For Your Life

So the Met has been found guilty of breaches of HEALTH AND SAFETY laws over the death of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes. The familiy rightly or wrongly are calling for heads to roll (no joke intended) and perhaps for the whole British police system to be scrapped.

The latter might be a little hyperbole but I feel it’s symptomatic of today’s knee jerk tabloid culture.  A train hits a car on a level crossing and [hysteria] we must all ban level crossings [/hysteria].

I’m not going to turn this into a rant against today’s reactionary media. That will be for another day.

I want to highlight what I see is a disparity between a Brazilian life in the UK and a Brazilian life in Brazil. I refer to the ongoing and murderous persecution of Brazilian street children. The ABC Trust is a UK charity set up by Jimena Page and her husband Jimmy (of Led Zepplin fame). It aims to provide help and support to the many thousands if not millions of Brazilian street children who are neglected by their own government and communities. This includes finding them safe shelter so that they don’t end up dead: murdered by death squads. An ABC Trust report highlights-

“It is estimated by child care agencies that up to 5 or 6 children a day are assassinated on Rio’s streets, even conservative figures put the number at 2 killings every day.”

Whilst Britain is humming and hawwing and gazing intently at its own navel over the accidental death of an unfortunate Brazilian in London, there is a massacre happening today in Jean Charles’ home country. And where is the news coverage?

The sad conclusion is that if you die in Stockwell underground, the whole world will know and mourn. If you die in the gutter in Rio, you’ll be forgotten.