The Weekly Lift - November 3, 2022

The Editor's Page

The economy rebounding in 2022 did not save him. The promise to distribute cash subsidies to the poorest did not save him. The threats, the intimidation, the allegations of corruption and rigged elections did not save him. After Donald Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed another political victim, Jair Bolsonaro, the incumbent Brazilian president.

Mr. Bolsonaro just lost the election on Sunday, to Luis Inacio da Silva (Lula), the two-time president from 2003 to 2010, who remerged from the ashes after a few years in jail, to bring back the country to what many hope, a sense of normalcy and even to save democratic institutions (see article below).

Had COVID-19 not claimed the lives of almost 700,000 Brazilians (second in the world after the United States), or affected about 35 million people, Mr. Bolsonaro could have possibly saved his job, despite broad allegations of incompetence, corruption, overt rejection of minority and LGBTQ rights, and most importantly, the plundering of the Amazon forest with deforestation reaching all time records in the last five years.

Under Mr. Bolsonaro's presidency, over 18 million Brazilians reverted to below-poverty standards of living, and 125 million are dealing with food and hunger issues out of a total population of 217 million.

The election results could not be closer, with Mr. Lula edging 51% of the votes in the second round, while Mr. Bolsonaro received 49%. These results represent the latest manifestation of an unprecedented level of polarization in Brazilian politics that may likely continue and impede Lula's ability to govern the country.

Wait, does that sound familiar? Are we still talking about Brazil or is the picture reminiscent of the United States which, almost two years after the election of Joe Biden, is still grappling with a very dysfunctional political climate?

In the short term, the parallel with the United States brings back, of course, the memory of January 6, 2021 and raised concerns about Mr. Bolsonaro challenging the outcome of the election. His supporters have engaged all week in demonstrations across Brazil, including organizing road blockades and asking the military to intervene. However, after 48 hours of silence, Mr. Bolsonaro spoke on Tuesday without conceding, but agreed to a transition. This might be the best scenario we can expect from him.

Lessons from the United States may have prevented a copycat crisis in Brazil. The world watched in horror a mob descend on the US Capitol almost two years ago. This was one of the lowest points for the United States, and Brazilians probably want to spare their country the same level of embarrassment on the global stage.

The Weekly Lift acknowledging Lula's win is not necessarily an endorsement of his policies or his profile as a political candidate. It is merely the celebration of civilized politics vs. populism, inclusion vs. "otherisation" and, an ode to the protection of the Amazon forest, a critical pillar of the world's fight against climate change. Brazil has a long way to go to recover, but the outcome of the election provides optimism, albeit cautious, for the path forward.

Articles

This week's selection of headlines and articles*:

Politics: Brazil Elects Lula, A Leftist Former Leader, In A Rebuke Of Bolsonaro

The New York Times (US) reports that "voters in Brazil on Sunday ousted President Jair Bolsonaro after just one term and elected the leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to replace him, election officials said, a rebuke to Mr. Bolsonaro’s far-right movement and his divisive four years in office.

The victory completes a stunning political revival for Mr. da Silva —?from the presidency to prison and back?— that had once seemed unthinkable. It also ends Mr. Bolsonaro’s turbulent time as the region’s most powerful leader. It was the first time an incumbent president failed to win re-election in the 34 years of Brazil’s modern democracy.

For years, he attracted global attention for policies that accelerated the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and exacerbated the pandemic, which left nearly 700,000 dead in Brazil, while also becoming a major international figure of the far right for his brash attacks on the left, the media and Brazil’s democratic institutions.

More recently,?his efforts to undermine Brazil;s election system drew particular concern at home and abroad, as well as worldwide attention to Sunday’s vote as an important test for one of the world’s largest democracies.

Without evidence, Mr. Bolsonaro criticized?the nation's electronic voting machines as rife with fraud and suggested he might not accept a loss, much like former President Donald J. Trump. Many of his supporters vowed to take to the streets at his command.

Yet in the hours after the race was called, far-right lawmakers, conservative pundits and many of Mr. Bolsonaro’s supporters had recognized Mr. da Silva’s victory. By 11 p.m. local time, Mr. Bolsonaro had not spoken publicly.

It was not all quiet. Truckers in the heart of Brazil’s central farming region started fires and tried to block a main highway important for the agriculture industry, according to videos posted on social media and local news reports.

Mr. da Silva won with the narrowest margin of victory for that same period, signaling the deep divide that he will confront as president. He won 50.90 percent of the vote, versus Mr. Bolsonaro’s 49.10 percent, with 99.97 percent of the votes counted Sunday night.

“I will govern for 215 million Brazilians, and not just for those who voted for me,” Mr. da Silva said in his victory speech Sunday night, reading from pages held by his new wife, whom he married this year. “There are not two Brazils. We are one country, one people, one great nation.”

Mr. da Silva, 77, a former metalworker and union leader with a fifth-grade education, led Brazil during its boom in the first decade of the century, leaving office with an 80 percent approval rating.

But years after he left office, the authorities revealed a vast government kickback scheme that had flourished during his administration. He was convicted on corruption charges and spent 580 days in prison.

Last year, the Supreme Court threw out those convictions, ruling that the judge in his cases was biased, though he was never cleared of any wrongdoing. Still, he was allowed to run for president and voters rallied behind the man known simply as “Lula.”

The scandal made him a flawed candidate, and a sizable portion of Brazil still views Mr. da Silva as corrupt. But the strong opposition to Mr. Bolsonaro and his far-right movement was enough to carry Mr. da Silva back to the presidency. “He’s not the solution to every problem. But he’s our only hope,” said Stefane Silva de Jesus, a 30-year-old librarian, after she cast her ballot for Mr. da Silva in Rio de Janeiro.

Mr. da Silva’s victory pushes Brazil back to the left, extending a string of leftist victories across Latin America that were fueled by a wave of anti-incumbent backlash. Six of the region’s seven largest countries have now elected leftist leaders since 2018.

A left-wing firebrand who for decades made his name as a champion of the poor, Mr. da Silva now confronts significant challenges. Brazil faces environmental threats, rising hunger, a sputtering economy and a deeply divided population.

His central pitch to voters was that he would lift up the working class, which he said had been forgotten in the four years under Mr. Bolsonaro. In his speech on Sunday, he promised to fight against discrimination and for equality.

“That’s the only way we’ll be able to build a country for all, an egalitarian Brazil whose priority is the people who need the most,” he said. “A Brazil with peace, democracy and opportunity.”

Mr. da Silva’s specific plans, however, have been vague. His stump speech revolved around expanding services for the poor, including more social welfare payments, a higher minimum wage and programs to feed and house more people. To pay for it, he said, he would raise taxes on the rich but also simply increase government spending.

How much he will be able to get done is unclear. Mr. Bolsonaro’s right-wing party holds the most seats in Congress and a powerful centrist bloc?controls both the House and Senate; the country faces worse economic conditions than during Mr. da Silva’s first administration; and the interventionist policies of Mr. da Silva’s handpicked successor as president?led Brazil into a recession in 2014 from which it has still not fully recovered.

His election, however, will most likely be good news for the health of the Amazon rainforest, which is vital to the fight against climate change. Mr. Bolsonaro championed industries that extract the forest’s resources while slashing funds and staffing for the agencies tasked with protecting it. As a result, deforestation soared during his administration.

Mr. da Silva has a much better track record on protecting the forest, reducing deforestation while president. He campaigned on a promise to eradicate illegal mining and logging and said he would push farmers to use areas of the forest that had already been cleared.

On Sunday, voting at polling stations went smoothly — but, for many voters, getting there did not. Across Brazil, federal highway agents stopped hundreds of buses carrying voters to the polls and questioned people, including in regions largely supportive of Mr. da Silva.

The elections chief said his agency’s initial investigation found that the stops had delayed the buses, but that they had all still reached their intended polling stations. No voters were blocked from casting their ballots, he said.

Mr. da Silva’s victory was in part thanks to a broad coalition, from communists to centrists, as the Brazilian electorate sought stability after Mr. Bolsonaro’s volatile term, which was marked by?clashes with the courts, a pandemic?that?killed more people?than anywhere but the United States, and frequent attacks on the left, the media, academics, health professionals and the nation’s democratic institutions.

Mr. Bolsonaro, 67, has faced a variety of investigations in the Supreme Court and Congress, including for his statements attacking the election system,?his handling of the pandemic and his potential involvement in disinformation operations. So far, he has avoided any consequences from those inquiries, in part because of his immunity as president. After he leaves office on Jan. 1, those investigations could gain steam.

Mr. Bolsonaro has also had much of his activity as president shielded from government-transparency laws because his administration effectively classified many records for up to 100 years, including his vaccine status. Mr. da Silva has vowed to declassify those records once president. “When we lift the carpet, you’re going to see the rot underneath,” he said at Friday’s debate.

Last year, Mr. Bolsonaro told his supporters there were only three outcomes to the election: He wins, he is killed or he is arrested. He then added, “Tell the bastards I’ll never be arrested.”

That sort of rhetoric raised alarms that Mr. Bolsonaro would not accept the results. He was one of the last world leaders to recognize President Biden’s victory in 2020, repeating Mr. Trump’s false claims that the election was stolen, including?just two days before his first meeting with Mr. Biden earlier this year.

On Sunday, federal auditors inspected 601 polling stations to verify that their vote counts were accurately reflected in the national tally. The audit found no errors. There is no credible evidence of fraud in Brazil’s electronic voting machines since they were introduced in 1996. Yet Mr. Bolsonaro has questioned the system for years.

Earlier this year, his criticism of the system took on new gravity?when Brazil's military joined in. Leaders of the armed forces pushed election officials for changes to the system, rattling a country that suffered under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985.

But eventually military and election officials?agreed to change some tests of the voting machines on Election Day, and military leaders have since suggested they are satisfied with the system’s security. In recent weeks, military leaders also said privately that they would not support any efforts by Mr. Bolsonaro to challenge the results.

In the week leading up to the election, Mr. Bolsonaro largely stopped talking about the voting machines and began claiming other kinds of fraud. His campaign said that many radio stations had played far more ads from Mr. da Silva, which would violate election laws. But the evidence the campaign produced was incomplete and flawed, and Brazil’s elections chief quickly dismissed the complaint.

On Friday, in an interview after the final debate, Mr. Bolsonaro was asked directly whether he would accept the vote’s results, regardless of outcome. “There’s no doubt,” he said. “Whoever gets more votes, takes it. That’s democracy.”

Environment: E.U. Plans For Only Electric New Vehicles By 2035 ‘Without Precedent’

The Washington Post (US) reports that "after months of negotiations, the European Union reached a political agreement this week to effectively ban new nonelectric cars from 2035 onward. The agreement, reached at 9 p.m. on Thursday in Brussels and announced by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, amounts to a 100 percent carbon dioxide emission reduction target for new cars and vans by 2035.

“This agreement will pave the way for the modern and competitive automotive industry in the EU. The world is changing, and we must remain at the forefront of innovation,” Jozef Sikela — the minister of industry and trade in the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating council presidency — said in a statement.

The legislation still needs to be approved formally to become law in the E.U., one of the largest automobile markets and home to some of the biggest manufacturers. However, approval by the Council and European Parliament is expected, with only minor changes.

Many climate change campaigners, who hoped other governments would follow in the E.U.’s footsteps in effectively banning new gas and diesel vehicles, welcomed the news.

“The days of the carbon-spewing, pollution-belching combustion engine are finally numbered,” Julia Poliscanova, senior director for vehicles and e-mobility at Brussels-based campaign group Transport & Environment. “It’s 125 years since Rudolf Diesel revolutionized engine efficiency, but lawmakers have decided the next chapter will be written by the cleaner, better electric vehicle.”

Even so, Poliscanova and some other experts worried that the measures, while a step toward sustainable transportation, were still too slow. Manufacturers that produce smaller fleets of less than 10,000 cars or 22,000 vans annually are to have lower targets, at least initially.

This means that niche manufacturers, including high-end brands such as Lamborghini and Ferrari, will be given more leeway on an interim target for 2030, though they will eventually be expected to reach the final target by 2035.

The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association cautiously welcomed the decision, which they said was “far-reaching” and “without precedent.” But Oliver Zipse, the group’s president, said he also needed to see how the E.U. would help the industry with the transition, including with sources of renewable energy, public charging infrastructure and access to raw materials.

“Make no mistake, the European automobile industry is up to the challenge of providing these zero-emission cars and vans,” said Zipse, who is also chief executive of German automotive giant BMW. “However, we are now keen to see the framework conditions which are essential to meet this target reflected in EU policies.”

Some conservative critics of the legislation suggested that a shift toward all-electric vehicles would increase the cost of new cars in Europe. The result, claimed Jens Gieseke, a German negotiator from the European People’s Party, is that streets will be filled with old cars like in the capital of Communist-led Cuba.

“With today’s agreement, a ‘Havana effect’ is becoming more realistic. After 2035, our streets might become full of vintage cars, because new cars are not available or not affordable,” Gieseke said in a statement.

The European People’s Party and others argued that while emissions need to be brought down, the legislation is too blunt an instrument and would simply result in Chinese and American manufacturers with more flexibility taking business from Europe.

But supporters of the measure said that companies would be given ample time to transition, with an interim target of 55 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 compared to 2021 levels for cars, and a 50 percent reduction for vans.

“With these targets, we create clarity for the car industry and stimulate innovation and investments for car manufacturers,” Jan Huitema, a Dutch politician and chief negotiator for the European Parliament, said in a statement."

Immigration: One In Five Canadians Is Now An Immigrant, And The Nation Approves

The New York Times (US) reports that "even as immigration has become increasingly divisive in many Western countries, particularly the United States, polls indicate that most Canadians support it.

Immigration to Canada has grown so much that this week Statistics Canada announced a new milestone in the country’s history, a wave of immigration so large that it has exceeded even the country’s two previous largest waves.

It’s bigger than the one that resulted from the aggressive promotion of European settlement on Indigenous land on the prairies during the early 20th century and bigger than the one that took place after World War II when a wave of immigrants reshaped urban Canada.

And according to polling data, most Canadians like it that way, though more tension over immigration could be on the horizon. At a time when immigration has become an increasingly divisive political issue in many Western countries, particularly the United States, indications are that most Canadians are welcoming newcomers even as their numbers rise.

“There is growing recognition that immigration is important in terms of the economy and that immigrants, the country kind of needs them,” Keith Neuman, a senior associate at the Environics Institute for Survey Research, a nonprofit polling firm, told me.

Census date released this week, revealed by Statistics Canada, said that immigrants made up 23 percent of Canada’s population this year, the highest proportion since Confederation in 1867.

If current patterns in immigration remain and Canada’s birthrate continues to be lower than what is necessary to maintain current population, the census agency estimates that immigrants may form 29 to 34 percent of the population 19 years from now.

To accompany the Statistics Canada announcement, the Environics Institute released a survey of?Canadians' attitude toward immigration. The survey, which dates back in various forms to the 1970s, found a record level of support: 69 percent of people it contacted disagreed when asked if Canada was taking in too many immigrants. Fifty-eight percent said they wanted more immigration to increase Canada’s population.

That positive view of immigration, the survey found, even extended to Quebec despite its adoption of a?law banning the wearing of religious symbols by public employees and officials at work, a move that many have seen as targeting Muslim immigrants.

Mr. Neuman and Amyn B. Sajoo, a lecturer at Simon Fraser University School for International Studies who writes extensively about immigration and citizenship, shared some thoughts about the source of the country’s good will toward immigration.

Perhaps at the top of their lists is that geographic isolation from places experiencing high levels of emigration means that the country can be selective about who comes here. There has never been a period when most?refugee claimants walked into the country, despite all of the attention once paid to asylum seekers coming into Quebec from New York State. On the whole, Canada chooses who can come.

Then 60 percent of the 431,645 immigrants who?became permanent residents of Canada last year fell into the “economic” category. They qualify for that status by being either highly educated, willing and financially able to start a business, possessing a needed job skill or committing to make a substantial investment in an existing business in Canada.

“We filter who can come in as refugees and immigrants,” Dr. Sajoo said. “Therefore, the public has more confidence in the system.”

On top of that, Dr. Sajoo noted the strong approval for Canada’s official multiculturalism policy. In the Environics Institute survey, an overwhelming 90 percent of the respondents said that it was an important part of the Canadian identity.

“More than ever, Canadians are accepting the idea that we’re better off in a pluralist, democratic space,” he said. “That we’re not just an Anglo-French demographic.” The growing awareness of Indigenous issues since the?Trust and Reconciliation Commission, Dr. Sajoo added, has also increased this sentiment.

While the Environics Institute survey found that Conservative voters make up the largest number of people who think there is too much immigration, Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party, has focused on wooing immigrants and regularly reminds voters that his wife, Anaida, emigrated to Canada from Venezuela with her family at the age of 8.

But before Canadians become too self-satisfied about their openness to immigration, Dr. Sajoo said that one finding in the survey suggests the country is not fully immune to some of the political sentiment growing in other nations.

Respondents were almost evenly divided when asked if there are too many immigrants “not adopting Canadian values.” Forty-nine percent rejected that statement, 46 percent agreed with it.

“There is a flattering, fairy tale narrative that we’re wonderful and all is good,” Dr. Sajoo said. “But there is not at all enough attention to that 50/50 split on Canadian values,” he added, saying it “suggests that populism and populist rhetoric, supremacist rhetoric is coming across the border and also developing locally.”?

Gender Rights: "They Put The Chip In Their Ear": In Togo, The Wives Of Leaders Advance The Cause Of Women

Le Monde (France) reports that "some, from dawn, drove several hours from their villages to the prefecture of Tsévié, a large village located 35 km north of Lomé. All have put on their most beautiful boubou for the occasion. Some more shimmering than others, the finer embroidery, the delicately painted terracotta pearl necklaces heavier.

These are the signs of relative material ease, but especially those distinctive of a form of influence, if not power. Signs related to their status as?" fiosron",?literally "woman of a chef", in the éwé language. This social quality explains why about twenty of them find themselves sitting there, side by side, in the council room of the prefecture of Tsevié stretched with a huge flag of?Togo.

They respond to the invitation of Adjoa Thérèse Akakpo, president of La Colombe, a member association of the International Women's Alliance.?"Clain leaders are the guarantors of our habits and customs and, theoretically, of the application of laws," she explains.?As in rural areas ordinary people do not know the laws well, the idea is to go through the fiosrons so that they use their influence on their husbands to improve the fate of women.?In other words: women of powerful men at the service of other women victims of the macho drifts of a patriarchal society.

Founded in 1990 by Adjoa Thérèse Akakpo, then a teacher, La Colombe's?mission was to?"bring immediate and effective solutions to the various challenges faced by rural women: food insecurity, poverty, major health problems, illiteracy, sexual violence and sexism, high rate of school dropout among young girls, lack of access to land, therefore to credit, means financial dependency from their husbands.

In the city of Vo Koutimé, more than 700 girls and young women victims of various forms of violence and sexual exploitation were trained by the association (sewing, hairdressing, cooking, dyeing...). All students also received additional training on the basics of entrepreneurship and literacy.?

"Our goal was to make them autonomous. It is then up to them to train other girls and open their small businesses or workshops, "explains Adjoa Thérèse Akakpo. In 2019, the center reoriented its training towards the promotion of entrepreneurship for women and young people in the agroecological and bioenergy sectors.

That day, in Tsévié, the president of La Colombe came with printed copies of a?"simplified extract of the code of persons and family".?"The fiosrons do not replace the chiefs or the judges," she says.?But they fill a void in the care of victims.However, there is no question of jumping over the customary level:?"Before we could go through their wives, we had to convince men. And it has not always been easy to raise their awareness of women's rights, especially in terms of land ownership and inheritance law. ”

The case of Atipola Gabina, 36, illustrates this kind of problem. Accompanied by "her"?fiosron,?Agbessi Akoele, she says that she was dispossessed of her inheritance - land planted with oil palm trees - by her in-laws at the death of her husband."At that time, I was cleaning in Lomé," she explains.?When I learned it, they took everything. I came to see La Colombe to find out what to do in court. ”

In Tsévié, sitting behind a long desk facing this assistance of about forty women -fiosron?and victims -, alongside the representative of the council of village chiefs and the canton chief, Adjoa Thérèse Akakpo listens to Atipola Gabina and other victims. The subject of the day is family law. And to hear the secretary general of the prefecture, we think there is work.?"On behalf of men, I am jealous of so much interest in women's rights. Soon you will dominate us, "says Yendoubé Bandékiné. In a falsely joking tone, he seems to say: "it's not tomorrow the day before".

"And support your president, who has placed you at the center of his action,"?do not forget to add the official. We are never too cautious in this country where Faure Gnassingbé has been head of state since 2005.

Considering what Togolese family policy was during the presidency of his dictator of Father Gnassingbé Eyadéma (in power from 1965 until his death in 2005), and compared to other West African countries, the presidential record is not zero. For example, Togo, which has received significant international support, has greatly improved its maternal and child health indicators.

The maternal mortality rate decreased by 10% between 2010 and 2017, the rate of childbirth assisted by qualified staff increased by 11% over the same period, and the mortality rate of children under 5 years of age was reduced by 25% between 2010 and 2020.

But the road is still long and can be painful. Sofia Mama, the main wife of Dozo Djabou, head of the village of Didopo, testifies to this:?"The big problem is the education of girls. Many get pregnant between the ages of 10 and 12, so they stop school. There is also the question of water: there is only one fountain in the village, so the girls go to get water elsewhere and are raped on the roads. And then there are early marriages, "she lists as so many open and so common wounds.?"I can't do a miracle, but thanks to La Colombe, I feel valued, I play a role,"?explains Sofia Mama.

Sitting next to her, A?cha Hamadou nods.?"I was a victim of my husband's abuse, who did not give money for the family and our child. He has another wife and other children. I went to see the "queen mother", she made her come and then arranged, "she says.?"I showed him the excerpt from the family code on his rights and duties, I told my husband, who told me to continue,"?says Sofia Mama.?"Chef's wives do not intervene directly, but they put the flea in the ears of their husbands,"?summarizes Adjoa Thérèse Akakpo."

Human Rights: Same-Sex Marriage Is Now Legal In All Of Mexico’s States

The Los Angeles Times (US) reports that "lawmakers in the border state of Tamaulipas voted Wednesday night to legalize same-sex marriages, becoming the last of Mexico’s 32 states to authorize such unions.

The measure to amend the state’s Civil Code passed with 23 votes in favor, 12 against and two abstentions, setting off cheers of “Yes, we can!” from supporters of the change.?

The session took place as groups both for and against the measure chanted and shouted from the balcony, and legislators eventually moved to another room to finish their debate and vote.

The president of the Supreme Court, Arturo Zaldívar, welcomed the vote. “The whole country shines with a huge rainbow. Live the dignity and rights of all people. Love is love,” he said on Twitter.

A day earlier, lawmakers in the southern state of Guerrero approved similar legislation allowing same-sex marriages.

In 2015, the Supreme Court declared state laws preventing same-sex marriage unconstitutional, but some states took several years to adopt laws conforming with the ruling."

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*Please note that certain headlines and articles may have been modified or summarized to fit the format of the newsletter.

If you have come across a positive headline or article in the last two weeks or if you are interested to contribute to future original content,?please contact me directly on LinkedIn.