In a text from the heart, published yesterday in the journal piauí (open only to subscribers), the Brazilian neuroscientist Suzana Herculano-Houzel said goodbye to the country and explained why she decided to accept the invitation to move to Tennessee. Author of good books on the functioning of the brain, TED speaker and lead author of one of the very few research only signed by Brazilians to end up in the pages of the prestigious journal Science, Suzana says tired of environment that encourages mediocrity and a dearth so great that she sometimes need to take pocket money to do research. "Brazilian science is dying," he wrote.
And look, the melancholic text was written before Suzana become aware of information that appeared yesterday in the political news, which realized that the Vice President Michel Temer is considering giving the ministry the government's Science and Technology that it plans to build the bishop Marcos Pereira, president of the rental party PRB and bishop of the Universal Church. The news is not confirmed - is one among many trial balloons that Temer is leaking in the media to see whether they are slaughtered. If this is not the highest government post Science Administration in Brazil will be a technical accounting, spiritual leader and business man involved in two very lucrative business: church and party.
The Ministry of Science and Technology would be a reward Fearing the runt PRB, in exchange for the support of partideco to impeachment - an extreme example of the rough logic that has governed scientific policy of the country - and politics in general. Investing in science is very complicated in times of economic crisis, but the whole world knows that money invested in this area back multiplied in the medium and especially in the long run in the form of lucrative patents, gains in quality of education and quality of processes both in the private sphere and in public.
In Brazil, the Ministry of Science is a bargaining chip in partisan haggling - one of many millionaires budgets to be disputed by the parties that feed on chupinhar public money. In other countries, it is a space for formulating long-term strategies that go far beyond the next election. It is also an area that supports the rest of the government, bringing the tip of scientific knowledge for the formulation of public policies.
They are wrong who think that the abuse of science in Brazil are exclusive of PT administrations. In São Paulo PSDB government, for example, the whole discussion about the water crisis virtually ignored the advice of climate scientists. He even gave a pity to see the Alckmin governor declared that there was crisis in the dry season, only to say that the crisis had passed when it was rainy season and return to get worried when it stopped raining again - demonstrating that he did not know that climate vissiscitudes were planned for more than a decade of complex climate models produced by scientists. Disregard the knowledge of the state government was also evident when, in the midst of a huge crisis in public education, the governor changed the secretary of education - and, instead of naming a great leader pedagogue, as recommended by the experts on the subject, he gave the position to a judge of justice that does not understand patavinas learning and made famous by defending the privilege of judges have a public verbinha to buy chic suits.
The problem of tosqueira the Brazilian scientific policy is not partisan, is cultural: manifests itself in all parties and outside them, universities, as sincere Suzana text makes clear. All scientific establishment in Brazil is dominated by an anachronistic vision that discourages innovation, wastes resources and does not give hope to a generation of talented researchers who are leaving the country in droves in search of better opportunities. Profound changes are urgent, because no rocket science there will be no solution to the crisis - through the scientific investment to achieve the great potential of Brazil, the richest country in the world in natural resources. But, it seems, the Brazilian political system has no ability to promote these changes.
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