Rio Body Count

Just found this - Rio Body Count (Não Acreditamos em Paz Vigiada, Queremos Inclusão Social - We don't believe in guarded peace, we want social inclusion) - a blog which gives up to date reports on violence in Rio de Janeiro and the number of dead (543) and injured (298) people since February 1, 2007. Sorry, but it's all in Portuguese.......so, because I find this so fucking an important, I am running today's violence reports through an online translator (sorry, no time to translate this stuff. anway, you'll get the idea of what's going on here even with just a quick glance). These reports are from TODAY and it is only 1 pm!

30/03/2007 Two boys were beaten up in this early morning by securities in the parking of home of Show Olimpo, in the Avenue Vicente of Oak, 1450, in the Crag. After they helped, were led for the Hospital Getúlio Vargas. One of them is interned in grave state and will be operated. (The GLOBE ONLINE)

30/03/2007 Two men in motorcycle murdered, last night, the merchant Landmark Fernando of the Hisses pine Tree, 46 years, that was vice president and director of patrimony of the Association of Inhabitants and Friends of the Park Two Brothers (Amap), in Curicica, Jacarepaguá. The crime occurred about the 19h30, in the Street José Eusébio, height of the number 151, to around 500 meters of the headquarters of the association. Little landmarks, as be known, to have finished leaving of the Amap when was approached by the men, that shot at least three times in the head and right away fled at high speed. (The DAY ONLINE)

30/03/2007 The bodies of two black men, pretending 20 years, were found in the night of this Thursday in the trunk of the Toyota KUM-8762, abandoned in the interior of the Alliance Town shanty town, in Bangu, in the Zone West. According to the police, the victims still done not identify, were murdered with several shots. The Toyota, second the police, was stolen in the day 3, in the area of action of the 34ª DP (Bangu), where the case was recorded. (The DAY ONLINE)

30/03/2007 A black man still done not identify dead with several shots in the early morning of this Friday in the Avenue Nazareth, corner with Street Berberibe, in Ricardo of Albuquerque, in the North Zone. Polices of the 14º BPM (Bangu) were defendants and did not find witnesses for the crime. The police investigates the motive. The record was deed in the 39ª DP (Pavuna). (The DAY ONLINE)

30/03/2007 Men armed did shots aimlessly against the Plaza Manuel Flag and shot a lady that passed. The woman still done not identify was led for the Hospital Paulino Werneck, in the same neighborhood. A patrol of the 17º BPM (Island of the Governor) was set in motion. The case will be recorded in the 37ª DP (Island of the Governor). (The DAY ONLINE)

30/03/2007 Sebastião Lopes of olive Tree, 56 years, died in the night of this Thursday in the Road of the Seven Streams, in very Saint, in the Zone West. Second information of the police, the victim was pushd by another man and died to the beating with the head in a stone. The victim was an inhabitant of the Street Senator Camará, also in the Zone West. The record was deed in the 34ª DP (Bangu). (The DAY ONLINE)

30/03/2007 Antonio Bertoldo of Souza, of 27 years, dead to shots in the end of the night of Wednesday in the orange grove Town neighborhood, in Japeri. His body was found hours afterwards in the Street 7, but alone was collected to the IML in the late of yesterday by the IML. According to accounts, Antonio be passing for the localities when was approached by the murderer and whitened in the nape. (HOUR H ONLINE)

While this is shocking, this is not meant to shock. This is meant to shed light on an otherwise little known situation that is totally commonplace here. This is meant to hopefully give a voice to those who have no voice (or who are too hoarse from crying out after being ignored for so long that nobody can hear them). AND, these are not all inclusive by any means. Many murders and injuries go unreported.

While Greg Scruggs may be right that we can't exactly go up there to Cantagalo or Vigario Geral or wherever it is and stop this from happening, we can talk about it and be aware of it - everywhere.

Reggaeton Blubber from Nepal

Got this from a friend who went to Nepal and bought a bunch of pirated mp3 CDs on the street in Katmandu.

I'm totally not sure what to make of this. One of the strangest tracks I've heard in a long time. If anybody can understand what's going on here, please let me know!

Is he drunk? Did his child die? Did he lose a game of backgammon? Is he just hysterically excited and can't quite deal? I sure don't know.......I don't know who it is, the track title or the artist. Sorry!

BTW, I haven't forgotten about this Vice mag thing........

And if this was in your house? But, wait! It is in your house!

Polícia prende suspeito de chefiar tráfico em Vigário Geral

In an operation on Thursday, 20 suspected drug traffickers were arrested in Vigário Geral, North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. During the operation, children on their way to school were systematically stopped and searched as police suspected that they were forced to carry weapons and/or drugs by the local drug traffickers.

The headline of Extra was, "Isto é em Vigário Geral. E se fosse na Zona Sul?" or "This is in Vigário Geral. and if it was in the South Zone?" This was the foto which ran under this headline on the front page (sorry, but I can't find the full front page on the internet...)
Zona Sul in Rio de Janeiro encompases Copacabana, Ipanema, Jardim Botanico and a host of other mostly affluent neighborhoods. Within the South Zone, there are numerous pockets of autonomous zones run by traffickers and populated by poor (read: invisible people with little or no representation) people, but mostly it's a pretty well off area. Vigário Geral in the North Zone is a very poor area.

Children being subject to this sort of experience is yet another symptom of the invisiblity of those without economic power. Practically the exact same thing is happening in Mitchell's Plain in Cape Town in the post below. This is happening so much that it's perceived as being normal.

We don't want to break out of our little bubbles to see what's really going on around us. Case in point - note Timeblind's observations on the difference in lifestyle in Berlin and New York City.

There are those who want to smash the state. Those who want to insulate and isolate themselves in order to avoid more pain (maybe that's why those people who passed me after the accidents in South Africa were in such a hurry). Or those who seek to create their own autonomous zones where they can create the lives they desire free from the control and manipulation of the state and the consumer culture at large. Some can be constructive (self-sufficient communities, for example) while others are destructive (drug addiction for example).

According to the Vice Guide to Travel (which I will be discussing soon in another post), there are 50,000 murders per year in Rio de Janeiro alone. That's a civil war. That's more than in the Israel/Palestine conflict per year.

But then, here I am, exclaiming that this is all so alarming......I'll post this and then go on to writing emails and doing my work and washing the dishes and listening to invisible people firing shots at each other just up the street (that is NOT an isolated incident, just in case you were wondering)..............................I don't know what I'm saying. I don't know the answer. I'm stumped. I'm confused.

And what if this was in your house?

South Africa Road Trip - Cape Town to Durban

Some images from my road trip from Cape Town to Durban recently.......before I come back to reality on the home town front. What happened yesterday here in the blog tomorrow......Lion's Head and downtown Cape Town from Table Mountain

View from Table Mountain
The Bo Kaap neighborhood where I spent the last week.

On the way out of Cape Town. On one side of this road is False Bay and the beach and on the other a vast flat plain covered with a sea of shanty huts. I'm curious about the connection of Baden Powell and this road. and cape town. The juxtaposition of sever poverty and affluent wealth never ceased to blow my mind. Just want to make this connection for the news from Rio that'll I'll post tomorrow. Side note: watch The Wooden Camera.
I saw 2 ridiculously ugly road accidents with dead people sprawled out on the side of the road. Both involving mini-vans. Traffic slowed and people gawked (including myself) passing by the accident scenes. Both times I had trouble getting back up to cruising speed after seeing such a horrifying scene. Someone was waiting for those people to come home. Not the cars behind me who honked at my slowness and then speeded past me going up a hill and around a corner while dodging a cow and a woman carrying firewood on her head. I felt so sad.
Climbing out of Cape Town.....
there are baboons......
they are very aggressive.....best thing to do is not have any food in your hands (or your bag or even within site INSIDE your car as they will break things to get at it) and pick up a rock. or at least stoop down to pick up a rock. That's pretty universal language. Baboons in Cape Town understand it. Dogs in India understand it. I understand it (just remembering the time when little kids in Ethiopia threw rocks at me).
Tsitsikama National Park
The most zen content moment of my trip. I sat here for about 3 hours just watching the waves and the grass blown by the wind. Until the cows left the beach to head home (they like it there to avoid ticks according to a shepherd who passed by and sat with me for a bit). This is somewhere near Port St. John's in the former Transkei.
also near Port St. John's, Transkei

Bush está no Brasil.....fora!

Bush came to Brazil. I found this in downtown Rio de Janeiro........
And this posted by Bijari.

Cape Town Studio and Live Sessions

I'm gonna try and do a bit of a wrap up of this last month on South Africa....

Much of my time was spent chasing down local MCs to record and collaborate with. I report that it has been a success! Not without tons of cancelled appointments, missed connections, miscommunications, hours spent sitting waiting for a phone call or meeting, last minute plan changes to take advantage of a stray hour or whatever. Such is the life of a producer (with a budget....small detail there. haha).

Anyway, I am happy to report that there are tracks underwya with Teba, D-Form aka Neon Don (formerly of MoodPhase 5), Max Normal, SiBot (of The Realo Estate Agents) and DJ Dope (African Dope Records, Krushed & Sorted) and a couple still to be announced.......
Max Normal considering his options pon de microphone.

Teba working his rhymes out before stepping to the mic.

DJ Dope working the beats on the computer while D-Form, The Neon Don, checks the words.

Yours truly and SiBot (who has just released his new record, "In with the Old") cutting and splicing in virtual digital land, Say Thank You studio, Cape Town.

On the live DJ tip, I played at the Cape Town Festival on Long Street (formerly known as the Nightvision Festival) with The Real Estate Agents, Humanizer, Sweat X, and the man called Diplo (with whom I had the pleasure of hiking up Table Mountain along with Marshall from Roosevelt and Fletcher from African Dope - the Club DJ Mountaineering Club hehe). All in all it was a nice scene, but very subdued as it rained the whole damn time. Very wet to say the least. Diplo ended up having to have a plastic garbage bag over his computer to protect it from getting wet.

I was super lucky and had 2 killer MCs sit in with me to liven things up. Teba Shumba rocked it and brought along his friend Ginga Cobra (totally spur of the moment). As I found out later, Ginga Cobra was in Ghettomuffin who released a track on African Dope called Paralyser that is truly the shiznit.
Maga Bo, Teba and Ginga Cobra live at the Cape Town Festival on Long Street.