A couple of years ago, the commercial director of the magazine "Vokrug Sveta" – a man at least experienced and well-traveled – came under live fire in Rio, on the famous Copacabana beach. He miraculously didn't catch a bullet. And all because he was collecting coins in the surf zone. To him it seemed like entertainment, but local teenagers consider the beach one of their sources of income. It must be said that street children in Rio are a ferocious, armed, and merciless lot. The police wage a real war against them, not particularly choosing means. Every day, up to five homeless children and teenagers die from police bullets on the streets of Brazilian cities; in total, the country's juvenile homeless contingent numbers about 7 million people.
The police hunt kids (the vast majority of them drug addicts or inhalant users) like rats – and they, like cornered rats, bite back. And not just the police. Shootouts on the streets of Rio and Sao Paulo are common; from January to May 1999 alone, 44 people were killed by stray bullets in them. So even along the central seaside streets and boulevards of Rio, one should walk with some caution – who knows where exactly competing street gangs will decide to hold their next showdown with each other or with the authorities. Moreover, there is no point in venturing further from the sea – and higher into the mountains – into the shantytown neighborhoods known as "favelas".
In the "favelas" of any Brazilian city – whether it be Rio, Sao Paulo, or Brasilia (recently, the ring of squalid self-built housing has begun to tighten around this constructivist governmental paradise) – a normal tourist has nothing to do. An abnormal one, by the way, also has nothing to do, unless we are talking about suicidal complexes. But if you desperately want to see the life of the "underclass" – it is better to turn to a special... let's say, travel agency (finding such offices, if desired, is easy and without problems). A short taxi ride through the slums of Rio will cost you 15-20 bucks, but the "host side" guarantees safety. After all, making money on human curiosity is no less profitable than on drugs.
Similar services – introducing the life of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods – are provided by some travel companies in New York (including the respectable New York Apple Tours). A visit to Harlem without harm to health and wallet will cost about $25, including a visit to the famous Cotton Club. A trip to the townships – the South African analogue of the "favelas" – will cost a bit more, about 40 dollars, but the program includes a snack and drinks at a local shebeen.
The cities of South Africa – Cape Town, Pretoria, and especially Johannesburg – once considered "a piece of Europe at the very south of Africa" – after the abolition of apartheid have generally turned into places where a white person without sufficient firepower has nothing to do in almost any area and at any time of day (with the exception of small "islands of well-being" like Sun City or Port Elizabeth). Well, and about the purely black townships there is nothing to say; even police armored vehicles don't go there without special need.
But as for Harlem itself, you can walk around without any problems on your own. But only during the day. And, preferably, following some simple rules: look as inconspicuous as possible, do not have any expensive things in sight (and better yet, do not have them at all), do not stare intently at the faces of the surrounding population, do not stop for long in one place (especially, do not gawk at those rappers and other riffraff dancing near their "boom boxes" and burning barrels), do not buy anything from anyone and do not ask prices. Then, perhaps, you will leave the New York Moldavanka whole, healthy, and with a mass of impressions. There will be something to tell.
THE MOST EXTREME
Where you should categorically not go – neither by day nor by night, nor even with an escort (unless, of course, you are led by fighters in the colors of one of the two largest all-American youth gangs, the Bloods or the Crips; even the most unhinged thugs prefer not to mess with them) – is El Barrio, the easternmost part of Harlem, populated by Latinos. And populated to such an extent that English is practically not spoken there and not understood – Spanish is more in use. El Barrio is currently the most dangerous district in New York. Well, there is, of course, Central Park, where every night someone gets robbed or raped, but you would have to be an idiot to go there at night!
And the most dangerous city in the United States – at least, the most dangerous for tourists – is considered to be Miami. In Miami itself, which is almost officially recognized as the main North American base of the Cali drug cartel, the Liberty City and Overtown neighborhoods are especially inhospitable. (See the El Barrio variant.)
Los Angeles is not far behind Miami; among its local "Maryina Roshchas" stand out Skid Row (drug addicts and alcoholics), South Central (Blacks), and the Eastern L.A. neighborhoods populated by Latinos.
EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW THIS
By the way, here is a general rule for identifying places where you should not particularly show off, displaying an expensive camera, a wrist "Rolex" or, say, gold teeth caps: any ethnic neighborhood does not like strangers. As soon as you, while wandering through some nice European or noisy American city, discover that the concentration of representatives of clearly non-titular nation around you is significantly above the norm – be prepared for anything.
Another rule – the poorer an area looks, the more dangerous it is. Third – in the evening and at night you should be more careful in business districts. During the day life bustles there, but after offices and shops close, if anyone hits anyone there, it will be you, and most likely on the head.
Here’s the thing: at home, bad people can simply be “crushed by authority,” but abroad, in a hostile language environment, if anyone is capable of such a feat, it’s only some aged philology guru who has devoted his entire conscious life to a comparative analysis of profanity in different countries and nations. But first, this unique fellow still needs to be found, and second, he certainly won’t go looking for nighttime adventures on his academic ass.
Therefore, any conflict beyond the borders of our vast homeland is undesirable: it inevitably either turns into a wrestling match, or – “we parted ways, and I ran.” A forceful solution to the problem is also far from the best option. Even if you, a black belt in Kyokushin and a master of sports in judo, have taken down and twisted your opponent (two, three), inflicting injuries of varying severity in the process, the locals will still find it easier to explain to the police who showed up on the scene that they had nothing to do with it. They were just strolling quietly, Sergeant, not touching anyone – some white-... maniac, probably, attacked them, must have wanted something bad. So you’ll have to prove your non-camelness all on your own again – and again through the language barrier. Combined with a barrier in the local precinct, this, in principle, cannot lead to anything good.
THE LAW IS THE LAW
For the record: police in the vast majority of countries around the world are very reluctant to investigate crimes committed against tourists. There is too much hassle and potential complications, while benefits, on the contrary, are practically nonexistent.
And also: never rush to a foreign prison bunk. Of course, I understand that a week or two on the bunks somewhere in Copenhagen is not much inferior in comfort to a vacation in any boarding house near the capital, and sometimes even surpasses it. But we should not forget that too close an acquaintance even with the most advanced penitentiary system completely ruins your visa history.
Then – it’s okay to end up in jail by carelessness, naivety, or ignorance (which, as we know, is no excuse) in a civilized, advanced country. But if, God forbid, it’s some Kenya? Upon my word, when you get to Europes-Africas-Asias, you shouldn’t “sort out situations” the way you’re used to at home: you’re unlikely to end up safer, but poorer – that’s for sure.
However, in Europes there’s no reason to expect major problems. People there are mostly peaceful and law-abiding, and even the junkies are not as aggressive as in the States. This, by the way, is a subject for a completely separate discussion: why in the USA, against the backdrop of steady progress toward universal equality and brotherhood under the banner of political correctness, all sorts of street scum, delinquent degenerates, have become so insolent that a normal person can literally walk nowhere? In Europe, thank God, the fight for the rights of the degraded has not gone that far yet.
ALL IS QUIET IN EUROPE
There are plenty of dangerous neighborhoods and even entire cities (usually Naples is recalled) in Europe. In Paris, you shouldn’t gawk around Place Pigalle, the Latin Quarter, and Montmartre; in London – in the increasingly faggy Soho; in Hamburg – in the area of the infamous Reeperbahn, the “red-light street,” and in the port areas; in Barcelona – in the Chinese Quarter (which is no longer an ethnic enclave in the city center, but simply a historical name; as for the real national “ghettos” – see above). And even then – only at night; during the day everywhere there (except the “ghettos”) is relatively calm.
Take Naples, for example, which guidebooks present as almost the most bandit and robber town in Europe. I can’t say I’ve walked it all over, but I did wander around the center a good deal – and at night. In the morning, the group leader, having heard the report of my midnight escapades, was horrified – apparently, not feignedly: “Why, even the police don’t go there!” I testify: they do. And quite often.
Those are unpleasant places, of course: all sorts of grim figures leaning against walls, dirty, uncomfortable, unkempt, motorcycles racing like mad, completely ignoring traffic rules (at a time when all decent people are at home, eating pasta and watching TV) – in short, almost like at home. And – just like at home – no incidents at all. I strolled and strolled, and then went back to the hotel to drink beer. Moreover, I indeed wandered not through the most harmless neighborhoods; even guidebooks specifically single them out to warn tourists like me: the Spanish Quarter and Spaccanapoli.
The same was in Berlin, which I walked all over (though Germany is generally an extremely harmless country, unless you yourself go looking for a fight with local Nazis), and in night-time Rome, and in the aforementioned Chinese Quarter of Barcelona. Quiet and peaceful, prim and calm. An attraction for tourists, which becomes dangerous only if you go looking for trouble, force your way into shady places “for the locals,” and pick fights with unpleasant-looking natives.
Even then – in Asia, Africa, or even America, for any action from the above list, you can easily get a bullet or a knife. In Europe, at worst you’ll be beaten up or handed over to the police. I’ve already written about the police.
CITIES AND COUNTRIES
Asia and Africa are a subject for a separate conversation. There, you don’t just need to keep your wits about you; it’s better not to stray from the well-trodden tourist trails at all. That will be safer. West is West, East is East.
In Thailand, for example, you can get into serious trouble for showing disrespect to paper money – after all, it bears the portrait of the local monarch, a person sacred in every sense. And similar quirks and taboos exist in every third-world country, no matter how much it may look like a tourist paradise. There are also general rules. For example, you should not photograph people in uniform (well, you can, of course – but only very carefully, quietly, and on the sly), they really do not like that. If they see it, they will almost certainly either ruin the film, take away your camera, or come up with something worse.
Then there are cities that consist entirely of dangerous neighborhoods. Ciudad del Este, for example, is formally a Paraguayan settlement on the border with Brazil and Argentina, but in reality a smuggler's paradise that obeys no one. There you can buy anything you want – from pure cocaine wholesale and cheap, to anti-aircraft guns or, say, 'rare and endangered animals.' Any kind. And, for example, an American passport would cost you only five grand. A veritable criminal paradise – except that amid the absence of actually functioning authorities and laws, losing your precious life there is as easy as catching gonorrhea from a cheap prostitute. At least two hundred violent deaths a year with a population of 100,000 people – and that is only official statistics!