The violence of Farra do Boi in 2001 - A Noticia- Joinville April 13 and 14, 2001

EDITORIAL

The savagery of the participants of farra-do-boi was again confirmed. A team of reporters from the newspaper “A Noticia” that were supposed to cover Farra do Boi in the area of (Governor) Celso Ramos, in the city of Florianópolis were met by coward aggression. Was with the same violence that they deny to exist in the practice of Farra do Boi that we were attacked.

If the irritation of the participants with the exaggeration of the national media – description of inexistent barbaric torture – is behind the attacks as we were victims, more violence won’t solve the issue. Shall we start accepting violence in lower levels of scale? “Cultural” Heritage or even religious precepts have been justifying good part of the atrocities made by the humanity throughout the centuries. Fundamental for the preservation of a country’s identity or even a community, the traditions – as well as the language – are one of the main characteristics for ones’ ethnicity. But societies do also evolve.

Farra do Boi instead of denoting the preservation of culture, is turning out to be lamentably medievalist. This is devolution. It is frivolous to reduce the cultural richness of people from our state, either from the whole state of Santa Catarina or for only people who live in the coastal villages, who still practice Farra do Boi.However, the practice brings shame to our citizens, regardless the national repercussions that maybe reached throughout the last years.

Farra do Boi is crime. The decision of the Brazilian Supreme Court had qualified the practice in 1997 as cruelty to animals. Not surprisingly, there were arguments among the defenders of Farra do boi that perhaps Brazil has more important issues to worry about instead of “games” with oxen. As if one wrong justifies other. Even though the practice persists and despite of the decision of the STF, the issue remains in strongly controversy.

In the edition of April 8, 2001, “A Notícia” has published in the section “Interview of Sunday” a special Issue about the writer and historian Maria Bernardete Flores. Specialized in the subject, she had named the control over the festival as “authoritarianism". She also had repeated the argument that the media distorts the facts, denying the barbarism of farra do boi. The Newspaper A Notícia had accomplished its duties as media representative, bringing the other side of the debate.

The interview was the target of many protests (mostly in disagreeing with Maria Bernadete), are published in our section for letters. If people still want to defend the cultural perspective or even the characteristic of the “game”, it won’t be by attacking professionals from the media, that the participants of farra do boi will be able to revert what they qualify as “persecution”of the media.If the argument left is violence, then devolution is confirmed.