MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bolsonaro involved in child labor controversy: “I've been working since I was eight-year-old”
“I worked from the age of eight planting corn, picking bananas... while studying at the same time. ”This is not demagoguery, it is the truth.” Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, no stranger to controversy, sparked strong reaction by repeatedly defending the practice of child labor. “I've been working since I was eight years old... and today I am what I am,” the far-right leader said during his weekly live forum on Facebook.
“Look, when a child of eight or nine years old works somewhere, many people denounce it as 'forced labor' or 'child labor,'” he said. “But if that child smokes coca paste, nobody says anything.”
“Work brings dignity to men and to women, no matter their age,” he added.
Elaborating on the theme at an official event he added: “I worked from the age of eight planting corn, picking bananas... while studying at the same time. ”And today I am what I am. This is not demagoguery, it is the truth.“
His comments provoked strongly critical reactions. ”He is the best example to incite a child not to work -- to keep him from growing up to become an adult like (Bolsonaro), with so much hatred and such incompetence,” said Marcelo Freixo, a socialist politician.
Brazilian law prohibits children younger than 16 from working, except in the case of apprentices, who can begin work at 14.
According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), some 2.5 million children and adolescents aged five to 17 work in Brazil.
Bolsonaro's minister for Human Rights, Family and Women, the former evangelical pastor Damares Alves, tried to put an end to the controversy. “Our generation worked from a very young age,” she said. ”I worked from a very young age. But this does not mean that we are going to decriminalize (child labor).“
”Let us be clear that for children to work is a violation of their rights, something that cannot be allowed.“
Bolsonaro is not known for being politically correct. as a congressman in late 2014, he said that a congressional colleague was not ”worth raping; she is very ugly.” A judge ultimately ordered him to pay the woman US$ 2,500.
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Jul 09th, 2019 - 11:30 pm +2The poor fellow could not afford toys when he was a kid. That explains why he is now playing with his mostly absurd tweets!
Amazing how the press - and left-wingers, like the communist Marcelo Freixo - love to distort the truth. Bolsonaro says he worked from the age of eight, and sees nothing wrong with it...the press - perhaps not MP, but other outlets and the left - insinuates he is incentivizing child 'slave' labour....slave labor IS a crime, regardless of age, but people in 1st world countries seem to ignore the fact that with the poverty in Brazil - despite 14 wonderful years under the PT, which supposedly took 40 million out of poverty and inserted them in the middle class - it is very common for parents in very poor families, to make their children pull their own weight.
Jul 09th, 2019 - 03:59 pm 0Lula on the other hand, did not even complete fundamental schooling, and went on to claim that studying is not essential to be sucessful, using himself as the example.....yeah, great example - and look where he ended up...behind bars. Behind his comment is his latent hatred of those who did complete their education.
Being “smart and smug” does not translate into intelligent. Lula is an example of that.
Freixo's comments, referring to Bolsonaro : ”He is the best example to incite a child not to work -- to keep him from growing up to become an adult like (Bolsonaro), with so much hatred and such incompetence“, are extremely stupid.....
Regarding Bolsonaro telling ”a congressional colleague (she) was not worth raping because she was ugly” was only his reply to the same ugly woman's accusation (of a few days earlier) that he was a rapist.....but what provoked his answer is conveniently ignored.
100% agree with Freixo. B's ignorance and small-mindedness are obvious. What an appalling thing to say in a country where so many kids are still forced to leave school at a young age to earn money for their families. Even the dictatorship tried to improve education! But an ignorant population is much more convenient for politicians. Easier to manipulate and exploit.
Jul 09th, 2019 - 09:21 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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