Brazil

It's not about 20 cents. It's about justice. Freedom. Oppression. Anger. Desperation. Exhaustion from the daily fight for our rights. It's about getting what is ours.

Recently the bus fare in Brasil increased 20 centavos. It's R$3,20 to ride a bus. If you don't go in the bus during rush hour and you can sit down, listen to some music, get to your destination quickly, and let your mind wander a bit, I don't think it's that expensive. However, when you need to get to work and the buses don't even stop at your stop because they're so full and you need to take 2 or 3 buses to even get to work, and you're crammed in the bus like sardine between sweaty, foul-smelling, rude people... R$3,20 is not even close to worth it. The fare goes up but traffic gets work. Buses get fuller. No new buses are made so they break down.

But what São Paulo has been protesting against is more than the injustice of 20 centavos. It's the robbery of the millionaire politicians. It's being scared to go out past 8:00 at night because the city is so unsafe. It's the millions of taxes put on every single thing sold. It's about working all day and not affording food. It's about living with this reality for years and having enough of it. It's about having a world cup next year. São Paulo is over-crowded enough. Prices will go up in everything and nobody can even afford São Paulo as it is. Brazil is no way ready for the world cup.

Brazil is standing up for themselves and it's about time. I've never seen São Paulo come together like this. It's what everyone is talking about. People are encouraging others to go to the protests, to show the government how we're not taking their crap anymore and how we are ready for change. We are ready for justice and freedom.

However, the media doesn't help. Brasilian news doesn't show what's really going on. They call the protesters vandals. They say we are violent. Of course in every protest there will be some people who are violent. there are those who are full of anger and use violence as a means to demonstrate it. However, most of us want peace. We want somebody to listen to us and make a change. But the police don't help. According to social media, they are the ones who started many of the fights and started throwing tear gas for no reason. They arrested people for having vinegar in their backpack.

On Monday there's going to be a big protest and I hope it does some good. I hope this is history in the making and Brazil gets one step closer to being a functioning democracy where people can live freely without being hated on by their leaders.