BRAZIL-Is the "time warp" real?

Sorry, but I just can’t resist this!

A long time ago on this blog I remarked that it seemed like Dilma Rousseff was caught in a time warp – stuck in the 1950-60s with her preference for a “new economic framework” based apparently on the populism of that period in Latin America.

When I wrote that tongue-in-cheek comment I had no idea how serious the time warp might have been. However, Dilma was reported to have recently announced that she will go to a UN climate conference in New York at which she will tell the world that she is unjustly suffering a “putsch” in Brazil, referring of course to her pending impeachment.

Since I am pretty much a product of the 50s/60s rock-and-roll music, Elvis, The Platters, The Moonglows, etc. I immediately remembered a song by Eddie Cochran, “Summertime Blues”, in which a teenager complains about the injustice of having to work during his summer vacation from school. The last stanza of that song is as follows:

“I’m gonna take two weeks, gonna have a fine vacation

  I’m gonna take my problem to the United Nations

  Well I called my Congressman and he said quote:

   ‘I’d like to help you son but you’re too young to vote’

   Sometimes I wonder what I’m a gonna do

   But there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues”

For those readers whose first acquaintance with rock-and-roll was with The Beatles, you can download “Summertime Blues” on the Internet. It’s a catchy and amusing song and fairly typical of the period.

Dilma’s alleged “threat” to take her problem to the United Nations has the talking heads and some analysts in a tizzy. Some are suggesting dire consequences for Brazil in the international community. My own view is that if Dilma does, in fact, make reference at the UN conference to her impeachment as a “coup d’état”  it will just be a naïve and embarrassing moment. All those who are concerned for the outcome of the moment might want to listen to “Summertime Blues”.

We are going from the ridiculous to the sublime down here!

Meanwhile, welcome to the age of real, old-time rock-and-roll! It will never die!