Sunday, June 30, 2013

It Couldn't Happen Here

Samuel Nobile de Oliveira of the town of JuĂ­na, in Brazil, is paralyzed and requires a wheelchair to get around. He frequently needs to visit his local ministry of health building because he has a form that the Secretary of Health signs in order for him to get different medical treatments.

Unfortunately, the local ministry of health building lacks a wheelchair ramp. So the Secretary has to come out to Samuel to sign his form. Local government officials wouldn't build a ramp, so Samuel decided he would build it himself. According to the story and to a translation of the original news item here, Samuel's efforts shamed the local mayor enough that he assured this kind of thing would stop and the municipal government would ensure equal access for public buildings.

This kind of thing could never happen here, of course. The idea of a politician being ashamed at all, let alone ashamed enough to do his or her job, is simply not credible.

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