We are going to have a major cultural event right here in my neighborhood. This should be a lovely opportunity for me, but I am trying to figure out how to escape the noise it might make and the rough characters who may be present.
Today’s main headline in the city newspaper is: drug traffickers kill 3 and wound 2. Meanwhile, prisoners accused of violent crimes escaped from two prisons in this state over the weekend, and a security guard in a fancy mall beat up a woman suspected of shoplifting as her four year old was forced to watch.
In good news, the boy whose stepfather introduced some 41 needles into his body is now walking. He is also getting ready for a third operation, in which five needles will be removed from his spinal column. If I remember correctly, in the first two operations they took needles out of his heart, lungs, liver and bladder.
All of this is why we are under a certain amount of collective stress here.
*
Brazil is ranked no. 85 on the Global Peace Index. The United States is ranked no. 83. When you consider that Brazil is not fighting any external wars, which is one of the factors taken into consideration, you can see that there is more of other kinds of violence here.
For purposes of comparison consider China at no. 74, India at no. 132, and Russia at no. 136, or Mexico, which is no. 108. At no. 130 (right between North Korea and Nigeria), Colombia is the most violent country in this hemisphere. Canada, at no. 8, is the least violent.
In Latin America Chile, no. 20, and Uruguay, no. 25, are both more peaceful than Costa Rica, no. 29.
The most peaceful country in the world is New Zealand, and Denmark and Norway are tied for second place.
*
The United States is the world’s largest arms exporter, producing 41% of all arms distributed worldwide. In Latin America, the only producer of large arms now is Brazil’s Embraer, which has fighter jets and other military planes for sale. In the 1980s Brazil was the eleventh largest arms exporter in the world.
Small arms are all over the Americas, however, and Brazil is Latin America’s largest producer of these. The Caribbean has the world’s highest murder rate, and Latin America comes in next.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
They successfully removed four needles from the boy today. They had formerly removed eighteen. There are as many as eight more but they do not envision removing them at this time, as they are not creating immediate danger.
This adds up to 30 needles, not 41; I have heard different versions of the figures. I see now that some sources said there were 42; the last thing I saw indicated that 22 have been removed and 9 are left. This post is numbers oriented, so I am staying in the spirit.
Also: our president is the 18th most important person in the world. Of the 50 most important world leaders he is the only one in Latin America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luiz_In%C3%A1cio_Lula_da_Silva