Mayor Wants to Ban Death

[Enit]

Mayor wants to ban death

The mayor of a Brazilian town is trying to bring in a law making it illegal for residents to die.

Mayor Roberto Pereira da Silva, of Biritiba-Mirim, came up with the idea because the town's only cemetery is full.

He wants to bring in a law that would see relatives of people who die before their time face fines or even jail.

The law would make it an offence for the town's 28,000 citizens to not look after their health properly.

Mayor Pereira da Silva said there was no way of expending the cemetery or building a new one, reports Agora Sao Paulo.

He said: "Eighty nine per cent of the town is rivers, the rest is protected because it is tropical jungle."

The state government had promised to help build a new vertical cemetery - but nothing had been done.

Gym memberships have reportedly shot up since the mayor announced his plans, and more people are visiting doctors.

www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1641442.html

[glow=red,2,300]YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE!!![/glow]

BD SP
~Enit

[Vorchia]

ROTFL.... Oh man thats almost as bad as the time one mayor in the Netherlands forbid the sale of condoms in his village because if the number of inhabitants shrank further he´d get less government money....

[RedFeather]

BOL!!!!!!! What an idiot! And to think, this guy is a political leader? Get off my tail!

Sheesh... what are they going to do... start hunting down ghosts so that they can fine them? Good luck!!! BOL!!!!!!!

[Enit]

Here is another article from the BBC

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4527868.stm

Brazil city proposes ban on death
Municipal regulations normally ban anything from smoking in public places to parking in certain zones.
But officials in the Brazilian town of Biritiba Mirim, 70km (45 miles) east of Sao Paulo, have gone far beyond that.

They plan to prohibit residents from dying because the local cemetery has reached full capacity.

Mayor Roberto Pereira says the bill is meant as a protest against federal regulations that bar new or expanded cemeteries in preservation areas.

"They have not taken local demands into consideration", he claims.

Mr Pereira wants to build a new cemetery, but the project has been stalled because 98% of Biritiba Mirim is considered a preservation area.

A 2003 decree by Brazil's National Environment Council forbids burial grounds in protected areas.

'Ridiculous'

Biritiba Mirim, a town of 28,000 inhabitants, not only wants to prohibit residents from passing away.

The bill also calls on people to take care of their health in order to avoid death.

"I haven't got a job, nor am I healthy. And now they say I can't die. That's ridiculous," Amarildo do Prado, a unemployed resident, told local media.

The city council is expected to vote on the regulation next week.

"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?"

The bill states that "offenders will be held responsible for their acts". However, it does not say what the punishment will be.

It's a very effective attention getter...

BD SP
~Enit