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Dear all:

Yesterday was a historic day in Brasil and I just happened to be here to witness it. Brasil's new president, Lula, was elected into office by an overwhelming number of votes, and the importance of this win effected many Brazilians on many levels. I'm not going to attempt to give a political analysis here, but just on an emotional level you must consider a few things. Lula is a man from simple beginnings who ran for the Presidency 4 times. He's a man who truly seems to be for the people and for the betterment of the country. After years and years of trying, he finally got what he (and many others) wanted. It's a pretty romantic story. Of course, I'm drastically simplifying the story, but you can read more about it elsewhere if you like.

For many people here it was an incredibly emotional moment in their lives. I was in the center of the city for the celebration and a friend of mine began to cry. He told me I couldn't imagine the emotion he was feeling (he was right of course). He talked about how much suffering so many Brazilians have had to deal with. You have to remember that Brasil has been led by right-wing politicians for many years, not to mention the years of a horrible dictatorship. Lula represents the "left", and many people here have been waiting their whole lives to see this moment. Of course only time will tell what the results will be. Let's hope they will be positive.

So, about last night.

I've been in Rio for Carnaval, New Year's Eve, the World Cup, and now the celebration for possibly the most emotional political celebration in recent Brazilian history. When something like this happens here you need to decide where to celebrate. After a few phone calls I got a tip that turned out to be a good one. One of the Carnaval "blocos", Cordao do Boitata, was going to assemble downtown and march (singing/playing) to Cinelandia, a historic section of downtown Rio.

Take a look and see for yourselves .....

http://homepage.mac.com/sfeiner/PhotoAlbum3.html

Scott

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This is just a "news flash" version of my normally much longer emails. I'm including a small Brazilian audience on this one ... we'll see what they think. Tambem e bom para praticar seu ingles gente!

***
Yesterday was a strange day in Rio de Janeiro. Perhaps more than strange, you should call it a sad day. I will start with numbers that I got from a daily newspaper today, the Jornal Do Brasil:

- 2,000 buses stopped their routes
- Businesses closed in 28 neighborhoods in the city of Rio
- 245 schools closed
- An estimated loss (due to closed businesses) of R $130,000,000

All of these numbers reflect yesterday ... only yesterday. Fear caused these figures.

After waking up [yesterday] I called to check on the delivery of a table and chairs. The guy on the other end told me they couldn't deliver anything because of drug-related violence around the warehouse. I thought the guy was probably bull-shitting me, even though such a story is totally feasible in this city. I assumed their warehouse was somewhere in the North Zone (Zona Norte) of the city or out in the suburbs (quite different from US suburbs by the way) and went about my day. "Somewhere" that I don't deal with on a daily basis.

I went out to run some errands and found the first store closed. Thought it was weird, but moved on. I then bumped into a guy who works at a local hardware store in my neighborhood. He was across the street from his store ... which was closed.

I asked him if it was some sort of holiday - Brasil is famous for creating holidays at the last minute (there are lots of Saints you know). He said, "No, the drug dealers (traficantes) have order businesses closed all across the city. I had heard about this happening in small areas, usually in the North Zone and close to a favela (slum), where some drug dealer was arrested, killed, or otherwise. They have the stores closed as some sort of message and as an act of mourning.

But this sort of thing doesn't usually happen in Zona Sul (South Zone). Commerce shut down in the neighborhood of Ipanema for the first time in the history of Rio! Streets were emptied in the downtown area of Rio, as well as Ipanema, Copacabana, etc.. The city got real weird, real fast. Rumors flew around the city that the "traficantes" were ordering stores closed and that there had been some reported incidents of violence, but not much. Even universities closed down.

Very quickly reports started coming out regarding a theory that the political "right" had possibly been behind this action in an attempt to hurt the current Governor (a black woman by the way) in the upcoming election (next week). Many people felt it was too much of a coincidence, not to mention the oddity of the physical span of the threats. Everyone wanted to know who had called them in.

Since yesterday I've been talking with both friends and students regarding this whole mess. What I've realized is that regardless of whether there were politics involved or not, this really doesn't change the fact that practically an entire city went into panic when threatened by the drug traffickers - even at just the possibility. Fear.

I called a bike shop in the afternoon, hours after the closings had started. They were still closed. The guy said to me, "No one here has a steel chest". "No one has the courage to re-open".

I was supposed to play last night. Gig cancelled. Many people didn't want to go out. There really wasn't anything happening in the street, but people were tense. I went out for a beer.

One of my students reminded me that in reality a kind of civil war exists in Rio. It's easy to forget in Zona Sul, except for the road blocks with machine-gun toting cops from time to time. Great amounts of power have shifted into the hands of some pretty dangerous guys. It's almost impossible to imagine a short-term answer to this problem without more violence. It's a sad reality.

In a way, if you look at it as an "us against them" situation, which is how it was reacted to, the peoples' reaction showed who has the psychological advantage. It seems like a sort of internal terrorism of sorts.

Of course it's pretty safe to assume there was a decent amount of bullshit going on as well. I'm sure there were stores closing just to have a day off. It was hot yesterday, after all.

So, here I am in this Third World city. Yesterday was a reminder. But in living here I'm seeing how things come and go. In Rio, where you have all of this incredible natural beauty it's easy to find a way to forget your troubles. But there are years and years of this issue building up ... of this power in the hands of the drug lords. There's a lot of undoing to do. I don't think it's going to be a pretty process.

There's plenty more one could add to this email, lots more to embellish on. I'm sure I'll be reminded plenty. But I'm going to leave it at this for now. Just thought I'd share this bizarre moment in history with you.

Maybe I should get a job with Rio Tourism? ;-).

- Scott

p.s. To those of you I haven't gotten back to lately ... don't worry, I will.