The Republica where I am staying, Aquarius, was itself born of the revolutionary spirit of 1968, being formed by those men thrown out of the other Republicas. Their misdemeanour being political dissent in the time of the dictatorship. It seems an appropriate place to talk politics and philosophy. Rousseau and Thomas Paine soon give way to stories of contemporary political corruption. How the British MP's expenses scandal is nothing to the great gulps of the Brazilian politicians! Senate chief and former President, Jose Sarney, is currently accused of embezzlement and nepotism on a grand scale. It is all fuel for my work on Shakespeare's Pericles, which invokes, at times, the spirit of Athenian citizenship. For example, the scene with the fishermen, which I am using in some of the workshops in the favelas. The fishermen complain that "the rich misers... the whales of the land... never leave gaping till they swallowed the whole parish, steeple, bells and all." On return to Rio I find the inscription, "Politics is the child of morality and reason." And I remember a conversation about how some Brazilian politicians see politics as a business tool.
The Republica where I am staying, Aquarius, was itself born of the revolutionary spirit of 1968, being formed by those men thrown out of the other Republicas. Their misdemeanour being political dissent in the time of the dictatorship. It seems an appropriate place to talk politics and philosophy. Rousseau and Thomas Paine soon give way to stories of contemporary political corruption. How the British MP's expenses scandal is nothing to the great gulps of the Brazilian politicians! Senate chief and former President, Jose Sarney, is currently accused of embezzlement and nepotism on a grand scale. It is all fuel for my work on Shakespeare's Pericles, which invokes, at times, the spirit of Athenian citizenship. For example, the scene with the fishermen, which I am using in some of the workshops in the favelas. The fishermen complain that "the rich misers... the whales of the land... never leave gaping till they swallowed the whole parish, steeple, bells and all." On return to Rio I find the inscription, "Politics is the child of morality and reason." And I remember a conversation about how some Brazilian politicians see politics as a business tool.
No comments:
Post a Comment