Editorial
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The news this week seems full of productive compromises as parties move to work things out; U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Brazil making sure the wheels of Western Hemisphere collaboration continue churning, Brazilian prosecutors are repositioning around the Chevron and Transocean law suit, and Niterói and Rio are standing together in the progression of UPP and state security.
A lot of division can be fanned in all three of these situations, and certainly there is a lot of room for conflict, but in most cases moderation is encouraging to see.
The disagreements between Brazil and the U.S. on several high profile policy points, as well as trade posturing are easy to focus on. Especially as Brazil ascends on the world stage with its booming economy and cash flush globe trotters.
Yet there is so much more to be gained by collaboration rather then conflict, and even if Rousseff’s visit to D.C. was short and marginal in official progress, it is good to see Clinton down here hammering out the good will and lord knows this Open Government Partnership (OGP) can use more spotlight.
The Brazilian legal action against Chevron and Transocean has also taken a turn towards moderation. With these kinds of things it is hard to know how much is real verses drummed up for the public consumption. Not sure if it is better one way or the other.
On one hand, for Brazil to curb the international investment into the oil discovery and production, the very source of the above mentioned boom, seems a bit unrealistic. On the other, we all hope Brazil can succeed in protecting its natural resources and environment (and the beaches of Rio) – at whatever cost.
The last bit of collaboration to note for the week is how Niterói is not condemning Rio for flushing all its criminals over to the bridge. Not that they are accepting it, they are demanding more security from the state, but there seems to be an acceptance that the UPP policy is worth building on, not kicking around. Amen.
Collaboration, negotiation, compromise, these are all virtues of the wise and it is encouraging and inspiring to see. Of course, drastic times do call for drastic measures.
