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[santobr]

Yes, in some places they are.

Try "seca no nordeste" and "favelas brasileiras" with google and you will see some photos of Brazil that the politicians don't want to show.




santobr.

[Oscarito]

If those photos are an accurate representation, then you Are well past the point of demonstration.

When I say "Us" or "Our" of course I'm not referring to my individual condition since I can be considered a privileged citizen among an inpoverished people. I live in a comfortable home, I can study in private universities and I have a good private health plan. When I feel the daily drama of the other people it does not mean I became a kind of Dr. Zhivago, but it means that we can not be happy when almost all the others are not...
But I agree with you when you said "We are well past the point"

[Gaston]

Well, Avala... it is not "democracy vs dictatorship"... it is rich peoples vs the rest of the peoples ! some said that, after 1989, the Class struggle was outdated... in  fact, it has never been so real !

Romans did "Dividae et impera"... they also did "panem et circense"... actually, we only have "circense", with stupid TV shows, football world cup, tennis tournaments and so on... they just try to fill our minds with what they want to put in, so our brains are busy with something else that defending our life conditions... but we are getting every day closer to the limit, and this society is about to collapse, which is the best that can happen...

[Avala]

Well, Avala... it is not "democracy vs dictatorship"... it is rich peoples vs the rest of the peoples ! some said that, after 1989, the Class struggle was outdated... in  fact, it has never been so real !

Romans did "Dividae et impera"... they also did "panem et circense"... actually, we only have "circense", with stupid TV shows, football world cup, tennis tournaments and so on... they just try to fill our minds with what they want to put in, so our brains are busy with something else that defending our life conditions... but we are getting every day closer to the limit, and this society is about to collapse, which is the best that can happen...

I couldn't agree more. I went through all of that during the 1990s. And believe me, its in vain. Its only that the same kind people will get to the power instead the people that are already in power. The only hope is to forget any nationality, country, personal and local concern, and to go to, yes, global revolution. The drawback is that sort of thing usually are very bloody. uncomfortable and uncertain.

[CWMV]

Um I will respectfully disagree with the concept of global revolution. It is the mainstay of evil and failed ideologies.

Best government is smallest. Perhaps many people works wide should revolt, but the systems of government established need to be very localized.

[Alex840]

I was there! I was one of the 100,000 people that took the streets of Recife last thursday, of 1.245 million people that gathered to streets on entire Brazil:





This is Recife crowded by 100,000 protesters at the streets:



I hope we are building a better country to live. We don't want blood, we don't want civil war. We only want a government that offers us public services at the height of the taxes we pay. We only want respect. Respect for us and the money we give to them.

[santobr]

Now you can understand what kind of hell we are living here, please use the captions in English to know what the "Sucker" is saying:







santobr.

[Whiskey_Sierra_972]

Apart for better services....maybe but I don't bet about....I don't see a different tax situation than in my country: I have 28% of salary taxed at the base , another 21% taxed when I buy everything , after I must to pay for every medical examinations , telephone service , television services , transports , gasoline (more that the 80% of the prize are taxes)....

I'm like a brasilan!!!

The difference is the salary base , we have higher salary so the avance of it can let us live apparently in a confortable way but in the last years in a policy of state expense reduction the salary wasn't rised so the advance is constantly eroded from inflaction and the private workers are made redundant from the production contraction due the reduced consumption caused by economic stagnation or better word recession....a word negated from our politicians....but expressed openly from our industrial and trade associations spokesman....

We will be in your same condition when private workers 'll be without work and state workers can't be paid because private workers 'll not paid taxes....

....sadly I don't see a so far future for this situation!

[Oscarito]

 

Code: [Select]

Thursday night I took part in a riot. It was my first. I think I've learned
something new, and I would like to share some views about that unusual
experience through this brief account. Sorry the grammar. English is not
my native language as you probably know.

We were planing the riot since the morning that day.
Our group was composed mainly of students from Catholic University and our
meeting point was settled at a park in downtown. When I arrived there
by nightfall and at the schedulled time, there were already a hundred
or more guys waiting and I could recognize immediately a lot of friends
among them.

"Hi Oscar! I've bet a beer you would not come. Guess I've lost."

That was Ricardo, a freckled sociology student and a close friend.

"It was a last minute decision!" I answered to him smiling.

The park seemed like a camp. Many guys had home-made brazilian flags
and the girls showed their shirts with slogans written with lipsticks.
Fifteen minutes after I arrived to the park we already numbered more than
three hundred for sure and a guy that I didn't know roared with a megaphone
that was time to go marching.

One of the primary targets for the rioters (including my group) was the
City Hall. 
People were not agressive as much as I could see when we arrived there.
They were just standing in front of the building holding candles
and proclaiming their displeasure in chorus while waving flags and posters
with slogans of protest. But the atmosphere was obviously tense and
I must admit that something bad could hapen at a given moment.
Then I saw an unbelievable scene. The surroundings were very well
protected by hundreds of men from the military police or
simply "the Brigade" as we use to refer to them here.
They had shields and truncheons. Suddenly people started to scream:

"The Brigade went on a mutiny!"

I looked around to find what was going on when I've heard a young leutnant
shouting:

"Soldiers! You can not be bought with a lunch and a paper sleeve with a
bribe inside. You're not beggars, you are the Brigade!"

Well, it was something like this he said, and I was told by someone that the
soldiers were receiving a lunch kit from the City Hall administration
office which included each one a paper sleeve with a R$50,00 bill
(about US$20,00) inside.
The outraged officer tore the paper sleeve and trowed the lunch kit
against the glass doors of the building while saying those words and
then he ordered his men to release their shields.
The soldiers obeyed and some also took off their helmets and throwed them
against the doors too. The crowd exulted:

"Hail Brigade!"

"The Brigade is with us!"

But the commanding officer fearing that the situation was
runing fast out of his control radioed the headquarter asking for reinforcements
which quickly arrived restoring the scene.
The mutineers were then ordered to take their shields back and I could see
some of them being detained by their loyalist comrades.
Did not see that leutnant anymore. I assume he is imprisoned by now,
certainly waiting for a court martial or so...

But the worst moments were still to come when the people started to
advance against the soldiers to support those who were being detained.
The commanding officer ordered his men to fire a salvo of rubber bullets
on the mob that halted for a moment but did not retreated, resuming the
advance now faster.Then, a heavy cavalry charge was launched against
the mob causing it to melt away. I saw people being beated
with sabers in their backs. Many others fell to the ground and were
trampled. I had no doubt at that moment that many people became hurt.

Our group, managed to escape to a nearby street where we quickly improvised
a barricade with trash containers and an overturned van from the
mail company just in time to face some dozen horsemen who appeared on the corner
and charged against us. Our barricade suceeded on halting the
horsemen who retreated under a furious barrage of stones, glass bottles,
wood pieces and even a washbasin.
I've got impressed how Lili (alias Elisa), a tall girl from
the handball team could throw big stones with an astonishing accuracy,
commemorating each hit with joyful jumps, her big boobs jumping too...

Notwithstanding, we had no time to commemorate our unexpected "victory"
since a large number of soldiers with shields and gas grenade launchers
could already be seen regrouping two blocks away from our position.
It was at this moment that the first "leaders" or so started to rise
among us:

"We need to blockade the other corner to avoid them coming to us from
behind!"

That was Carlos, a long haired engineering student talking to my friend
Nelson, a law student.

"OK! I'll go..." Nelson said, and commanded:

"Hey, Hey, everyone from the Law School come with me!"

Then, a blond girl at the opposite side of the barricade shout:

"Yes! Take all the damned lawyers with you..."

I couldn't help laughing and I was not the only one. The entire barricade
burst out laughing, the "lawyers" included while going to the other corner.
But the fact is that we were all nervous with that serious
situation. I remember saying to Nelson with a bit of sarcasm:

"Stop them overthere otherwise I'll prosecute you!"

"You stop them here!" He answered, smiling to me with his baby face,
before going away to lead his group.

A tiny faction of punks with their faces painted like indian warriors
arrived to the street coming from an alleyway and Carlos said:

"What the hell these guys are doing here? They are sick!"

"Come on Carlitos, they are good fighters, and we're not in the position
to choose allies now. They are alongside with us, at least for a while..."

That was my friend Manolo (alias Manuel), very pragmactical
as he uses to be...

The soldiers were then some 100 yards in front of us when they started to
launch the gas grenades over our barricade that trembled with the blasts.

"Stay firm! It's only noise..." someone shout

But it was not.  We had our mouths and noses
covered with shirts saturated with vinegar provided by a dealer of the
street. I don't know who had such a stupid idea since it just made the
gas effects to be increased!
My friend Ricardo was side by side with me and said:

"Oscar, you smell like a salad!"

"Same as you! Keep throwing the stones..." I answered to him.

But our fierce resistence was already going to an end as the air began
to come irrespirable. Some of us fainted and the medicine students with
their white coats gave up of fighting and tried to reanimate them.
I knew that a girl had an anaphylactic shock.
As the soldiers approached to the barricade we started to beat a hasty
retreat among great confusion. I think somebody perfurated the fuel tank
of the overturned van that was part of our barricade because a fire
started and I've heard someone shouting:

"Run everybody, it will explode!"

But the van did not explode. Perhaps it was almost without fuel, but most
probably because the task was made by some kind of an amateur...
But we ran anyway, coughing and sneezing like mad dogs.
The soldiers fired several volleys of rubber bullets agaisnt our backs.
Some residents and business owners opened the gates of their houses
and allowed us to refuge there.
I saw about twenty of my friends at the garden of a big and
beautiful house receiving water from the housekeeper and her little sons.
I took shelter at a petshop(!) together with Ricardo, his girlfriend
Katia and some others. We could not hear nothing because the dogs were
barking too loud in their cages, a little poodle toy all white being
particularly noisy...

"Did you see Bel?"

That was Pablito my classmate asking me about his sister Izabel.

I did not understand him and say: "WHAT?"

"I AM LOOKING FOR BEL! DID YOU SEE HER?" repeated Pablo clearly desperated.

"NO, I DIDN'T! SORRY PABLO."

And Katia:

"Don't worry, she's safe. She is at the toilette in the backyards."

"WHAT?"

"DAMN, SHE WET HER PANTS!" said Katia, and started crying.

Well, we surrendered at last, since the soldiers achieved a complete control
over the "battlefield". They allowed us to leave the street quietly
and in small groups. They did not beat us and nobody was detained,
not even the punks!
We left the street walking slowly. A fire truck arrived and put out the
fire at the van which by now was almost totally burned. The firemen also
gave us an unpleasat bath. Clearly intentional...
Three ambulances also arrived. I saw that a girl was being put into one
of them with a stretcher. I came close to see if I know her but a soldier
ordered me to me stand back.

"GO! GO!" He screamed while cocking his rifle

"OK!" I said, lifting my arms and turning back.

Enough rubber bullets for the day...

Everyone was dirty, stinky, tired, defeated.
The soldiers were lined up on both sidewalks. One of them,
a very young boy, was crying, maybe because the gas, or maybe not...
Many residents were watching the scene from their terraces above us and
started to clap his hands and show us their thumbs up. An old man at his
seventies wearing a french style "adrian" helmet probably weared by himself
in some revolution from the past was one of the most enthusiastic.
When I was to turn the corner I paid attention to a signpost showing
the name of the street:

                      "RUA DA AMIZADE"
                  (Street of the Friendship)

"Oh! Indeed?" I taught to myself.

We had already left that eventful place and most of us were walking
around without a real destination while a symphony of cell phone ringtones
hammered at our ears. They were fathers and mothers trying desperately to
know about their beloved "children".

It was then that I've met Nelson again. His shirt was blood-stained
and I've got scared:

"Nelson! You're bleeding man!"

"What? Oh no..." He said
 
"It's not my blood. One of the punks jumped over the barricade
to face the soldiers alone! Guess he was drugged.
He was hit in the head by a stone throwed by a girl wearing
thick glasses. Poor aimming I suppose. I helped him, so the blood..."

"Oh yes! Friendly fire..." I said, and we laughed together.

I also met Cris, a beautiful girl that studies literature. She was all wet
and her clothes were dirty (but she seemed very sexy...)

"Oscar! You here, what a surprise! Sorry, I should be awful."

"You're well!" I said to her. And we embraced each other.

Some guys (myself included) went to Vidal, a pub near my home
to have a beer in order to lower the adrenalin.
There, we talked to each other about our exploits.
Rogerio, an economy student and terrible guitar player had his mustache
plenty of beer foam and said proudly:

"Did you see how I used that signpost with NO PARKING written in it
to make that hoseman turn back?"

"Nope! You drove out the horse with your breath!" I answered, and we all
laughed.

Everyone wanted to show their scars caused by the rubber bullets.
Gil (Gilberto) is a fat boy that studies biology. He lifted his shirt
and showed us three scars forming a perfect triangle in his ample back.

"I'm not surprised as you are a BIG target!" said Nelson

We laughed and Gil showed us that caractheristic @#&% sign with his finger.
Unfortunately, I had no scars to show since I was wearing two jeans
and a leather jacket over a thick sweater, 
but I can assure I was hit at least twice and
believe me when I say it hurts...

It was dawn when we were to pay for the beers and go home, but the owner,
a greyish portuguese immigrant, said with a smile while
taking himself a beer:

"Keep your money! Tonight is a free bar for you all...Cheers!"



                                 -oOo-


PS: I returned alone to that street the day after. Our former
    "place of glory" was then like a desert. But the vestiges of the
    skirmish still could be seen everywhere. Among countless rubber
    bullet empty shells I could see a wrist watch, shoes, some shirts and
    a tattered brazilian flag that I picked up to save as a souvenir...



Oscarito
   






[max_thehitman]

Do you know why this is also happening? Overpopulation.
Too many people in one place in a place that is getting too crowded. Those "Favelas" and
shanty towns are the worse that any human can live in sometimes. They have no
conditions for a civilized person to live.
A fight is always bound to happen.

Take this into consideration. Along time ago I was watching this old tv documentary
where scientists were doing experiments with mice to see how they would behave
in certain situations just as humans would.
So they made a nice medium sized box and placed 4 mice in there and gave them plenty of
food an water and some grass to make their beds.
Ok, everything was looking normal, the mice were happy and they were at peace.

Then after a few months they placed in the same box about 30 other mice. At first
the food and water were plenty and good enough to go around and everything was normal.
Then after a month the mice started to breed and become territorial.
Fights were breaking out for territory and who would get the food and water first.
Major war going on inside that box. Some mice were starting to
kill the baby mice so they could not eat their food.
So, this scientific research goes to show that too many people living in just a small area of
land can become quite volatile. If todays cities cannot provide decent living conditions, drinking
water , food supplies and basic toilet an sewer systems, then a war is bound to happen sooner
or later.
I don´t understand why a country would spend millions and billions on football stadiums whne they could
have built better hospitals and make their cities much more pleasent to live in. You cannot fill your
stomach with footballs. You can´t eat that crap. Only when people are well feed and people are
really happy with the way they live, then they can think about building a few football stadiums
for pleasure. Because if your going to put pleasure in the first place before food and a nice house,
then your really in trouble.

[LuseKofte]

Corruption is very hidden in rich countries, and in them contempt people does net care too much.

I personally like the french democracy , the politicans there are truly afraid of riots and violence if they do something the people does not like

[Whiskey_Sierra_972]

Sorry to disagree with any kind of violence even if from a just cause!

I dislike this kind violence because you are fighting someone that is an instrument of power but your not enemy , he's like the worker , with a project to compile , and no room to think about otherwise he could loose his work!

Only a very little part of cops are bad , the vast majority started their work because he desire to protect the community and the law not the potent!

Among your fellow students there are their sons , they feel the same against corruptions and vaste of money towards futile things!

They are sujected to the same school and sanity fauls....maybe some of their family members have suffered for bad sanity assistance or some of their sons haven't got good educational results for bad school organization!

They are only the finger behind which the real culprits hidden!!!

You like to change....hit the enemy not what the enemy make you appear the enemy!!!

World need a revolution , strat from iside you , find what you really need , find the real weak point of the ruling class!!

Use brain and democracy tools not stones or barricades!!!