Praise Who?

As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." He called out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"
Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" "Lord, I want to see," he replied. Jesus said to him, "Receive your sight; your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. (Luke 18:35-43)


Every second Sunday in October one of the largest religious gatherings in Brazil happens here in Belem. Over a million people come to the city to pay homage to Mary, Mother of Jesus through a statue of her with the infant Jesus in her arms. The focus of the festival is not the infant in her arms, but Mary.

During this time, the statue that is named Nossa Senhora or Our Lady, is paraded though the streets of the city.

First comes a police escort to clear the way, then the offering takers walk the route holding out their bags to the people, then another police ad fire escort and finally the statue itself arrives decked out in a special shawl and in a casing covered with flowers. The whole parade stops frequently as fireworks salutes are shot off as she passes by. The car having the statue on top of it is followed up by more police and firemen and a host of other followers and lastly, the traffic that has been delayed because of the parade. The faithful will wait for hours for a glimpse of her as she passes by. The day they passed near our house we heard fireworks for 6 hours, only stopping after dark.


The day of the main procession the parade includes a rope for the penitent to pull that pulls the cart the statue is on, a cart of fake body parts to which you may add your own if you want to pray for healing is part of the parade.

For this special day even the poor make an effort to wear fancy new clothes and shoes and eat special foods in celebration.

But to whom is the glory? Who is praised? When all the people see what is happening they give the glory to Mary, not to the infant son of God she holds in her arms. Those who praise, praise Mary and not her son Jesus, the son of God.

What a contrast to this healing in the scriptures.

When can you not be arrested in Brazil?

Today the busses were crowded, unusual for a Sunday morning. Crowds gathered in front of some schools as lines snaked around the corners with those waiting to vote in today's presidential election.

Voting for Brazilian citizens is mandatory. If you do not vote, you lose some of your rights as a citizen, like being able to get a passport and certain social benefits among others.

There are around 185 million people in Brazil. Over 126 million are eligible to vote. One person – one vote. Who ever gets the most votes wins as long as they get at least 50% of the vote. If no one gets 50%, there will be a run off between the top two candidates in four weeks. Looks like there will be a run off for president between the current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who received about 48.6% of the vote and former Sao Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin, who took 41.4% of the vote.

Over 30 million live in the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Only about 1.5 million live here in Belem. Since Belem is just a drop in the bucket compared to the south, we have seen little of the presidential election here, mostly it has been local offices.


If you were a candidate here what would you do to let others know about you? For starters you would hire cars to drive around neighborhoods and blast out your theme song with your name, office and numbers as giant flags waved from the windows. Just what are “numbers”? Each candidate has a set of numbers you need to punch into the voting machine when you vote. The higher the office, the smaller the number. Lula, the current president had “13” as his number. The senator had three digit numbers. The state representative had 5, the federal 4. Each political parties numbers start with the same two digits for every candidate.


Next you would tackle the easy job of finding some people who are willing to stand at a street corner all day waving a flag or holding a plaque in front of cars at stop lights for a little pay. Maybe you would even find 15 bicyclists to ride with your flag that, of course, has the number 15.


You would get your number and office and name painted on walls. Then you would stuff mail boxes and hand out little bits of paper with your face, name and number on it. You would put adds in the paper with the same. Notice a theme here?

The next thing it appears some, if not all do, according to the papers is play dirty.


The current president, Lula, suffered a significant drop in the polls over the last two weeks when two men with links to his political party were arrested carrying $800,000 dollars in cash. (Do you wonder why they had dollars and not the Brazilian currency, reais?) lt is believed that this cash was the payment for a dossier of corruption allegations against the president's rivals.

Six members of Lula's party, including an old friend who ran his personal security detail, have arrest warrants for their alleged roles in trying to buy the dossier. Lula fired his campaign manager just a few days before the election. The president has repeatedly denied knowledge of any wrongdoing.


But allegations resurfaced over the weekend with newspapers publishing photographs of the wads of bank notes. Local media reported the photos were leaked by federal police. The president party claimed that Alckmin's ( his rival) supporters were behind the leak and asked a judge Sunday to invalidate Alckmin's candidacy. The judge said he would consider the case. Alckmin's campaign has denied involvement. Although the investigation was delayed until after the first vote, one is supposed to begin before the runoff the last Sunday of October.

But what you won't see are pamphlets that tell you what the candidate thinks or plans to do. No adds in the paper explaining positions on anything. No voters guides to tell you the priorities and voting records of a senator.


If you are Lula, the current president up for reelection, you even skip the last of the presidential debates.

So what happens if you commit a crime during the week before the elections? Unless you are caught red handed, you can not be arrested till after the day of voting. Why you may ask? So you can't have your opponent and their supporters put in jail, which of course would mean they couldn't vote. There is more than one way to stuff a ballot box.