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Walking on eggshells means caminhando sobre sobre ovos.

Due to the plague known as POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, many subjects that should be intensively discussed are hidden under the carpets of our houses, schools, and especially under the carpets of the uncountable Government organizations, departments, services, institutions and so on, not to mention the carpets of also uncountable non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
One of such subjects is the similarity between the following two words: PEDERASTY and PEDOPHILY.
According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, pederasty (also paederasty) is a noun and it means sexual intercourse between a man and a boy.
According to the same dictionary, pedophile is a noun and refers to a person who is sexually attracted to children.
Pederasty is an old-fashioned word; nowadays people prefer to name a PEDERAST (one who commits sodomy, one who commits homosexual acts with young boys) as a homosexual individual.
How come then that homosexuality has become the greatest hit (success) of the 21st century and pedophilia is an abhorrent, disgusting, abominable, hateful crime?

I am sure that psychologists and psychiatrists owe us an explanation about such phenomenon. As a person deeply interested in words, I feel very curious about this coincidence regarding pederasty and pedophilia (both words derive from Greek word paidos – which means child) . I certainly would like to know the opinion about such coincidence of experts in human behavior.

Since, we are walking on eggshells when we speak about human sexuality, let us make it clear that I, personally, am not suggesting anything. I am just presenting a, so far, inexplicable semantic coincidence.

Words are deceitful, I am very well aware of that. The best example comes from human sexuality, namely from the F word (it begins with F in Portuguese, in German (ficken), in English (fuck), and other Pro Indo European languages.

In Spanish, the F word starts with H, but it is common, in Spanish, to have an H where in Portuguese (and sometimes, in English, too) we use an F (examples: the F word in Spanish is hoder, the name Fernando, in Spanish, is Hernando, and so on).
In French: baiser, avoir des rapports sexuels, foutre (Vulgaire).

What I was trying to say, when I mentioned that words are deceitful (enganadoras), is this: some words may have two different meanings, two completely different meanings and they are spelled in exactly the same way. The F word is an excellent example. It may mean to enjoy the greatest carnal pleasure because it produces the so-called orgasm.

But when you want to convey the idea that someone was harmed (prejudicado, enganado, mal tratado) by someone else, you may also say that he/she was f…ed by someone).

The reason for such explanation has to do with an article that I read in a newsletter published by a journalist whom I respect very much. His name is Polibio Braga. In the newsletter at stake, he tells us that our present Governor wants to “make love" to the people from Rio Grande do Sul, by creating a new tax (maybe it should be called FEE – I haven’t understood His intentions yet). But it has to do, according to Mr. Braga, with a procedure that Governor Britto tried to establish many years ago. The bill (projeto de lei), then, did not pass (não foi aprovado) in the House of Representatives of the State of RS (Assembleia Legislativa do RS) because of the opponents of Governor Britto, which included, at the time, the party of our present Governor.

What will happen now? The “act of love”, as far as I have read in the newsletter, has to do with vehicular inspection.

Whenever I encourage people to vote on rightist parties, I present a very simple reason:
Leftist always want to remove money from our pockets, by creating taxes. Do you remember when IPTU was a reasonable tax? Well, leftist Governor Olivio Dutra, during his term as mayor of Porto Alegre, simply ten folded my IPTU. Can you believe that?

Rightist (unfortunately, we do not have a rightist party in Brazil – I used to think that PP was a rightist party, but then I found out that PP has become an ally of PT, the political party that is a symbol of the Brazilian left. No rightist party will ever become an ally of leftist organizations) work hard to decrease the size of the State in our private lives and in our pockets.

I am sure that I must be out of my mind because I cannot understand why Brazilians like so much leftist Governments. While in the USA, the police of the world, taxes represent less than 29 percent of their GNP in Brazil taxes represent around 42% of our Gross National Product. And they have a leftist president (Barack Hussein Obama II is a Democrat).

I feel like an orphan. There are no rightist political parties in Brazil. And I am obliged (compelled) by law to vote against my will. Help me, if you can – I am feeling down, as the Beetles used to sing.

Roberto Henry Ebelt é professor, escritor, produz uma coluna semanal para o Jornal do Comércio de Porto Alegre deste 2001 e é diretor do curso HENRY'S BUSINESS ENGLISH desde 1971.

Seu mais recente livro, O QUE VOCÊ DEVE SABER ANTES DE ESTUDAR INGLÊS, pode ser encontrado nas livrarias Disal, Cultura e SBS ou à rua Hoffmann, 728 em Porto Alegre.

E-mail: roberto@henrys.com.br
Fone (51) 3222-3144
www.henrys.com.br