I used to live not far away from Casal Ventoso, in the 80's. Anyone crossing that neighborhood in those days would easily see hordes of alienated people, in soi

I used to live not far away from Casal Ventoso, in the 80's. Anyone crossing that neighborhood in those days would easily see hordes of alienated people, in soiled clothes, gazing idly, sitting in the sidewalk and sometimes even injecting right there. Whenever you saw them running in one direction, you'd know some drug dealer had arrived. There is a cemetery nearby, and so it looked like death ruled the place. Today it is still a poor neighborhood, but you don't see that kind of thing anymore. Taking the bus there is no longer a gamble. You still see a couple of people looking somewhat emaciated, but nothing like the walking cadavers of 30 years ago. There were some slums outside Lisbon, like Pedreira dos Húngaros, where the police (other than SWAT teams) simply wouldn't go. It was just too dangerous. One would occasionally hear the blasts of fireworks, telling people drugs had arrived, or gunshots, warning drug dealers an intervention squad was near. This slum no longer exists, and many others are simply gone. It's nice to see this article in HN, for many reasons. António Guterres is an engineer, and when he graduated he was the best student of his year. From what I know, he considered a PhD in Physics before taking his chances in politics. Back in those days, his university (Instituto Superior Técnico) didn't have a Physics course, so many of its first faculty members came from IST's Electrical Engineering course or Physics courses from other universities. He lectured Theory of Systems and Telecommunication Signals. Guterres is an intelligent man, and he would've probably become a great physicist, an excellent teacher, or a renowned engineer. Instead he chose politics, and now he's Secretary-general of the UN. His drug policy from his Prime-minister days saved thousands of lives and definitely changed Portugal for the better. I think that was a really nice hack.