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#61
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Suffer the Children
http://www.bootsnall.com/travelstori...ferchild.shtml
Suffer the Children By Craig D. Guillot The screaming and shouting had been attracting a crowd near the corner of Avenida Copacabana and Rua Sao Paulo. Breaking out into a slow-paced jog, I approached the corner of the building as a small child in tattered clothes ran past me. He fled off into the distance and vanished into a crowd of pedestrians. My dark curiosity continued to draw me around the corner and into the commotion. With bare, bloodied feet slamming against the broken glass on the concrete, dozens of children scattered like roaches from the abandoned building. Crying, cowering, and throwing rocks at the police, they scurried along the block as the men tried to grab hold of them. One of the street kids' only sanctuaries had been discovered by the local community, and it was time for them to leave. It looked as if someone had discovered a rats' nest and they were shaking it up to get all of the pests out. In the streets of Rio de Janiero, Brazil, that's exactly what it was - exterminators getting rid of the unwanted pests. As the crowd of spectators grew, the police began to control their tempers. A few of the older and larger kids were whacked with small clubs, while the rest were left to flee down the street towards the shanties that loomed in the mountains above us. There would be no exterminations today, but the children knew that when the sun went down, the wolves would be out to get them. As I went to sleep that night to the symphony of gunfire, I wondered how many of those children would wake up dead. More than a half-million children sleep beneath the arms of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. They run the gamut from runaways to orphans to toddlers fleeing abusive parents. With few options, the children resort to whatever it takes to survive. Sleeping in the parking lots of the Mercedes dealerships and eating out of the garbage of the five-star hotels, they wabble the streets like lost and abandoned animals. In the quest for survival, the children form small gangs and bands for protection and companionship. Sharing horror stories about narrow escapes from armed men, they tell each other new ways to make money and bandage each other's wounds with dirty napkins found in the gutter. Quite too often, they bury one of their friends in an unmarked grave. It's perfectly logical to turn to crime in such desperate situations. Stealing to eat, some children advance in their deeds, from armed robbery to murder-for-hire. If only by sheer numbers, they threaten to tear the city apart, and there are those who refuse to sit by and watch. There are an average of 1,200 children murdered every year on the streets of Rio. They are called "pivettes" (little farts), "undesirables," "trash;" they are hunted down, tortured and killed by the city's mysterious death squads. It is widely known that many business owners and police plan an active role in the squads, which pick off the children in their sleep like flies. The average price to have a "street urchin" killed: a mere $70. In Ipanema, the mutilated body of a 5-year-old boy is found wrapped up in a rug. Not far from the scene a boy walks into a hospital, bleeding from the groin. His penis had been cut off. When city workers went to unclog a drain during a recent flood, they found a young girl with a slit throat. Ask anyone about the Candelaria Massacre, and they walk away. Rio would rather you forget about that time a group of armed men fired upon 70 sleeping children outside of a church. It's a picture that wouldn't look too good on a postcard. At the young age of 11, Jao is the head of his family. He and his two younger sisters live in an abandoned chopperia which had been vacant since the owner was sent to prison for murder. I could look into Jao's eyes and see the cold, hard stare of a war veteran. It was the look of a boy who had seen far too much in his short life. The two girls do what they can during the day to scavenge food from dumpsters in the backs of hotels and restaurants, while Jao does other things that he would rather not tell me about. Tonight was a special night though, as Daniella, the older sister, had found a few half-eaten hamburgers, a stale loaf of bread, and a half-full pint of beer. As their aching bodies grow weary, under the cover of darkness Jao and his two sisters creep back to the shack. The two girls cuddle in the corner on a stolen beach blanket, as Jao peeks through a crack in the wall at oncoming pedestrians. He knows that their lives depend on his suspicions. All across the city, beneath the view of Christ, sleep the hundreds of thousands of homeless children. It is not just the poverty and loneliness that haunt children like Jao. It is that the city wants them dead. Kurko wrote in message ... Simply because in normal daily life its next to impossible to encounter all these drug lords, thieves, muggers and murderes. In Rio more annoying are beggars, shoeshiners and all kinds of sellers not to mention "samba bands". Rio is very beautiful city (Cidade Maravilhosa), quite safe too for tourists as long as you understand and obey the "rule": Don't be stupid. Kurko On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 21:40:02 -0500, clint wrote: After reading all the Rio posts, why with all the wonderful places to go, would anyone travel to Rio? |
#62
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The Ghosts of Rio
http://www.bootsnall.com/travelstori...ostreets.shtml
The Ghosts of Rio By Craig D. Guillot Christ watched over me, high on his hill in the distance, as I prowled the streets of Ipanema's shopping district on a muggy September afternoon. Behind the thick glass windows of the ritzy stores lay the products destined for Rio's elite. Up and down the avenue cruised some of the newest luxury cars on the market, as the upper class pranced along in their designer clothes, gold jewelry, and cash-laced wallets. There was a sale on gold Rolexes, and Ferrari had one of its newer models in stock. Next door, a new shipment of Persian rugs had arrived. I thought for a minute that I had stepped into Beverly Hills or New York's 5th Avenue, but as I looked harder, beneath the glitter and glamour of Ipanema, I could see something entirely different. Between the stores and malls, stood nervous men armed with Uzis and AK-47s. With fingers rubbing the triggers, their bloodshot eyes wandered up and down the block. They were on the lookout for ghosts. Among the Porsches and BMWs creeped the ramshackle city buses, packed with the rest of Rio's 10 million residents. Crammed like sardines in a tin can, the desperate souls in fourth-hand clothes leered and pointed at the commerce around them. Belching clouds of exhaust, the buses cruised towards the shantytown favelas rising high into the mountains. It was a cruel, teasing form of urban planning, where day after day the poor would look down to see the world that didn't want them; nowhere on earth does such wealth and poverty lay side by side. Along the elaborately designed sidewalks and outside the jewelry stores, lay the occasional motionless body. A small child was curled up underneath a sidewalk bench, while a legless man begged on the corner. Then there was an old woman, who lay in a pile of trash on the shoulder of the road. With her head resting upon her hands, she slept like a baby as cars raced past only inches from her head. A taxi pulled up alongside of her as two women, with gold necklaces and bags of loot, stepped right over the sleeping body. Across the street, a group of small children, with dirtied faces and rags around their malnourished bodies, scurried underneath the outdoor tables of restaurants in search of crumbs. They looked just like pigeons pecking for birdseed in a park. It wasn't long before a bearded man with an automatic weapon chased them away like a pack of wild dogs. Every block or two, a body lay right across the sidewalk. I did as the cariocas, Rio's residents, did, and stepped right over them. The cariocas shopped for gold and talked on their cell phones, as the rest of the city died beneath their feet. The poor simply did not exist. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched a man emerge from what appeared to be a small drainage hole. Slowly standing into a hunchback position, he started to wobble his way onto the sidewalk. Draped in torn, filthy rags, he had a ski mask on his head; it was tilted sideways, so that only the right eye showed, but through the left hole. A large tear in the rags around his body revealed what appeared to be burnt and disfigured skin. The man crept his way in my direction, dragging his aching feet along the concrete as men with Armani suits and Rolex watches scurried around him. Mothers led their children around the trail of blood, while others trudged right on through, as if the blood were just a puddle of water. As the monster walked in front of the small store where I was standing, a man with a pistol strapped to his waist came outside and started yelling at him. All I could understand of the Portuguese was "Leave, leave... you are f*****g up the sidewalk!" The masked man slowly wandered into the street. Cars honked their horns and swerved around him. A splashing sound suddenly caught my attention. I looked back down the sidewalk: a shop owner was dumping buckets of water on the blood. As the masked figure made it to the other side of the street, he dropped down onto an open area of concrete, falling on his back. The enormous pool of blood forming from his feet made it apparent that death was coming for him. While the sun started to set, the crowds began to thin, so that the drug gangs and killers could take control of the streets. After all, Rio had to meet its annual murder count of 6,000. Taking one last look at the man, I thought that was why he had crawled out of that hole in the first place: to die in front of everyone, in the hope that someone would notice. Nowhere on earth have I seen such indifference to so much suffering. I wanted to show the man that I cared. I walked around him. Kurko wrote in message ... Simply because in normal daily life its next to impossible to encounter all these drug lords, thieves, muggers and murderes. In Rio more annoying are beggars, shoeshiners and all kinds of sellers not to mention "samba bands". Rio is very beautiful city (Cidade Maravilhosa), quite safe too for tourists as long as you understand and obey the "rule": Don't be stupid. Kurko On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 21:40:02 -0500, clint wrote: After reading all the Rio posts, why with all the wonderful places to go, would anyone travel to Rio? |
#63
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Travelling to Rio
In article , P E T E R
P A N writes http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americ...carnival.reut/ Three policemen killed, ten wounded in ambush in Rio de Janeiro Monday, February 16, 2004 Posted: 10:31 AM EST (1531 GMT) RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) -- Three policemen were killed and 10 wounded in Rio de Janeiro when gunmen ambushed the bus in which they were traveling in a new outburst of violence days before the annual Carnival, police said Monday. Good. Now that we know where you come from (in previous threads in rec.travel.latin-america you have been promoting an Argentinian travel website) we know how to respond. You are a nasty troll, as I suspected, when I pointed out the holes in your sob story. Good thing about trolls is that they can't stay hidden for too long. -- JohnM Author of Brazil: Life, Blood, Soul http://www.scroll.demon.co.uk/spaver.htm |
#64
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Travelling to Rio
Ok little fairy.
Thank you for your misinformation, now you may crawl back to the hole you came from. NOBODY here needs your opinion anymore. We know that your enormous EGO got hurt while you were visiting Rio, but try to cope with it GROW UP ok. Kurko On 13 Mar 2004 13:32:21 -0800, P E T E R P A N wrote: According to the articles I was able to pull out of the net on a quick search, the organized crimes problems are far more serious in Brazil than any big city in the world, with ambush and shoot outs of the police, drug lords in prison ordering shut down of business, shcools, banks, stores, shops, gas stations...in Rio, including the touristy areas like Copacabana and Ipanema. In this lawless situation, my feelings are that tourists have very high probablity of being victims of violent crimes, or just caught in the cross fires between the gangs with machine guns, grenades, and police, compared to other cities. By the way, the scenaries in Rio is much poorer than many places in North America, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean...Rio is full of homeless, undesirables people sleeping on the streets, watching tourists intensely for the opportunities to commit crimes! Rio also reeks of urine and feces on every street! In the scale of 0 to 10 on the fun index, Rio is not even a 3 compared to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, the Hawaii islands, the US Virgin Islands...! I will stay away from Rio, so Kurko can happily kiss the drug lords' *sses, obey their harsh rules, and enjoy that hell hole by himself! Everyone is urged to come to the US to enjoy beautiful, pristine and peaceful sceneries every season, every climate, from high mountains, to deserts, to wide open oceans, with excellent outdoor and indoor sports and recreations, with safe, clean, lively cities, with the best varieties of great foods, and the company of friendly, fun, warm, honest, civilized, law-abiding Americans! Kurko wrote in message ... Simply because in normal daily life its next to impossible to encounter all these drug lords, thieves, muggers and murderes. In Rio more annoying are beggars, shoeshiners and all kinds of sellers not to mention "samba bands". Rio is very beautiful city (Cidade Maravilhosa), quite safe too for tourists as long as you understand and obey the "rule": Don't be stupid. Kurko On Fri, 12 Mar 2004 21:40:02 -0500, clint wrote: After reading all the Rio posts, why with all the wonderful places to go, would anyone travel to Rio? -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/ |
#65
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Travelling to Rio
JohnM schrieb: Good. Now that we know where you come from (in previous threads in rec.travel.latin-america you have been promoting an Argentinian travel website) we know how to respond. You are a nasty troll, as I suspected, when I pointed out the holes in your sob story. Good thing about trolls is that they can't stay hidden for too long. Agora que você menciona, a coisa começa a fazer sentido. A moeda por aqui custou a cair. JL |
#66
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Travelling to Rio
This stupid, nasty guy JohnM was not able to provide any information
or any arguments to defend his interests in Brazil, so he just conveniently accuses other poster of being a troll! If JohnM is stupid and unedcuated, perhaps he should just shut up, lest people may suspect that he is lying to protect his pimping, mugging interests in Rio! JohnM wrote in message Good. Now that we know where you come from (in previous threads in rec.travel.latin-america you have been promoting an Argentinian travel website) we know how to respond. You are a nasty troll, as I suspected, when I pointed out the holes in your sob story. Good thing about trolls is that they can't stay hidden for too long. |
#67
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Travelling to Rio
Everyone should see clearly that this dumb jerk Kurko is acting like a
stupid, uneducated loser with his nonsense arguments and his dumb accusations! If Kurko's old wife got raped up her big, sagging *ss by a bunch of drug lords, Kurko will immediately blame his wife for the crime like any dumb loser would! Kurko is just dumb trash! Kurko wrote in message ... Ok little fairy. Thank you for your misinformation, now you may crawl back to the hole you came from. NOBODY here needs your opinion anymore. We know that your enormous EGO got hurt while you were visiting Rio, but try to cope with it GROW UP ok. Kurko |
#68
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Hot in the city: crowded jails and drug economics push Latin American cities to their limit on crime -- Travelling to Rio
As Kurko admits, **** happens a lot to his dumb, miserable life! Kurko
is trying to lure more tourists to Rio to feed his pimping, mugging businesses! Kurko is just a stupid, whiny little jerk with no brain and no balls! Kurko-the-stupid-loser always blames the victims for the cirmes, and passionately kisses the pepetrators' asses to buy peace! Kurko wrote in message ... Lil' Pete! You've made your point. What's bugging you? **** happens everywhere, my buddy got beaten up in Liverpool, England. Should we start looking for statistics of violence in there and tell everybody not to go to England anymore? Face it faq, you ****ed up by being stupid. Stop blaming others on your own stupidity. Take your responsibility! Kurko |
#69
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Hot in the city: crowded jails and drug economics push Latin American cities to their limit on crime -- Travelling to Rio
Fantastic. Its always rather funny when someone who speaks english as
mother tongue doesn't know how to write his own language. Oh, sorry lil petey is an AMERICAN, so he really doesn't speak english. Anyway, I have no business in Rio especially related to pimping or mugging. In no circumstances I don't approve these crimes, but I've tried to explain that when you travel you MUST TAKE RESPONIBILITY OF YOUR OWN ACTIONS!!!! Its funny how lil petey knows me so well that he already is able to point out that my life is so miserable. Thanks, I think I just go and shoot myself. Kurko On 14 Mar 2004 08:16:27 -0800, P E T E R P A N wrote: As Kurko admits, **** happens a lot to his dumb, miserable life! Kurko is trying to lure more tourists to Rio to feed his pimping, mugging businesses! Kurko is just a stupid, whiny little jerk with no brain and no balls! Kurko-the-stupid-loser always blames the victims for the cirmes, and passionately kisses the pepetrators' asses to buy peace! Kurko wrote in message ... Lil' Pete! You've made your point. What's bugging you? **** happens everywhere, my buddy got beaten up in Liverpool, England. Should we start looking for statistics of violence in there and tell everybody not to go to England anymore? Face it faq, you ****ed up by being stupid. Stop blaming others on your own stupidity. Take your responsibility! Kurko -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/ |
#70
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Travelling to Rio
Dear Mr. Pan,
I was not really planning to get into a geographic/tourist flame, but it is really getting annoying. 1 - I am sorry you had a bad experience in Rio. However, we do not keep our criminals on leashed just to release them on unsuspecting tourists that decided to stroll at night in dark streets. Pardon my selfishness, but I wish we could! Unfortunately, Brazilians bear the burden of criminality much more than tourists, everyday, and not only when they are on vacations. And we don't bear it gladly. For a person who does not speak our language, neither lives in our country, to say that we don't discuss, struggle against and try to combat violence, it is not only laughable ignorance, it is insulting. 2 – I am not surprised that Brazilians got snippy at you, instead of sympathetic, if you showed them the same attitude you showed here. I am afraid that we share with many other nationalities that kind of pride that makes us very resistant to criticism by foreigners about our country—even about issues on which we may trash our own government, among ourselves. It comes to mind that delicious caricature of an American jingoist played by Kevin Kline, in a Fish Called Wanda: “we didn’t lose in Vietnam, it was a tie.” My point is that if you want to have a candid conversation with Brazilians on the problems of the country, you’d have to approach them with a bit more of sensitiveness. It may be simply a cultural clash, but high-handed arrogance in Brazil is considered, well, plain bad manners, and it is not likely to elicit you a courteous answer. 3 – Finally, if you get so fired up by a relatively mild comment such as Kurko’s initial post, well, maybe you should avoid not only the dark streets of Rio, but also the Usenet altogether. Toughen up! At this point, please feel free to insult Brazilians for what a born and raised Brazilian told you. Even worse: I was born and (mostly) raised in Rio de Janeiro city. I have seen my beloved, gorgeous city change a lot in the last 20 years—unfortunately not always for good. Having somehow a “gringo” appearance, I have been mistaken by a tourist very often, by thugs as well as by well-intentioned cariocas who tried to educate me on how to be safe in the city. I am glad, however, that it never prevented me from enjoying my city, and I have never let violence steal from me the right to uncover its beauty and charm. This doesn’t mean I don’t take precautions, as everybody else does in Rio. For instance, when I take friends with me to the Feira de São Cristovão, in a not so safe area, but where you can find delicious northeastern delicacies, I make sure that we go there in groups of 4 or 5, and that we leave—also together—with the family crowd, by midnight. I avoid going out at night alone, but, if I am all by myself, it is better to go home at 7 am than at 2 am. And there are many perfectly safe places, not too expensive, where you can bid your time. Just ask a local person, that is what I do when a go to another country. (I have also travelled rather extensively, and, except for one bad experience in the US, which I am the first to admit that resulted from my being naïve, my ask-a-local methodology works just fine everywhere). In fact, even when I go to a new place in Rio, I try to talk to a “native” beforehand, asking what is Ok and what is not ok to do in such place—be it a favela, a new neighborhood, or only a more isolated patch of forest. As I current live in a suburb city in the US, where most restaurants close at 9 pm (even on Saturdays!), I miss the midnight dinners, the dancing, the chorinho bars at Lapa, the kiosks in the Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, the shows and art galleries in the Cultural Corridor, the saveiro-tour in Guanabara Bay), the mangrove forests, the Tijuca urban forest, the beaches (each one with a different personality), the peregrination for used book in "sebos" in downtown Rio, the juice stands—with oh so many exotic fruit names--, climbing the SugarLoaf (it is not so difficult, and there are several alternative tourist agencies that can take you there), the hidden treasures that are the Museu da Chácara do Céu or the Museu da imagem do inconsciente, the incredible garden of Burle Marx, the cosmopolitan bars in the Zona Sul and the little-town feeling in some suburbs… I could go on and on. Again, I am sorry that you had a bad experience in Rio; but I am even sorrier for you, that you allowed that experience to blind you for everything Rio could have offered you. Best, Lise |
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