Sunday 19 June 2011

A strange day to crawl out of the garbage can.

Today was hot and made for visiting the beach in the Algarve.
Coming back, lazy and a little bit sunburnt we decided to do some shopping. I parked the car and saw two girls near the garbage container, the one with a stainless steel chimney. They were about 13 years old and they were talking into the stainless steel chimney. Suddenly a hand rose out of the tube, it carried tomatoes and bell-peppers. Then a small boy climbed out of the dumpster. To me it seemed as if he rose up from the underworld but it was only a garbage can where the shop dumped the groceries that were out of date. When I came back from the shopping the children were sitting on the shady sidewalk and eating vegetables and small yoghurts.
They were looking at me as if they were ashamed but who really should be ashamed are all of us adults. Portugal is sliding down into poverty and children start to eat from garbage cans and I never see this of the news. The news is full of the IMF loan of billions of euros but I never see anything about where the real crisis is at this moment. Money is an illusion but crawling out of a garbage can to get some food is a reality --- that is crisis.
Every day that a child has to crawl into a garbage can to get an, out of date, meal is a very strange day.
We feel obliged to protect the mechanism of economy at any cost while children's rights are violated with tremendous ease.
These rights are basically:
  • Provision: Children have the right to an adequate standard of living, health care, education and services, and to play and recreation. These include a balanced diet, a warm bed to sleep in, and access to schooling.
  • Protection: Children have the right to protection from abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination. This includes the right to safe places for children to play; constructive child rearing behavior, and acknowledgment of the evolving capacities of children.
  • Participation: Children have the right to participate in communities and have programs and services for themselves. This includes children's involvement in libraries and community programs, youth voice activities, and involving children as decision-makers
Rights were copied from Wikipedia.