“In 1826, the Marquise takes up residence in the palace, which was a venue for big parties and dances with the presence of her beloved, the Emperor Dom Pedro I, now a widower from his first marriage.”

Things are not exactly like that. The relationship between Dom Pedro and Domitilla (the Marquise) was already public for years. As Domitila moved to the “Yellow House” (the current Museum of the First Empire) before the death of Empress Leopoldina, we can assume that the two ladies were neighbors for a few months.

Does it matter? Well, I don´t think so. The infidelity of Dom Pedro did not stop him from proclaim the independence, win a civil war in Portugal and even get some time to write musics. So why fix his supposed “moral failure” justifying it with an “already a widower”?

It is curious the power of adultery when comparing it to other sins. After the scandal with his intern, Bill Clinton had to speak publicly about the case and to hope the forgiveness of voters. For another hand, his successor, did not need to apologize for insubordination, falsification of evidence, or war crimes. Which one is worse, after all?

Based on the scale of moral values​​, the likely conspiracy against Dominique Strauss-Kahn was simple and efficient. Why waste time creating political or financial scandals when ten minutes with a chambermaid at the Sofitel are more efficient? Because corruption is a boring subject of boring newspapers. But the infidelities of the IMF’s director changed the history of France and they almost reelect Sarkozy.

Society sometimes looks like those puritan women from the stories of Nelson Rodrigues, looking for some distraction from the tedium by policing the fidelity of the neighbors, but still in bathrobes and gates parted, waiting eagerly to live, even just a little, of intense sins.

This Article is also available in Portuguese.

In 2010, the U.S. government has entrusted to Brazil and Turkey a special mission: to go to Iran and negotiate an exchange of nuclear fuel. Officially, the U.S. government placed itself as “willing to negotiate” and avoid sanctions.

And so they did: Lula and Erdogan, the Prime Minister of Turkey.

But the unexpected has come: the mission was successful. And was it not supposed to be? Well, not really. The sending of Lula and Erdogan was made relying on the obvious failure of the two countries, both diplomatically inexperienced and unprepared to deal with issues of “the grown ups”. The expected failure would serve to sustain new sanctions: “We tried to negotiate, but … you know Iran…”

Lula and Erdogan did what they was asked to. They went back home with the famous “Tehran Declaration” signed: Iran agreed to send 1.2 tons of its uranium to be enriched abroad, under the supervision of Turkey. With the mission that went wrong exactly because it worked out, the situation got tense.

The reaction came quickly. “Ah, but I did not authorize nor even asked for such agreement”, Obama said. Brazil and Turkey were discredited in the media, accused of vanity, anti-semitism, anti-americanism, makers of international agreements not allowed.

But times have changed. Brazil and Turkey may not have the experience of the major powers. Maybe so they have their own private codes and their own way of conducting things to an understanding.

The reaction of the Brazilian government: leak to the press a letter from Obama in which the President asks Lula and Erdogan to do exactly (no more, no less) what they did. “Who is lying now?”

Brazil is not be the super-powerful leader of the international complex joints, have not the strongest military power in the world and the country continues without a chair to sit on the UN Security Council. Brazil is just a guy who has suffered a lot, gained experience dealing with its internal issues, and it is no longer willing to accept certain things, and even much less willing to contribute to the maintenance of the bellicose posture that dominated the 20th century.

As the former President Lula declared, during the mission in Iran: “There are a million reasons why we have arguments to build peace and no argument for us to build the war.”

The full story about the episode has just been told in the book “A Single Roll of the Dice”, by the american analyst of Iranian origin Trita Parsi. The full article about it you can read in this link da BBC Brasil. 

This Article is also available in Portuguese.

This Article is also available in Portuguese.

(“De ce mesme papier où il vient d’escrire l’arrest de condamnation contre un adultere, le juge en desrobe un lopin pour en faire un poulet à la femme de son compagnon.”  Michel de Montaigne)

This Article is also available in Portuguese.