Is it worth it?

[NunoEFSilva]

You're right (LL & Mr.G). This is totally new to me!

Though the example is in Mato Grosso (which I do not know very well) this is a worrisome development. My GF (which will fly North soon) told me about this a few days ago. Should it prove a general tendency, and not an isolated 'data blip' (frontier town full of males and all), it might mean the lack of policing (and the implicit political neglect of the populations) is starting to spread crime inland too...

Some here may recall what I wrote elsewhere about police numbers (or lack thereof) being a major (statistical) 'explanation' for the violence and crime rate in each location (based on my own informal homework and apparently corroborated by those news).

The French aid workers case (with the 'insider' twist) is not really new, although dramatic - it was slum-related and in Rio. Human life is very cheap in the 'favelas'...

Recife is well known for its major crime scene (recall my top four worse list: Rio, São Paulo, Recife and Salvador) mostly on account of (after the thin police force) its urban layout, which creates extreme anonymity and isolation (in Recife).

The many small inner towns I knew in the last years (mostly in the Northeast) had various degrees of peace and poverty (not misery though, which is a very different thing), but always with low violence apart from 'crimes of passion' (traditionally high in any 'machista' culture) and land disputes between relatives (typical of rural areas everywhere). They where not 'frontier' boomtowns as that one example - instead they where poor but established rural or semi-rural spots (usually older than a century or two).

Not to fuel alarmism, but we should all take care and keep on checking for further data.

Originally Posted by Gringos.com

Murder rates in several small municipalities by far exceeded those of Brazil's mega-cities, according to a study sponsored by the Organization of Iberoamerican States for Education, Science and Culture (OIS)

It might just be that in the above, the operative work is several (but not such a blanket rule).

On a more personal note, I've been monitoring the Real value (against the Euro and the Dollar), which may be starting to fall with the last market hiccups, for a good oportunity to start sending money south - but this may give me pause (or at the very least food for thought)...

Nuno

[STM]

Originally Posted by Robert

About 4 years ago my wife Beatriz and I were riding in a taxi in Cali. Like most Cali Taxi Driver's he was doing about 50-60 mph down one of the main streets. It was a 2 lane road and we were in the right lane. Up ahead there was a parked car in our lane. Some dope was parked there waiting for somebody to come out of a house. As we got closer to the parked car our driver was not slowing down. I figured he saw the car and would go around it. I suddenly realized that he didn't see the parked car, was not slowing down and was going to hit the car at full speed. A split second before the impact I turned my body to the left to face away from the impact. My wife was sitting directly to my left behind the driver so she did not see the impending collision coming. When I turned my body to the left I turned across my wife's body. It wasn't anything heroic, just a reflex. We hit the parked car at full speed. The driver in the parked car was hit so hard that he went through his windshield and onto the hood of his car. The engine compartment of our car folded in all the away into the front passanger seats. Our driver was unconcious and pinned into his seat by the steering wheel and the engine compartment. Because I had leaned across ny wife's body, upon impact she slammed into me crunching my body between her and the driver's seat I ended up banged up, twisted and badly bruised, but no wiplash or serious injuries. My wife was also banged up and bruised but sufferred a serious case of wiplash. She also hit her head real hard on the headrest of the driver's seat. To this day she has ongoing headachs and problems with her neck and head - all attributed to the accident. Thankfully neither of us passed out, as it was not in the best barrio and it is not uncommon for low class Colombians to rob unconcious accident victims. It took the police about 15 minutes to get there. The driver of the parked car was taken to the hospital by ambulance but eventually died from his injuries. Our driver did not die but received a brokern collerbone, broken face ( jaw, cheekbones, nose, etc, ) just about broke all his ribs, broken pelvic and a broken leg. But - he survived. Our driver was taken to the hospital after they ripped off the his car door and dragged him out of the car. My wife and I went to the hospital also to be checked out and were released after a few hours. She had a neck brace and fortunately all I needed was a prescription for serious pain medicine.

Later we were told that the taxi driver told the police that he had been driving for 2.5 days straight to try and make enough money to pay his kids school tuition, had been exhausetd and had dozed off while drining, thus not seeing the parked car. In addition, his insurance had lapsed because he did not have the money to pay it.

We were informed that after he had healed enough to get out of the hospital he was convicted of negligent homicide and sent to prison.

This is what I was talking about, good example.
Also the other drivers on the road can be dangerous, running lights and stop signs.


I am surprised he was prosecuted, the Colombian point of view would be , "well the car should not have been stopped on the road, oh well that is life. You leave something out it will be stolen, do not blame the person who took the item."