Re: Liberation Herb

Julie Coronado (coronado@tobin.eco.utexas.edu)
Sat, 15 Apr 1995 14:15:28 -0500

This is all a bit more than I can handle. You say there is violence, but
not anger-what an interesting proposition. I find implicit in this
discussion the notion that anger, or "darkness of spirit" and "edginess"
as you refer to it, is an
undesirable quality. It reminds me of a good old Texan radio commentator
I heard once who was talking about a Japanese woman he met in Hawaii who
lost most of her family in World War II but was not "angry." He found this
much to his liking. I imagine because it soothed his American guilt.
Well-founded anger can be empowering, besides the fact that anger-like
joy-is simply a part of life. Maybe it is the case that you find it more
aggreable to have docile poor people.

Julie Coronado

On Sat, 15 Apr 1995, Daniel McIvor wrote:

> >If you walk along anywhere in Rio de Janeiro you will soon find that few
> >are paying attention to many laws including theft and violence. But Rio
> >has a *major* advantage over, say, New York City: It is beautiful, and
> >its people appreciate the importance of enjoying life. They mostly do
> >not walk: they dance as they move, and they are not angry all the time.
> > Peter Harzem
> >
>
> And why are they not angry all the time? God knows, they (the poor)
> have a right to be. They're just as poor as the Salvadorean peasant or the
> Bolivian Indian.
> But, As you walk through even the most "dangerous" of Rio's slums, you don't
> see that edginess, that darkness of spirit that you see in the barrios of
> Spanish speaking LA.
>
> Is it the beauty, as you say?. The almost perfect year 'round weather?.
> The racial mix? Or perhaps the fundamental differences in the two
> founding people's who conquered LA. The Portuguese do tend to
> to be a little more laid back than the Spanish.
>
> Everyone I ask seems to have a different answer.
>
> Daniel McIvor
> CNN Rio de Janeiro
>
>