Dec 29, 2006 15:53
Wow. So I called my grandmother to try and explain why I wasn't at home for christmas, but my grandfather told me she was in Rio. So I talked to him, and it was so sweet- He was so happy about it. I've barely hung up the phone when my mom comes in with this blank face. Apparently the Drug Lords had staged a revolt from inside the prison against the police for a recent raid. The major neighborhoods in Rio- Including one's I'd lived in and had family in- were all attacked.
In Botafogo, where I'd grown up, a bus was set on fire with people still inside- 7 people died by being burnt alive.
I called back and found out my grandmother was a) in a different part of Rio b) too busy fawning over a wedding to notice. My uncle, however, was very shaken up- He was on a particular highway that, if blocked off, is inescapable. It's a very long bridge called The Red Line. If the dealers and their fucking lackies had wanted to, they could have killed everyone on there to get their message across.
Why? Why the hell do we do this to each other? We're a suffering country with no good politics, a national debt there aren't even enough numbers for and people starving every day. Why do we do this to each other? And then The Family gets pissed when I reffer to Brasil as third world.
It's all so surreal. In a way in the back of my mind I can't really accept what my country's become, then stuff like this happens.
brasil,
rio de janeiro,
the family,
2006