Last Night's Gun Fight

There is one Brazilian skill I am still waiting to acquire: The ability to differentiate the sounds of fire-works, gun-fire, grenades and any other explosive boom.

When I first arrived in Sao Paulo, I thought that all loud bangs were a shoot-out in some unseen favela. I would throw a worried glance at my husband, repressing the uncool urge to hit the floor, and nervously ask "guns or fireworks?". He would always reassure me, "fireworks". My husband, as a true Carioca, has the skill.

Apparently I would just know when I heard the real thing. It was like a pop. Unmistakable.

So last night around half past midnight I was stooping over my daughter's cot, stroking her hair to soothe her back to sleep. She was almost gone, when I heard it. Bang. Boom. Bang Bang. Boom. The whole room seemed to shake, and the windows seemed like they might shatter. My heart stopped. This was it. Unmistakable.

By the sounds of things there was a shoot-out taking place right in front of the building, or on the Aterro, or maybe it was coming from the favela on the hill behind us? I wasn't about to stick my head out of the window to find out, so I grabbed my daughter and ran to our room which is away from the front of the building.

My husband had leapt out of bed. He was standing in the bathroom, listening at the window. I asked him to grab our sleeping 3 year old and bring him into our bedroom too. So we all snuggled safely together in our king-sized life-raft as the battle of Culodden raged on outside for 15 minutes.

I can't deny that I was shit scared. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins, and worst scenario thoughts about my children sleeping in the front room were racing through my mind, My precious darlings. I felt quite sick, and a overcome by a wave of compassion for the people in the world who have to live with that type of fear on a nightly basis, in battle zones, or even in other parts of Rio.

It was over soon. Everyone went back to sleep. And today was a normal day.

Around lunchtime I got a chance to Google "shoot-out last night in Rio" to find out what the drama was all about. And guess what? FRIGGING FIREWORKS! At one in the morning? According to an article on the front page of O Globo, it was an event in Botafogo sponsored by TAM airlines.

Apparently we were not the only ones who had been petrified. Half of the Zona Sul (South Zone) had been sheltering under the bed covers, from Urca to Botafogo to Flamengo. Even people in Niteroi and Copacabana had heard the booms. It was mass bourgeois panic.

So, it turns out that not everyone in Brazil CAN tell the difference between gunfire and fireworks after all, not least my husband. Tonight he tells me he knew all along. Yeah right!

I am still a shoot-out virgin then, but that's okay. I know my time will come and will be really, really special. In the meantime I shall continue to quake in my boots each time a firecracker goes off.

Below I have translated some of the comments that followed the online version of the article in O Globo, because I thought they were very revealing...My favourite is Glow's. Poetic.

Residents Of Rio's Zona Sul Recount Their Fear During Dead-Of-The-Night Firework Display

MSAB
14/05/2010 - 14h 27m
Great to know how much TAM respects others! It sounded like there were cannons being shot in the Guanabara Bay. A company that acts like TAM in this case MUST be fined, charged, held accountable.

Roberta Ferreira rodrigues
14/05/2010 - 14h 27m
I'm a resident of copacabana and I just discovered the origin of those noises. From where I live you couldn't see it was firewords. I thought it was a shoot-out with heavy artillery because the noises were so deafening

Guilherme Torre
14/05/2010 - 14h 27m
I had finally got to sleep when I woke up with a jump and took my wife to the sitting-room, where there isn't a window looking onto the hill. I live in Catete and until now I really thought that they were gunfire and bombs. The baby in the apartment upstairs wouldn't stop crying, all this at 1 in the morning.

Voice_of_Reason
14/05/2010 - 14h 26m
Seems like the people of Rio have never seen fireworks! I was asleep when I heard them. Right away I knew it was fireworks. I even went to the balcony to watch. I agree that the time was a bit irregular and that it breaks the 'law of silence' but to think that it was a bombardment...that's pushing the limits!

deavec
14/05/2010 - 14h 14m
The people or Rio are scared a lot

If you are from Rio you know that to hear fireworks, makes you nervous, the first thing that crosses your mind is the worst,

I haven't lived in Rio for 4 years now and I tell you that I'm always scared like that when I hear fireworks

Luiza Villela
14/05/2010 - 14h 01m
Thiago Rodrigues da Silva, who says that in the Zona Sul we aren't woken up with shots and granades? Sure less frequently, but shoot-outs happen here to. This 1am firework display is absurd, not becuase it happened in the Zona Sul, but 'cos it's totally inappropriate in any zone! I live in Flamengo and I thought at first that it was grenades, the windows of my building were trembling! And see I live a long way from Urca, but close to praça São Salvador

Thomaz Turbano
14/05/2010 - 13h 52m

thiago rodrigues da silva
14/05/2010 - 13h 45m

If you live in a shit hole, O Globo can't help you
I bet you would love to be a drip here in the Zona Sul..if you could
As long as you can't, be 'macho' out of the Zona Sul

thiago rodrigues da silva
14/05/2010 - 13h 45m
Wet drips from the Zona Sul.

In the Zona Norte we wake at dawn with the noise of shots and grenades

Every so often O Globo publishes the complaints of these drips who feel superior. There can't be an event on the bay because of traffic jams, can't have fireworks. Front page for this???? The Editor must live in the Zona Sul.

alex bento
14/05/2010 - 13h 23m
I invite you all the spend the weekend in the Zona Sul, near the funk parties with their shots until the morning


Sérgio Barros
14/05/2010 - 12h 55m

FredericoCarioca,
It's fine that you are pissed off at having such a shit life, but it was indeed a scary thing.
I was reading in bed when suddenly the building shook. I live in Botafogo near where they had the fireworks. I thought it was a bombardment, that Argentina was invading Brazil, whatever.
But I ran to the window and saw the lovely firework display for more than 15 minutes.

Fernando_Nit
14/05/2010 - 12h 53m
OK guys, even I agree that panic is a going a bit far. But to be woken at 1 am on a weekday morning with explosions is not cool. Think of the old people and the children. THIS IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME! DISTURBANCE OF THE PEACE AND THE GUILTY NEED TO BE SEVERELY PUNISHED, in the same way that the funk parties and disrespectful churches should be.

FK
14/05/2010 - 12h 52m
FredericoCarioca,
Stop being a dick
Just because you live in a shit hole you want everyone else to too?
Fight for your rights and try and improve your life, not worsen the life of others.
Have a nice day!

Glow
14/05/2010 - 12h 47m

THIS IS NOT VERY USUAL IN THE ZONA SUL, BUT HERE IN THE ZONE IT IS

IN THE ZONE, REGION OF SANTA TERESA, IT'S THE NORM

FOR ST JORGE, ST JOSE, A GOAL FROM FLAMENGO, A DRUG DEALER'S PARTY, THE BIRTHDAY OF A DRUG DEALER'S SON, AND SO FORTH

IT'S BEAUTIFUL, IT SHOULD BECOME A TOURIST DESTINATION

HERE IN THE ZONE IS THE BEST PLACE IN RIO. WE DON"T HAVE SUCH PATHETIC THINGS AS PAVED ROADS, NO

HERE IT'S A REAL HOLE, WALLS FALLING DOWN, EVEN LOOKS LIKE THE COUNTRY SIDE, BUT ITS THE ZONE


FredericoCarioca
14/05/2010 - 12h 45m
WITH ALL DUE REPECT, POINTLESS ARTICLE....THESE RESIDENTS ARE USED TO THE GOOD LIFE. AND THEY GET SCARED BY FIREWORDS? WHO CAN'T DIFFERENTIATE THE NOISE OF FIREWORKS, BOMBS AND GRENADES??? BE SERIOUS....THIS IS JUST ABOUT PEOPLE WITH MONEY WHO DON'T TAKE THE EITHER THE REBOUCAS OR SANTA BARBARA TUNNELS TO THE ZONA NORTE!

rpl2
14/05/2010 - 12h 45m
A 15 minute firework display at almost 1 in the morning was, for sure, inConvenient, but another 500 people would go so far as to say that it induced panic and fear. There are people who are spooked by their own shadow.

vitor fernandes
14/05/2010 - 12h 43m
OH BE SERIOUS...YOU CAN TELL THE DIFFERNCE BETWEEN REAL BOMBS AND FIREWORKS...DRIPS IN THE ZS (Zona Sul)...ONLY AGREE INSOFAR AS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT A THURSDAY NIGHT AND PEOPLE WORK ON FRIDAY...BUT COMPLAINING ABOUT FIREWORKS IS COMPLETELY WET

Rafler 14/05/2010 - 12h 43m
I agree that a firework display at that time, in the middle of a normal work week, is inconvenient and absurd. but let's be reasonable, It's becoming ridiculous this talk of 'it seemed like grenades', 'they were bombarding the area', 'we had to find shelter'. Even paranoia has to have its limits.