Cross-Cultural Blog

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

Firstly, by highlighting the segregation between the police, drug dealers, and
the "dwellers" - normal citizens who live in the favela, the documentary shows
that the disconnection between the classes in the society seriously hampers any
potential improvement to society and contributes to the exacerbation of crime.
In one scene, we recall the narrator stating that the city's media for a long
time did not report on what happened in the favela. If the rich and other people
of the society behave in such an apathetic way, what reason is there for the
drug-dealers to turn over a new leaf? Also, we were given the impression that
once someone is born into the favela, there is no escaping the social class and
its implications. With no alternative career path, one would be hard pressed not
to get involved in drug-dealing and other crimes. Another result of the gap
between the social classes is miscommunication and consequential mistrust. When
the police arrested a minor, the women of the favela followed the police that
they would not illegally abuse the suspect before he reached the police station
to be lawfully charged. The suspicion and animosity between the police and drug
dealers will surely impede any efforts of compromise.

Secondly, we feel that the film also argues that there is no absolute good or
bad. At the start of the documentary, we saw a very positive image of a
righteous policeman willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good of the
society. Later on in the film, we were given a new perspective when the
drug-dealers were praised for buying medicine for the impoverished sick and
gifting presents to children. The documentary seems to argue that not criminals
do not necessarily harm society. Ironically, some dwellers of the favela
described the police as being corrupt and brutal, often accepting bribes, making
false accusations, and beating suspects regardless of whether they were minors.
The film confuses the audience's moral compass, and in doing so reminds its
viewers to consider matters from different perspectives and refrain from making
hasty judgments.