullness that probably cost him the 2002 presidential election. He went down to the dumpy union guy, Luis Ignácio Lula da Silva, himself a three-time presidential loser, which, I fear, says a lot about Serra. He couldn't pull it off, even though he was heir apparent to a president who got good marks for managing the economy, the country's chief obsession, along with soccer and silicone.
But Brazilians can be fickle. Just two years later Serra managed to defeat Marta, who has far more panache than Lula. She used to be a TV commentator on sex; she's has blond hair and at 58 looks a decade younger; her recent wedding made the front page of Caras, the gossip mag. (The dress, for the record, was a floaty, pale chiffon disaster with an uneven hem-line, something no elegant woman should contemplate but which passes for high fashion here. I won't even mention the hat.) One of her three sons, Supla, a thirty-something rock star with bleached hair, roars around town on a motorbike wearing black leather and, quite frankly, looks ridiculous. His music, by some accounts, is forgettable. But he, like his family, isn't.
Serra, by contrast, is buttoned-down and has the hang-dog looks of someone who always bags the consolation prize. In this case it's true. He's ended up with São Paulo instead of Brazil to govern, probably a harder and far less satisfying job. No exotic state visits, for example, like Lula's frenzy of diplomatic tourism across Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. So who can blame Serra for appearing disappointed? He takes over in January perhaps by then some of Marta's glitz will have rubbed off on him. One can only hope.
DCW
Are you interested in writing Brazil-related articles? Would you like them published on gringoes? Please send your stories to gringoes@gringoes.com
|
