| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
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In Brazil, the idea of machismo (male dominance, virility, etc.) is very strong. A lot of men have casual affairs and mistresses all over the place. These women have children, and because the kids are illegitimate or because the women can't afford to take care of them or whatever reason, they abandon them. The kids grow up on the streets and form gangs, and they steal and mug people in order to eat and survive. It's a big problem -- there are hundreds of thousands of these feral children living in the cities. (Rio de Janeiro has a population of over 12 million people, to give you some perspective.) The government's solution is ... no, not contraceptive education, easily accessible abortions, funding for single mothers, or more orphanages. Death squads gather the children up and shoot them. Is that not one of the most insane things imaginable? My head explodes. And it's worse -- the establishment of the death squads has created a lot of jobs, so there is added incentive to keep this program alive. Oh, and they call it "the rehabilitation program," (ha ha wink wink) or something like that. (I know the word "rehabilitation" is used.) My dad has an interview with a man who works for this program, and he has a wife and kids that he supports with this job, and he says he feels no sympathy for the street children because they're like rats. He figures he's personally killed about 200 so far. At this point in my conversation with my dad, I splutter out, "What the -? That's like Nazi-. How can the government-?" and he says that the Brazilian government is so disorganized and incompetent that reform is a pipe-dream. At the same time, the government stresses the importance of foreign tourism, and you have things like big hotels and resorts in the middle of impoverished or resource-starved areas, sucking up all the water and other resources in the area, making life even worse for the local residents. *FRUSTRATION* I can't even verbalize it. (My dad also told me this funny thing -- some of his students are older adults, and one is a pastor who likes the class so much that he types up summaries of his class notes and gives them out to his friends. One of the friends told the pastor that he thought my dad must be an anti-American communist, since he teaches about the horrible things the US government has done in Central and South America...like supporting "democratically" elected leaders who rape their people and imposing strange tariffs on imports so that other countries can only afford to trade with huge, corrupt US-supported companies [like the Chiquita, Delmonte, and Dole banana farms] instead of the smaller family businesses that pay their workers fairly.) |
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they eat guinea pigs in brazil, too. |
One of the street children interviewed said that it's not "when am I going to die?" it's "how." Starvation or firing squad. What a horrible situation. |
where's your god when i need em spider? |
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Say what you want about Clinton, at least he bombed some countries that DIDN'T have any oil. Hooray for Variety! |
That speaks of their morality. That is ludicrous.Why aren't there orphan/intervention groups helping out these kids? I know that in India,it is quite common,if one gives birth to a female child,to kill it,some stuff dry rice down their throats,to choke them,and others just take them out and leave them in the jungle to die of starvation and the elements. There are orphan orginazitions there now,that have set up cribs in the jungle,and the mothers just place their female babies in them at night,and the orphan tenders,go and pick them up in the morning,and care for them.Thank goodness. Something else odd about India,is their "wife burning" practice. Marriages are arrainged there,and a dowry sum is decided upon. When the couple is married,and if the wifes family doesn't finish paying her dowry,as promised,they burn the wife to death. |
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not making any judgement, just tossing a question out there. its an idea that passed through my mind this am listening to an NPR story about Measles vaccination in Tanzania and how Measles is the most prominent killer amongst infants and toddlers. |
It hurts my brain to think of a (contemporary, non-totalitarian, considered enlightened) government promoting mass slaughter of its own people. |
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d i s c o n n e c t e d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . |