Patrons’ taint: Brazil’s pork-barrel politics

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Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host Jason Palmer. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. Since the final flight of The Concorde in 2003, commercial supersonic flight has been out of reach, but its appeal never went away. Now a few firms are promising to break the sound barrier again more quietly, more cheaply and perhaps more sustainably. And our US Policy correspondent looks back on a lifetime of tussles with her hair, recounting how much black women will do pay and risk to tame their natural curls. And that is largely because of prejudices against black hair that go very far back. But first, Across Brazil this month, citizens bank pots and pans in protest against a televised speech by President Jair Bolsonaro. In it, he apologized for the lives lost to COVID 19, but praised the country's vaccination program. Mr. Bolsonaro's populist, straight talking, nationalistic approach propelled him to the presidency in 2018, but his popularity has since plummeted. His flippant attitude to even denialism about the pandemic has contributed to the loss of nearly half a million lives. The public turn against the president has weakened him politically, and his bids to regain support roll back on a fundamental campaign promise.

When Bolsonaro ran for President in 2018, he promised voters that he would have none of what he called veglia policica, or old politics, basically using government jobs and state resources to gain support from congressmen and form a political base.

Sarah Maslin is our Sao Paulo bureau chief.

However, last year he did just that, forming an alliance with a bloc of parties known as the Cintron or the Big Center. These are very opportunistic parties that have pretty little in the way of ideology, and their support does not come for free.

What do you mean by that?

That was made very clear by a recent investigation in the Brazilian newspaper Estado de so Paulo, which exposed a scandal that can roughly be translated as tractor gate. It involved funneling billions of reais of public money to congressmen to fund public works like roads and buying farm equipment in their home states, often at inflated prices, and sometimes through companies owned by politicians, relatives. So this scandal is the clearest proof yet that Bolsonaro is engaging in pork barrel politics. In other words, basically distributing public money to his political allies in exchange for support.

So why is he doing that? Why is he reverting to the very pork barrel politics he said he wanted to do away with?

Well, the short answer is that Bolsonaro has become much weaker in the last few months, and he needs Congress's support. And so while last year Bolsonaro managed to surf a wave of public support thanks to generous payments that he gave to around a third of Brazilians because of the pandemic, those payments were slashed at the beginning of this year, and he started to see his popularity really come down with another even more cruel wave of COVID 19 and economic closures that pushed people into poverty.

So it's really just a matter of the effects of the pandemic really coming to bite, and he's getting the blame for his handling of it, sir.

Bolsonaro's loss of public support mostly has to do with the pandemic, but he's also become more vulnerable politically because of a series of investigations into him and his sons. For decades, the Brazilian political system has been mired in corruption, and a huge probe called Lava Jato, or car washed, revealed a vast kickback scheme among construction firms and political parties and the state oil giant Petrobras. All of this fueled Bolsonaro's campaign in 2018. But once he got into office, the police started investigating several of his sons for corruption and money laundering and other crimes. And then he fired the director of the police and is now facing investigation himself by the Supreme Court for possible obstruction of justice. So because of all of these accusations against the president and his sons, all of which they have denied, Bolsonaro is more vulnerable both within Congress and in the public image.

More broadly, though, that enormous investigation has it led to real progress against corruption in Brazil that you speak of being sort of endemic?

In the wake of La Pejatar, there was a scramble to assure the population that Brazil was trying to prevent corruption. But it's become clear in the past years that the anti corruption investigation made mistakes, and more worryingly, that Judge Sergio Moro and some of the prosecutors were accused of having partisan political goals against Bolsonaro's opponents. And so ultimately, the kind of undermining of Lava Jato and the anti corruption fight benefits not only Bolsonaro and his sons, but also other politicians and the backsliding even benefits criminals. For my reporting on a special report on Brazil, I went to favelas in Rio de Janeiro that are controlled by mafia like paramilitary groups called militias. People in these neighborhoods feel like the political system has failed so miserably to deal with corruption and all of the other problems. And as much as they're terrified to be under the thumb of these criminal groups, they kind of figure that it's better than having no order at all.

But in terms of the leadership, there is all of this disappointment surrounding Mr. Bolsonaro. There is this tractor gate scandal that you mentioned. Do you think any of that is a sort of immediate threat to his leadership?

During the second wave of the pandemic in Brazil, which cost more than 80,000 lives in April alone, the speaker of the lower house warned of bitter political remedies against Bolsonaro, which sounded a lot like a threat of impeachment. But underneath that rhetoric, which was probably more directed at the population than anything else, impeachment still seems pretty unlikely. So most of the allowances for lawmakers in the budget this year went to people who voted in line with the the congressional group that the president relies on and the political home of the head of the lower house, who has sole power to open impeachment proceedings.

But what about when it goes into the hands of the people at the election next year?

So, ultimately, it's looking like 2022 is when Brazil's fate will be decided. His popularity right now is plummeting. The official COVID death count stands at more than 450,000 people. And the second wave has coincided with rising inflation, slow vaccination, and a reduction in those government handouts. So all of this has really undermined Bolsonaro's rhetoric that poverty and hunger are worse diseases than Covid, because, in fact, right now, Brazil is suffering from both. But Bolsonaro could still recover before next year's election. Vaccination is starting to progress, and the economy is doing much better than feared. If both of those things continue to improve, he could pick up more support. And if there's one thing that we've learned about this president, it's that he is extraordinarily resilient.

Sarah, thanks very much for joining us.

Thanks very much, Jason.

Sarah also joins our colleagues on this week's episode of the Jab, our sister show that covers the global vaccination race. She finds hope in the success of a trial of China's Coronavac vaccine in the Brazilian town of Serrana. Find the Jab wherever well regulated. Podcasts are administered.

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When you fly the flag, you can.

Fly the future British Airways Concorde. The first supersonic passenger airliner to fly.

You at more than twice the speed of sound. The supersonic jet, the Concorde, while it was still plying the Atlantic, epitomized glamorous travel. All that complimentary champagne, the celebrity travelers, and unfeasibly quick transatlantic trips. But the jet wasn't without its problems. The engines were noisy, the cabins cramped, and it never really made any money. After the 911 attacks in America and a fatal crash, demand slumped. Concorde took its final flight in 2003, and many thought that meant the end of commercial supersonic flight.

Concorde's no longer flying, but a new company is promising to carry on its legacy.

Simon Wright is the Economist's industry editor.

Only this time, they're hoping to make the flights affordable and eco friendly.

Ok, so what are the plans for this successor to the Concorde?

A company called Boom Supersonic promises to pick up where Concorde left off, but without many of the drawbacks of Concorde. Boom promised better aerodynamics, a use of more modern materials like composites, and better engines. So it should be much quieter. And those are intended to keep the operating costs something like 75% lower than Concorde. Which means that the promise is that fares will be roughly on a par with a business class ticket today. So not available for everyone, but certainly not stratospherically expensive.

But when we've talked before about the aviation industry, there is this push towards sustainability, green credentials and the like. Surely a supersonic plane can't meet those.

Look, you're right, they use a lot of fuel. But what the promise here is this plane will use sustainable aviation fuel. It comes from renewable sources or sort of waste material. But at the moment it's very expensive and also very, very little is used. 0.05% of all fuels today is sustainable fuel. And it's not clear how much sustainable aviation fuel will be available in 2029 when this plane is due to enter service.

But one of the other complaints about the Concorde was that it was something of a noisy ride.

Well, yes, the military derived engines were very noisy, but also there's the issue of the sonic boom, which is the loud bang you get when a plane breaks the sound barrier. Concorde travelled at Mach 2, 1350 miles an hour. It could get across the Atlantic in sort of half the time of a conventional airliner. But no one really wanted these sonic booms over land. Not only were they very, very annoying, but also they could actually cause physical damage to property. One of the drawbacks of the new supersonic jet age is that sonic booms are indeed banned over most land masses in the world. Boom thinks that they will get around this by just flying over the sea.

And so is this company, Boom, the only one trying to revive supersonic flight?

Boom is the only one that's trying to bring back commercial supersonic flight. There's another company called Spike, which is trying to build a sort of large business jet. And there was a company called Aireon that folded recently that was also trying to build a business jet that would travel at supersonic speeds. Both those were actually trying to bring in low boom or much quieter aircraft that would get around this. But the problem there was, as Morbusania bank put it, that even the ultra rich wouldn't pay $120 million for one of Ariane's planes, roughly twice the price of what you would pay for a similar subsonic plane just to cut four hours from a transatlantic trip. So there is some doubt out there about the size of the market for these things. Ubs, a bank, on the other hand, says it could be anywhere between 80 billion and 280 billion. The cumulative size of the market by 2040. The upper end only if everything goes right, and the lower end if they don't overcome these regulatory hurdles. And the planes aren't delivered on time and on budget and operate as promised.

So all told, it's still a lot of ifs, a lot of uncertainty. I mean, do you think you and I will be on supersonic flights sometime in our lifetimes? At least.

The reason we're talking about this is because United Airlines ordered 15 of these boom planes with the option for another 35. Japan Airlines and Virgin Group have also ordered 30 planes between them, but they're not due to enter service till 2029. Overture, which is the plane that Boom are making, won't get off the ground until 2025. These orders, I doubt much money has changed hands. They're good publicity for the airlines. They're good publicity for Boom when it needs to raise more money. It's worth noting that the two giants of commercial aerospace, Boeing and Airbus, don't have any plans to make supersonic planes. They reckon that cheaper and cleaner flying is more important than brute speed. I think breaking the sound barrier for the ordinary punter is still some long way off.

Simon, thanks very much for joining us.

Thank you, Jason.

In 19th century America, some churches hung combs next to their doors not to smarten up before entering the Lord's house. Only those who could pass it through their hair were allowed to enter. The comb test, as it was known. Doesn't happen now, but prejudices against certain types of hair continue to this day. For black women in America, choosing a hairstyle has consequences for their wallets, for their careers, even for their health.

The fine tooth comb still has a lot of power.

Tamara Julks Bohr is the Economist's US Policy correspondent.

I remember when I was in elementary school, we had these lice checks and basically they would take this fine tooth comb and comb it through each child's hair to look for the lice, to look for those little critters. But of course, for my hair, this comb just would not go through. And it was pretty embarrassing to feel like you couldn't do a basic hygienic step. If you have curly, kinky hair, you can feel like you don't fit in and that you don't conform to the normal beauty standards. I remember growing up and watching MTV and Black Entertainment Television and your stars that you love, like Aaliyah and Janet Jackson, all have these long hair swinging behind our backs. And in order to get that, I really had two choices. One would be a weave, which was extremely expensive, or a relaxer. And a relaxer is a chemical process that straightens curly hair. But there are definitely health risks that come with that. So women who use chemical straighteners are a third more likely to experience breast cancer than other women, according to a study in the International Journal of Cancer. So while we're trying to achieve these standards, many of us end up exposing ourselves to chemicals without realizing it and from a young age. So when I was 11 years old, I went to get my first relaxer and no one told me about the health risks, but you could feel it. My scalp was on fire. I remember having these burns afterwards and having to comb out scabs and having to nurse my scalp with hair oil to make it feel better. And this clearly wasn't right. But there was so much pressure to conform to those standards, to be Able to pass that fine tooth comb through your hair during the next lice check, to be able to have their hair swinging behind your back, to have people not stare at you or think that your hair looked weird and ask weird questions. Eventually, my parents became so concerned about the burns and about just what the relaxer was doing to our hair that we stopped using the relaxer. I started using relaxer again because I wanted to enter the job market. I was in college, I was interviewing, and I could tell that it wasn't going well. What we know now from experiments is that black women with natural hair are perceived as less professional, less competent, and less likely to be recommended for a job interview than black women with straightened hair and white women with curly or straight hair. So I felt pressure to go back to the relaxer because I knew that it had consequences for whether or not I would get the jobs that I wanted. If you take a look now at media, if you look at magazines, if you look on tv, you can tell that things are changing. More and more women, black women especially, are on TV with their natural curls. Mintel reported that spending on relaxers among black women fell by about 30% between 2011 and 2016. So we are seeing a big change towards natural hair for black women. I met a few people who had decided to wear their hair naturally, and I thought it was really beautiful. So I basically just stopped relaxing. And that creates this awkward time where you have your natural curls growing at the roots, but you have straight hair in the back. After about a year, I could see a few inches of my curly hair, and I got really excited. So one day, I just grabbed a pair of office scissors and just started chopping. And I had wanted to get it done before my husband came home. But of course, that day he came home early and caught me right in the middle with half of my hair in my little fro and the other half with the straight pieces hanging off. And he was just shocked. He ran up to me and he was super excited. So now that I'm natural and I've gotten used to the curls, and I feel that they're being more accepted with each day. There are still moments when my hair causes Made it feel uncomfortable in society. At times, when you go to the airport, you have to go through the 3D body scanner. And this scanner looks for abnormalities. And unfortunately, it often detects the density and curliness of black hair as being abnormal. So there have been several times when I've been pulled aside and had my hair searched by an agent, and it brings me back to those days as a child when I was getting that life check done by the nurse and you're having your hair picked apart in front of others. So while we've made so much progress, we're still seeing these moments in society where we're being told that our natural state, the state in which our hair and our bodies are the most healthy, still doesn't quite meet the standard of what is appropriate.

Tamara Jilkes Bohr wrote about the price of black hair in a White World for 1843, the Economist's sister magazine. That's all for this episode of the Intelligence. If you like us, leave us a rating and a review and you can subscribe to the economist@examiner.com intelligenceoffer. The link is in the show Notes. See you back here tomorrow.