{"id":8109,"date":"2018-08-21T00:02:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T00:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/?p=8109"},"modified":"2018-08-21T00:02:04","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T00:02:04","slug":"what-is-ursal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/what-is-ursal\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Ursal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boa noite, pessoal! Good evening, everyone!<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing better to understand a country\u2019s estado atual<\/em> (current state) than the memes it has been producing. The truth is that, other than having a comic effect, some memes also tend to work as a radar for assuntos do momento<\/em> (present issues). Brazil\u2019s latest meme is related to something called <\/span>Ursal<\/b>, an acronym that went viral after the first presidential debate semana passada<\/em> (last week). <\/span><\/p>\n

The Brazilian presidential elei\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> (election) takes place in October. As a result, news channels have been organizing debates with potential candidates for the position. The first one aired last week and memes came flooding shortly after due to an argument between two candidates over the so-called Ursal<\/strong>, also known as the <\/span>Uni\u00e3o das Republiquetas Socialistas da Am\u00e9rica Latina (Union of the little Socialist Republics of Latin America)<\/span><\/i>. <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Mas do que se trata? But what is it all about? During the debate, Cabo Daciolo, a deputy, minister and currently a candidate for presidency, inquired his opponent Ciro Gomes about his alleged involvement with <\/span>Ursal<\/b>, to which <\/span>Ciro promptly denied even being aware of what it<\/span> was and claimed to have no connection to it whatsoever.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was later discovered that <\/span>Ursal<\/b> never really existed, and it was nothing but a piada<\/em> (joke) made up <\/span>duas d\u00e9cadas<\/span><\/i> (two decades) ago. <\/span>The term was first registered about <\/span>vinte<\/span><\/i> (20) years ago by a sociology teacher named <\/span>Maria Lucia Victor Barbosa<\/span> to ironically address a leftist conference called <\/span>Foro de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/span><\/i> (S\u00e3o Paulo forum) that was held in Cuba and gathered a number of Latin countries to discuss politics in the international scenario. At the occasion, the professor suggested, teasingly, the creation of <\/span>Ursal <\/b>to designate the projeto da esquerda<\/em> (<\/span>left-wing project), an idea that would aim at unifying all pa\u00edses<\/em> (countries) in Latin America in order to fortalecer<\/em> (strengthen) and empower our political and economic structures. Despite being clearly sarcastic, the whole thing got out of control since then and was blown out of proportions. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although Daciolo intended to bring up the scheme so as to denounce it and expose his opponent, his move backfired and his misinformed comment <\/span>soon became an internet phenomenon and made the Twitter trending topics in Brazil almost immediately. There are, however, some extremistas de direita<\/em> (right-wing extremists) who are into conspiracy theories and believe that\u00a0<\/span>Ursal<\/b> could be a plan for communists to take over the country, but the author of the Ursal <\/strong>acronym assures everyone she was just mocking and was very surprised to see that people actually believed it could ever be real.<\/span><\/p>\n

Assista o v\u00eddeo aqui:<\/p>\n