No stranger to controversy, food bank boss Isabel Jonet has managed yet again to inflame opinions across the board by declaring that social networks are ‘the enemies’ of the unemployed.
Instead of spending hours glued to their computers, unemployed people should be taking part in voluntary work that might give them a leg-up into the job market, the president of the Banco Alimentar Contra a Fome told Rádio Renascença.
Only a few months ago the 55-year-old social activist, married to a blue-blood, outraged all and sundry with remarks about steak, and the fact that the Portuguese people had to learn to live without it if they couldn’t afford it.
This particular faux-pas led to a public petition – launched on social networks – calling for Jonet’s dismissal.
Now those same social networks are in a froth over the mother-of-five’s latest remarks. Jornal de Notícias wrote that in the 24 hours following them, there were no less than 559 outraged tweets involving the name “Jonet” – while printed media had a field day.
Público newspaper sounded out recruitment agencies, which affirmed that contrary to Jonet’s belief, social networks actually “helped” when it came to finding jobs.
Nuno Troni, executive director of the Michael Page agency, criticised Jonet’s comments for being “too extremist”, while José Bancaleiro, executive director of Stanton Chase Portugal, told Público that as far as he was concerned the biggest enemy of unemployed people was the lack of work.
It remains to be seen how much ‘damage’ these latest remarks from the lady married to the great-great-grandson of one of Portugal’s most noble families has done.
Jornal das Notícias claims that on Facebook “many consider that Jonet’s declarations were unfortunate and could prejudice the help Portuguese people give to the Food Bank” altogether.
“Some have threatened to withdraw from participating in food drives,” said the paper.
