Because I realized several anonymous persons wrote me in a google translate English, I realized they might also have tried to translate my text… in English or others. It truly is courageous for them to rely on that www translator. So I will translate this post just for the sake of the exercise. Take a deep breath, fasten seatbelt, off we go!!!!
New continent, new faces, new function (same ol´ job though), new-everything (almost). Coming from the African chaos with it´s socio politic hell kitchen I am now arriving to another hell kitchen, bigger and better organize, with an easier-to-predict violence. Favelas (name for shanty towns) from Brasil are worldwide famous. One can think it´s everywhere, all cities hence violence is omniscient. It is obviously a preconception as it all depends on where the trash city is from the city, how it is organized etc etc..After 3 years in Salvador (rotations Salvador-Soyo… yes Sir!!!!), I never saw violence like the one they show on the news worldwide: choppers are pouring like rain water, dengue´s mosquito are organizing ammunition transports for drug cartels!!! People say they saw some transporting pliers that could well be the ones responsible for the blackout in Brasil last week (in December 2009)!!! No it ain´t reaaaally like that. There is violence yes, just like in NYC, Chicago, LA, London, Paris. Rio has a particularity, first it is an industrial city of 14 millions inhabitants hence there is a strong inequality of treatment bringing animosity. Second is the principal problem of Rio, favelas are situated on the hills surrounding the city (not all but quite a few) so it is easy to walk down the hill of the favelas and attack Copacabana´s tourist lazying around belly and wallet out!!! Salvador is quite different for instance: Favelas are far far away (like in Shreck) 30 min of bus (and what bus!!!). So if you want to do your criminal business downtown you have to support 30 min of bus under the heat with your automatic shotgun on your laps. The lady –next-to-you with the groceries of the day and her dog peeing on you sandals (damn!!! I don’t have sandals!!!). Violence in Brasil is hence much more zonal than we can think.
Another fun fact is that pre conceived ideas are not just for Europeans watching the news and by watching the chopper going down on North District (2h bus from downtown and the beach, like Heathrow for London) run to cancel their holidays of the year in Brasil cos “my goodness South America is too dangerous, I´ll do Kenya, at least people there don’t have anti aerial weapons in their wardrobes (damn, I thought I had my umbrella… I shot the chopper… what an idiot). Even in Brasil there are this type of preconceived ideas of other places in Brasil (it aint like Switzerland on a train trip, you sneeze and you´ve past the country, Brasil is biiiiiiiiig). Living in Rio when the chopper incident happened (I heard of it like everybody, through the news), I received phone calls from family in Salvador asking me if the chopper fell on my head (4 miles long that chopper… got 14 million people while falling). My sweet wasn´t there yet and she was very worried, so I explained her that it was all good. She seemed surprised thinking the whole city was in a state of alert, curfew with heavy duty army vehicles in town (think of Rio city center like NYC downtown, that´s where I work). I ensured her about a 100 times that civil war was not to be declared and nobody really saw that accident. Truth is, out of the people living in that particular place of the North District, nobody heard of the event before the news related it. All this to say that for the whole of Brasil, Rio is a city armed in permanent state of war where you drive around in armored vehicles and you go by your sandwich running with a life vest.
Preconceived ideas are unfortunately quick to happen and hard to make disappear.
New continent, new faces, new function (same ol´ job though), new-everything (almost). Coming from the African chaos with it´s socio politic hell kitchen I am now arriving to another hell kitchen, bigger and better organize, with an easier-to-predict violence. Favelas (name for shanty towns) from Brasil are worldwide famous. One can think it´s everywhere, all cities hence violence is omniscient. It is obviously a preconception as it all depends on where the trash city is from the city, how it is organized etc etc..After 3 years in Salvador (rotations Salvador-Soyo… yes Sir!!!!), I never saw violence like the one they show on the news worldwide: choppers are pouring like rain water, dengue´s mosquito are organizing ammunition transports for drug cartels!!! People say they saw some transporting pliers that could well be the ones responsible for the blackout in Brasil last week (in December 2009)!!! No it ain´t reaaaally like that. There is violence yes, just like in NYC, Chicago, LA, London, Paris. Rio has a particularity, first it is an industrial city of 14 millions inhabitants hence there is a strong inequality of treatment bringing animosity. Second is the principal problem of Rio, favelas are situated on the hills surrounding the city (not all but quite a few) so it is easy to walk down the hill of the favelas and attack Copacabana´s tourist lazying around belly and wallet out!!! Salvador is quite different for instance: Favelas are far far away (like in Shreck) 30 min of bus (and what bus!!!). So if you want to do your criminal business downtown you have to support 30 min of bus under the heat with your automatic shotgun on your laps. The lady –next-to-you with the groceries of the day and her dog peeing on you sandals (damn!!! I don’t have sandals!!!). Violence in Brasil is hence much more zonal than we can think.
Another fun fact is that pre conceived ideas are not just for Europeans watching the news and by watching the chopper going down on North District (2h bus from downtown and the beach, like Heathrow for London) run to cancel their holidays of the year in Brasil cos “my goodness South America is too dangerous, I´ll do Kenya, at least people there don’t have anti aerial weapons in their wardrobes (damn, I thought I had my umbrella… I shot the chopper… what an idiot). Even in Brasil there are this type of preconceived ideas of other places in Brasil (it aint like Switzerland on a train trip, you sneeze and you´ve past the country, Brasil is biiiiiiiiig). Living in Rio when the chopper incident happened (I heard of it like everybody, through the news), I received phone calls from family in Salvador asking me if the chopper fell on my head (4 miles long that chopper… got 14 million people while falling). My sweet wasn´t there yet and she was very worried, so I explained her that it was all good. She seemed surprised thinking the whole city was in a state of alert, curfew with heavy duty army vehicles in town (think of Rio city center like NYC downtown, that´s where I work). I ensured her about a 100 times that civil war was not to be declared and nobody really saw that accident. Truth is, out of the people living in that particular place of the North District, nobody heard of the event before the news related it. All this to say that for the whole of Brasil, Rio is a city armed in permanent state of war where you drive around in armored vehicles and you go by your sandwich running with a life vest.
Preconceived ideas are unfortunately quick to happen and hard to make disappear.
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