JMJ - Journada Mundial de Juventude & Church Tourism

[ihpguy]

More protests yesterday directly in front of the Guanabara Palace concerning the visit of Papa Franciso and the 53 million dollar cost being born by the government of Brasil for the Journey For World Youth and International Youth Day this Thursday.

I'm not sure if anyone has heard that amidst a throng estimated from between 1.5 and 2 million, Fran is going to be walking the stations of the cross on the sands of Copacaban. Even by me, there are a few hundred extra kids here in my little corner of the world bunking with friends and relatives. It is happening all over the metro area. Quite a feat to see this happening in front of my eyes. Some of them are quite cute and then others...not so much.

One interesting facet is that the Catholics are copying one of my, I thought original, tour-guiding ideas. They are offering a self-directed walking tour of the six historic churches on the Rua Primeiro de Marco. From the recently-restored Santa Luzia, past Sao Jose, continuing on to the neighboring Antiga Se/Old Metropolitan Church and the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, back across the street to the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross of the Miltaries and finally to the Candelaria with masses offered throughout the week in varied languages at different locations. One point of interest is that yesterday afternoon and this afternoon at 5PM, the Antiga Se rededicated their restored pipe organ with celebratory performances.

No idea if papal nuncios have been issued for those heretic non-believers who also cross the threshold without taking communion. Or for the various priests who perform sundry other services while kneeling down around the corner from the Cardinal's Palace at Rua Candido Mendes, 117 in Gloria(GLORY.)

[Strafe13]

Beautiful pictures. But this world youth day/journey (week-long event) is really annoying. The city's mass transit system cannot cope with all of these extra people, and the streets of Copacabana are so full that the people are flooding into the roadways, obstructing traffic. They temporarily closed down the metro system Tuesday afternoon, apparently because of the swarms of people. I can see why the regular folk are angry at being subjected to such inconvenience (much less me, as a foreigner), and being forced to foot the bill, when so many of their needs go unmet.

I have no interest in what the pope says or does. But the crowds of people singing religious songs, while oblivious to the fact that they're forcing others off the sidewalk, make me want to barf.

[ihpguy]

Just imagine that you lived here and were not just a visitor. Putting on a great show for the Papa and tomorrow's WYD. Yes. But let's imagine that you are ill and you go to one of the public hospital or clinics for treatment of an infection and they give you a perscription for treatment and you don't get better. So you go to a private doctor and you discover that oops, you were given a medication which does not treat the problem as presented. So why did this happen? The hospital did not have the correct medication initially. The MD/s substituted with something else. Or to skimp a bit the supplied a dosage that was too low to actually cure the illness. Yep, this happened to me twice. Ditto schools. Ditto theft by politicians. Ditto give-aways to the rich.

And the governement here is spending 53million US for the Papa. Supposedly the foreign visitors are spending large sums of money. The question is if the populace actually gains any of it. I can remember travelling on "the cheap" when young. Probably the same this time.