
Dumbass of the Week: Brazilian Government The Dumbass of the Week is intended to highlight the stupidity surrounding us whether big or small, important or useless [KDR: So which genius was it that outlawed cremation and burial?] Brazilian town forbids death Toronto Star \|\| December 18, 2005 - Contributed by Reader BIRITIBA MIRIM, BRAZIL—There's no more room to bury the dead, they can't be cremated, and laws forbid a new cemetery. So the mayor of this Brazilian farm town has proposed a solution: outlaw death. Mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva's proposal to the town council asks residents to "take good care of your health in order not to die" and warns that "infractors will be held responsible for their acts." The bill, which sets no penalty for passing away, is meant to protest a federal law that has barred a new or expanded cemetery in Biritiba Mirim, a town of 28,000 people 70 kilometres east of Sao Paulo. "Of course the bill is laughable, unconstitutional, and will never be approved," said Gilson Soares de Campos, an aide to the mayor. "But can you think of a better marketing strategy ... to persuade the government to modify the environmental legislation that is barring us from building a new cemetery?" A 2003 decree by Brazil's National Environment Council bars new or expanded cemeteries in so-called permanent preservation areas or in areas with high water tables. Environmental protection measures rule out cremation. More than 50,000 people already are buried in the 3,500 crypts and tombs in Biritiba Mirim's municipal cemetery, which was inaugurated in 1910. The cemetery ran out of space last month and 20 residents who have died since November were forced to share a crypt. About KDR \| \| Home \| \| Weekly Features Archive	Weekly Weekly Features Archive
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Dumbass of the Week:
Brazilian Government

The Dumbass of the Week is intended to highlight the stupidity surrounding us whether big or small, important or useless

Brazilian Grave

[KDR: So which genius was it that outlawed cremation and burial?]

Brazilian town forbids death

Toronto Star || December 18, 2005 - Contributed by Reader

BIRITIBA MIRIM, BRAZIL—There's no more room to bury the dead, they can't be cremated, and laws forbid a new cemetery. So the mayor of this Brazilian farm town has proposed a solution: outlaw death.

Mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva's proposal to the town council asks residents to "take good care of your health in order not to die" and warns that "infractors will be held responsible for their acts."

The bill, which sets no penalty for passing away, is meant to protest a federal law that has barred a new or expanded cemetery in Biritiba Mirim, a town of 28,000 people 70 kilometres east of Sao Paulo.

"Of course the bill is laughable, unconstitutional, and will never be approved," said Gilson Soares de Campos, an aide to the mayor. "But can you think of a better marketing strategy ... to persuade the government to modify the environmental legislation that is barring us from building a new cemetery?"

A 2003 decree by Brazil's National Environment Council bars new or expanded cemeteries in so-called permanent preservation areas or in areas with high water tables. Environmental protection measures rule out cremation.

More than 50,000 people already are buried in the 3,500 crypts and tombs in Biritiba Mirim's municipal cemetery, which was inaugurated in 1910.

The cemetery ran out of space last month and 20 residents who have died since November were forced to share a crypt.

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