Rio’s streets get painted red before Carnival

As Brazil got ready to put on the biggest party in the universe (Carnival), Rio de Janeiro’s police laid out the red carpet…of blood.
This past Wednesday, Rio’s police killed six alleged drug traffickers in an operation that made its way through two favelas; Jacarezinho, and Mangueira.Brazil is a country that seems to be one huge party. But in the midst of the music, dancing, and pinga (traditional Brazilian alcoholic drink made from sugar cane) there are a lot of people dying.
Last year 1, 260 civilians died in the state of Rio de Janeiro during police shoot-outs with drug traffickers (Rio de Janeiro State Institute of Public Safety). The keyword here is civilians. These are people who were sleeping and died with a stray bullet to the head. Kids who were coming home from school and walked in the way of a bullet. The examples go on and on.
The fact is that the number of police and traffickers killed in this drug war last year is much, much higher than this.
Brazil is at war, and marvelous city is in this war. A war that is fueled by injustice. A war that has children acting as soldiers. Children who have never had an opportunity. Children who find a way out of “almost starving to death,” by joining the traffic. The traffic is their light at the end of the tunnel. The traffic gives them an opportunity their country never offered.
Until Brazilians stop dancing for a second, and realize that our future is not in bullets and machine guns, but pencil and paper, carnival will continue to be an illusion of a country that does not exist.
The millions spent on this illusion seem to be pointless when you wake up the day after the world’s biggest street party with a horrible hangover, and read a story about a 10-year-old child being killed by a stray bullet.
Well at least for me it seems pointless.