Brazil president brushes off boos

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has had it with the boos already. But he’s trying to be philosophical.

"God made us perfect, with two ears, one to hear jeers and the other to hear applause," Lula mused this week. "Boos and applause are two moments of human reaction."

Catcalls and hisses have greeted the chief executive in recent weeks, notably at the opening of the Pan-American games three weeks ago in Rio de Janeiro’ storied Maracanã stadium. Lula compared his Rio rebuff to arriving at a friend’s birthday party, only to find he wasn’t welcome.

``I’m certain that’s not the way people in Rio de Janeiro think,’’ Lula said.

More boos followed his government’s widely perceived mishandling of the country’s air-travel scare, brought on by the July 17 crash that killed 199 people at Congonhas international airport in Sao Paulo.

From the perspective of Lula and many of his supporters, the jeers largely come from prosperous Brazilians who have never warmed to Brazil’s first working-class president, despite his fiscally conservative economic policies that have helped make many rich.

``Those who are booing,’’ said Lula, ``are the ones with the most reason to applaud.’’

-- Posted by Patrick J. McDonnell in Buenos Aires