Day of Fighting injustice - 2020

              Today, 23rd of August is being celebrated in Brazil, the day of fighting injustice. We all must defend justice, because when there is some injustice happening for so many years, a dangerous precedent can happen, destroying democracy, undermining rule of law and the fundamental feeling of justice of the people. So, the public trust in our institutions is severely harmed. Besides, when there is not justice, the abuses tend to grow and spreading and affecting many more people. So if you have witnessed any violation of human rights, record it and help fight injustice. You can send the images to the victims and help them to do justice. You should help to do justice, because if not you can be the next victim.  I have been fighting for justice, democracy and human rights for so many years and intend keep this work for more years ahead. I'll never give up to make Brazil a better country, more democratic, fairer, and where human rights are truly respected. The systematic violations, the impunity, the daily bullying in the mainstream media, the threats online and offline exist to do the victims give up to fight for justice and reparations. Besides, the violations, the systematic abuses, the daily humiliation and the impunity can have a dehumanizing effect in the population, trying us accept what can not be accepted, do not let this happen to you, the solidarity and the emphaty are the essence of the human beings. We all should recognize who have courage to lower the hipocrisy and speak the truth. Because always there are costs to do this, so help who is losing to defend your right. This post is a summary of one article published at https://namati.org/bend-curve-towards-justice/. And a prevace of the book,"Sins of Silence",  published at https://www.amazon.com.br/Sins-Silence-Stories-Injustice-Remain/dp/B08BDX

               It was in a small kitchen in Transylvania when I first felt the sting of injustice. Eta, a retired doctor in her 80s whose twinkly eyes and cheeky laugh reminded me my grandmother. We sat chatting and she told me how much she loved talking with young people and how she would have loved to have had children. "Sadly, not possible because of the sterilizations". Eta was a survivor of Awschiwitz and I was there document her story. She continued to tell me how Joseph Mengele had chosen her for his sterilization program and ordered 10 members of her family to the gas chambers. I listened, growing angry at the now-familiar story of the many who turned a blind eye, and at the system which made this injustice. She was worried the world would forget her family's story. I promised her I would not. I have carried Eta with me since that day, but in the last 12 months she has been all the more present as every day I feel that sting of injustice. With politicians scapegoating complex issues and the birth of "alternative facts" and too many silently watching these events unfold. Injustice is not new, but rather than making progress towards solving the issues, we are seriously at risk of sliding backward. Populist leaders often run on the promise of addressing injustice, but we know this to be a false promise. A functioning democracy which serve the people requires accessible and effective justice systems at every level. We need millions of activists, lawyers, civil servants and governments officials offering a spread of legal remedies. Around the world today, these are the people shaping the law to reduce corruption and reform the systems. Justice needs these people as much as people need justice. Justice needs the nameless Polish lady who passed a piece of soap through a barbed wire fence to Eta with a note saying "we are here for you". Justice needs the millions of people who marched to stand up and say that what is happenning today is not normal. Justice needs you. 

                  In the face of injustice why do some act and others remain silent? This is the nagging question I have asked over and over and about people in general. It is the motivation for this book. Of course, both personal ethics and social ethics are part of the answer to the question above because one can not exist without the other. Social justice flows out of personal integrity and real personal integrity expresses itself in social justice. My intent is to better understand what actually motivates someone to personally reach out beyond self-interests and to speak for the defenseless, ignored, oppressed and hurting. The heart of this book is a group of simple stories that have ethical themes and truths. These stories give a human face to academic ethics and illustrate the personal pain of injustice. The stories tell that kindness and mercy are qualities that are always present when the silence is broken and when someone acts in the face of injustice. It were chosen stories that touch hearts and minds where both good and evil, and courage and cowardice, find shelter and lodging. The stories remind us to act in a moral way within the hard context of social problems and the harsh reality of our own weaknesses. In some of these stories, the beauty of ethical living starkly contrasts with unthinkable circumstances and ugly persecution. Holocaust survivor, Eli Zborowski, saw a puzzling mystery about who speaks and who remains silent in the face of injustice. These are not all "feel good" stories that provide easy and confortable answers. In fact, some od the stories may raise aditional questions about why some people remain silent and some speak out in the face of the personal pain and suffering of others. These stories are part of history from its ethical people perspective. History is people and people live within the context of good and evil and memories and dreams. In the tension between good and evil, we all leave an ethical footprint in the journey of history. While searching for answers about injustice, I continually ran into a wall of silence. It became obvious that injustice and silence are the sides of the same coin of indifference. Edward Yashinsky was a poet who survived the Holocaust only to die in a communist prison in Poland. He understood first-hand the evil consequences of silent indifference. These stories from World War II, slavery and oppression tell how some reacted with courage and some with silence in the face of injustice. So, as you read these stories, listen for the silence. Because it is there, in the far and near past and in our present.