Many people have said that although the United States government is a terrible institution, that it's nevertheless the best in the world. I didn't honestly believe this for a very long time and had only really even begun to consider the idea after a woman for whom I have a great deal of respect echoed the idea that as bad as things are here in the grand US of A, at least it's not as bad as elsewhere.
The more I've considered this, the more it seems to be true. Yes, we're beset upon by corrupt swindlers and environmental disasters and trampling disasters at Tickle-Me-Elmo displays the day after Thanksgiving, but by and large, the entire country is a resoundingly wonderful place to live.
The same can't be said for everywhere, and the reason that I'm talking about this tonight is that Layla and I just finished watching News From a Personal War. It turns out that "News" is a documentary included with City of God, which I had missed on the DVD until now. The subject is the social situation in the favelas, the hilled slums around Rio de Janeiro.
Since this is a documentary, I'm not worried about spoilers—you really should watch it, even though I'm giving away part of the content below.
The film talks to seemingly every class of life touched by the situation in the favelas: city dwellers, hardened drug dealers, early teens working in the drug trade, cops, and ex-cops. One gentlemen interviewed is apparantely an ex-cop who used to work on cases in the slums.
The point that he made throughout the documentary was that the entire social climate of Rio de Janeiro (not just that inside the slums) guaranteed the continued existence of the favelas and that even though incremental progress could occur, it would always be rolled back because nearly everyone really didn't want to change the process.
I'll give you an example. By far, the single largest problem in the favelas is the violence that occurs primarily between the drug dealers and the police (although it also occurs occasionally between dealers). The violence is something that the police can't stop, because there are a line of people waiting to join the dealers. The people want to join the dealers partly because the dealers pay ridiculously well but also because the cops are seen as corrupt—which largely, they are. In order to fight this problem, the man interviewed discussed an attempt to put some 30 honest policemen in charge of an area.
The problem is that introducing these policemen immediately began causing problems with honest businessowners and rich landowners and so forth because it seems that nobody really follows the law near the favelas—even the honest people. When everyone really is held accountable to the legal system, nobody seemed to want to participate. It meant that businessowners couldn't retaliate against shoplifters, rich folks couldn't get away with murder (as was actually discussed) and playboys couldn't host cocaine-laced parties at their condos.
That sort of pressure is difficult to fight.
As much as I like to say that the US government follows processes which are fundamentally flawed, it's difficult to argue that they're anywhere near the scale of the problems in Rio. And I guess that's the primary point that I'm making here.
Watch News From a Personal War if you get a chance—and watch City of God if you haven't, too.
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