Meninos da guerra: a play on the disadvantaged youth of Brasília


One of the recent trending topics on the news in Brasil has been a bill reducing the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 years of age. 

Many Brazilians advocate that minors who commit crimes go unpunished, therefore they deserve to either die or to go to prison. Here is indeed a topic of very concern. I find it difficult to buy this idea because Brazil already has the world’s fourth-largest prison population, surpassed only by the US, China and Russia. Lowering the age of criminal responsibility will add up more inmates to the currently violent and overcrowded prison system in Brazil. Currently, youngsters who commit crimes are held in juvenile justice systems that takes into account specific needs according to their age.

Despite the bill proposes housing convicted adolescents in separate prison wings from adults, we all know that in terms of Brazil this would not happen in practice. Rather they will get the chance to 'master' their criminal skills - as much as to be sexually and mentally abused by the older detainees. Outside jails, most of underage criminals are already lured or abducted by traffickers into trafficking drugs. Some people contrary to the bill believe that from now on even younger boys and girls will tricked into that purpose. 

Curiously, a main cause for the rise in Brazil’s prison population has been the increase in the number of those jailed for drug trafficking. The bitter controversy surrounding the bill approved one day after lawmakers narrowly defeated a similar version is that the new version eliminated drug trafficking from the list of crimes teenagers could be held accountable for. So... what is the point of it?

Well, I know that owners of private prisons have funded politicians who voted for the bill. In 2014, the private prison system has set a record in profiting from mass incarceration - since its establishment in Brazil in 2013. In my opinion it gets worse when we learn the fact that young black men from lower-class areas or living in the streets have been mercilessly murdered. I am calling attention to the Brazil's undeclared war on young black men.

According to the International Amnesty, 'the National Public Safety Department [states that] young people aged between 16 and 18 commit just 0.9% of all crimes at the country. Meanwhile, the most recent homicide data shows that of 56,000 killings recorded, 30,000 victims were young people aged 15-29 years, and of those were 77% black'. 

Such data certainly give us food for thought. It may turn our stomach, though.

It has been difficult to tackle such issues by legal means, as the justice and public safety system in Brazil are known for high levels of bureaucracy and inefficiency. But everything's not lost. 

Coldplay has a song along the lines "So if you ever feel neglected / If you think all is lost / I'll be counting up my demons, yeah / Hoping everything's not lost". They fit the actions being taken by a punch of Brazilians joining forces to take non governmental actions to foster boys and girls to get past tough situations. Perhaps they believe in the kind of philosophy I have already talked about here. 

An example is the play Meninos da Guerra (The children of war) to be released in Brasília 24, 25 and 26 of July, and then 2-4 August telling some of the many stories of the disadvantaged youth of the Federal District.



'I was handcuffed, thrown off a bridge, and left behind to die', recalls one of the teen actors performing in the play. 'I used to be assaulted by my step-father', explains other teen actor. 'I lost contact with my mom', says another one. These are only some of the memories evoked by teenagers aged from 13 to 18 years who have been rescued and live in shelters in a city nearby Brazil's capital at the moment. Some still sleep in the streets, though. Yet they are precisely the natural targets of the vicious system auctioned off by the bill we have been talked about above. 


Have you got a hint of how hard it is by now? The producers and experienced supporting actors confess that one needs to be honest to work with those kids. 'They get emotional when we look them in the eye,' says one of the supporting actors. He means that the underage actors and actresses are not used to that sort of 'caring'. Meanwhile the rehearsal a child actor died, one is missing, another one called reporting he would be late because he has been approached by the police, and a girl cannot attend it anymore because she's got death threats in the area. This is an irony that would be funny were it not so tragic.

Good new is they may have found in the theater a reason to both dealing with and expunging such a painful social reality. Meninos da guerra helps to expose the social consequences faced by those boys and girls at early age, while condemns the impacts of inequalities in Brazilian society.

As it seems we have lost the war against the conflicts of interest of most of our congressmen. Most members of Congress simply don't share in the average Brazilian experience. Worse: the Brazilian society itself doomed disadvantaged youth to our violent prison system. I only hope that this play can can serve as a peaceful, yet powerful weapon to turn the tide. And through the eyes of whom knows it better.

The soundtrack for the play is curated by Gog, a rapper from Brasília. 

Service


MENINOS DA GUERRA Play

24, 25 and 26 July
Teather Newton Rossi — Sesc Ceilândia, 
8 pm 

4, 5 and 6 August
Sesc Garagem (913 Sul)
8.30 pm

Free entrance
Age recommendation: +16.

Joint production between Teather companies La Casa Incierta and Celeiro das Antas in partnership with the cultural association Intermedia Caliandra – Cinema. 

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