Month: May 2017

The closely kept secrets of Rio’s largest slum

DOWN TO ROCINHA AND BACK – ALIVE

Nobody really knows much about La Favela Rocinha (pronounced Rossinya). Only that it is vast, unmappable and dangerous. No one can calculate the volume of drug trafficking that takes place along its dark, narrow alleys. None can tell the exact daily toll of bodies consumed by gang wars, vendettas, and innocent collaterals. This is partly because nobody has a clue as to how big Rocinha is. The official count stands at 70,000 souls, but unofficial guesses hover between 150,000 to 300,000.

One thing is clear. Rocinha is the largest, most disreputable favela in Rio de Janeiro. Its notoriety reaching far beyond the borders of Rio and Brazil. Would you like a visit?
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This guy is high on Rajasthani Opium, and so is the government

STONED-DEAD IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

I’m riding my beaten-up Enfield through this small village in the middle of the vast Thar Desert, somewhere in northwest India. The main street is unpaved and littered with trash and tired-looking cows. There’s a grocery shop with rusty rails covering the front window, few improvised motorbike repair shops, a barber, a tiny branch of a local cell phone company, and an Opium joint. Yes, that’s right. A dark, dingy, open-for-all Opium den.

Continue reading “This guy is high on Rajasthani Opium, and so is the government”