The Other Brazil

摘要

Politicians all over the world are accustomed to cutting ribbons on new buildings. In the Alto Solimoes region of the Brazilian Amazon, they are sometimes expected to wield bigger shears. An extension to Novo Paraiso's schoolhouse is being built and Yudo, recently elected to the post of vereador, a kind of town councillor, strides into the forest with a chainsaw to get more timber for the beams. The tree falls exactly where he wants it to, but on the way down it rips a branch from the overhanging canopy. It falls, slicing through the top of Yudo's ear. An inch to the right and it would have cracked open his skull like a nut.