Hey everyone,
Between work, a 3000 word essay for uni, and a job application, I haven’t had much time to spend on the newsletter this week.
So, instead, I’m going to write a musing I’ve had for some time but never found the right place to put it.
The title of this week’s post comes from a lyric in a song written by Aldir Blanc Mendes and Mauricio Tapajos Gomes in 1978 called Querellas do Brasil (Regrets/complaints from Brazil), made most famous by Elis Regina.
It’s a satirical, anti-colonialist, anti-'West' song that uses a lot of Indigenous words that have made their way into the Brazilian Portuguese lexicon. The aforementioned lyric, “O Brazil não merece o Brasil” (Brazil doesn’t deserve Brasil) sums up the sentiment of the song by playing with the English spelling of Brazil with a ‘z’ — an aspirational 'Western', or white, version of the country doesn’t deserve the culturally rich Indigenous, black and mulatto one. The lyrics go on to say “O Brazil não conhece o Brasil” (Brazil doesn’t know Brasil) “O Brasil nunca foi ao Brazil” (Brasil has never been to Brazil) “O Brazil tá matando o Brasil” (Brazil is killing Brasil) “Do Brasil S.O.S. ao Brasil” (From Brasil S.O.S. to Brazil).
I first came across these lyrics as graffiti in another Brazilian music video for Silva’s A Cor É Rosa (The Colour Is Pink).
It’s funny how the meaning of words in another language resonate with you deeper than any phrase you’ve heard in your first.
Funny, also, that the semantics and poetry of these lyrics are completely dependent on the tiny discrepancy between the English and Portuguese spelling of the word Brazil/Brasil.
“Australia doesn’t deserve Australia” doesn’t work.
But this concept has been spinning around in my head ever since.
There you go.
A YouTube channel I’ve come across recently is that of a psychiatrist who posts whole sessions with willing participants in order to share the tools and language around mental health. The following is a long one with one of my favourite YouTubers, Natalie Wynn, or 'ContraPoints', wherein they discuss internalised transphobia and self care. It’s riveting stuff.
OK, that’s enough typing wildly at a keyboard for me today.
See you next week!