Youngsters from emerging countries as well as those from the industrialized nations got together in L’Aquila, in Italy, at the same time the leaders of the G8 were helding their summit. The group of youngster known as “Junior 8” – J8 – is discussing among other themes poverty and global warming.
On Thursday, July 9, a representative of each national delegation had the opportunity to meet the leader of their own country for a picture.
The Brazilian representative, the carioca (from Rio de Janeiro) Mayara Tavares, a 16-year-old beauty on its way to meet Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, caught the eyes of a discreet Nicolas Sarkozy and a much less discreet Barack Obama, the presidents of France and the United States respectively.
The picture showing Obama’s covetous gaze at the girl’s derriere has become very popular in the Internet. The site Drudge Report made fun of the scene with the headline: “Second Stimulus Package.” The American president was shown again close to the Brazilian beauty in much more circumspect pose (see above).
The J8 site thus describes the girl:
“Mayara Tavares is 16 and lives in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She inherited from her grandmother and father a passion to take part in community action and social movements and has been an activist in her community fighting for children and adolescent rights. She has recently acted as a community researcher interviewing other adolescents in the community about their lives and how it feels for them to be growing up in the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro.
“Through this work she became part of a National Platform for the improvement of poor communities situated in large urban centers, an initiative carried out by UNICEF in Brazil. She also became a member of the Youth Forum in her municipality and hopes that she can continue to engage her peers in this work.”
Lula gave Obama a Brazilian soccer jersey autographed by the Brazilian team’s player, at their morning meeting. Lula gloated about the June 28 soccer match between American and Brazilians in which the US lost 3-2 after having 2 points of advantage at half time.
“Hey, look at this,” Obama said of the jersey. “Beautiful. All right, wonderful. I like that.”
Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, later said that the US president ended his session with Silva by vowing, “We will not lose a two-point lead again.”
