Even more interesting is the fact that it is the deceased Taiwanese father who had placed Iruan in his maternal grandmother’s care - NOT in his brother’s care in Taiwan! Of course, the grandmother has the written documents to attest to this.
Now the good brother says that while the Taiwanese father lay on his deathbed, he “changed his mind”, and told him (the brother) that he wanted the child brought up in Taiwan. There is no documentation to attest to this.
So, the court is reluctant to send home a little boy, on the basis that the undocumented, biased information coming from the uncle contradicts documented evidence of the late father’s wishes. In the TV news interview I saw, the uncle said something to the effect that since the boy had Chinese blood from his father’s side, he was Chinese and should live in Taiwan, no matter what documentation the old woman had.
As an interesting sidenote, anyone remember the story of a couple of months ago, where it was discovered that Taiwanese diplomats and agricultural specialists, on various missions in Africa left more than an agricultural legacy behind? Turns out that there were about a dozen cases of half-Chinese, half-black kids in areas where the ROC specialists were stationed. As there was no mystery as to their origins, and as they were subjected to some racism within their own communities, the ROC gov’t actually employed several of these kids in minor capacities, and gave them an educational stipend. When it was suggested that the kids be given ROC citizenship, due to their taiwanese lineage from their paternal side, there was a lot of embarrassed coughing and mumbling. Seems that there would be some embarrassed fathers here who might not be thrilled at the harvest their wild oats resulted in. I guess half-Chinese kids are ok, as long as they’re not half African! The hypocrisy astounds…
If he’s been set free, its been pretty well covered up. As I understand it, the government did some fancy footwork (read: disregarded their own rules) to get him residency and he’s now attending school down in Kaohsiung County.
This is what Taiwan does to get “international recognition.” Way to go, Taiwan.
The Brazilian boy is heir to some land which was first said in the papers and then never mentioned again. What does the uncle really want?
Does anyone know what’s the story with Iruan now?
Good news, sort of… The Gaoxiong High Court ruled yesterday that Iruan Ergui Wu (吳憶樺), the Taiwanese-Brazilian orphan, be returned to his Brazilian grandmother. This should have been over and done with over a year ago. Poor kid.
Not quite. The uncle’s family is going to continue to embarrass himself and Taiwan by pursuing further avenues of appeal. However, AFAIK, the kid will be able return home pending those appeals, so there’s little chance of his kidnap being dragged out any further.
Two and a half years after I first posted about the Iruan Ergui story, he is STILL not back with his legal guardian. This nation’s legal and law enforcement systems are a joke, and deserve international ridicule.
This is Iruan’s grandmother. She was made Iruan’s legal guardian at the request of Iruan’s Taiwanese father. He went through the Brazilian court system to make it official. He did NOT ask his brother in Gaoxiong to be the legal guardian. This picture is from [color=red]June 24, 2001[/color].
[b]Rosa Leocadia Dasilva Ergui, right, grandmother of the five-year-old boy Iruan Ergui Wu, and Adir Ferreira, the boy’s Brazilian uncle, arrive at CKS International Airport yesterday in hopes of taking the boy back to Brazil.
Photo: Tony K. Yao, Taipei Times
[/b]
Here’s a picture of Iruan and his grandmother the last time his abductor uncle in Gaoxiong let him see her (also June 2001):
[b]Iruan Ergui Wu, the Brazilian-Taiwanese boy at the center of a custody battle, hugs his grandmother Rosa Leocadia DaSilva Ergui, left, during an emotional reunion at a restaurant in Tainan yesterday, as his uncle Adir Ferreira, right, comforts the boy.
Not too surprised at this conduct by the Taiwanese uncle. When there is alot of money at stake, Taiwanese relatives seem to pop out with their hands open claiming to be a guardian of the boy/trust fund. I remember quite a few cases of some child winning the lottery or deceased wealthy parents where the long lost uncle/aunt showed up displaying their greedy “love.”
In this case there is land in Brazil as well as 10-30million NT assets to be inherited by the boy in a trust fund which will be controlled by his guardian.
Wonder if the Brazil grandma will ever let the Taiwanese abductor see Iruan again?
Click here for model e-mail messages (in English) - and addresses to send them to. Click on Clique aqui para to open a new message window with the e-mail addresses already in place. Seu Nome means “Your name”. Better to compose your own letter, I should think.
What a disgrace it is to Taiwan that Iruan still has not been returned to his granny in Brazil. Every time I see this story featured on the TV news (which is almost daily), I fume with outrage – even more so when people like the Vice President get involved and egg on those law-flouting peasants who have kidnapped the child. They’re really messing with that kid’s head, and God knows what irreparable harm they’ve already inflicted on him.
This shameful affair is tarnishing Taiwan’s international image even more than any of the VP’s infamous rants or tantrums.
Today’s TV news shows Irguan flying a toy helicopter as the media look on, while a club from Fu Ren Catholic College hoist him up on their shoulders and say FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT. This kid, with his looks, handsome lad, just might grow up to become a famous singer or actor, given his early notoriety. When he’s 18, he could become a Taiwanese pop star, like Takeshi Watanabe or whatever his name is.
It’s pretty clear no-one here gives too much of a shit about the kid’s welfare. What he represents to the Taiwanese side is a political opportunity, an inheritance, and a good news story. I’m surprised the Taiwanese media hasn’t blamed the kid for all this.
My wife, who knows everything, says that the boy’s uncle has been ordered by a supreme court judge to return thte boy to the Brazilian grandmother. If the uncle refuses to hand the boy over then he’ll be arrested and sent to jail. This was on the news today apparently.
The judge has set a deadline of 11am on Monday for Iruan to be delivered to the court. If that deadline isn’t met, the uncle will be arrested and put in jail. I should think so, too – he should be there already for failing to surrender the boy yesterday, and it’s about time someone began to assert the authority of the law in this case.
I thought the deadline was Friday. So now it’s Monday. Who bets that on Monday it’ll change to next Friday ? I reckon the papers have given the judge a bung to keep this story alive as long as possible.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know what the boy wants?? And is there any indication of what is best for him?
A lot of Brazilians want to emigrate. I haven’t gotten the same sense of “get me out of here!” from Taiwanese – no mail-order bride websites, no Taiwanese climbing into 747 landing-gear compartments to escape to the U.S. The comments I’ve seen in this thread just seem to assume that the motives of the Brazilians are pure and that anyone would prefer Brazil (sandy beaches, string bikinis) to Taiwan (polluted country, greedy bastard relatives).
The boy says he wants to stay here. But then he would, wouldn’t he. He’s used to life here now, the food, his mates at school, the toys. He’s probably forgotten most about Brazil. Any kid would be like that.
As to living standards, I bet Taiwan is better - and safer, crimewise - than Brazil, but that’s not the point.
The grandmother had custody of him in the first place, and Taiwan’s Supreme Court ruled in her favor, so there is nothing to say to that. The judge should stop pussyfooting around and do his job.
What we are going to see next, is the uncle refusing to take the kid to court next Monday, then the judge setting another deadline, setting a date to pick up Iruan and then finding he has been moved away again, and … you can guess, this story is still far from finishing.
In my eyes, a lot of the blame in the whole story falls on the Taiwanese uncle, who keeps refusing to respect the law and seems to be more than willing to (ab)use the kid as an object to be thrown in front of the live television mob.
The sooner all this circus is over, the smaller the psychological damage to Iruan will be.
but perhaps even the legal system’s slowness in not enforcing his return to his grandmother may have something to do with the fact that they see the kid as Taiwanese and in Taiwan family is most importance, and splitting family up is a no no…
Well they could be thinking this as secondary to making it some political excerise
Also I think it may be a little hard on his Taiwanese family to let him go… how would you feel about having to give up a kid?
“Splitting the family” is a bit of a crock. First of all, the kid’s parents were never living together, nor were they ever married. His surname is Ergui, NOT Wu - that’s a name the media has conferred upon him. Prior to his abduction, this kid spent his entire life living with Brazilians. It wasn’t until his father took him on vacation at the tender age of five, and then subsequently died, that this kid was claimed as kin by his abductors. Before that, there was no connection with Taiwan.
The hypocrisy astounds…
