4 ms·
> South America isn't all as bad as you hear on the news. It might not be but as someone who's natively from Brazil I can say: it's pretty fucking rough, even
by piva00 4y ago
> South America isn't all as bad as you hear on the news.
It might not be but as someone who's natively from Brazil I can say: it's pretty fucking rough, even more when I compare to my life in Europe/Sweden.
Whenever I visit I do need to turn on my alertness to surroundings up to 11, I do need to close the car windows when I stop on a red light in a city, I do need to care about two guys riding a motorcycle and coming to the general vicinity of myself or the vehicle I'm in.
Lived there for some 25 years of my life, got mugged with a gun 5 times, got mugged with a knife twice.
It doesn't happen everyday but violent is so common that you are on a constant state of anxiety and alertness, it's pretty stressful to live your day-to-day like that.
I also lived in the USA for a while and while you don't get the same anxiety as in South America I still felt much more stressed in the USA than I've ever been anywhere in Europe.
- rcarr 4y agoIs this everywhere in Brazil or just certain cities? From the outside it looks like for example, Sao Paolo, looks ways safer than Rio de Janeiro but I've never visited so I don't know.
- piva00 4y agoPretty much any large-ish city (500k+) will suffer from some variation of it, a little better here, a little worse there. I'm originally from São Paulo's metro area, lived in the city most of my adult life in Brazil as well, and I wouldn't say it's "way safer". It does feel safer in a way, in some neighbourhoods but in the end it's just a variation of the ever-present dangers of Brazil. Rio de Janeiro is much more intertwined with hills and favelas in between nicer areas of the city, requires you to know how to behave/where to go. I grew up in a rougher area (not a favela though), I'm not from a wealthy background and in a sense that helped with some street-smartness to live there and know what to avoid.
- rcarr 4y agoThis is good to know, I was planning on visit South America at some point in the next ten years, although I was mainly planning on visiting some of the Spanish speaking countries because I've been learning Spanish. Do you think that Brazil is generally improving over time in terms of safety or are things mostly the same as they were ten or twenty years ago? From the outside, whenever I see a documentary on Brazil it looks like it is improving quite rapidly but the gang violence looks like it is difficult to get under control?