Outlaw Cowboy

It was 2023 and I was visiting another state for work when I met some colleagues who were discussing the revocation of the diploma and the exclusion from CREA of a colleague whose name was, I believe, Honório, a Forestry Engineer (EF). These colleagues formed the ethics committee of that CREA.

As is almost always the case, and in almost everything, there was a group against and another in favor. There was even one, Manolo, who, in addition to not considering the engineer-defendant guilty, invoked the Christian spirit of the others to forgive sinners, even if they were wrong. In fact, this Manolo guy thought that his colleague was not even wrong. He would vote in favor of our curupira-boitatá and defend him.

Little by little, as I listened, I began to understand what was happening with the unfortunate colleague and Manolo's line of argument.

No, the curupira had not made any professional mistakes, the trees he had planted were flourishing, as planned, there were no errors in identifying the species, the fertilizer and pesticide dosages were perfect, both in the nurseries and in the field, the handling (cutting/planting) was in order, the customers were satisfied, everything was going well. Until a complaint was filed against him: he had falsified a document from an environmental agency releasing environmental compensation that had been made within the technical and legal rules. Some colleagues, anxious to show their power and how to fix the world, wanted to punish him as an example for the falsification.

Those who took the side of the “forester” argued that the Professional Council should stick to judging technical matters. Falsifying a document from an environmental agency was a police matter, nothing to do with the profession. Knowing the bureaucracy of these agencies, it could even be an extenuating circumstance, argued Manolo with some irony.

In fact, it seems that this Honório had complied with all the formalities, such as environmental compensation for a strip of land at the opening of a 2km rural road, where there had always been a trail for cars, inside a farm. The road was delayed for 5 years because of this, Honório and the contractor were not paid all that time, etc., etc., but since everything had been done well, when an inspector came by, he presented the acceptance document and everyone believed him. After all, they had created permanent preservation areas, planted 3 trees for each one removed, and had even released 6 (six) snakes, 10 (ten) armadillos, 10 (ten) opossums and 20 (twenty) seriemas into the wild, all certified by a veterinarian. Half males, half females, which were to breed. The curious thing is that seriemas eat snakes and opossums also eat snakes and seriema eggs, and no one has theorized about this aspect. And what about hermaphrodite snakes? How do they fit into this prejudiced legislation?

I, who until that point in that conversation had never heard of a certified snake, was astonished. Maybe there was a gender problem there and no one noticed it, said Edálio, another colleague present there, sarcastically and prejudicedly, alluding to the half of each gender in Noah's Ark today.

No one suspected anything because everything had been complied with. All those involved received their payments; the matter had been dead for 5 years, for the good of all and the general happiness of the nation. Therefore, there was no crime. If there was a crime, it would be the delay by the environmental agency in issuing the so-called “compliance” document.

Manolo said: _ if a driver's license is fake but no one was run over, you can't convict the driver for a run over that didn't happen, at most you can fine him for having a fake license. And what if the license is late even though all the tests were taken and the student passed? The license took so long to be issued that the driver, in desperation, ended up “forging” one. Would a fake manumission letter be a crime?

But if everything was perfect, how did the complaint come about?

_ Honório separated from his wife and she, as a joke, reported the incident in the separation process.

I think Manolo's position is very moderate, Honório should win a CREA medal and the colleagues who want to punish him should go to hell to see what's good for their coughs. For some reason, the lyrics and music by Raul Seixas came to mind as the background music for this chronicle that, oddly enough, has very little fiction.

Miguel Fernández, engineer and columnist Rb

3,500 hits, Jan2024