Brasília, I love you!

At least two great sorrows are to be found in Brasília. The visible of them has been an object of local and national news and the other is screaming in the heart of the poverty stricken area of the city where the garbage dump is located. This is, needless to say, outside of the spotlight…

The festivities of Christmas, New Years and Carnaval were not enough to exclude from the news an unhappy reality of our country’s capital city. The elected Governor is imprisoned, the Vice-Governor and the President of the Board of Supervisors have renounced their duties and it is the latter’s substitute who is to assume the post. What will be the outcome of this story that so saddens those who live here?

The other great sorrow happens to be very close to the central power, but very far from the news headlines. Proud of their well kempt green lawns and flowery gardens –in the Plano Piloto at least – every citizen of Brasília should be obliged to pay a visit to the place where the garbage they generate is deposited.

For 40 years ingrown in an area very close to Brasília’s powers – only 15 km away from the National House of Parliament –, imposingly reins the Vila Estrutural Garbage Dump, technically labeled ‘Controlled Landfill’, which according to authorities in fact represents a threat to the environmental health of the state of Distrito Federal. “Waste management is one of the country’s most serious problems. The situation here has not yet been resolved adequately. The Estrutural Garbage dump is located right beside Brasília National Park, where the water comes from that supplies over 500 thousand people. This obviously is creates problems”, says the president of Brasília Ambiental (Ibram), Gustavo Souto Maior.

At the garbage dump of the Estrutural, situated between the Plano Piloto and Ceilândia, you will have the opportunity to see collectors of recyclable materials disputing space with the tractors and advancing upon trucks to grab what we habitants of the Fiftieth Anniversary City toss away. With no support, no structure, and no security they fight over the leftovers of our remains. We, citizens of Brasília are the Brazilian champions of waste; each habitant generates an average of 5.2 pounds per day.

Our exaggerated consumption, our accommodation to throw away our garbage any which way and anywhere, our lack of environmental awareness, our neglectfulness, our lack of good sense on one hand and a lack of proper waste management on the other impels us reflect about the need to create or recreate our behavioral values which can change this picture.

In the words of the musician, Elis Regina, “I do not trust anyone older than 30” we should bet on our children at least. Make it so that ALL go on this surreal route. One can’t see Disneyland without first seeing the Estrutural garbage dump.  We’ll experiment with a school road trip and make an evaluation with them on the reasons behind all of this. We shall try with the children, since we adults cannot resolve the situation, or what should be done. How? When? In what way?

The deterioration of the institutional power here is as cruel as is our indifference to how we handle the trash that we generate and how we treat the thousands of informal workers that deal with our remainders.

A suggestion for the judges who will determine the penalties of our former governors and former President of the Board of Supervisors is that they give back everything that they stole and do community service together with the trash collectors of the Estrutural. This way maybe they can use their wisdom to put an end to this injurious activity and establish a collective selection of the trash and build adequate infrastructures for its processing. To offer adequate and healthy work areas, with restrooms, canteens and fair pay for this extraordinary work of gathering and salvaging remains.

Perhaps it would be an opportunity for them to see who lost the most with this unscrupulous management of theirs.

You can imagine that this is not the kind of ambient that these former governors of Brasília are accustomed to, but it might be a great way to call attention to a degrading situation in a humane, health and values point of view. Perhaps it would be useful in the case of them being interested in redeeming some of their wrongs committed. A solution must be found for these two ills. Try to put yourself in this situation: you have no wages, no income, submitting to mining around in these heaps of waste in order to have enough to eat. Do an experiment and try to think of every waste that you generate, or fail to separate, and each collector as a loved one, in every uncompromised act of generating more and more garbage. Think about what moves us as citizens. If you as a reader have a better idea to call attention to this horror, please manifest. It’s revolting to see the rich and powerful stealing while trash collectors try to piece together remains in order to survive. Or is it the end of the world and citizens and trash collectors do not represent one and the same species?

Despite this grim picture to overshadow the celebrations of the city’s fiftieth anniversary, I have faith and hope enough to say: Brasília, I love you!