Although I love Brazil, especially Sao Paulo and Rio, take a look at this article that appeared today in Rio Times.

Clearly, we should not ignore the ugly side of Brazil -

http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-daily/former-footballer-beheaded-in-rio/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRioTimes+%28The+Rio+Times%29

Although I love Brazil, especially Sao Paulo and Rio, take a look at this article that appeared today in Rio Times.

Clearly, we should not ignore the ugly side of Brazil -

http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-daily/former-footballer-beheaded-in-rio/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRioTimes+%28The+Rio+Times%29

This is very, very sad and reprehensible indeed. Thanks for posting for our perusal!

Adam Smith: You are needed.

There is a great headline waiting to be written on the order of "headless body found in topless bar but don't have much of a clue. Something to do with two eyes and a tongue missing, besides the head, along with the wrest of the corpse's remains.

But on a serious note, the G1 website of Globo mentioned that the wife was only a social worker with the UPP and along with a few other killings over the last month, this might be the pledge of the traficantes to disrupt thought of visitors deciding to come for the World Cup next year with a huge wave of violence.

It is sad news, but Brazil has had a high level of violent crime for many years.

It's a timely reminder to visitors from relatively safe Western democracies to stay alert when travelling in Latin America and many other countries and to take local advice on what areas are safe/unsafe.

I feel it's especially important to take local advice when you visit a city repeatedly. Once you are familiar with a place and have some sense of its culture, it's easy to forget that areas change between annual or six-monthly visits and the incidence of crime may have increased.

But if they ever tame Brazil and make it crime-free it will be as boring as the Western world, and all the hot, sexy dangerous men I like will be different too.

I am not of the school where one lives in fear of something bad happening. I do take reasonable precautions that would hopefully make me less of a target, and I don't go to areas that are highly volatile, but I do travel just about anywhere i want. On my first trip to Rio, i was extra cautious, but soon realized that the people around me were relaxed, so I relaxed too, eventually going into a favela, with a tour guide who had made whatever arrangements that he need to make. It was an eye-opener, and I am glad that I saw it.