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The debate of whether or not to vote, or for whom, ought to be replaced with the conversation of whether voting is the only way to be politically active, or if the National scale is what matters the most. The Bolsonaro administration has made it difficult to refrain from voting in the upcoming presidential elections. For those who avoid engaging in electoral politics, it is no simple task to continue this practice in face of his grotesque stances and policies. On the one hand, it seems to me that Presidents do less in terms of actual policy and more in terms of ‘selling’ to the general public and manufacturing support for whatever policy is already on the way — which is in the interest of a global Capitalist economic system as opposed to the interests of voters. On the other hand, the principles held by these individuals in major administrative roles have the power to stir public discourse and behaviors, normalizing retrogressive values which have concrete repercussions in society at large. Engaging in local lobbying initiatives, however, puts into perspective what the actual outcomes of voting are in our immediate environment. I live in an area of Brazil with unique rocky Atlantic forest vegetation — unique enough to grant the demarcation of a nature protection reserve called Tiririca ‘Mountain range’ (Serra da Tiririca). This demarcation came after plenty of damage was already done by the swift and massive real estate industry of the last 40 years. The land my house was built on used to be a swamp, where alligators and birds lived, as well as rare plants. Unfortunately, my house is one of the few if not the only one in the neighborhood where spontaneous growth is allowed, and animals are welcomed rather than shunned or killed. Written by Mirna Wabi-Sabi Read it in full at Abeautifulresistance.org

As a concept, ‘Natural Capital’ is contrary to what environmentalists have been trying to achieve for decades, and it is also contrary to the nature of capital. What is natural for capitalism is maximum profits, not minimum damage. For decades, the commodification of nature and agriculture to the detriment of the planet and population — be it of humans, animals or plants — has been criticized by the scientific community and society at large. Rampant deforestation threatens all life on earth, and most damage done to ecosystems in Brazil, the most biodiverse region in the world, is due to industries that are not aimed at immediate human needs such as food and clean water. Instead, they are directed at fuel, cattle feed, oils and so on — all of which intensely rely on pesticides. “[T]he land, this common good, meets the demand of capital, but it does not meet the human demand.” (Bombardi, 2017) Arguably, agriculture can be a natural process, but the industrialization of it, particularly through the use of dangerous pesticides, are harder to perceive as such. Researcher Larissa Bombardi argues that the conversion of food production into ‘commodities’ is done through “the massive use of pesticides” (2017). Meanwhile, “Brazil has been the world’s largest consumer of pesticides since 2008”; its “consumption has increased by 190% in the last decade” (N. M. X. Faria et al., 2014). The “30 million hectares” used — or deforested — for soybean cultivation in Brazil are the destination of more than half (52%) of the “pesticides sold in the country” (Bombardi, 2017). When considering that this soy is transgenic in its overwhelming majority (95.5%) (Bombardi, 2017, p.35) and “its main role in the food industry is as raw material in livestock” (D. Carreira, et al., 2015), we can undoubtedly categorize it as a ‘commodity’. Therefore, as more data about the dangers of pesticides and deforestation are accumulated, one of the largest and most biodiverse countries in the world not only fails to slow down the process of commodification of natural resources but accelerates it instead. Data outlining the environmental damage and its repercussions are well known by academics and journalists, but they have not been enough to bring about significant change. Possible solutions to this unsustainable land use by the agribusiness have been tossed around among the most powerful world leaders in summits, treaties have been forged, signed and promoted. But time and time again, we see ourselves moving faster and faster towards the obliteration of natural ecosystems across the globe. Written by Mirna Wabi-Sabi Read it in full at Abeautifulresistance.org

Written by Mirna Wabi-Sabi and photographed by Fabio Teixeira. Originally published at G&R. Recycling and single use plastics are often talked about in mainstream media in the context of environmental sustainability. Meanwhile, fossil fuels and the meat industry are brought up as sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Food waste seems to have taken a backseat in both of these discussions, and when it’s brought up, it’s more so within the framework of morality than measurable environmental damage. Kids are told to finish their dinners because “there are children starving in Africa”, or that food shouldn’t be wasted because of the environmental cost of producing and transporting food to the table. The carbon footprint of food waste is associated with other, related, unsustainable industries such as packaging, transport and factory farming — but not only. The difference between food waste and loss is that loss happens before the food arrives at the consumer’s table; in farms, storage and transporting. Waste, on the other hand, is in our garbage bags. But unfortunately, there isn’t yet a robust incentive to collect data on it. According to the 2021 UN Food Waste Index report: “An estimated 8-10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that is not consumed (Mbow et al., 2019, p. 200) – and yet none of the Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement mention food waste (and only 11 mention food loss) (Schulte et al., 2020).” (UNEP, 2021, Page 20.) Food waste is as significant to the discussion of sustainability as food loss — more significant if we consider that mitigating its damage is within the reach of anyone in an average household. Food decomposing in landfills releases methane into the atmosphere, amounting to 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO2 eq) annually (UNEP, 2021). This means over 4 times the global emissions from flights in 2018 (1.04 GtCO2, Our World in Data, 2020), 87% of “global road transport emissions” (FAO, 2015), or “32.6 million cars’ worth of greenhouse gas emissions” in the U.S. alone (WWF). Of all stages of food production which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, household consumption has the highest carbon footprint. When added, waste from production and storage emit about the same amount of greenhouse gases as from consumption alone. And not all foods contribute equally to this footprint. While meat, for instance, amounts to less than 5% of total food wastage, it contributes to over 20% of the footprint. Starchy roots, on the other hand, have the reverse effect, where they represent almost 20% of the total wastage, but only 5% of the footprint (FAO, 2015). It will come as no surprise that high income regions of the world waste more food than lower income regions, even if data isn’t systematically collected in some countries. In European countries and in the United States, grocery shops have been known to pour bleach over expired commodities, leading France to be the first nation to ban the practice in 2015, unanimously passing a law aimed at cutting down on food waste (Time, 2015). Nevertheless, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN reasonably assumed a “larger progress margin” for “developing” countries on what can be achieved in food waste mitigation by 2030 (FAO, 2015). Few behavior changes necessary for handling climate change overlap the issue of poverty and carbon footprint so blatantly. A shift in how food is consumed can combat food insecurity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the same time. It should be unimaginable to choose food waste over distributing food for free and sharing basic-need resources. If not at the corporate food industry level, at the very least we can do something in the realms of our own kitchens, those of us who have kitchens. What can we do to ensure no food ends up in our garbage bags? Some of the most intuitive suggestions are: avoid over-buying, avoid over-cooking, store properly, freeze, consciously prioritize your meals based on what will expire first, share meals with other families/your community, and compost. Discarding food waste in the drain is not a solution, because it not only can negatively affect wildlife, organic material left over from water treatment will end up in landfills anyway (Cary Institute, 2016). Composting is the best solution for disposing of non-edible foods because methane is produced “by microbes in the absence of oxygen”, and the composting process is aerobic, meaning, involving/requiring oxygen (Government of Western Australia, 2021). Many believe that composting is not possible in an urban setting, but that isn’t the case. When executed properly, the process can be done in small places with minimal odor (that is when a community initiative isn’t realistic). It may even be done with cardboard, which can considerably reduce the amount of waste produced in a household by disposing of both organic waste and paper recycling at the same time (Conserve Energy Future). To live with and handle one’s own waste goes a long way to incentivize members of a household to produce less waste in the first place. And we wouldn’t be painting a clear picture of the issue of food waste management if we didn’t acknowledge the intersectional nature of how many households operate. Gender roles are still a factor in most families, and domestic chores disproportionately fall on women, as well as domestic workers being mostly women (ILO). A recent U.K. study reveals that the pandemic has exacerbated the gender inequality of domestic chores, as women maintained their social-isolation level of “involvement in housework and childcare” after they went back to work, while fathers did not (Demographic Research, 2022). In this sense, any solution to minimizing food waste should involve the interest, understanding and actions of all household individuals past their pre-school years. “Solving problems, being creative and getting results for … efforts” are things people as young as grade-schoolers should be experiencing (Healthy Children), especially when it involves such an indispensable and habitual human practice — eating. “Several studies highlight that if current dietary trends are maintained, this could lead to a significant climate-change emissions from agriculture of approximately 20 GtCO2-eq per year by 2050.” (FOA, 2020) Clearly, there is a problem to be solved, minimal levels of creativity are required for the solution, and our efforts can not only have measurable results, but can also improve the health of our families, our communities and our planet. Glossary Carbon footprint: The total amount of greenhouse gases emitted by an action (Nature Conservancy). CO2: Carbon dioxide. CO2e: All greenhouse gases. Food Loss: Occurs in the production stage of the food industry; at farms, in processing and transport. Food Waste: Occurs after food arrives at the consumer when it is discarded. Greenhouse gases: Carbon dioxide (CO2); Methane (CH4); Nitrous oxide (N2O); Industrial gases — Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). (EIA, 2021) GtCO2: One billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. (Law insider) GWP 1 (Ecometrica). GtCO2eq: Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) stands for a unit based on the global warming potential (GWP) of different greenhouse gases (Climate Policy Info Hub). GWP: Global warming potential. Methane: “1kg of methane causes 25 times more warming over a 100 year period compared to 1kg of CO2, and so methane [h]as a GWP of 25.” (Ecometrics). “Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from livestock and other agricultural practices, land use and by the decay of organic waste in municipal solid waste landfills [emphasis added].” (EPA, 2022) Bibliography Cary Institute (2016) “Stop putting food waste down the drain” . Climate Policy Info Hub . Conserve Energy Future. “Is Cardboard Compostable?” . Demographic Research (2022) “Gender inequality in domestic chores over ten months of the UK COVID-19 pandemic: Heterogeneous adjustments to partners’ changes in working hours” . Ecometrica . EIA, U.S. Energy Information Administration (2021) . EPA, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2022) . FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2020) . FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2015) . Government of Western Australia, Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (2021) . Healthy Children . ILO, International Labour Organization . Law Insider . Nature Conservancy . Our World in Data (2020) . Time (2015) “French Parliament Unanimously Approves Law to Cut Food Waste” . UNEP, United Nations Environment Programme (2021) Food Waste Index report . WWF .

In 2015, Brazil “produced” 136 million cubic meters of logs, worth about 250 million US dollars. In Brazil, ‘timber’ and ‘wood’ are the same word: madeira. There is no distinction between the material and how the material is utilized — we don’t specify its utility in its definition. Wood is, nevertheless, utilized frequently all over the world. For those who don’t know, Brazil is the only country named after a tree. The importance of this tree, pau-brasil, is highlighted by the function of its timber, therefore, by its economic significance. The trunk is red, the sap is red; it, in a way, bled. By Mirna Wabi-Sabi Read it at Abeautifulresistance.org

By Mirna Wabi-Sabi For those of us who work editing people’s writing, one of the first lessons is that each writer handles edits differently, and it’s helpful to be flexible in your approach to feedback. In my career, it has happened that someone’s writing and response to edits made me suspect they might be on the autism spectrum, but there is never a need to confirm a layman’s diagnosis, only to adapt your approach as you would with any other individual writer. Recently, however, quite a few writers have come to me with texts about being on the spectrum, and this led me to identify some patterns and to organize some of my editing tools accordingly. This information can be helpful to those who have felt the urge to abandon a project because they may have observed these signs but interpreted them as confusion, hostility or inexperience. Sign 1–Prolix When a short passage is unclear, and an editor asks for an explanation, the text comes back with a few extra pages, which don’t necessarily address the issue in the first place. Possible cause: Extreme wordiness as a response to being asked for clarity can be a sign that the writer is insecure about their ability to make themselves understood, often even to themselves. Tool: In this case, there is no need to abandon the piece because it got too long and even more confusing than the first draft. Make sure you talk to the writer and agree on what the main point of the article is. With this in mind, remove the passages, sentences or paragraphs that go off on tangents (away from the main point). As you peel off the layers, you will see there is a narrative beneath. Sign 2–Retreat Sometimes, as a response to an editor asking for an explanation, a writer will retreat, saying “nevermind, I don’t want to write or publish anymore.” Possible cause: Frustration over the challenges of trying to connect with an audience can lead any writer down a path of self-doubt mixed with annoyance. For someone on the spectrum, this feeling can be dialed up, making them want to disappear. Tool: Reassure the writer that this frustration is a natural response to the writing process, and that your job as an editor is to help build a bridge between their work and their audience. Then, provide examples of explanations (be as wild as you want in your suggestions). This way, you spark a brainstorming session, inspiring the writer to come up with their own explanation. Sign 3–Diary Some texts sound like entries of a diary. This is when a writer starts too many sentences with the word “I”, the narrative of events is too linear, and they struggle to make the leap from their experience to a slightly more universal one. Possible cause: The narrative style of, “I did this, then I did that. Therefore, this is what I did” can be a sign that the writer is having a hard time putting themselves in someone else’s shoes. In this case, in the shoes of the reader who might be asking themselves, “so what, why do I care?” Tool: Encourage the writer to avoid starting sentences/paragraphs with the word “I” or “It”. Give examples of how to do that, by making the object the subject of a sentence. Ask the question, “for a reader who does not have this specific experience, how would this apply to them?” Sign 4–Prose Perhaps the writing is structured in an unusual way — Extremely long paragraphs, inability to separate themes and to organize these paragraphs, or odd line breaks and punctuation. Possible cause: Unclear overview of the whole text and lack of structure are signs that the writing is happening as a stream of consciousness which doesn’t prioritize the reader’s understanding or access to the content. This type of writing is associated with the aforementioned Prolix and Diary Signs, and shows that the writer is attempting to clarify the content to themselves. Tool: The same tools used for the Prolix and Diary Signs can be used here, with the addition of openness to innovative approaches to structure. If the main point of the article is clear, being flexible to accommodate the writer’s instinctive use of structure can be helpful. Such as, prose poetry, rhythmic line breaks and so on (I, personally, would encourage academia and its professionals to be more open-minded when it comes to this). Of course, not everyone who is prone to some of these behaviors as writers are on the spectrum. But understanding that these behaviors can be approached in an efficient way is helpful to everyone. Communication skills are something we all have to learn, and often struggle with.

By Mirna Wabi-Sabi [1] During the isolation of the pandemic, I had more time to observe my garden, its movements, growths and beings. This led me to start an experiment with developing mini ponds without pumps or filters to accommodate frogs, dragonflies, etc. In the process, I not only learned a lot about the lives and behaviors of different beings, but also about the existence of different living beings, including plants, and their functions for a balanced ecosystem. The city, today, is not a balanced ecosystem. Just as our knowledge about the animals and plants around us, or which are no longer around us because of urban imbalance, is insufficient. Can mini ponds not only remedy our lack of knowledge by exposing us to certain aspects of nature in an accessible and daily way, but can they also influence the urban habitat to mitigate the greenhouse effect and the damage caused by global warming? Cities and Weizi Settlements A recent study, from July 2022, called 'Impacts of Water Bodies on Microclimates and External Thermal Comfort' describes how small artificial ponds relate to sustainable environmental revitalization in a human settlement. Using as reference a Chinese village of Weizi tradition (or Wei zi) called Xufan, an analysis is made on the influence that urban characteristics, such as asphalt and tall buildings, have on microclimates, in contrast with the characteristics of human habitats that use aquatic resources. A Weizi village "is a typical model of traditional Chinese human settlement that combines human habitat with farmland and water conservancy." It adapts, transforms, and utilizes an aquatic environment through the intersection of climatic conditions, local natural resources, rural culture and Fengshui — where ancestral and environmental science merge. Xufan, in the Guanweizi village, in the municipality of Guangshan in Henan (China), was listed as one of these traditional settlements in 2017. There, it was possible to analyze how water bodies affect the temperature and humidity of the environment, and influence human coexistence and production. The study reveals that bodies of water absorb heat during the day and release heat at night, maintaining the stability of their microclimates. They also affect humidity, which through winds and breezes connects with microclimates of other bodies of water in certain radiuses of distance. This densifies the region's vegetation, regulates the climate and sustains local agriculture. These effects are interrupted when approaching the urban center. In cities, buildings shield wind and breezes, interrupting the flow of humidity between different bodies of water and its cooling effect on the local temperature. It may be instinctive to understand asphalt and car engines as things that heat up an environment, and buildings that in turn shield the microclimate created in their streets. The main function of asphalt is waterproofing, and the engine operates on the basis of small explosions burning fuel. The rising of temperature and decreasing of humidity are microclimates in themselves — urban ones. Images: “Research on the Forms and Changes of Jianghuai Shuiwei Settlements — Take the Western Jianghuai Area as an Example". What are Microclimates? Water not only satisfies needs of agroecosystems, but also regulates thermal comfort, which is a specific effect of microclimates. The PET (Physiological Equivalent Temperature) “is an index based on the thermal balance of the body”, and represents the thermal comfort or discomfort in urban or non-urban microclimates. As such, microclimates are nothing more than the atmospheric conditions of a certain environment, resulting from certain elements of that environment. Vegetation, bodies of water, asphalt and buildings are examples of geomorphological elements that influence microclimates. The urban microclimate is sometimes referred to as a “heat island” as a result of what I would call exogenic relief agents. City infrastructures are, in a way, exogenic geomorphological elements that significantly alter the Earth's surface, among other things. With the undeniable damage that the industrial revolution caused to the planet and to the levels of pollution in urban centers from the mid-19th century onwards, many damage mitigation strategies were developed, with perhaps mediocre results. Combating urban pollution The coal industry, which has been responsible for much of the industrial pollution since the mid-19th century and also for decreasing human life expectancy, is in decline in the US, as are deaths associated with coal mining. On the other hand, in China, coal production is on the rise. Another strategy to combat pollution in cities has been to make cars more efficient. Electronic injection, for example, is effective in reducing pollution by mixing air and fuel more economically than manual regulation. The catalytic converter neutralizes the harmful gases that enter the atmosphere as they leave through the exhaust system, with effect on up to 98% of them. The Driver Training Manual (Brazilian Edition 2022) states that Brazil “started to produce one of the best fuels in the world from an environmental point of view”. By adding ethanol to gasoline, emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and other harmful gases are reduced. It is said that, compared to 1986, the average CO emissions per vehicle today is half a percent of what they used to be (from 54g/km to 0.3g/km). That all sounds good, but on closer inspection, one-off issues seem to be partially resolved while others come up simultaneously. CO is just one of the harmful gases emitted by cars, many of which have not declined on such a scale. The numbers differ depending on the source because they vary with the car's year of manufacture, region and regulations. Regulations are not properly enforced. And even if the laws were imposed and followed, the adaptation of the legislation aims to protect the environment when it is also in the interest of the “development of the automobile industry” (Art. 2: I—Vetoed). So, to say that pollution in cities has improved compared to 100 years ago through technology is not saying much. A holistic view of how to deal with the environmental harmfulness of urbanization would overcome the limitations of national laws and the car industry, as the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect do not operate according to financial and legal logics. The financial and legal logics, in fact, operate according to the population's set of beliefs, even if they are often manufactured by the financial and legal sectors themselves. Do city dwellers want to live in places like São Paulo, where traffic and money never stop pulsing? Images: “Vernacular Ecological Architecture — Weizi Folk Houses in the Southeast Henan". Is the heat island inescapable? The city's microclimates alienate animals and plants. But with a reconfiguration of belief systems about what city life can or should be, creating urban microclimates that invite animals and plants to thrive is feasible. Green terraces reduce the effects of urban heat islands, and vegetation is concentrated around water bodies naturally. Therefore, bodies of water can and should be introduced in urban gardens, community gardens and terraces where there is already vested interest in landscaping. To take advantage of the cooling effect of plants and ponds in urban contexts, a self-sufficient structure that minimizes the use of resources such as public water and electricity is not only affordable and accessible, but also ancient. As Weizi villages are described, “the water-adaptive space presents ancestors’ wisdom to adapt to and moderately transform the water environment and utilize water resources in a low-technology, low-cost, low-maintenance, and sustainable way.” Wei, in addition to having been an illustrious territory in ancient China, also means housing that uses water trenches to satisfy a variety of community needs such as irrigation, drainage, washing, thermal comfort and protection. Buildings facilitate the passage of breezes, trenches serve as defense walls, water and animals nourish the agriculture and, as such, vernacular architecture and urbanism express valuable ancestral and scientific knowledge. In the modern urban context, adapting to water can mean collecting rainwater, which in turn encourages awareness of rainfall frequency and air quality (which influences rainwater quality), as well as minimizes the use of city water supply. The increase in humidity of microclimates, with the presence of a breeze between each body of water, can help regulate the frequency of rainfall (since we know that humidity and rain are mutually favorable). To control mosquito proliferation, small fish can be introduced into the water body. A well-planted pond, with an adequate amount and type of fish, does not need a pump or filter. A partial water change is sufficient, and the nutrient-rich pond water can be used for watering plants. Animals such as lizards, beetles, dragonflies, ants, and birds contribute to the maintenance of these natural elements and minimize the need for human maintenance. By inviting these beings, we observe and understand them better. Part of understanding them better means understanding that the prosperity of these beings means our prosperity, the human future. Knowledge about nature teaches us to appreciate, respect and, in turn, protect. And it teaches us about urban microclimatic contexts, whose affronts to human existence we often fail to identify, denounce, and modify. The researchers of the article 'Impacts of Water Bodies' state that the impact of different formats of water bodies will be the focus of their next research. This indicates a lack of data regarding the diversity of possibilities to mitigate the negative impacts of “man-made underlying surfaces” using bodies of water. Therefore, there is still much to be explored. The execution of this proposal presents a sharp learning curve and adaptation of the population's sets of beliefs, apart from a reconfiguration of what private or individual spaces mean in the context of the relationship between urban microclimates and the future of the planet. Gradually, awareness of how each individual deals with their private space, and acts in relation to nature in cohesion, has the power to reconfigure the status quo of urbanization. Who knows, the micro in a cascading effect becomes macro, and the heat island is little by little re-signified by oases. [1] Founding member and director of Plataforma9, author of Anarco-transcriação.

Two situations caused major uproar in Brazil this month, both involving photos. First is a double exposure image of Lula with shattered glass pointing at his heart. The other of a Yanomami woman who died due to severe malnutrition. Debates which used to be directed at the Lula/Bolsonaro dichotomy have turned inward, within leftists, over how to handle post-victory political crises. Many people were horrified at the photo of Lula on the cover of a major São Paulo newspaper, claiming it incited violence against him. The shattered glass was from the capital building attack on January 8th, and the artistic composition by a renown leftist photographer was harshly criticized because it’s too dubious in a landscape where most feel there is no space for nuance. To me, the photo depicts a bulletproof scene, where there was a failed attempt to destroy his presidency, and he leaves smiling victorious among the ruins. But to others, the possibility it might promote violence against the president, as if someone ought to shoot him in the heart, was enough to promote violence against the photographer herself. She was the target of an online mob until a more problematic scene arose. Quite frankly, since the first news of what happened to those in the Yanomami territory, I couldn’t read anything about it because I couldn’t stand looking at the photos that came with the texts. Social media became infested with images of not just a crime, but of victims of what is the brink of genocide. The sharing of these images were justified as needed evidence, but that never convinced me. In court cases involving white children, the visual evidence is not publicized. More often than not, testimonies are enough. From the beginning, to utilize the images felt dehumanizing to me. Now that one of the women from this community died from malnourishment, Yanomami leaders are finally pleading for people to stop sharing her image in a show of respect for Yanomami tradition. Still, people argue against it, saying this image has to be shared on the internet as evidence, as if the internet was the grand forum where justice is achieved by exposing violated marginalized peoples. The images of malnourished Yanomami children were never tolerable to me, and it’s intolerable that to some, at this point, they are still needed as evidence for what the Brazilian government puts these peoples through. This resonates so much with what the brilliant professor and journalist Allissa V. Richardson says about black people and the need for mediatic evidence for the racist violence perpetrated against Black Americans. She says: “I would like to get to the point where we don’t need the videos to believe black people […] Why are black people asked to produce this footage to kind of pre-litigate the fact that they didn’t deserve their own demise?” When it comes to the subject of ‘Bearing witness’ to racist brutality, black and native people find common ground in the use of media. Considering the hundreds of years of colonization, what do people think Indigenous rights activists have been fighting against? Did the main stream think it wasn’t that bad, so they needed photographic evidence of how bad it actually has been? Do they think this is as bad as it gets? Or, they just need another reason to continue to blame Bolsonaro for everything bad that has ever happened in Brazil? Indigenous peoples have endured rampant assault, starvation and murder for hundreds of years, the fraction which survived are still enduring this paradigm, and the last 4 years are not single-handedly responsible for the injustices these peoples have been faced with, only for allowing business to go on as usual. The Yanomami have been dealing with the issue of absurd numbers of garimpeiros invading their land since at least the 70s. There has been rampant disease, malnutrition and massacres since then, even a declared genocide in 1993... If it took these images in 2023 for someone to realize the inhumane and undignified living conditions natives have been submitted to, they haven’t been paying attention. And it surely is not the responsibility of the Yanomami to make an exception to their way of living (in dealing with death) to serve non-native people’s need for a wake-up call. Were it so, wouldn’t that just be an extension of the dehumanization forced upon them? I also ask myself what the purpose is to juxtapose images of the Yanomami with historic images of Holocaust survivors. If this is an attempt to stress how violent it is what is happening to natives, it’s utterly inadequate and anachronistic, because what is happening in Brazil has been happening for much longer and to many more people than what happened in Nazi Germany. And the same goes for making the parallel with malnourished children in sub-Saharan Africa, as if Brazil should be above that, when in reality, it's a tragedy that this is happening anywhere for any reason. Could it be that when we think of the hundreds of years of genocide perpetrated against Indigenous and African people in Brazil, that doesn’t carry the same weight as what happened in Europe, with Europeans? So we take something way older and bigger, like colonial genocide, and try to fit it into a Eurocentric narrative. This way, perhaps, people will see it as more unacceptable, and therefore, ensure it never happens again. Yes, we want the genocide of Indigenous people to stop and for it to happen ‘never again’. Indigenous people have wanted that at least since a century before the Second World War. If this isn’t resilience, I don’t know what is. Maybe that’s why I can’t stand these images being used as evidence. Because they are used as evidence of something of a frail, defeated group of people, when in reality they couldn’t be farther from that. The Yanomami have endured the unimaginable for hundreds of years — this is not a story of weakness, it’s a story of power, and we should be so honored to stand next to them and fight for their dignity. Against this background, Lula doesn’t look so vulnerable double-exposed to shattered glass, smiling, fixing his tie, does he? He is shielded by much more than bullet-proof glass, cars, vests and suits. He’s shielded by passing-whiteness, by the global markets and its super-powers. When it comes to his flesh, blood and consciousness, it will be the Yanomami who will save him, not the other way around, and they deserve the world in exchange for that. _______ Mirna Wabi-Sabi is a Brazilian writer, site editor at Gods and Radicals and founder of Plataforma9. She is the author of the book Anarcho-transcreation and producer of several other titles under the P9 press.

Written by Renato Libardi Bittencourt Photographed by Fabio Teixeira There was and still is a certain air of “promise” and “hope” here in Brazil that, after Lula's electoral victory, we would re-establish the “normality” of life in the fragile Liberal Democracy. What has been said around (see MST note on roadblocks) is that it would be enough to wait passively and orderly for the newly elected president to take office and let the extreme right agonize in what would be its last breath. However, since the day the results of the polls were defined, the extreme right has taken to the streets in a clear attempt at a Coup and a demonstration of strength, thus showing that, far from being on its last breath, they are united, articulated, strong and cohesive. Since the 30th of October we have had: road closures throughout much of the national territory; requests for a military intervention in the streets and military headquarters (which continue until now and with no end in sight); buses invaded by Bolsonaristas who attacked students; the dean of a Federal university filing a document in support of the coup's lockout; support and connivance of the State security forces to the coup's and anti-democratic manifestations; manifestations of xenophobia and racism against North-easterners of the country; swastikas and arson at the MST (Landless Workers Movement) headquarters in Pernambuco; apart from the tantrums of "Deus Mercado" or the Market God. (See, for example, this article in Brasil de Fato.) The curious (or tragic) thing about this whole absurdity is the absolute immobility of the majority, hegemonic and institutional left, which, faced with such absurdities, was incapable of reacting. No, this is not about calling for a civil war. We know that the Brazilian security forces and justice are not on our side (much less would be enough for a “bloodbath” against us by the police). But, since when do we need state support or a favorable situation to occupy what has historically always been ours, the streets? It is true that any type of demonstration carries its own risks and that the current situation inspires fear in many of us. However, that old saying by Marighella is still current: “I didn't have time to be afraid”. RIO DE JANEIRO, October 30th. By Fabio Teixeira. On the side of the revolutionary, autonomous and combative left, the story was quite different. On November 1st, the page “Antifa Hooligans Brasil” issued a statement calling on organized supporters to stop the coup attempt, unblock the roads and defend the limited democracy we still have left. On that same occasion, the MTST (Homeless Workers Movement) also issued a statement to its militancy to thwart the coup leaders and their financiers. Differently and in strategic disagreement with the MTST, the Landless Workers Movement (MST) issued a note calling on the left to remain calm, trust the institutions and await Lula's inauguration. Well, here we have an evident theoretical and strategic conflict within the left. After all, should we or should we not occupy the streets at this moment? Is it safe? What to do in the face of all this? Will Lula's inauguration be the beginning of better times? These are complex questions that do not have a simple answer or a magic recipe that can objectively guide us in the face of so many challenges. However, the good old philosophical tradition teaches us that, in the face of difficult questions, it is wise and prudent to ask more refined questions on top of the original questions. For example: “Does it make sense to fear a civil war when, for someone who is black and from the periphery, war and genocide happen every day”? Does this question reflect the division of class and race within the left itself? The argument of the “civil war”, that is, that the militancy and the people in the streets could truly provoke a real war, a bloodbath and a great systemic rupture, only reveals the privileges or a certain degree of social alienation of those who use it to justify a left that looks more and more like the System which they once opposed in a more radical and honest way. Let's be frank, you don't just die from bullets in Brazil. One dies of hunger, helplessness, the scrapping of public health and even political indifference, as is the case in question. The argument of the “civil war” reminds me of the lyrics of the song “Estamos Mortos” by Rapper Eduardo Taddeo (former Facção Central) which begins by saying: “Nobody can be considered alive; Eating leftovers from dumpsters; Raising hands for alms; Smoking crack; Losing health pulling cardboard wagons (...)” and ends by emphasizing that: “As long as we cannot prevent genocide; The racism; The alienation; Mass imprisonment; Extreme poverty and social nullification; We will be nothing more than breathing corpses; My condolences to all of us who vegetate; In the morgue of the living.” RIO DE JANEIRO, October 20th. The question I ask myself at the moment is: are we anesthetized? Is this anesthesia the result of so much beating we've taken in recent years from liberals and the extreme right? Was the damage such that we lost the ability to react accordingly? Are we meek as lambs? Do we let the righteous anger of our hearts metamorphose into a depressed, lethargic state? No, once again, I am not evoking those plastic and stereotyped scenes of militants throwing Molotov cocktails at the Military Police and “playing terror” (as much as I like this dreamlike vision). I'm talking about ordinary people en masse taking to the streets. Even if there are those who say that this would only bring more confusion and give more visibility to the extreme right and to Bolsonaristas, this is an urgent matter, a duty dear to the anti-fascist tradition: “no stage for fascists”. It is true that the liberals and the extreme right had a large and overwhelming victory in the last elections, but to continue to clear the avenue for the extreme right to pass instead of putting a foot in the streets and shouting “they shall not pass!” has catastrophic historical results. Every time that, in history, we have ignored the rise of fascism and have not dismantled them with combative strategies of direct action, guess what: they triumphed, grew, bore fruit and boosted their social reach even further among the masses.

Originally published at Abeautifulresistance.org PHOTOS BY FABIO TEIXEIRA, taken in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. NOVEMBER 02: ‘Bolsonaristas’, supporters of the defeated president Jair Messias Bolsonaro, protest against the election results in front of the Eastern Military Command. Since the end of this year’s Brazilian elections, supporters of the losing candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, camp outside military headquarters around the country asking for an intervention against the results. They claim fraud, and invoke an article of the constitution which, according to their interpretation, would grant the armed forces the power to “guarantee order” and “uphold of the law” when “there is an exhaustion of the traditional forces of public security”. This exhaustion of traditional forces would be, to them, the president-elect being a convicted criminal, aided by forces of a new world order, against which aliens ought to intervene. Some of these supporters went as far as sending help signals to an alien general with the flashlights of their smartphones. It's no easy feat to track down the origins of the relationship between Bolsonaro supporters and the belief that aliens are actively involved in partisan politics. In 2018, The Guardian published an article calling Bolsonaro, a front running candidate for the presidency then, a “cult leader” who claimed to have had contact with aliens. However, the article provides no sources regarding when, how or why Bolsonaro made the claim of alien contact. The author of this piece is a man called Dom Phillips, who was killed this year in a high-profile assassination case, alongside another journalist, Bruno Pereira, while investigating a corruption case in the Amazon region. OCTOBER 28: At the debate between the 2022 presidential candidates of Brazil, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Messias Bolsonaro. Satanism Other more sinister and conspiratorial connections have been made, involving a satanic cult from the 80s accused of horrifying killings of poor boys. The woman who founded the cult, Valentina de Andrade, wrote a book called ‘God, the big farce’, where claims were made that, not only aliens are among us, but that they influence human births; one alien general and ship in particular are to soon come to earth and request help from good citizens to achieve a crucial (possibly political) task. Somehow, the name of Bolsonaro’s family lawyer, Frederick Wassef, shows up in documents about the court case against Valentina. He testified about how he bought Valentina’s book in 1988, which describes her experience meeting aliens and how God is not the Creator of the Universe, but instead a sort of Devil. This sparked Wassef’s interest, leading him to write her a letter and, upon her invitation, travel to several cities to visit certain spaces associated with the cult, including the cult’s headquarters in Buenos Aires. In these trips, he met Valentina and several people from her circle, and attended several courses and lectures, none of which, according to him, discussed anything besides the core principles of the group — no drugs, prostitution, abuse of trust or disrespect. This whole saga ends with it all being attributed to the Satanic Panic phenomenon, a period between the 80s and 90s where there was a spike in unverified cases of satanic rituals involving the murder and abuse of children. It’s widely known to have happened in the US, but Brazil, so it seems, also fell victim to it. Both of these countries have unexpected political ties — the 1980s marking the end of a Brazilian military dictatorship financed by the CIA, and the 2020s marked by the symbiosis between Bolsonaro, Trump, and their supporters. Now, the connection between these politicians, Satanism and Aliens falls right up QAnon’s alley. NOVEMBER 15: Thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro gathered in protest against the October election results. QAnon In an ideological landscape plagued with conspiratorial ideas, it’s not hard to imagine a natural progression from the theories of QAnon to UFO Conspiracies. In 2019, Vice published about how, in the absence of Qs posts, “many of his followers have turned to the UFO narrative for their conspiratorial fix” — especially since Q himself had made a few posts about UFOs and several about Satanism — earning QAnon the reputation of bringing the Satanic Panic back. The merging of Aliens and QAnon being attributed to a conspiratorial “fix” is insufficient, though. The parallel between Satanism and aliens predates QAnon, and some researchers from the late 90s and early 2000s have explored a “striking” similarity between the reports of Satanist abuse and alien abductions, as shared in their respective support groups. Interestingly, the study which asks the question ‘Who Are the UFO Abductees and Ritual-Abuse Survivors?’ answers this by saying they are both overwhelmingly white. This answer begs another question of why a chunk of the white demographic leans towards these explanations for the political and social unrest in the world. In his 1997 research titled “Satanist abuse and alien abduction: A comparative analysis[…]”, John Paley speculates on yet another explanation — a spectrum of temporal lobe epilepsy and bad therapy. Considering that the vast majority of those who identify as abuse survivors or abductees are women; the framing of these reports as delusional (page 47) needs to be looked at from a more modern, intersectional lens. The truth is that no one fully understands or can provide a sturdy scientific explanation for these social phenomena. [LEFT] OCTOBER 28: Bolsonaro at the presidential debate. [RIGHT] OCTOBER 30: Brazil’s president, and candidate for reelection Jair Messias Bolsonaro, speaking to the press shortly after voting. The US Army and Navy There is, however, a more conservative (or at least less peculiar) explanation for the fact that Bolsonaro supporters are flashing their phones at an extraterrestrial ship and its general. The US government has been putting effort into destigmatizing the belief in UFOs (or UAPs, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.) In May, the US held a congressional hearing with the purpose of encouraging the general public, and specifically Navy officers, to collect data and report on unidentified flying (and under-water) objects. It's in the US Army's interest that new technologies remain classified. Upon unexplained sightings, it would benefit them if the public associates it with aliens and not with secret military technology being tested. For instance, it would be fair to assume that, by the time the “Predator drone” was introduced in the early 2000s, it had already been in testing for the better part of the previous decade (Perhaps not by chance during the X-Files era). In fact, at the hearing, it was stated that drones were tested to see if they served as an explanation to modern-day Navy Intelligence data on unexplained sightings. Some data was made public. Some was discussed in a classified hearing. And some they admit they have no explanation for, due to insufficient data or lack of understanding of this data. Nevertheless, the US Army is navigating a fine line between the need to have their own classified military technology kept secret, but also relying on reports from the population, and Navy personnel, on what could be secret technology from ‘non-allied’ forces. NOVEMBER 15. Protest in front of the Eastern Military Command. Technology There is a significant segment of the Brazilian population which believes certain technology we have today, such as the internet, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, motorcycles which don’t fall over, and so on, come from aliens. Someone recently told me, “humans are smart, but not that smart.” This relates to the theory that the pyramids couldn’t have been built by humans, so they must have been built by ancient aliens, and so on. Interestingly, we now live in the era of smartphones, which can be used to collect more data than ever on UFOs (or UAPs), expose classified military technology and who knows what else. And yet, there is doubt about whether the very object we hold in our hands to collect this data is of this world. The human experience is marked by the distress of realizing the exorbitant number of things we don’t understand about the universe, and all that we can’t control or predict. Not even this statement can be said with too much certainty, which is probably why we look for meaning in the most varied, unexpected places. That in itself can be a healthy coping mechanism for the absurdity and frailty of all life on Earth. Having said that, once we advocate for Democratic principles, or any basic mode of co-existing on a planet with 8 billion people, we are bound to face situations where certain groups take their theories to a Dictatorial level. When it comes to these people camped in front of Brazilian military headquarters, asking for the regression from Democracy to Military Dictatorship, believe it or not, our strategy has been to wait them out, and for panic to subside. Because an understandable or manageable line of political reasoning is even further from sight than this extraterrestrial ship they are trying to communicate with. ___ Written by Mirna Wabi-Sabi Photograped by Fabio Teixeira Edited by Nox Morningstar

Written by Mirna Wabi-Sabi and photographed by Fabio Teixeira. Originally published at Abeautifulresistance.org. Lula has won the Brazilian presidential election this year, but Bolsonaro supporters are taking to the streets demanding “federal intervention” to impede the “installation of communism” in the country. Nowadays, however, Lula advocates for a mixed economy, and the main arguments against him are that he is corrupt, and that he will foment organized crime and chaos. Communism here is used as a smoke screen to conceal fantasies of a military dictatorship come-back and of genocide of poor and black people — the demographic Lula seeks to include in the market economy. After questioning the election results, Gustavo Gayer, a politician, influencer and YouTuber, removed several videos he posted last week on YouTube, and had his Twitter account suspended. In the video called “Urgent! Lula voters have already begun to terrorize Brazil. Strong scenes”, the strongest scene according to him was a woman’s recording of a building being invaded across the street from her apartment, where she sounded clearly terrified. Gayer fails to indicate the context of such invasion, as is customary in his work. He has already been condemned for propagating Fake News twice this year, both times involving other politicians and Covid-19 policies. What the Brazilian electorate considers to be terrifying is at the core of the political polarization we are witnessing. While one housed woman (representing about half of the Brazilian voting population) is horrified at seeing a large group of poor people invade a building and put tarp on the windows — the other half is horrified at seeing widespread misery, homelessness, and hunger. The occupation of this building in particular was the work of a group called Struggle-for-Housing Front (Frente de Luta por Moradia — FLM), which exists for 2 decades and advocates for dignified housing rights in São Paulo. The building was empty, no one was assaulted or removed from their homes other than the occupiers themselves. In fact, the group published a letter from São Paulo’s Court of Justice stating that the police is the one acting criminally, if it 1) imposes physical or psychological violence against the occupiers, 2) restricts their access to water, food, electricity, lawyers and public defenders. What constitutes justified criminal behavior seems to be the point of contention here, as opposed to a stern anti-crime stance by good, lawful, Christian citizens in face of profane, lawless communists. Spreading fake news and police brutality, though unlawful, is tolerated or even applauded by Bolsonaro supporters, while the fight for dignified housing is described as such: “Crime has won. Our lives will be hell. Homicides will go up. [Drug] trafficking will go up. Criminals will reign. Because now their boss sits, will sit, at the presidential chair. Brazil is no longer a friendly place for good people, patriots, Christians… I don’t know what else to say. They have managed it and will destroy our country.” — Gustavo Gayer, on the (since removed) video “Urgent! Lula voters have already begun to terrorize Brazil. Strong scenes” on YouTube. From October 31st, with 462 thousand views in 6 hours. In a recent piece by Eduardo Barbosa entitled “Between bullets and mining: the life of indigenous peoples and black favela residents under the state of exception”, this tolerance for certain criminal behaviors by enthusiastic defenders of the rule of law is described as a State of Exception. The Bolsonaro regime is, or was, an extension and exacerbation of decades of “perverted policies” which enacted “recurrent massacres in favelas and the serial extermination of native peoples”. These demographics are a target because they undermine the power the State has over certain territories. In this sense, they are a threat to the State, and the desire to eradicate them trumps the patriot’s law-abiding rhetoric and becomes a well-established mechanism. There is a massive class of Brazilians which are repulsed by the poor and marginalized. They may think of ways to lift people out of poverty with economic incentives and charity, while others advocate for literal eradication, through the barrel of a gun. There is plenty to be questioned about the use of capitalist tools to solve an issue that capitalism not only creates but relies on to thrive — class disparity. Mass murder, however, is beyond questioning, it’s the abysmal, unbridgeable gap in the binary political landscape we are living in. Lula will not be able to single-handedly eradicate the nation’s hate towards the poor, or shift humanity’s course away from economic despair and global collapse. Expectations of his potential for change are high, but unrealistic. What we need is a shift in culture. The narrative Bolsonaro normalized has been shunned not only by the Brazilian electorate, but also by international communities. Still, the win was narrow, and supporters have ironclad convictions on both sides. In this sense, the ballot box isn’t a tool which produces rightfulness. Legitimacy and dignity are ideals we need to uphold, defend, and fight for every day, not only every 4 years. ____ Written by Mirna Wabi-Sabi and photographed by Fabio Teixeira

Originally published at Abeautifulresistance.org. “I believe that our human condition is defined more by the push-and-pulls of multiple, often contradictory commitments, than by linear strategies, limpid “worldviews” and direct cause-effect relations.” (Andrea Brigaglia) Before starting a conversation about Nigerian women in refuge in São Paulo, Brazil, it’s necessary to point out the gross negligence of global media in reporting any news about Nigeria. As a country with a booming economy, vast natural resources and vibrant culture, the occasional mentions of it are overwhelmingly within the context of Islamist terrorism. Boko Haram is indeed an urgent issue, it has been for decades and affects millions of people. While the organization overshadows all other news about Nigeria, it isn’t discussed with the level of urgency it deserves. Any genuine concern over the well-being of Americans in the aftermath of 9-11 ought to be matched with concern over the well-being of Nigerians in the continuing conflict with Boko Haram. At alarming rates, this conflict has been displacing vulnerable populations which are further silenced in their foreign countries of refuge. Brazil, despite its unmatched connection to Africa, is utterly unequipped to care for the influx of African refugees, especially Muslim Nigerian women. Upon arrival, these women are only further victimized by the weakness of Brazilian institutions and how oblivious the local population is to their plight. This leads to, of course, a new type of precarious living circumstances, which may not involve Boko Haram, but involves instead exploitative and clandestine working environments, as well as religious and social isolation. To understand the failures of counterterrorism efforts in Nigeria, perhaps we ought to look at the failure of counterterrorism efforts of a post-9-11 geopolitical paradigm ignited by the United States. Surely, ethno-religious conflict in that region is a result of arbitrary borders put in place by a British colonial regime. Hundreds of ethnic groups were lumped together as either Northern or Southern Nigeria, which were soon “amalgamated” for the sole purpose of facilitating accounting of the exploration the British crown was doing across the Niger River. Not to mention all the years of conflict before British occupation, at the peak of the slave trade. All of which laid a foundation of brutality framing the events to come at the turn of the 21st century. Boko Haram is a “franchise” of Al-Qaeda. According to Andrea Brigaglia, a former director of the Centre for Contemporary Islam, the “looseness” of the connections between these franchises has been both a weakness and a strength in Al-Qaeda’s strategy. On the one hand it facilitated the speed and vastness of its reach, but on the other it led to frail control over the distant factions. During the early 2000s, Islamist Nigerian groups were forming and dismantling, Boko Haram being an enduring example of one. Debates among Islamic leaders over how to handle life and public education under a western (Christian) Nigerian Government (arbitrarily crafted by a colonial power) were prominent. Due to the pressures caused by the ‘War on Terror’, “the absence of any exchange of arguments on the legitimacy of Al-Qaeda’s project of global jihad” is “curious and conspicuous”. One would imagine that such conversation or public stance in that period would be undodgeable, unless “to avoid threading any organic links with Al-Qaeda”. The United States’ ‘War on Terror’ has failed to eradicate or contain Boko Haram, and though they only occasionally become major news, the organization is consistently portrayed as horrific abusers of women and children. There are untold parts of this story, however. To portray the multiplicity with which Brigaglia’s defines the human condition, away from “limpid ‘worldviews’”, we ought to talk about Nigeria in multiple ways. Or as the brilliant Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie puts it, we must avoid “the danger of a single story”. PHOTOGRAPHY BY FABIO TEIXEIRA Brazil The story of Muslim Nigerian women in refuge in Brazil could be one of beauty and power, where the protagonist is not Islamist violence and suffering. And it can also be about the responsibility of the West to understand the complexities of these women’s lives, especially a life within a society built upon Christian dominance. In this photo series by the photojournalist Fabio Teixeira, about 20 Nigerian women refugees in São Paulo became vibrant protagonists of their own stories. They made their own clothes from fabrics they got at work, which is sewing for clandestine factories that come down as quickly as they pop up. Some of them work cleaning the mannequins on which these clothes are displayed. All these jobs offer no security or proper payment, yet these women can bring dignity to their humble homes in São Paulo, and in some cases care for very young children. In both Brazil and Nigeria, poverty is the main obstacle between Muslim Nigerians and the fulfilling dignified life we all deserve. To practice your religion in peace and provide for your family and loved ones is a right that should be granted to everyone, despite race, nationality, or gender. While we may discuss how the Nigerian government has failed to ensure this right to its peoples, we ought not to forget the failure of Western countries in treating Nigerians with the respect they would expect for themselves. The region which is now Nigeria has been exploited for hundreds of years, and religious violence has taken many forms, including in the form of islamophobia in Christian regions. What is the difference between saving and empowering? Have these refugees been saved from brutal regimes? Perhaps. But they are yet to find a place in this world where they can enjoy the humanity we all have the duty to uphold. If we vow to crack down on terrorism, we vow to support victims of terrorism as well. Is that what the West has been doing to Muslim Nigerian women? According to a publication by Anoosh Soltani at the United Nations University, “popular Western media outlets strongly perpetuate a hegemonic view of Muslim women”. By doing so, these women are confined to the categories of either oppressed, and/or “incompatible with the values and norms of the Western world”. In reality, there are multiple ways of practicing Islam, most of which would be against Western values to berate. Islam arrived in the region we now call Nigeria in the 11th century — a couple hundred years before European colonization. For many women, wearing the hijab was a statement against colonial rule. As such, head coverings worn by Muslim women have been a fierce symbol of belonging and resilience. In the history of Islam, Boko Haram is a recent and distinct phenomenon, born as a result of the pushes and pulls of history, global conflict, and the human condition. To do better, more of us in the West must show Muslim Nigerian women respect and provide them with the basic human dignity we are all entitled to. ______ MIRNA WABI-SABI is a writer, editor and director of Plataforma9. FABIO TEIXEIRA is a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker living in Rio de Janeiro. He has worked for The Guardian, Folha de São Paulo, the International Red Cross, Unicef, among others.

It is difficult to bring a critical eye to such a respected figure in the world of artistic, political and environmental activism. People are complex and therefore so are their artistic productions. I believe that Sebastião Salgado's work exists somewhere between the beneficial and the harmful. By Mirna Wabi-Sabi, originally published at A Beautiful Resistance. A selection of Sebastião Salgado's work is now on display at the 'Museum of Tomorrow' in Rio de Janeiro — black and white photos of the Amazon and indigenous peoples of the region, in a museum dedicated to sustainability financed by Shell. The photographer's artistic and professional skill is undeniable, as is the curatorship of his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, reasons why the overwhelming majority of public reaction to this exhibition is positive. As an icon of environmental protection, and a leftist activist since the Brazilian dictatorship, Salgado is admired around the world. But, when I saw the exhibition, I couldn't contain the discomfort with the exoticization and, in some cases, eroticization of indigenous people, with inappropriate texts, full of half-truths that try to contextualize these photos. All of this made me wish he had invested strictly in recording the landscapes, which are magnificent, and avoided merging native people with plants, birds, and monkeys. For a while I thought I was the only one feeling this discomfort, until I found a 2018 research by Marcelo Messina and Teresa Di Somma that reports exactly the problem—“the unnerving logic of colonialism.” “In addition to silencing the stories of violence perpetrated by European colonizers against indigenous people, camouflaging them under friendly exchanges between utensils and women, Salgado visually connects to these stories of violence, symbolically reproducing them.” The explanatory texts in the exhibition misrepresent reality through silencing. Military officer Cândido Rondon is described as the “greatest protector of indigenous people in Brazil”, silencing countless indigenous people who have fought for generations to protect themselves. When speaking of the marshal in this way, the truth is also silenced not only about the violence against indigenous people perpetrated by the military institution of which he was a part, but also the corruption and abuse in the indigenous protection institutions that he founded himself. Many say that he was a protector of indigenous people, but they must also recognize that protection for him meant assimilation into neocolonial Brazilian society. In that same paragraph about Rondon, the indigenous way of life is described as “bucolic”, and I believe this word represents the kind of romanticism we confuse with respect. ‘In relation to the countryside’ places indigenous peoples in contrast to urban, industrialized life. When we glorify the native connection to nature, we confuse exoticization with appreciation, for we simplify by romanticizing, and we also infantilize by reducing these civilizations to categories of 'pure' and 'naive'. There is nothing naive about the cultural legacy of the Amazonian indigenous peoples, there is naivety in us when we create this dichotomy between life in connection with nature and industrialized Christian life. Religion is silenced in the texts when indigenous spirituality is narrated as an anecdote, while the Christian gaze implicitly permeates all readings. In the text about the Suruwahá, it is said that there are high rates of suicide there as a symptom of mythology. They believe in “three heavens”, the best of which is for those who die at the most vigorous moment in life. The use of the word “suicide” alone is already a Western and Christian reading of the practice of “ritual death”. According to Kariny Teixeira De Souza and Márcio Martins Dos Santos, in the 2009 research “Ritual death: Reflections on the suruwaha 'suicide'", “cultural practices, such as the ritual death discussed here, misunderstood by 'Western' and, in a certain sense, Christian, conceptions prevailing in our society, feed our imagination, and so we think we see, right in front of us, beings devoid of humanity and meaning”. The word suicide can indeed be used when describing a serious public health issue among indigenous peoples as a result of the systemic psychic violence of hundreds of years. “The main risk factors for suicide [cited in 111 studies on 7 Brazilian indigenous ethnicities] were poverty, historical and cultural factors, low indicators of well-being, family disintegration, social vulnerability and lack of meaning in life and in the future”, reads an excerpt from the World Health Organization's 2020 Systematic Review. Mythology and spirituality are not factors in suicide rates among indigenous peoples, to say such a thing is a decontextualization of reality, and for what purpose? This question brings us back to the research of Marcelo Messina and Teresa Di Somma – the logic of colonialism is unnerving because it revels in its “stories of violence”, it is perverse. In Salgado's case, this desire is camouflaged in attractive images that frame nudity, especially female nudity, as pure and naive. Some argue that the sexualization of this nudity takes place in the gaze of the audience, not the photographer, but there are artistic choices Salgado made in which the sexualization is evident (note Figure 1 of the research). In many of the portraits, men are framed shoulder-up, and women are photographed with exposed breasts. This choice can happen to emphasize the differences between us and them, and the nudity of female breasts is indeed a difference. This in itself would be problematic, because the emphasis on difference exoticizes and objectifies. Eroticization possibly takes place in the gaze of the photographer and the audience, but certainly in the silencing of the history of sexual violence suffered by indigenous girls and women for centuries. Nowhere is the history of sexual violence addressed in the texts of the exhibition, but all over nudity is romanticized. Brazil suffered for hundreds of years with an “ethnic cleansing” that instrumentalized rape, the female nude was read as animalistic and inhuman. And that reality has not yet been resolved. “Salgado [makes use] of the body of the photographed subjects, to the point of objectifying and sexualizing”, and when contextualizing his work, he fails to point out that rape was a tool for genocide, and that indigenous women still suffer from the remnants of this tool today. It is difficult to bring a critical eye to such a respected figure in the world of artistic, political and environmental activism. People are complex and therefore so are their artistic productions. In the age of social media and cancellation, it is necessary to rescue the nuance and complexity of things that exist between good and evil, between supposed right and wrong. I believe that Sebastião Salgado's work exists somewhere between the beneficial and the harmful. There have been certain positive results, not only from his work in favor of environmental protection, but also from works that mobilize people to have empathy and affection for threatened peoples and forests on the brink of destruction. However, this is not the whole story. There's a lot of important stuff left unsaid, which has counterproductive and pernicious repercussions. When we propose to have a critical look at state violence against nature and indigenous peoples, this critical look cannot be selective, because if it is, we are not advancing in the way that we urgently need to advance. Is there room for what is beautiful? There is. But not at the expense of awareness of the brutality of the reality in which we live. _______ Mirna Wabi-Sabi is a writer, editor and founder of Plataforma9.