Brazil's creative culture rises up

When 20,000 hectares of forest turn into ashes and thousands of animal species die, when the minister of human rights says that boys should only wear blue and girls should only wear pink, when she also says that Disney's Frozen is a work that clearly encourages homosexual tendencies, when the government's opinion on Carnival is that it is a festival that boasts only lust and debauchery, when all funds destined to the film industry and fine arts are almost entirely cut and the nature of the works needs to be authorised by the government itself, when police violence is encouraged by the highest spheres and when one of the most important topics being discussed is how to arm the population, a population whose voice has been silenced, its rights denied and its differences suffocated, you can be sure: creativity is at risk.

Brazilian creativity and culture are born precisely from everything that is under attack today in our country. Creativity cannot be afraid, creativity cannot be pruned, tamed... creativity cannot be tied to straps. When a forest is burned, imagine all the infinite inspiration that will burn with it. There is probably nothing more plural, diverse and beautiful than the largest rain forest in the world. And that diversity is an infinite source of possibilities for arts, science and culture.

The amount of colours that have been inspiring creativity in so many artists, from 18th century painter Antonio Parreiras to contemporary photographer Araquem de Almeida. The bio-diversity that has helped find cures to so many diseases and that still hides cures to diseases that have not yet appeared. The indigenous cultures that can teach our society so much about respect, love and sharing. Nature is creativity in its purest form. And nature, in Brazil, is at risk.