Talking extemporaneously in Rio during the launching of two state programs, one to contain the spread of the AIDS virus among women and an AIDS prevention campaign for the Pan American Games, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva talked about the need to fight hypocrisy in Brazil.
The president was participating in a event taking place in Cidade do Samba (Samba City). The Brazilian government plans to double the number of AIDS tests and increase to 6 million, by 2008, the number of female condoms distributed for free.
The president commented that themes like early-age sex and the use of condom are rarely discussed due to pressure from the Church, the parents or for pure prejudice.
"Let's fight hypocrisy in the country," Lula told his audience. "Contraceptive has to be distributed for free and people have to be taught how to use it. Sex has to be made and people have to be taught how to make it. That's the only way we can have a country free from AIDS."
According to Lula, precocious maternity is the reason why about 30% of Brazilian girls between the ages of 15 and 17 are not going to school.
"When we approach these subjects with a certain hypocrisy and when we are not brave enough to discuss the themes the way they are, the result we reap is precocious pregnancy, is violence among young people, because we didn't care enough to teach," the president said adding:
"You can't just stamp on a teen's forehead when it is time to start making sex. Sex is something that almost everybody likes and it is an organic need, it is a need for the human species and for the animal species. Therefore, since we don't have control over this, what we need to do is to educate, at the right time, while they are still children."
