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Overnight Open Thread: Brazil Constructs Walls Around its Slums and Sends a Message: “You’re doing it Wrong.” (genghis)

Correction/Addition: Due to my lack of proofreading I didn't note the location of the second-to-last "good wall" in the gallery below. It's in North Korea. Thanks to "Deuce Geary" for bringing that to my attention.

In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the city government has decided to engage in some public works projects to beautify the place. As you know, Brazil is a nation run by brilliant socialist/economist/el presidente Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvamade, a nation so rich in resources that its people can afford five words in their names. Silvy (as he’s popularly known by no one except me) is expected to be awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in economics due to his groundbreaking treatise on the correlation and causality between blue eyes and white skin and their effects on economic cycles. It’s expected to be a close contest between he and Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe. But enough about that.

” RIO DE JANEIRO, March 28 (Reuters) - The government of Rio de Janeiro is building concrete walls to prevent sprawling slums from spreading farther into the picturesque hills of this world-famous tourist destination, an official said on Saturday. Construction has begun in two favelas, or shantytowns, in the southern districts of Rio de Janeiro, a government spokeswoman told Reuters. One of the two is Morro Dona Marta, which police occupied in November to control crime and violence caused mostly by rival drug gangs. Officials say the wall is to protect the remaining native forest but critics fear the move could be seen as discriminatory and become a blemish symbolizing Brazil's deep divisions between rich and poor. "There is no discrimination. On the contrary, we are building houses for them elsewhere and improving their lives," Tania Lazzoli, spokeswoman for the secretary of public works at the state government, told Reuters.

” By year-end the Rio de Janeiro state government wants to build almost 7 miles (11 km) of walls to contain 19 communities. It will spend 40 million reais ($17.6 million) and have to relocate 550 houses, Lazzoli said.”

Our leaders have simply failed to see the difference between a “good wall” and a “bad wall.” You see, a good wall is one that keeps people in. A bad wall is one that keeps people out, according to President Silvy and other like-minded progressive thinkers. There you have it. Walls can be a good thing. It’s just that the U.S. and Israel haven’t applied the proper narrative. It’s all altruistic you see…helping the environment AND the people at the same time. Win-win. Below the fold is a gallery of walls so that you can compare and contrast.

Bad Wall: This abomination is along the U.S./Mexican border. How is this helping the environment? I bet they didn’t even cut little rattlesnake pass-throughs in the bottom so they could visit relatives on the other side. Nevermind that it cut off the vital flow of nannies, housekeepers and gardeners to various top government appointees, not to mention vital products that make the final wall in this list so much more enjoyable?

Good Wall: This system of walls was constructed around 1940 in parts of Warsaw by very concerned Germans who wished to keep the mostly Jewish inhabitants from wandering out into the surrounding countryside where they might get run over by a tank or something. Or find food.

Bad Wall: And how do they repay the benevolent world community for not exterminating them? With a wall, of course. Paranoid ingrates.

Good Wall: Constructed by the East German government (with a little help from its friends) starting in 1961, The Berlin Wall was able to keep the happy denizens of East Germany from succumbing to the evils of a variety of food, BMWs and a lack of long lines at sold-out state-run stores for 28 years, teaching them much about the positive experience that forced stoicism and fatalism can have on a person’s life. A very important message imparted by the philosopher-kings who ruled the former East Germany.

Bad Wall: Fucking Chinese bastards. They built this thing just to keep out me and my hordes. All we wanted was some decent Kung Pao Chicken. Maybe a little rape and pillage on the side, but that’s to be expected with such a large group. Always a few bad apples. My hordes always tipped well though...with the point of a sword.

Good Wall: Not technically a wall, but it does the trick. Doing their best to emulate the example provided by East Germany. And apparently quite successful at it! Not to mention they've managed to keep the beaches free from the usual surf punks.

Bad Wall: An example of what can happen when the hubris and arrogance of men, elves and a dwarf take over and try to deny the rights of the people (in this case the Uruk-hai) who were simply hungry and wanting for man-flesh.

Good Wall: Just to close it up and go full circle (see the first “wall” pic above in the gallery)

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