Brazilian Elections -- Brazilian Election

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Date Posted: 09:12:12 10/06/06 Fri
Author: Levi F. Ara�jo
Subject: Brazilian Elections

To the newspaper The Guardian

Dear Sir:

I am writing in response to your article �Social Class Splits Brazil Vote� (October 2, 2006). Your article showed the need of considering the role of elections in Brazil and in the world.

As a Brazilian, I must confess that I live in an economically deprived land. Until some time ago, there was little I can do to improve my situation. I became frustrated with conditions in my own country, and immigrated to Japan to seek better living conditions. In this sense, I can say that I have experienced a better situation that most part of my country fellows who are not able to do anything. Even though, I think myself quite poor, and I still can�t afford buying a house, a car, or other items of comfort.

My country fellows from rural areas dwell in small huts with their families, and they envy the people from the capitals who enjoy marvelous �luxuries� � running water and electricity. They don�t have clothes to wear, and they lack such basics as food and water. They wear old, worn, or patched clothing. They long for a less monotonous diet. They have to deal with the day-to-day pressures of being poor. These families live in a tight budget and can not get all they need. When they move to some capital, like S�o Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, in search of better living conditions, soon these families� children become drug traffickers, once they grow up in a family of little means.

It wouldn�t be so bad if we were all poor. But when poor people see others on TV or elsewhere that have so much more than they do, it is a hard thing to take. In fact, there is a vast economic and social gulf separating people from Third World countries today. And in view of the way the media shameless flaunt wealth and materialism, the poor people may likewise suffer a pang of envy when they see how wealthier people live.

Such situation brings to mind the role of elections as a tool for selecting representatives who are supposed to bring fairness, justice, and to satisfy the real needs of the people who elected them.

The past 6,000 years of history have shown that the human governments, even those with good intentions, have failed to satisfy the real needs of people. None have solved the problems of crime and racial hatred or have provided proper food and housing for all their people. They have not freed their citizens completely of disease. Nor has any government been able to stop aging or death, or to bring the dead to life again. There is not one that has even brought lasting peace and security to its citizens. Governments of men are simply not able to solve the big problems facing people.

The Bible explains why this happens:

�Man has dominated man to his injury.� (Ecclesiastes 8:9)

Thus, the records of history have shown us that the words of the introspective prophet Jeremiah have proven to be correct:

�It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.� (Jeremiah 10:23)

In view of this, we need a righteous government that will make it possible for all people to enjoy a full and happy life. As the songwriter Sting has put down in his song �Spirits in the Material World�:

�There�s no political solution
To our troubled evolution�
[�]
There must be another way�.

And I tell you that indeed there is a way: it is through God�s guidance in our earthly affairs.

Levi F. Ara�jo

(031)8831-7555
tinobrown@yahoo.com

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Replies:

Re: Brazilian Elections -- Clair dela Cruz, 11:34:47 10/06/06 Fri