The President of the European Federation of Food Banks, Isabel Jonet, has warned of the existence of "professional poverty" in Portugal with people making begging a way of life and called for enhanced cooperation between social support institutions to combat this scourge, or it will be transmitted from generation to generation.
Isabel Jonet went one step further in her headline-grabbing comments as she criticises the unemployed who spend their time clinging to Facebook, saying that social networks are the biggest enemies of those who have no work.
To Jonet, those who spend all their time on Facebook are living "a life that's a total illusion."
"We can not be so extreme," said Nuno Troni, executive manager in Portugal the recruitment company Michael Page. Social networks may also be one of the most important tools to find opportunities for employment for those actively seeking work, giving the example of LinkedIn.
In a radio interview on Renaissance, Isabel Jonet criticised those unemployed who spend "full days hooked to Facebook, or playing games or with friends that do not exist" living "a life that is a full illusion," when they could be participating in volunteer activities that would increase the chances of finding a job.
"The unemployed make the mistake of thinking that because they are using a computer that they are working."
Jonet is no stranger to controversial statements, her 2012 offerings provoked calls for her resignation from the Food Bank Against Hunger as she stated that there was misery in Portugal and the Portuguese had to learn to be poor,
"If we do not have money to eat steak every day, we can not eat steak every day. This impoverishment is because we eat steak every day, we thought we could eat steak every day and we can not."
She also said children that cleaned their teeth with the tap left running, instead of using a cup of water, were wasting money.
In another interview in which she was asked about children who are hungry when they get to school she said this was due to parent’s not caring and having no time.
"In Portugal there is what we call the intergenerational transmission of poverty and we must break this cycle. When you help a poor family, you should try to help a family that wants to stop being poor and which does not see assistance as a way of life," said Jonet at the closing of the 29th Pastoral Care conference in Fatima.
According to Jonet, poverty in Portugal reaches 20% of the population and we need to combat the "incessantly apathy and indifference” of people and of institutions.
