The election of Gabriel Boric in Chile and now the return of Lula in Brazil could be just the change South America is crying out for. I’m sure my elation will come down a notch or two in the passing days but I refuse to be cynical about the defeat of someone who made Trump look positively moderate. One of the heroes of my student days was Brazilian educationalist, Paulo Freire. We would do well to remember his words,
“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”