Mr.
Doria remains unperturbed in his polo shirt while managing ethically
questionable decisions. The mayor had already restricted the autonomy of the
Office of the Municipal Comptroller General, the city’s recently created
anticorruption agency, and last month he fired the acting comptroller general
“for administrative and operational reasons.” As a protest, three officials at
the agency resigned, including the head of the integrity department.
Vanessa Bárbara
A woman weeps while sitting in a corporate
board room, surrounded by a couple of frowning businessmen and floor-to-ceiling
glass windows showcasing the São Paulo skyline. She’s sorry, she says, but she
should have the right to make mistakes. It’s her first time on a reality TV
show! And besides, all she did was mess up someone’s coffee order.
João Doria, a media
mogul, is unsympathetic. “Our world is the real world,” he says to the weeping woman from across
the table. “It’s your world that is unreal.”
Since January, a new season
of reality has begun for many of us. In the United States, Donald Trump became
president. Here in São Paulo, João Doria Jr. became mayor. The two men have
much in common: They are conservative populists with big egos. They like to use
social media to get their message out. They have both written self-help
business books with uninspired titles (“The Art of the Deal” by Mr. Trump,
“Lessons in Winning” by Mr. Doria).
They are also both former hosts of the reality TV show “The Apprentice.”
(...)
Para continuar a leitura, acesse https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/reality-tv-meets-politics-brazilian-style.html.
Vanessa Bárbara – Editor of the literary website A Hortaliça, and the author of two
novels and two nonfiction books in Portuguese – 25.09.2017.
IN New York Times.
