pacifists denounced the presence of the Armed Forces Juvenalia
JAVIER SALAS - Madrid - 21/12/2008 21:58 ( PUBLIC) "I had so much to give, so much to tell!". Some kids sing the chorus shouting the latest success in a karaoke Nena. Specifically, the karaoke booth that the Armed Forces have in Juvenalia, the fair child and youth leisure held for years in Madrid and is filled with families on weekends.
With the colors of the English flag painted on their cheeks, the kids have fun singing along with an armored car in which other kids are cast full of curiosity. While queuing to launch a zip line from four feet high, others play in Call of Duty video game, a war epic that explores the war firsthand.
"It's an amusement park persimmon," complains one member of the Assembly of Madrid Antimilitarista, a group that has gathered in the pavilion Ifema to seek "out of the army and the armed forces" of this event designed for children. Police and Civil Guard also have their place in Juvenalia.
Just ten peace activists of this group participate in the symbolic action complaint, both parents and children welcome with sympathy and skepticism, an anecdote in a fun morning of stories. Dressed in white overalls and masks for protection from the "virus of the military", display a banner next to the space occupied by the Ministry of Defence.
Next, the security of the facility are invited to leave the ward, and they deliver obedient: "We will not create problems, only to get parents to our complaint."
War is not a game , which is the name this season, take their leaflets to the fair along this week, though few visitors who catch them with genuine interest.
antimilitarists point where children pretending to run guns and parachuting, Army leaders show the same young, none older than 12 years, writing custom postcards to military personnel serving in international missions.
"What passes a happy holiday, wherever you are, you can read in one of the many handwritten cards are already stacked. Colonel Modesto Ruiz Cruz, military most senior of those present and Head of Collection, defends the presence of the armed forces in Juvenalia and says he has not come to see the action of the pacifists. "We have no problems with them, any opinion is respectable and should have a space for expression," he said.
Entertain the kids The presence of this playful version of the Army in the IFEMA pavilions is the responsibility of the Directorate General of Military Recruitment and Training, which aims to "bring it to the English society facilitate knowledge ". A presence that had to step up after that would eliminate the mandatory military service in 2001. Since then, space has continued to grow.
"We are here to entertain the kids," he says, "and we delighted." Military vocations shortage and any effort on their part is valid if you can get your reward.
"It's about planting a seed that can help military arising in the future," says Ruiz. Colonel Aviation illustrates his personal commitment with an anecdote: "Before a child has told me that most wanted to be an engineer and I have pointed out that there is a whole body for engineers in the Army." "Ultimately Ruiz-ditch, "we want children to see that we are as normal as their parents."
Although they are together, there is a clear competition: the Air Force, the Navy Land and pretend that children are fixed on them, and not in others, to enter the professional ranks in future.
One idea that particularly bothered the anti-military group, which presents the military as "a more gigs." For now, the Army is sold to the children with games, but when they grow up with the candy will make a steady income to pay the mortgage.
