gotham city cab rides

we're lucky

I mean seriously, as an American we are very lucky to be at this crossroads. Either way it goes, we’ll be in the history books for many years to come. If you’re American and you decide to vote this November then you’ll be taking part in what has been one of the greatest decision in years.

Now if you know me you know I’m a very left wing democrat. I’m one of those people that support equal rights (in the eyes of the government) for everyone. I believe that most republicans are selfish morons and don’t pay attention to the many different social classes below them.

As I type this I am watching the second presidential hopeful debate. I am “shocked and awed” by the lies and the ridiculous promises that McCain is making to the people of America and when he said “Social Security is an easy problem to fix” I almost laughed my ass off.

I am a post Hillary supporter and I was (regretfully) against Obama in the beginning of this race. I don’t agree with everything that Obama plans, but it’s much better than any of McCain’s promises. This will probably be my last post of anything election related (barring any crazy incidents) until election day.I just wanted to say that I think I’m lucky to be able to vote this year.

fast times at Hunter College

sigh.

3hr breaks

feliz cumpleaños vía Sidekick

Today in film I watched an amazing documentary that changed the way I look at people and things around me. Bus 174 an award winning documentary followed an incident that occurred in Rio de Janeiro on June 12th, 2000.That afternoon Sandro Rosa do Nascimento attempted to rob passengers sitting on an inbound public bus. This film followed the background of Sandro and his life. Naturally you’d write off this hijacker as a common criminal gone wrong, but after seeing this film and learning about the atrocities in this man’s life there really is no one left to blame but the inefficiency of the government.

Sandro was a young boy when he began to live on the streets, a part of the “invisible class” that litter so many cities and favelas (slums) of Brazil and other South American cities. After he witnessed thieves murdered his mother he ran away from home soon becoming part of a street gang. These children and teens all over the city deal with the stigma of being thugs and criminals. Years after being on the streets and becoming addicted to cocaine and sniffing glue he and many of his friends became victims of the Candelária massacre. A devastating incident that took place on July 23rd, 1993 when police returned to the site where a fight took place earlier in the day between the kids and police officers and shot and killed 8 children and teenagers.

After this incident his life dug him deeper into trouble landing him in jail multiple times. Government run prisons in Brazil have been compared to hell, with inmates in the documentary saying they’d rather be dead than in overcrowded, underfunded, chaotic, undermanned, and aging prisons. These conditions further increase tensions between the unmotivated and corrupt police force and the homeless. In a country lacking an efficient welfare system many children are left on the streets to be ignored by the middle class.

On one June afternoon in 2000 Sandro boarded a bus with an intention to rob those passengers, many people say it was a result of a multi-day cocaine binge while others say it was the conditions he lived in constantly facing affluent people that ignored him that made him snap. The standoff which lasted hours into the night was somewhat of a confusing one. Sandro never intended on killing anyone, and performed a fake murder on the bus telling a hostage to lie on the floor as he shot at the ground in an effort to get the police to back off. In the end, he walked off the bus with a hostage. Within seconds a SWAT officer ran behind them shooting his gun. One bullet from the officer struck the hostage in the face, three bullets from Sandro’s gun went off when he was startled and struck the hostage Geisa Firmo Gonçalves a schoolteacher, she died on scene.

The lack of police presence to rope off the scene allowed the crowd to rush towards the bus and attack Sandro. He was quickly rushed into the back of a police brigade, news helicopters followed the car as it raced away from the scene without knowing that the police officers inside were choking him. Sandro Rosa do Nascimento died of asphyxiation while being transported to a police station.

This documentary clearly shows how the poor are ignored in Brazil; this is clearly a problem with the inefficient welfare system that allows children to roam the streets. Unlike America, the homeless are an ignored class of people that consist of mostly children. As they grow older they are either killed by drug dealers or police or they become drug pushers in the depths and alleyways of the favelas that surround major cities.

How can a modern society ignore children that are right in front of your face? What type of government allows this to happen? Why is it that this is allowed in many South American nations? Children’s welfare should be on the top of the list of government’s to-do list. This corrupt and ailing department in Brazil leaves many children being neglected on the streets, with social workers visiting their children in the streets just to see if they’re still alive. This leads to tension between the middle class and the urban underclass that leads to random acts of violence such as the Bus 174 Affair.

If you’ve read this entire post and don’t care about what’s happening in Brazil, then look at America. Children’s welfare is already an underfunded department of the government on every level, as our economy continues to go downhill education, policing, and welfare are the first round of departments to feel deep budget cuts. It may not be today, but in 10-20 years Brazil’s problems may become the same as America’s problems, as of today 1,000,000 children throughout the United States of America have been reported as being homeless and not enrolled in schools.
After today my eyes have been open more to the problems of others. So excuse me if I don’t find myself if empathizing with you if you come to me complaining of simple problems that us Americans have to deal with. So please before you complain about how horrible your life is because you had an argument with your parents recall this post, because I will be referring to it

it finally feels like fall

:)