Rio fights its drug war with library books
| Rio de Janeiro
鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
On a recent holiday, school children rode bikes or stretched out on park tables around this pristine library complex. Inside, all ages can watch DVDs on flat-screen TVs, take art history courses with prestigious professors, and browse tables with books on Hinduism or travel in Turkey.
What鈥檚 less apparent under these bright, high-vaulted ceilings is that they鈥檙e surrounded by the city鈥檚 largest 肠谤补肠辞濒芒苍诲颈补 鈥� where scores of crack addicts huddle near armed dealers 鈥� known within Rio as the 鈥�Gaza Strip鈥� for the frequency of lethal shootouts between police and traffickers.
The year-old library is Rio鈥檚 most audacious attempt to follow a crime-fighting strategy from neighboring Colombia, which promoted constructing top-quality public works in its most desperate neighborhoods as a way of winning the 鈥渉earts and minds鈥� of residents living under drug traffickers鈥� control. This Biblioteca Parque de Manguinhos 鈥� a refurbished military warehouse 鈥� still echoes with the crackling sound of gunfire as police raid drug holdouts.
Grandmotherly Sandra Gullino works in the library鈥檚 nursery, where children learn to fold origami creations and flush a modern toilet for the first time. She says she encourages each child to get a library card, 鈥渆ven though the kid doesn鈥檛 know how to read.... This is a stimulus.鈥�
