Brazilian criminals abducting victims for short periods of time in order to receive a quick pay off at an ATM machine, also known as “quicknapping”, was our first early warning sign of the danger of being a tourist in Brazil.
Shortly after arriving at a hostel in Sao Paulo, we were told residents had, just a couple of hours before, been held at gun point outside the hostel, forced into a car, and driven to the nearest ATM. Episodes like this explain why you can only get a limited amount of money out at a cash machine after 10pm, something that would later cause us immense problems when we attempted to get a last minute night time flight 1000 miles across the country.
The levels of violence are comparable to a war zone
If you’ve seen the film ‘City of God’, then your impression of Rio de Janeiro probably isn’t too far off the mark. A study published in Brazil recently concluded that more young people below the age of 18 are killed by guns each year in Rio than in many areas of the world formally at war. Having been told the levels of violence are comparable to a war zone we decided, whilst avoiding the favelas (slums), to stay in one of the more crime ridden districts of Rio- Lapa. Living up to its reputation of being the party central, with the streets crowded with people dancing until about 7am, was not the only thing Lapa lived up to.
Nineteenth century looting, as epitomized in Oliver Twist, was certainly comparable to the modern day gang warfare that took centre stage in this bustling district. Lapa had its very own ‘Fagin’ with an ensemble of roughly twenty children between the ages of four and fifteen all sent out to disperse amongst the tourists. After being accosted by children who proceeded to root around in my pockets, and after shouting at them several times, only to receive both physical and verbal abuse, a friend stepped in and scared the children away. Ten minutes later they came back with a mass following and the proposed ‘leader’ had with him a contraption devised to poke people’s eyes out.
So far I have not painted a very pretty picture of Brazil, doing this fascinating country an extreme injustice. Whilst Rio is one of the world’s most modern cities, there are high numbers of people living in the slums. With a deepening divide between the rich and the poor, is it surprising that cities such as these are as they are?
One thing I realised during my travelling around Brazil is that violence and theft only seemed commonplace where deep divisions of wealth had become embedded in society, while places that were relatively untouched by Western impositions seemed to be fairly peaceful. Many of the people I met whilst travelling in places outside of the main cities, untouched by the commercial, capitalist aspects of the first world, were, whilst living extremely primitively, not necessarily poor.
Of course, the term ‘poor’ used here is subjective as it depends upon a personal interpretation of what it actually means to be poor.
To one particularly influential man I met, a Buddhist named José who
Brazil 2009: Sao Paulo street scene. Photograph: Larisa Brown.
owns a trekking company in the jungle, being poor didn’t mean not having a television or a mobile phone, it meant being unfulfilled with life, discontent and constantly wanting more. The nearest village to José’s house was two hours away by jeep and, in this small community of about two hundred inhabitants, everyone knew each other my name. Much to our surprise, they even knew the name of each others pets. In such a small and close community, law and order weren’t a concern, as families habitually looked after each other and no one was considered poor compared to the others.
On the other hand the streets of Sao Paulo were crowded with homeless people who, unable to support themselves in a modernised and industrial city, were more easily characterised as being poor- poor in terms of both economic and social wellbeing. The influx of wealthy tourists into the popular cities compared to those barely able to survive could not have provided a more compelling picture. When I thought about the wad of money that I kept tucked in my bra, or the brand new camera that was safely accounted for on my insurance, I considered for a moment the children that were roaming the streets, rummaging people’s pockets. I came to the conclusion, why the hell not?
Living in shacks made out of cardboard and piled dangerously high on top of each other, whilst surrounded by the latest car advertisements on huge billboards, it is no wonder that crime against tourists is a strong problem in the Brazilian cities. What modernisation has partly brought to the people of these places is higher aspirations that are not at all achievable.
Comparatively, I visited a ‘hippy village’ just outside a place called Salvador in the North of Brazil. The strong Afro-Brazilian culture and vibe for samba, especially on the beaches, was far removed from the industrial city of Sao Paulo. To visit this hippy village you had to walk a good few miles off the beaten path, and its inhabitants were more or less counted for on both of my hands. From the few hours spent there I got the impression that the inhabitants survived off the fish from the river and the minimal amount of money they made from tourist revenue. Their houses were made out of the natural resources from the area, and their bowls and spoons out of coconut shells. I must admit, their
way of life came as a total shock to me as I had never experienced such a simple way of life before.
However, I had also never experienced such kindness before. As soon as we arrived a man came out of his hut dressed solely in a small cloth and invited us into his house to see what it was like. Genuinely wanting nothing in return, he proceeded to tell us, in very basic English, all about the food he obtained from the river and how he wanted to cook us a meal with the finest fish he could find.
I’m not sure if you would expect that type of welcoming behaviour in England. Despite having, what I would consider, the bare minimal for survival, he was clearly satisfied and content by his way of life. In many respects, he seemed a whole lot happier than most people in Britain who are supposedly blessed with the benefits of capitalism.
It seemed to me that the real injustice in the country, like many others in the world, was the inequality that has arisen from the effects of modernisation, rather than the nature of poverty itself
It seemed to me that the real injustice in the country, as with many others in the world, was the inequality that has arisen from the effects of modernisation, rather than the nature of poverty itself. The concept of poverty isn’t as clear cut as one may tend to assume, as whilst Brazil may be considered to be one of the most dangerous and poorest countries in the world, many people living outside of the main cities, who were living extremely simply, were some of the most content people I have ever met.
Despite the copious UK government safety warnings about visiting the country, I have never been as touched as I was by the kindness that I encountered throughout my experience in Brazil, nor the happiness that I saw from such a simple way of living. It seems the push for modernisation and imposition of capitalism in many of these developing countries can often take a more negative role, making the already rich richer at the expense of the world’s poor.
(This feature was first published on 1 February 2010 in The Courier, the Newcastle University student newspaper.)