Opinion, by Michael Royster
The week of Groundhog Day, where life repeats itself ad nauseam, the international press carry reports of ten Idaho residents, allegedly Baptist Christians, who allegedly kidnapped 33 Haitian children and tried to take them across the border to the Dominican Republic on the grounds that they are (1) orphans, (2) underprivileged and (3) in need of a proper Christian upbringing in the land of milk and honey.
“Papers” they don’t need, because everyone knows that refugees have no papers. Most people in Brazil (not to mention in the U.S. and the rest of the sentient world) are horrified by this bizarre hubris.
But! alerts The Curmudgeon! Look ye to Luke 6:42: (King James’s Version): “Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.”
So, you may well ask: Who’s the hypocrite? Why, none other than Desembargador Siro Darlan, erstwhile Judge of the Childrens’ and Adolescents’ Court in Rio, ferocious defender of the rights of (Brazilian) children and adolescents to a decent life, quixotic crusader against treating 15-year old juveniles as criminals, the scourge of the worse than horrendous juvenile “rehabilitation” centers, etc.
Not coincidentally, San Siro [as he is known to his sycophants] was always an ardent defender of the doctrine that “Brazil does not export babies”.
But! Alerts The Curmudgeon! Look ye to JB 30.01.2010 (Online version) for, verily, verily, saith TC unto thee, thou wilt see a tremendous beam in San Siro’s eye: “Caetano, with his poetic vision, perceiving the identity that exists between our people and the Haitians, has affirmed that “Haiti is Us.” (“O Haiti é aqui.”)
San Siro then recalls the “affinities… from our common African origin” including the “happiness which, in the midst of the wretchedness…in which we live, is the hallmark of our people”. He means, evidently, that Africans are better at fiddling while Rome burns than Nero even dreamt of, which is condescending at best.
He then admits there are various “Haitis” within Brazil’s borders, and that some (misguided) folk think we should aid them first. Nonsense! Saith he, and cites “globalization” as a reason for universal solidarity. After pleading platitudes from the plethora of declarations about “universal” or “natural” Rights of Man, he comes to the crux of his argument.
“In Haiti, the natural disaster created thousands of orphans. These children need to be rounded up and registered, and, if there is no extended family which permits them to remain in their country, steps must be taken immediately to assure their right to exist in a community and family, through placement into a substitute family.”
What does this mean, asks The Curmudgeon? That’s short for: “export the children to Brazil”. It’s OK for Haiti to export babies to Brazil!
Even though it’s most definitively NOT OK for Brazilians to export babies to the US! San Siro has for years been justifiably well known as the judge who put the kibosh on the widespread practice of Americans (and Germans and other Anglos) coming to Brazil and picking up (white newborn catarinense) babies on the cheap.
The Curmudgeon (almost) respectfully submits…San Siro is wrong, just as the Idaho potato heads are wrong. There ARE no trustworthy records in Haiti any more, so San Siro’s suggestion that Haitian orphans be brought here for adoption after careful record-searching is unworkable at best, disingenuous at worst.
Moreover, if the bulk of the babies up for adoption in Brazil are underprivileged and over 3 years old, and are therefore not adoptable even by foreigners, who on earth in Brazil is going to adopt them? Underprivileged monolingual families will adopt … Haitians?
Sadly, there are too many motes in too many eyes for this ever to happen.
/s/ The Curmudgeon
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Michael Royster, aka THE CURMUDGEON first saw Rio 40+ years ago, moved here 30+ years ago, still loves it, notwithstanding being a charter member of the most persecuted minority in (North) America today, the WASPs (google it!)(get over it!)