The rock group Mundo Livre S/A was formed in 1984 in the northeastern Brazilian city Recife, in the region first settled by the Portuguese to cultivate sugarcane with slave labor. Mundo Livre, whose name translates to “Free World, Inc.,” sings about globalization from the perspective of those who live at its periphery, in poorer cities of developing countries.

“Forerunners (Resisting the Global Mugging),” 2000

The computers of the mega-corporations work full time

Day after day

Their senior executives circulate

In a world of fanaticism and devotion,

Venerating the omnipresent god Naiq [Nike]

Even when they should be off,

They never stop researching,

Investigating the streets

Searching for new clues.

For decades they have been buying and suborning

The congressmen, democrats, modernizers, liberals

Sponsoring presidential elections,

Financing plans of governance,

Arming, arranging new global consortiums

That quickly assume control

Of immense and strategic state patrimonies

Ultimately conquering small, medium,

And large emerging markets on all continents

(Those, those things that we used to call countries).

No, no, we are not only talking

About macroeconomics or geopolitics.

We are talking about multi-tutions:

Institutions, parties, values and concepts

(Religions, in the end)

That cancel each other out

Or vulgarly recycle themselves

With each turn of the earth

Of mutant souls and minds

Of the abject BMD beings —

— Bearers of Moral Deficiency.

But exhibiting their resplendent

Digital cell phones, palm-tops,

Bullet-proof windshields and Naiq hats,

They are merely the pathetic villains of our story.

To understand the heroes,

We have to change scenes.

Visualize a metropolitan area

In a decadent market,

Cradle to a true army

Of maladjusted forerunners

Alleys of hunger . . . Night sticks . . . Shotguns . . .

In that hostile environment,

The password for survival

Consists of a balanced response

To a recurring conflict

On the one hand,

The questionable and laughable resistance

From the hallowed traditions

And on the other,

The dangerous seductiveness of the antennas.

But a forerunner

Doesn’t eat out of anyone’s hands

We don’t pray at the primer of the Naiqmen

Our fuel is music

Not the contaminated kind

Which the housewives compete for

On the shelves of special offers

Of the great incorporated magazines

Just because they heard it a million times

In the Naiqspace [Nikespace] — sacred temples of Saint Naiq [Nike]

Which will never be struck by cruise missiles

Straying from their targets

We feel from a distance

The smell of incorporated dilution

We are always in the margins

And we have the power to absorb

Only the beats that don’t get beaten . . .

Source: Lyrics for the song “Batedores” from the album Por Pouco by Mundo Livre S/A. © Fred Zero Quatro, Mundo Livre S/A. Used by permission. Translated by Jerry Dávila.

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