Thanks to a project of Workers Party Senator Ideli Salvatti of Santa Catarina State, Brazilian schools will soon begin utilizing Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) in their courses. This will be a revolution in the right to education for thousands of Brazilians of all ages whose auditory deficiencies have impeded their studies due to their incapacity to understand oral language.

Let us hope that the project will serve as an example so that the National Congress will teach sign language to its members. Not only so that hearing-impaired members of Congress can follow the legislative proceedings, since this is possible with the help of interpreters. But because we - the Brazilian politicians - need to understand the body language of the Brazilian poor.

We need to stop turning a deaf ear to the shouts of the poor on the street corners and in the countryside. To understand what children are saying when they beg for money on street corners, running from car to car, at the time of day when they should be in school.

Shut inside our cars, we drive past these children, just as insensitive as a deaf person alongside someone shouting. We do not hear and we do not understand their hunger, their insecurity and their fear in the midst of the threats of the street, of the night, of the following day, of the unforeseeable future.

We do not listen to the shouting that shows the sad future of a Nation impassive to the needs of its children.

We do not become conscious of the shrieks of almost 2 million school-age Brazilian children who have never even entered a school. Or of the millions of other children who will be enrolled more to escape hunger, thanks to the school snack, than to escape ignorance by learning to read.

We do not perceive that it is the country's future that is shouting, that our deafness is killing the destiny of the entire country.

We are all suffering from a sad, profound auditory deficiency when it comes to the needs of the poor.

We pass by the bodies sleeping on the sidewalks without hearing their shouts of injustice. We are incapable of perceiving those immobile bodies' hunger on cold nights, their desperation over their homelessness, their lack of prospects.

We do not see the waste of the future for lack of investment in people. We do not react when we hear the people's frightening shouts as they arrive at the hospitals without enough beds for sick patients.

We are deaf to mud-covered mothers and fathers, holding with their children in their arms, who crowd the hospital entrances, knowing that behind the door lie life-saving possibilities.

Sealed within our air-conditioned cars, we do not hear what the eyes and bodies of the men and women are saying as they wait for the bus with an unpredictable schedule while their children are locked in the house because there is no one to care for them.

We do not hear what their illiterate eyes are saying as they try to determine the bus route or the addresses on the job ads, or the name of the medication prescribed for them. We do not hear the stomach rumblings of those with nothing to eat. Because we are deaf to the problems of poverty.

We need to learn the sign language of the bodies, of the eyes, of the hands of the poor. Our deafness is called insensibility, the incapacity to feel indignation. We are deaf to the problems of those who have nothing.

If that is unpardonable for individuals, it is even more so for those obliged to govern Brazil- the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary branches of government.

These three branches need immediate classes in this other Brazilian sign language, the body language of the Brazilian poor. Without this, we will continually not hear the shouts coming from Brazil's future, and we will destroy an entire nation.

Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage - www.cristovam.com.br - and write to him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome - This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Comments (3)

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We Brazilians Are Deaf...
written by qaz, 2005-08-30 12:01:37

Brazil needs a good plan and needs to have everyone to stick to it. Our leaders need to stop thinking as if they were part of a circus and get to work seriously for the improvement of the nation. Honesty, true patriotism, intelligence, national and political union and much, much work are the essential ingredients to make this country great.

We must also shift from being a bunch of whiners to doers.

deaf brazilians in USA?
written by a guest, 2006-11-01 13:20:13

just wanted to post this is an attempt to get anyone interested to contact me if you know of any deaf brazilians that live in the USA (legais ou ilegais) because I just returned from Brazil where i learned LIBRAS and would like to keep practicing! muita obrigada! sua amiga americana....que usa LIBRAS!
you can write me at the email address above/poderia ficar em contato comigo no enderco de emaio da acima.

sell garments for low price
written by uday, 2007-10-05 13:21:42

I am Uday Kumar, hearing impaired, I am interested in encouraging deaf people to unite and work together to help other deaf people. I want to sell garments for low price and also give a free item on purchase of any Garment displayed on our website.