It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that I share with the English-speaking world the news that the Rio police is finally taking action against criminals and their violent acts in a way that is efficient.
This morning a twice convicted criminal attempted to rob a mail truck when he was surprised by the quick police response. The cobs surrounded the area and closed down the street. The criminal, who did not want to be arrested, went into a pharmacy and took the pharmacy owner, a 48 year old woman, hostage.
Armed with a hand grenade, the criminal held on to the woman, making threats to finish her and all those around him, including the officers who attempted negotiations with him for almost 2 hours.
The woman kept bending over because she felt dizzy and ill, and at the moment in which she bends over completely, a police sniper, stationed in the building across the street, about 40 meters from the criminal, shoots him in the head, killing him instantly and freeing the hostage.
This was the best police action I have ever seen take place in Rio. Maybe now these criminals will start to fear their criminal activity, because they never know when a sharp shooter will be somewhere "invisible" to them, ready to take them out.
This officer deserves all the respect and admiration he has been getting, and I sure hope this continues to be the police reaction to criminal acts, so that one day they may actually drastically decrease in number.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
ARNALDO JABOR FOR PRESIDENT
Yesterday I watched the Brazilian news at night, a terrible thing to do before bed if you want to avoid nightmares. As I watched all the bad news with horror, all the violent protests, the destruction caused by natural disasters that just recently hit the Southern region of the country, and the government's disdain to it all, I also watched with glory an extremely intelligent commentator named Arnaldo Jabor make a phenomenal analysis and call for change. I decided that it would benefit everyone to read what he had to say. So here it is:
"Formerly it was said that all the violence was caused by poverty, ignorance. It isn’t so. A country where all cases of obvious crimes disappear filed away in Congress, ethics disappear, the evidence vanishes, fired and resigned politicians rule the country…
In this environment the diffused idea spreads: not that 'anything can happen', because they do not fear punishment. It is much more than that. There is a fading awareness of evil. That's the thing. The consciousness of evil presupposes the idea of right, of good, but there's no longer not even that. There is no longer “good”. It is normal to beat a man to death at the mall, to place newborns in a trash bag and toss it in a public lagoon at the park, to fire shots randomly killing innocent people.
The crazy Islamic fanatic blows himself up in the name of Allah. Some others kill for any political causes, but here in Brazil there is no flag. Evil in Brazil horrifies because it happens without reason.
Philosophers talk of the banality of evil, but here there is the gratuitous evil, the lightness of evil, the pleasure of evil, the evil video game. This is the tragedy, there is no longer a cause or motive, only consequences.
And then Brazil arms itself against the enemy - With billions spent on planes and French submarines, but the war, gentlemen, is inside our country."
"Formerly it was said that all the violence was caused by poverty, ignorance. It isn’t so. A country where all cases of obvious crimes disappear filed away in Congress, ethics disappear, the evidence vanishes, fired and resigned politicians rule the country…
In this environment the diffused idea spreads: not that 'anything can happen', because they do not fear punishment. It is much more than that. There is a fading awareness of evil. That's the thing. The consciousness of evil presupposes the idea of right, of good, but there's no longer not even that. There is no longer “good”. It is normal to beat a man to death at the mall, to place newborns in a trash bag and toss it in a public lagoon at the park, to fire shots randomly killing innocent people.
The crazy Islamic fanatic blows himself up in the name of Allah. Some others kill for any political causes, but here in Brazil there is no flag. Evil in Brazil horrifies because it happens without reason.
Philosophers talk of the banality of evil, but here there is the gratuitous evil, the lightness of evil, the pleasure of evil, the evil video game. This is the tragedy, there is no longer a cause or motive, only consequences.
And then Brazil arms itself against the enemy - With billions spent on planes and French submarines, but the war, gentlemen, is inside our country."
Thursday, September 3, 2009
JUST BACK FROM RIO
I am sorry it has been so long since I last wrote any entries to my blog. It has been a pretty busy summer, I was studying for the bar exam and finally took it at the end of July. I won't know the results till November, so I guess in the meantime I will be busy with current events. I did take the opportunity to go to Brazil and spend some time in Rio de Janeiro with my family and making some sense of their reality. As many of you know, Rio is both blessed and cursed. It is blessed with the most beautiful landscape in the world, people of faith, a naturally wonderful world. But it is cursed with the plague of the drug war, and it is a city infested with crime.
The saddest thing about Rio, to me, is that people have somewhat accepted their horrible reality, and they believe that it is something that happens "everywhere" and that they are just always placed in the spotlight. They believe that the closing down of tunnels during rush hour to rob many cars is ok because it only happens "sometimes". They believe that at least it's not Iraq...but I bet anything that there are a lot more deaths in Rio than in Iraq today.
Here is a pretty interesting slide show posted on Youtube that depicts the reality of Rio today. It portrays the war between the police and the drug dealers, and it concludes that the only victims are the people - the taxpayers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtYCK-fIj4w&feature=fvw
I guess most of the victims are in fact non tax-payers, because most of the victims come from the favelas, where they are not required to pay anything at all to the government (fact that still shocks many people I tell it to, since they INVADED public land and remained there AT WILL, but somehow their illegal acts are compensated with the benefit of not having to pay taxes). It is very easy to be the "good hearted person" and claim that these "poor people" had "no other alternative" but I tell you that such IS NOT THE CASE. I personally know of one very inspiring story of a poor, hardworking black woman named Clarice, who raised five children in a very far away, dangerous, poor area of Rio, the hottest part of the city, to be successful men and women today, and she did it with dignity, paying bills, commuting from afar, not committing ANY illegal act. This is something that these people who tend to create excuses for the slum dwellers and the criminals of Rio should spend more time emphasizing. It is people like Clarice, whose story I will be sure to share, who deserve unyielding protection from all possible organizations, but instead, the organizations tend to protect those who make her already difficult life close to impossible.
In order for Rio to change the ones who need to change are the Cariocas. Change can only come from within.
The saddest thing about Rio, to me, is that people have somewhat accepted their horrible reality, and they believe that it is something that happens "everywhere" and that they are just always placed in the spotlight. They believe that the closing down of tunnels during rush hour to rob many cars is ok because it only happens "sometimes". They believe that at least it's not Iraq...but I bet anything that there are a lot more deaths in Rio than in Iraq today.
Here is a pretty interesting slide show posted on Youtube that depicts the reality of Rio today. It portrays the war between the police and the drug dealers, and it concludes that the only victims are the people - the taxpayers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtYCK-fIj4w&feature=fvw
I guess most of the victims are in fact non tax-payers, because most of the victims come from the favelas, where they are not required to pay anything at all to the government (fact that still shocks many people I tell it to, since they INVADED public land and remained there AT WILL, but somehow their illegal acts are compensated with the benefit of not having to pay taxes). It is very easy to be the "good hearted person" and claim that these "poor people" had "no other alternative" but I tell you that such IS NOT THE CASE. I personally know of one very inspiring story of a poor, hardworking black woman named Clarice, who raised five children in a very far away, dangerous, poor area of Rio, the hottest part of the city, to be successful men and women today, and she did it with dignity, paying bills, commuting from afar, not committing ANY illegal act. This is something that these people who tend to create excuses for the slum dwellers and the criminals of Rio should spend more time emphasizing. It is people like Clarice, whose story I will be sure to share, who deserve unyielding protection from all possible organizations, but instead, the organizations tend to protect those who make her already difficult life close to impossible.
In order for Rio to change the ones who need to change are the Cariocas. Change can only come from within.
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