Friday, June 17, 2005

Possible dissertation titles?

Very enjoyable afternoon interviewing Gardenia, one of the collective which organises Sindiute, the independent teachers´union here in Ceara. Enjoyable because I followed most of what she said and because she kept within the limits of my tape (unlike my interviewee on Monday).

We had a coffee afterwards and chatted about some of the things they´re doing. Gardenia was at pains to point out that while what she said was negative about the state government, they weren´t in anyone´s pockets. Even though she campaigned for Luizianne Lins, who is now the PT mayor in Fortaleza, they were protesting about teachers´conditions down at city hall this week.

She also made a couple of good quotes which I may be able to use, including that while the current state education secretary had made a good analysis of the problems here before taking up her post, she had made it clear that ´before she was Professora Sofia. Now she was Secretary Sofia´ (echoes of Fernando Henrique Cardoso´s alleged statement to ´forget everything I wrote´ when he became president. Also the notion of Ceara being a ´neoliberal laboratory´. How we might describe Rio Grande do Sul under the PT I´ll find out next week.

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