A brief note:
The song in this presentation is called ‘Ameno’
(to tender, to liberate), composed by the musical
group ERA.
The lyrics’ translation follows, and it is worth
spending some minutes in reflection, before going
ahead with the presentation.
Dori me
Interi mo, Adapare
Dori me
Ameno, Ameno
Lantire, Lantire mo
Dori me
Feel my pain
Absorb me, Take me
Feel my pain
Set me free, set me free,
Discover me, discover my signs
Feel my pain
Ameno, Omenare, imperavi
Ameno, Dimere, dimere
Mantiro, Mantire mo
Ameno
Minimize (my pain), comfort me
Notice, notice
I have been mutilated, I have been hurt
Set me free
Omenare, imperavi emulari
Ameno
Omenare, imperavi emulari
Ameno, Ameno dore
Ameno dori me
Ameno dori me
Ameno, Dom
Dori me, Reo
Ameno dori me
Ameno dori me
Dori me, Dom
AMENO
(my pain), comfort me
GrupoMinimize
Era
Set me free
Minimize (my pain), comfort me
Set me free, minimize my pain
Minimize my pain
Minimize my pain
Set me free, O’ Lord,
Alleviate my pain, O’ King
Minimize my pain
Minimize my pain
Take out my pain, O’ Lord
A brief overview
of the chances.
The heritage we will leave.
Which world are we going to leave behind
– for the next generations –
by the time we will leave?
What will be her heritage ?
The future relies
upon our actions!
And, for sure,
there is too much to do...
Kabul, Afghanistan
Three years after the fall of the Taliban regime, in a country
destroyed by war and where job opportunities, food and basic
survival needs are always lacking, children compete for pieces
of coal fallen from a Red Cross truck. This way, they can buy
food for themselves and their families.
Karkhla, Pakistan
Children between the ages of four and six, most of them sons and
daughters of Afghan refugee families, work in brick factories. Their
tough job consists of flipping bricks, expediting the drying process.
Their light weight allows them to accomplish the work without
smashing or breaking the bricks they walk on.
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Vultures and children compete for the remains of food
in a landfill close to the Honduran capital. Juan Flores
and other children pick through the garbage to find
anything they can eat or sell.
Siliguri, India
Ruksana Khatun, nine years old, breaking rocks in to smaller pieces at
the city surroundings. Job paid with low salary and injured hands.
According to ILO – International Labor Organization, more than 220
million children work worldwide. Half of them in harmful tasks, under
bad conditions and at inappropriate hours. Some of them work as
much as seventeen hours daily.
San Vicente, Colombia
At the entrance to a house of prostitution, the teenager waits for
her next client.
Reports from United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, reveal
millions of children are victims of the worldwide sex trade. Each
year, 1,200,000 are victims of human trafficking.
It is a sad world that abuses its children!
More than 100,000 girls are victims of the sex trade in Brazil,
according to the UN-ILO.
The Brazilian movie
“Anjos do Sol” (“Angels of the Sun”) describes
the cruel reality of the subject. According to the producer’s
information, the sex trade happens in two main places: - coastal
cities, based upon the sex tourism that brings foreigners to Brazil for
this purpose; - and in the North and Northeast region’s cities, where
the poverty, created by low incomes, forces parents to sell their
daughters.
The film exposes practices found in the child sex trade, like “Virgin
Girl Auctions”, and the people that make profits out of that market.
Agents, that buy the girls from their families, night club’s owners,
pimps, farmers and politicians.
Among the many sad cases which inspired the film, there is one
telling the story of a little girl called “Fifty Cents” (R$0,50~US$0.23),
because that is how much she used to charge for her sexual services.
The UN-WHO, World Health Organization, estimates
there are a hundred million children living in the
streets of the third world. Ten million of them live in
Brazil.
Lots of those children still have bonds with their
families. However, they spend most of their time in
the streets, begging for money, selling candies and
cheap things usually at the traffic lights, polishing
shoes and washing car’s windshields to increase their
family’s income. Sometimes they are involved in
small thefts.
Other, do not have a home to go back to and really
live in the streets, in groups (sometimes gangs),
Recife, PE, Brazil
sleeping in abandoned buildings, under bridges and
Most
of
these
children
use
viaducts and also in public squares and parks.
drugs that help them flee from
reality, deceive the hunger and
In both groups, boys are the majority. Girls usually
to make themselves warmer
supply the prostitution business.
during the night.
Maybe it's a good time
for the politicians
to include “Social Compassion”
in their agenda.
Such persistent social imbalance and poverty affects mostly
children and teenagers in Brazil.
Studies have reported that child’s living conditions are harsher
where the educational infrastructure is inferior.
It is necessary, therefore, to create conditions that increase the
presence of children in schools, and as a consequence,
maximize their horizons and develop their potentials.
Political actions focusing on abolishing child labor must also
eliminate the need of having children working to increase family
income.
According to the UN-ODC, United
Nations
Office
on
Drugs
and
Crime, the use of illicit drugs has
increased worldwide, despite all
the efforts to control them. The
United States remains the main
consumer
far
from
Disneyland,
-
the
fantasy land -, children, sons and
daughters
of
addicted
parents,
collect cans to increase their family’s
income, and help as they can at
household chores.
cocaine
marijuana worldwide.
California, United States
Not
of
and
The increase in use of synthetic drugs, like amphetamines, is
very serious, since they can easily be produced, while the
traditional ones require big stretches of land. To produce them,
land is not necessary. They are made of common chemicals,
created in home-made labs, which makes their production
more difficult to control.
According to the UN-ODC, the subject of synthetic drugs
requires
a
redesigned
approach,
changing
the
paradigm
surrounding the war against drug trafficking, focusing more on
prevention and less on repression.
Congo, Central Africa
Nine-year-old Chantis Tuseuo’s grandmother gives her hand to her
granddaughter, severely undernourished, and waits for a doctor at a
community clinic in the surroundings of Kinshasa.
Worldwide, according to UNICEF, it is estimated that 55% of child
deaths are related to poor nourishment and hunger, that slowly
disables them.
The insanity of War…
Northern Ireland
In the 80’s and in the 90’s
Chechnya, 1997
Kosovo, 1999
Africa
It was always that way
Gaza Strip,
Palestine, 2004
Iraq, 2005
Israel, 2006
Lebanon, 2006
etc, etc etc...
When will it stop?
From the night’s heart,
the day is born.
Which world do we want for the future
generation to inherit?
A world with more justice, certainly...
The Kingdom of God is not
going to happen tomorrow
morning.
If we are sincere about our beliefs,
His Kingdom will come to us, but we
must take on our responsibilities.
The Kingdom of God, the
Golden Age stamped with
justice, will not freely fall
from the sky!
It will raise from the soil we
walk, watered by the sweat of
the ones that really care.
The incoming Kingdom of God
relies upon small actions of
kindness and compassion.
Which kind of world will be inherited by the
children born today?
What will be the purpose of their existence?
MERCY
In Latin, Misericordia
The word misericordia is formed of another two
ones: Miserere (Misery), and Cor (Heart).
It represents a feeling transferred into your heart
reflecting the misery of your brother in-God.
The Mercy refers to the feelings of one
acting with compassion.
The opposite of love is not hatred,
it is indifference.
Elie Wiesel
- K y r i é
Eléison -
From an ancient Greek prayer:
Lord, send us Your Breath,
Send us Your Mercy.
I am thinking about Your Breath,
About Your Power,
About Your Mercy.
Blessed are the merciful:
for they shall obtain mercy.
Jesus Christ
Sermon on the Mount
There are lots of things to be done.
He who seeds, will harvest...
God moves the whole sky,
because the human being cannot do it!
But God doesn’t move a pin
when the human being can do it!
Former Oriental citation
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