Portugal in pajamas
We live in a bewildering world.
Progress has never been so much and for so many. Technology has never reached the levels that we already know today and those that, even if we are not familiar, already change our lives in a dramatic way.
There has never been so much talk about rights of all kinds for minorities of all shapes and sizes.
However, we continue to have a world in which our children still do not have their present protected, much less their future protected.
Our children do not have full rights. And, therefore, they aggravate the situation of intrinsic vulnerability of their condition of dependence on others.
A few days ago I came across a report from UNICEF where it was reported that one in four children under the age of five does not even officially exist due to lack of registration. This means what? That child’s universal rights under the law are not safeguarded. Therefore, they are the most vulnerable to abuse. Such as child labor, which affects 160 million children in 2020.
We might be led to think that these hypotheses do not happen in civilized Europe. Sheer mistake. In our neighborhoods, on our streets, these situations are more frequent than we imagine.
It is clear that the situation is much more serious in other latitudes. I read that in Afghanistan the brutal Taliban regime spreads misery and terror in equal doses. Twenty-three million people, out of a universe of 38 million, don’t know where their next meal will come from. Fifty percent of Afghan families are starving. There are parents who sell their seven- or eight-year-old daughters to get money to feed the rest of the family.
I repeat: in the 21st century, in a world that is always ready to be indignant about the futility of social media, there are parents who sell their children to eat. This is medieval. Infra-human.
That this takes place in the tragedy in the form of a country that Afghanistan has reached must not make us step back an inch in our indignation. It is our moral duty to give a voice to those who do not have it. It is a moral duty, a precondition of civilization, to speak out for them. Demand your defense wherever they select.
Because, let’s be honest, when we look at the portrait of children and young people in Portugal, we cannot rest easy. Here, in our country, one in every 6 children lives in poverty. There are 330,000 minors at risk. One in every 4 children is at risk of extreme poverty in Portugal. And two thousand children are flagged as having access to nutrition risk.
The absence of material conditions does not guarantee our children decent protection and aggravates their vulnerability.
In addition to the health pandemic, economic and social pandemics have aggravated cases of abuse and violence that are intolerable.
Since April 2020, when the covid-19 pandemic began, 1,160 children caused by domestic violence have been supported, representing about 50% of the total number of people supported by the National Support Network for Victims of Domestic Violence. There are 35,000 children to be monitored for suffering abuse. More than half are, at most, three years old.
These numbers must make us uneasy. We will no longer be tolerant of the intolerant.
We will never be afraid to face the desire that fear is the reality of the lives of our children and young people.
2021 is too late to stop this scourge in our societies.
Perhaps many of the readers haven’t noticed that on Monday most children went to school in their pajamas. If you ask the younger family members why, they need a much better explanation than mine. In any case, I anticipate that National Pajama Day coincides with the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and that it is fascinating that it is our children and our schools that are at the forefront of a struggle that has to be of all citizens.
At a time when, more than ever, humanity is ready to embrace common causes with a greater purpose (such as combating climate change) we are able to give a voice to our children and speak out for them. So that all children can live in safety, with rights and with dreams.
So that everyone has time to play and be the center of affection.
So that no one is forced to grow up before their time.
Mayor of Cascais
Write on Wednesday overlooking the Atlantic