[cyborg]

My aunt lives in South Central, granted it's not where the gangs are but it's a mix of middle class families and retired old people. Like poverty in America, no one has seen a real 'hood till they've been outside America.

[wardaddy]

That is true.

Take Caracas....when you drive up a few thousand feet from the airport at Macuto on the Caribbean thru the mountains at night all the hills are glittering with lights....it's beautiful. Then in daylight, you can tell it's all terra cotta hovels homesteading and stealing electricity for miles and miles (Chavez's power base).

Rio and Bogota are quite similar that way.....and hosts of other third world places.

Lagos Nigeria is ruff too but I think maybe west Kingston is worst I've seen....as far as dangerous....not poverty-wise though they are awful.

Lots of these third world hoods are controlled by criminal gangs...in JA and Brasil, the cops are skeered to go in....they usually will only go in with government forces.