PrintApril 2, 2011
Brazil and Private Property
Somebody here in Brazil asked me about the beautiful homes in the United States. In particular, they liked the fact they don't have walls as they have in Brazil. The walls are not there for beauty but for protection for every home. Nobody is immune. It didn't take long to respond: guns, or virtual walls. Brazil has some of the strictest gun control laws on the planet. As you might expect, it means the only people to have guns are the criminals and cops, sometimes the same thing. In a land where money talks and corruption talks louder, the line between punk and police can be a thin and arbitrary one. Anything not tied down eventually gets lassoed by thieves. Even backpacks are worn on the chest to avoid getting robbed in the close quarters of the subway system. The subway is so packed, a wallet can be lifted easily. By the way, it is also so packed that a man can get a woman pregnant and not even know it. The result is Brazil's culture being both warm and highly paranoid at the same...(Read Full Article)
