Our country’s main means of transport is road transport, and approximately 60% of the freight corresponds to diesel. The truck drivers’ strike, which began on May 21st and lasted 11 days, has compromised road transport activities, generating a crisis in the supply of fuel, food, among others, making the country turn its eyes to the truck drivers.
The shutdown, according to the Ministry of Finance, predicts a loss of almost 16 billion reais to the country’s economy. The Government negotiated the claims of the category and the new freight table generated many discussions. Certainly, there is still much to be done.
But much more than numbers, dates, and data, the strike gave us a chance to reflect on Brazil as a nation. The Government needs to understand the needs and urgencies of its people and those truck drivers, like all other categories in the country, have families to care for, educate and feed.
We, the workers, the vast majority of the people, we wake up early, sleep late, fight, and persevere because we love our homeland. It is not fair to always pay for the losses generated by a minority of corrupt and malicious people, who should be committed to working for the common good, for a better Brazil, but for selfishness, vanity and self-centeredness, end up working to feed their ego and their insatiable greed.
I take this opportunity to leave a thought to all the Brazilian people: that we may reflect on our conduct in the environment in which we are inserted. Has it been cool? Are we basing our work on what is ethical and real?
May we take advantage of this period – very propitious – to rethink what we have been hearing for years about “that famous Brazilian way”. Is it worth it? All that we have suffered is the result of these mistaken attitudes.
May we reassess our conduct and rethink our values. If we want a better Brazil, we need to be better Brazilians. So fight for the right, do not accept any practice of corruption. We are a rich nation, but we live miserably because we need a change of mentality. It is not only a question of the government ceasing to be corrupt, even because the government is a representative of the “PEOPLE”. We need “ALL” to stop having corrupt practices. The Government is more exposed because it handles most of the resources, but corruption is corruption and, as a consequence, it generates damage, in the same way, in its due proportions.
Brazilian people, people of courage, do not sell yourselves. We do not need any form of corruption to achieve what we need. Corruption is something shameful, it is like a tumor that gradually corrodes values and principles, making a man unrecognizable faced with his nature.
My father, a very simple and wise man, always taught us to value work and gratitude for everything, for little or for a lot, and always told us: “Children, do not steal a box of matches, because if you steal a box of matches, you will be able to steal anything else, you will just have to wait for the opportunity. Do to others what you would like them to do to you, and so you will be successful in whatever you do.”
Simple, but true.
Only then will we have a better Brazil.
Vanessa Andrade Cruz.
