In the past two days, the news that Brazilian gangsters have helped Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to fight the epidemic has gone viral on the Internet. Because he was dissatisfied with the Brazilian government's epidemic prevention efforts, he simply overstepped his bounds and participated in the prevention and control of the epidemic himself.
Many local communities have received "curfew" messages from gangs through social networks warning people not to leave their homes after eight o'clock in the evening. Their slogan is quite inflammatory:
If the government doesn't act, the gangs will do the right thing!
Some people here can't help but ask, what is the origin of this Brazilian gangster? Why is it so cattle?
Speaking of Brazilian gangsters, it is necessary to mention a place where he is the most famous city in Brazil, known as the City of God, it is called Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil is a country with a huge disparity between rich and poor. At the beginning of the 21st century, its most accurate parameter for measuring wealth inequality, the Gini coefficient, reached 0.6, ranking first in the world, and although the two former left-wing presidents focused on rectification and made the situation slightly improved, they have also been "ranked in the top three".
Rio de Janeiro, the largest city, epitomizes Brazil's society of inequality. Rio de Janeiro is a tourist metropolis surrounded by mountains and seas, with hot beaches and resorts along the entire coastline, known worldwide for carnivals and samba dances. Some people say that this is the city of God, the place where God dwells, so it is as beautiful as heaven.
That's right, there are some of the most beautiful sandy beaches in the world and some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country.
But they may not know that behind God, there is darkness. The so-called combination of heaven and hell is actually only separated by a wall. Just next door to The Rich District of Brazil is the slum. Since the low-income people who work in the city cannot afford the high housing prices and living costs, most choose to settle in slums, they can't afford to buy or live in commercial houses, so they build these illegal nests "as quickly and efficiently" as they do, which is frequently seen in the suburbs of cities or in public areas of urban areas.
According to statistics, more than 6% of the total population of Brazil (25% in Rio), about 11.25 million people live in slums, and there are more than 1,000 slums in Rio alone. The famous stars Ronaldo and Pele, who were once popular and became legends of the times, grew up in slums as children.
These slums are usually built on the hills, lined with tin shacks and narrow alleys. Due to the lack of basic living facilities in these slums, even water and electricity are luxuries; most of the front door is the sewer, and domestic sewage is poured out directly from the door window; catching up with the rainy season, the small river bends, the water city is zeguo, and the ocean is a sea. In addition, chaotic security conditions, poor and difficult social conditions, and a large number of unemployed vagrants have gradually been forgotten here, in the crumbling tents and rotten houses.
In Rio de Janeiro, the slums are another world, where fish and dragons are mixed and chaotic, and it is the best source of crime, so it has become the home of Brazilian gangsters. They smuggle here, they commit crimes here, they squeeze the poor people who are already having a hard time here. They are the earth emperors of the slums, where the words of the Brazilian gangsters are more effective than the government.
All the rules here are controlled by the gangs, and the rules set by the gangs are the laws of the slums. It is not that there are no police here, but the police are usually extremely corrupt, and the huge profits from the drug business are even more lucrative than the drug lord bosses, so they turn a blind eye to criminal acts and even acquiesce in encouraging them, and many of the weapons and arms of the drug lords are bought from the police.
The Oscar-winning best foreign language film "City of God" tells the brutal, greedy and fierce side of the slum gangster struggle from the perspective of a slum teenager who has grown up to become a photographer. Gang members lose their humanity in order to fight for power and profit, using wanton killing as a game, and even training children to shoot and kill. Every day, countless people are dead on the streets, the sound of gunfire is constantly rising and falling, and the cement floor is stained with blood. The police collude with the gangs, justice is delayed, and the city of God has only night.
This is not an exaggeration. The scenes depicted in "City of God" basically match the slums in reality. According to usa today earlier, more than 4,000 people are killed each year in rio's slums, a rate comparable to that of a battlefield. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, has the highest number of homicides in the world, 42 times as many as Moscow, and 42 people are shot for every 100,000 people. If a child becomes a drug dealer, he will go to jail for 2 years or die on the street with gunshots. It is said that the average tourist is not allowed to enter the slum area at will, and it is true that the muscle brother with ak47 patrolling the streets will be encountered.
In short, because of the long-term impression of poverty, chaos and crime, slums are marginalized and isolated by the entire Brazilian government and society, and people talk about slums.
So some people say that there are two Rio in this world, one is heaven and the other is hell.
In the face of the pandemic, slums marginalized by government and society have become the most risky places. Because the public facilities here are rudimentary, there are often water and electricity cuts, poor sanitary conditions, lack of medical treatment, and dirty toilets. Many shacks are poorly ventilated and ventilated, and it is not surprising that two or three narrow rooms are crowded with a large number of men, women and children, and even a family of four or five people crammed into a tin shack of several square meters. In such harsh conditions, influenza, tuberculosis... Respiratory diseases of all stripes are prevalent in slums.
However, at present, the Brazilian government has not vigorously carried out epidemic prevention measures here, and even the residents of the community can still move around at will. As the foundation of the Brazilian gangs, the slums naturally have to be managed, because once the virus is transmitted, it is also a matter of vital interest and even life.
Not only will you be threatened by the virus, but your business will also be greatly affected. Therefore, no matter from which angle, forced blockade is the best choice. In other words, the gang wants to control the epidemic because the epidemic has affected their business, and it is more like a shepherd's means to better control the sheep.
Therefore, don't look at the gangs because of a piece of news, many people only see their quarantine declarations, but ignore their murderous and drug trafficking activities. The pandemic is a mirror that can amplify the dark side of many societies. But never let something that is originally black turn white.
All in all, don't think that the gangs are such a righteous organization, the slums under their forced blockade are far more miserable than you think. This is nothing more than to protect their own leeks, which can continue to be cut later.