Brazzil

The Police is the Institution which kills the most Children. Fact well known to world. My Questions is; Why the world don´t play the hardballs with the Brazilian government? I believe they don´t want to miss Brazilian cheap resources.

Dear Mr. Zimmermann,

Nice piece!

However, I think that repeating the quaint provisions of our legislations, particularly the more anodynous bits of the "Ulysses in Wonderland" constitution, is a bit passé. No one buys that dross anymore...

Regards

what are UNICEF's criteria for an "advanced" law. Given the UN'S copious production of documents as quaint as the ECA, I suspect the standard isn't terribly high

how can the world~knowing this problem exists,turn a blind eye?
i pray to GOD for these innocent children,that are on the streets of brazil and in other parts of the world as well....let us all pray for a way to stop the insanity and inhumane treatment,that is inflicted upon these poor souls~that it is not their fault that they are hungry,and left to fend for themselves..i cannot even imagine,myself, as a child,being afraid to go to sleep at night and to have that constant fear of morbidity! just knowing they basically have no future to plan for,and worst of all,to know you are a target,not knowing when your time will be up?? if perhaps they do survive to adulthood, then what? people wonder why they have turned out the way they did..probably still stealing ,selling themselves,etc.whatev-er it takes to survive.this is all they know,...of course it is a viscious cycle.why can't the governments see this is not working?? why do they wonder why the crime rate and violence is high? and stratagize a more humane approach?....if you don't believe in GOD or the devil..can't you see .this is a prime example of hell on earth...pure evil!!!!..my dogs have a much better life,than this...and it is beyond my comprehension, how countries ignore and allow this to exist..how shameful and how pathetic..
PEOPLE!!!! if this is happening in your country~where you live.WAKE UP!! PLEASE!...if one out of 10 people would pitch in to try to help..it really could make a difference,to save these poor lost souls.how can you sleep at night,comfortably? how can you eat at a restaurant,and not think about the hungry?
sorry for the length of this comment..but it just breaks my heart..i do try to make a difference and i make contributions to many organizations..but where can you even begin,here?, if the governments allows this to happen, where would the money go?
i have also wondered how difficult it is to adopt a child. for me, i would love to adopt from "rio",i know there are children everywhere, but this is the place, i fell in love with and visit as often as i can...and for me, this is where i feel a connection and have kept friends..but seriously, how could i find out about adoption,and if
they do allow it,is a difficult process? , and if so, why?
think of all of the people who would love to adopt a child,for example,"myself"who can't have them..perhaps this is why it tears me up even more to know this exists.it is barbaric, this situation haunts me, so.....????

So very sad...but the only real solution is a change in culture. Brazil needs a cultural change if any lasting progress is to be made!

Brazil needs a mental revolution in order to resolve the lion's share of its problems, fact is though, this will never happen.

It is a a medieval country.
Brazil is not a developing country....but belongs to hte LDC countries.
The law is just on toilet paper and flushed away.

The rule of law simply doesnt exist in Brazil. Not even for the politicians and the large landowners, or the police people supposed to apply the laws.

Nobody cares. NO time ! Too busy doing corruptions !

Brazilian governments and politicians are a shame to humanity !

Sad reality !

So Brazil has 7 million children living on the street (kinda doubt that... God knows where this number does come from). That´s really a shame. Yep. A shame.

And so, because of this, Brazil becomes "medieval", needing "a change in culture" (it seems so practical, it´s a pity Hitler and Mussolini are already dead so we cannot use their social engineering know-how). And apparently most people writing here are Brazilians like me.

Come on, fellow brazilians, stop nurturing your inferiority complexes and give me a break! Go fix Asia´s or Africa´s problems before you call Brazil "medieval". Have a little promenade in New Delhi´s streets and then we can discuss modern medievalism. Go to Sudan or Angola or Afghanistan or the Palestine and then we´ll discuss human misery. As for corruption you can also visit many OECD countries like Italy and Japan, where mafia/yakuza is all around, mixed in each and every branch of public and private life, or the United States, currently run by a political group that has clearly privatized the State in order to fulfil it´s own purposes.

Before that, accept that Brazil has social problems as many countries do, and that they gotta be solved, because it´s a shame for a resourceful country like ours not to do it, and that we´re not "medieval" because of that.

What a bunch of losers.

"For although the 1988 Constitution and the ECA provide children with "fundamental" rights, such rights frequently do not meet with compliance."


Is that a surprise? Compliance and Enforcement are two rarely used words here, unless it's to describe the abscence of them!

What was wrong with Hitler and Mussolini's social engineering know-how? The fact is, there wouldn't be seven million, or what-not kids roaming the streets unsupervised with a bit of their imput. As for Brazil being mediaeval, in my opinion (as a European, living here for ten years) Brazil would be better for it. Felons would be swinging from trees, not digging tunnels out of their prison cells; thieves would be minus a hand etc. Get real.

cast the first stone!

Please, Americans have no credibility when comes to non-violence initiatives. Your butcher president is killing Iraq babies everyday.

However, two wrong does not make it right! Brasil must change and respect her citizens.

Deus abencoe o meu Brasil.

Crime is another thing Brazil has to fix, you´re damn right. I hope, however, it doesn´t do it the "civilized way" you dream of. In fact, that´s so European. If the dark-skinned third world ape-like excuse for human being does not behave the expected way, just finish him.

I was wondering myself about adopting. I'm not old enough yet but in the future I want to adopt at least one Brazilian street child. And if what the person above me said was racist then yeah that child better be as black as coal.

Look at the northeast of Brazil.The crimes are even worse than in Africa since slavery, the difference is that the goverment leave the dirty jobs for the police. I am Brazilian and I am not a loser. I would like the guy who wrote about other country problems never went with their own eyes the people in public hospital ding for not having assistence , i believe the crimes which happens here makes Hitler stays with inferiority comples. Brazil lives a war a social war, but nobody cares.

Probably Brazil has 7 million children, not 7 million homeless children, lol...

What a stupid text!

According to the World Factbook at http://education.yahoo.com/ref...pula.html, the July 2005 estimate of the Brazilian population aged 0-14 years was

male:24,789,495; female:23,842,715

This represented 26.1% of the entire population.

You probably do know your reality, what you clearly don´t know is other realities. You think Brazil´s the worst place in the world but you never set foot in India, for example. You say that "the crimes are even worse than in Africa since slavery" (whatever that means), but never set foot in Africa. But I suggest you go and see what´s happening in Liberia, or Darfur, or Haiti so we stay in America and after that we can talk business. You say, and I guess you´re not joking and really believe it, that "the crimes which happens (sic) here makes Hitler stays (sic) with inferiority comples (sic again, I´m getting sick)". That´s a statement so ignorant that I refuse to answer. Go back to your history books (assuming that you´d read them in the first place, which I doubt).

When I wrote "If the dark-skinned third world ape-like excuse for human being does not behave the expected way, just finish him", I was being ironical. Only with irony you can answer a post from someone who´d like thieves to have their hands severed and so on.

Yes, I gathered you weren't being serious... However, just to answer you, I see no reason to give scum-bags and assorted filth the space to breath. It's time to clean the house, and chuck out the rubbish, especially the ever-begging, ever-wanting blacks.
To the poster who wants a black baby: go for it. I'm sure it's just what you deserve. However, I bet when you're bit older, perhaps a bit wiser, you'll run a mile from adopting a black street kid, and all the complications that are associated with them.

its funny dont you think how we all care so much yet end up arguing about what we care about, who cares the most and who knows the most...as for me im still learning but learning to live. please remember that life is fun. sometimes not so. we each one strive for something better...when will that better come along...who knows.

Why on earth brazilians like to martirize themselves!? GOD, are you there? Why did you make me to live in a country full of MASOCHISTS!?

I see a lot of brazilians speaking as if this country were hell on earth, but you don't know hell nor earth.

That's exactly what these stupid gringos want to hear, just to make their day better.But they hide the dirt below the carpet when it comes to their own problems.

They have poor people there, didn't you see the bodies floating in the Katrina disaster? They are full of s**t.

The brazilians that come talk such things in this site are completely unworthy people, with no self love whatsoever, they would sit down and complain all day long and yet not move a finger to change the situation.

I do believe this country has a future but not with parasites like you.

It is not martyrdom to condemn grieveous situations in one's own country.

For example, I am one of many U.S. citizens who find myself discontent with the status quo. The current administration leaves much to be desired.

Your so-called "martyrdom" is really the sincerest form of nationalism. The complacent people who are not brave enough to speak out about problems in their country are just part of the problem.

Brave enough? Problems are there to be solved! Instead of "speaking about the problems" what about "solving the problems"?

This site is only Brazil bashing, nothing useful come out of this, and the brazilians that participate in it are just a bunch of losers that wouldn't ever have the strength to change that.

I agree with the last few comments. Solutions are more important. Large scale solutions that people can put into place. Any ideas? Thank God for those community bands in the North East. People who say Brazil is a hell hole, well then why do they keep visiting the site? It's because the good things about Brazil still pull them in.

I don't think American's really hide the problems of the country. That the gap between rich and poor is escalating. One man, Bill Gates, controls as much as 40% percent of the population combined. There are 37 million people living below the povery line. Even though most blacks aren't poor and are Americanized they're still not "real Americans" for whatever reason. The AIDS rate is almost the same as Brazil's because Brazil's program is better, and they refused to sign a US accord that would have undermined the program's integrity. We rely on foreign oil, while Brazil has natural fuel. There are plenty of problems, too many for Americans to always think their way is the right one. But I don't think that's what they're saying. I think they just like to tell it like it is and also maybe their expectations are too high for some of them to just stop and smell the roses. As if optimism and vision is too sentimental.

In reply to the poster's comment above "Even though most blacks aren't poor and are Americanized they're still not "real Americans" for whatever reason"...What does that mean? So black Brazilians are not "real Brazilians", black Colombians are not "real Colombians"...Anyone raised, educated, socialized in the USA is American period and the same goes for all other people of other countries. If black Americans arent real Americans, what nationality are they, huh? What country do they come from? They're from the USA....they're Americans!!!

This is all thought provoking, but I just want to bring this thread back around to the issue at hand: the article above about Brazil's abandoned, runaway or otherwise homeless children.

Human Rights Watch reports of killings of street children in Brazil date back to the mid 1990s. The above article attempts to shine some light on the matter, and succeeds, for me at least. For instance, I did not know many of the children "exterminated" by the police were possibly teenage hitmen for gangs. This "judge, jury and executioner" approach was spawned, quite ironically from the rather progressive child protection laws now on the books in Brazil.

Wonderful laws are in place. Brazil has the opportunity to be a shining example for the rest of the world in this matter. The officials and law enforcement need to ENFORCE Brazilian law and treat it more as the gospel it should be. But so far it fails at this miserably. If this is "Brazil bashing" so-be-it. Corrupt government and law enforcement deserve to be bashed right into the ground, whatever country we are talking about.

There ARE numerous LAWS "in place", so many it's mind boggling to be honest. The problem is there is little to NO enforcement. So what do you have? Nothing but words on a piece of paper. And, when laws are occasionally enforced, it's certainly not enforced to those that have money, power, or "conhescimento"!

YOU are the ones on this earth taking up space. You sure didn't mind using those ape like beings for 5 centuries to do your dirty work now didn't you?

That is why the Muslims are planning to take your evil blue-eyed devil asses out of this world. YOU are the cause of all of the world's problems. You call yourselves "civilized" do you? If anybody ought to be annihilated from this earth it ought to be your race.

YOU are the reason the world is in the sh-thole condition it is today. Yes Allah does need to do a "social engineering" program on you. You are much too violent to co exist with the rest of the humanity with your caveman like humanoid nature that is unable to live peacably with others on this planet.

But Allah has promised the earth that he would destroy you and your evil kingdom. May Allah the merciful and benevolent bless the warriors who are able to take out your evil kingdoms and its evil blue-eyed devilish sons of Lucifers who rule them!!!!!

I believe that people who good and work more together with street kids,I work with street kids and i know when we come back to do the worked , they are not there anymore.I know for real and the ones who are killed some might be gang leaders and a lot are not. I like newspaper like Brazzil because is a chance to the word spread out. i am doing my part as a Brazilian , and You ? I might not have been so scholar as same of you brazilian who asked me to come back to the book and i am the one to tell you go and try to speak to the street kids and not only sit your butt and being only theoretical.

"If this is "Brazil bashing" so-be-it. Corrupt government and law enforcement deserve to be bashed right into the ground, whatever country we are talking about."

So we wouldn't sleep and stay "bashing" things 24 x 7. There are a lot of bad things in the world, there always was and always will be and guess, THIS KIND OF ATTITUDE NEVER SOLVED ANYTHING.

I suggest you to take a look around wherever you live and start doing something if you feel so offended by such things.

I belive most part of people just want an excuse to make racist comments and bash Brazzil to feel a little better in their sorrowful life. Look for a shrink please.

for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing....sound familiar brazil?

Sounds familiar to you gringo? What did you do to avoid shameful things like abu gharib or guantanamo?

... or, BTW, to avoid having almost 40 million americans below the poverty line?

Some percentage of the masses do not like gringoes... but the majority of gringoes are here to help uplift the economy and technology of brasil...

Bloody hell, don´t you realize that it is not a matter of Gringoes or no Gringoes, we all live in the same planet and we must do something.

We are all earth planet citizen? Thats a new one..how extraordinary? It sounds so science fiction. Anyway I get the point.

Btw, well done to the Government for addressing this willful neglect of its kids. It was long overdue.

I hope some happiness comes out of these initatives and that in future these kids give something back to Brazil in return.Thats how it should be.....

Everyone here saying good men must do something, gringo or no gringo do something. Well I'm the Creole girl of Liberia so see what they said to me about DOING SOMETHING on the post called Samba Dreamers. They say it's naive, there's NOTHING to be done, and try to talk me out of it completely. So all of this bulls**t about doing something, and how people should feel ashamed if they don't is self-righteous LYING because none of them will lift a FINGER to do anything but complain.

"or, BTW, to avoid having almost 40 million americans below the poverty line?"

the poverty line in the U.S. is slightly more than 18,000 DOLLARS per year. And over 70% of those considered "poor" or that 40 million people identified as such by the Census Bureau own their own 3 bedroom 1.5 bath home!

Now, how about the 54 million brazilians living on less than 2 DOLLARS per day? That's ONE-THIRD of your population! How about the 40 million "threatened by hunger"? That's nearly 25% of brazil's population!

One only makes himself appear ignorant when he attempts and equate the american and brazilian reality. Please, if you're going to attempt and equate brazil with another country, try and do so with countries of similiar realities, like those in Africa.

The poverty line in the US may be 18k but that is still not a living wage. Maybe in the midwestern or southern states a person may be able to own a 3 bedroom home but in California that is damn near impossible in the larger cities of Cali. The average home in the San Francisco and Los Angeles area is approximately $800,000 a whopping sum for even a two wage earner family. And this is not the fabulous type homes either, just your average suburban home.

The Us govt cannot use a one size fits all policy to cover all 50 states.

" The average home in the San Francisco and Los Angeles area is approximately $800,000 a whopping sum for even a two wage earner family. And this is not the fabulous type homes either, just your average suburban home. "

what kind of idiots do you think the people here are???

The "average" home in san francisco and L.A. is 800K huh??? What an ignorant moron! Any human that has ever lived there knows that is an outright lie!

I own real estate in the san francisco bay area and can say in all confidence, that the "average" home is certainly NO WHERE CLOSE to 800,000 dollars!

lol...yeah, that guy is an idiot, here are the average prices for homes in the city Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, and the U.S. respectively.

L.A. $328.239
L.A.County 310,483
Calif. 304,168
U.S. 173,585

Now, here are the median rental prices per month.

LA. $513
LACounty $621
Calif. $563
U.S.$471

Now what exactly is taken into account when average home price is calulated?

The total estimated current price values of all existing homes divided by the number of existing homes. So, all those multi-million dollar homes that exist in California drives those "average" prices up. California has an "average" home price far above the U.S.'s average, but then again, California has by far the highest GDP in the U.S., and in fact, of any STATE or province in the world!

If the STATE of California were a country, it would have the 5th largest GNP in the world!

It doesn't mean there aren't homes that one can buy for 150,000 dollars, and even cheaper, but the real estate market in california is on the upper-tier in the U.S.

and where did you rip that 800,000 dollar factoid out of??? Obviously from you're ill-informed ass!

wHRE DO YOU FIND IN lOS ANGELES FOR $ 621 ?????????

lolllllllllll

tHIS GUY PROBABLE GOT DATA FROM HIS HOUSE IN ALABAMA

you're the only joke here buddy. Real statistics have been shown, if you like I can post the url. Your incredible "rip it out of the ass" "factiods" such as the average price of a home is 800,000 dollars is so far off base that it's ridiculous to respond to someone who makes such ignorant statements!

The average house price in Britain is 250 thousand pounds; that's about $300 + thousand US. If you want to buy something in a nice English village (Lewes, E. Sussex, for example, where I live), start thinking about 500-600 thousand pounds. So I wouldn't mind betting that a nice place in LA would be about $800 thousand. Obviously s**t-holes can be found for less, but I understand the guy to be refering to homes, not s**t holes. It makes sense to me.

Moema can be expensive, as well. I have a place there too. So I don't doubt $800 thousand in LA.

LOL....well guys, if you want a REALLY nice place you can pick them up in Beverly Hills for around 15 million. That's not the f**king point, and no one is talking about s**t HOLES here. One can buy a very nice house in LA for 350,000 dollars.

And talking about england, my partners are all english bud, I make several trips a year there. It's the most expensive real estate market on the planet, homes that the english pay 200 thousand quid for, which is 340,000 dollars by the way, the pound is 1.7 to the dollar, can buy something anywhere in the states, including LA, that you could never have in england.

How ironic to go from the life of poor children to te cost of homes in LA LA land. It's about the kids, remember?

How ironic to go from the life of poor children to te cost of homes in LA LA land. It's about the kids, remember?

How ironic to go from the life of poor children to te cost of homes in LA LA land. It's about the kids, remember?

Yeah--that's what Africans and Native Americans, Indians, Chinese, Iraqi's etc should have done when your European scurvy ridden beggin-assed ancestors sailed up to their shores with one hours worth of life left in them!

Instead these remarkable people were hospitable and were repaid by being murdered and having their lands confiscated by your ancestors lying, cheating, conniving, deseased ridden, filth mongering, traiterous scub-bucket, racist-- asses.

I live in the US southwest, and have family in San Francisco, CA. I know in parts of California, housing is the same as in Alabama. I also know housing in San Francisco is prohibitively expensive. In my state, one can buy a brand new 3br home for $60K. In some parts of my city an older home for $30-50K. The point? You can live comfortably in parts of the US on $18,000. A two-income household below the US poverty line is $36,000 for a family of 4. Compare that to Brazilian poverty. No comparison. The police in the US don't shoot homeless children like rats in a sewer. Brazil is indeed a beautiful country with many strengths and generally big-hearted people, but this article is true that solutions to the street-child problem need to be worked out. Killing them is not the answer, nor is leaving them be.

I am a brazilian-american and it is very sad to see the anger in these posts. i believe it must come from the almost unbelievable statistics about children; it rightfully makes people ashamed on one side and angry on the other. you can adopt a brazilian child as an american if you learn basic portuguese (required for the adoption). it is not as hard as it may seem. there are many statistics from all over that show numbers even MUCH higher than 7 million. sad but true...eu amo o brasil, mas estamos falhando as nossas criancas!

stupid prayers who would want to read that

WE R NOT INTERESTED IN FUKIN BLAKS

I think its well unfair i hope the people that pressure girls to b prostatutes iz unfair!!

I think this article is specific to Brazil it does not refute the fact that there are dire situations occurring in other parts of the world. I look at it as a way of analyzing law as a form of social progress and justice. what Zimmerman seems to be saying is does the ECA and Article 277 of the Brazilian constitution provide a platform for the improvement of child rights and human rights violations in Brazil? When you focus on the law, and its place in promoting social justice and progress, you let go of the emotional criticism towards Brazil in relation to the rest of the world.

I agree that the Statute and constitution are ideal and advanced, but are they realistic?In a perfect world, society as a whole will do well to protect the all children. Many people are looking at Brazil as an example and hoping to find value in the rule of law. Other States face horrendous human rights violations which if you read, you will know research has been done and continues to be done, but that does not mean no one should write on Brazil. its part of the world which for many especially for states in the Global South, Brazil is an emerging example of progress in democracy and the rule of law, despite the pitfalls. So lets look at this article in light of providing a way forward rather than a ventilator for our emotional anger.