Tours Let Brazil Tourists Meet Drug Dealers

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RACHEL MARTIN, host:

Welcome back to the Bryant Park Project from NPR News. We are always online at npr.org/bryantpark. Whoops, let's call it park, shall we? I have another little poem.

MIKE PESCA, host:

Oh, ooh, I'm excited.

MARTIN: Yeah. OK. It goes like this. "The constitution's preamble brought the country back from a shamble. With justice established and liberties blessed, we've the right to rant and to Ramble."

(Soundbite of music)

MARTIN: Wasn't that good?

PESCA: OK...

MARTIN: That was sent to us by BPPaddictomy, someone who posted that lovely little rhyme to our blog, after I totally botched a recent Ramble run...

PESCA: Isn't a BPPaddictomy a removal of the BPP? Appendectomy? BPPaddictomy?

MARTIN: Oh, appendectomy? I don't know.

PESCA: A swelling of the BPP?

MARTIN: Maybe. Oh, addict-o-my, I've been told. Addict-o-my, Jacob Ganz has clarified.

PESCA: Yeah, sure. That's the pocket of skin.

MARTIN: Anyway, thanks, BPP-addict-o-my, for that lovely little Ramble intro. And now, Mike shall start us off.

PESCA: I shall Ramble. Chinese drivers are speeding away without a care. That's because an estimated 50 percent of the drivers caught on camera are using a device to switch the numbers on their license plates in a matter of seconds. I saw this in a "James Bond" movie. A traffic officer quoted in a story says, "Our chance of capturing them is next to nil."

The device is remote controlled and can cost hundreds of dollars but salesmen for the technology say the investment is worth it, calling the license-plate number-switcher both "convenient" and "economical."

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is cracking down on other schemes that give drivers greater freedom on the roads. Chinese news stories reported in April that the government sees thousands of fake military vehicles and license plates used by drivers trying to benefit from the privileges given to members of the People's Liberation Army.

MARTIN: That's a crazy story. OK folks, it's not fog and it's not smog. Actually, there's a little of both in this volcanic dust forming in the air on the islands of Hawaii. It's called - what else? - vog, an odorless substance created when sulfur dioxide gas reacts with sunlight, oxygen, dust particles and water in the air. That makes vog.

PESCA: Volcano fog, sure.

MARTIN: Of course. And Kilauea volcano has been venting toxic gas at double the usual rate for the last month, killing crops and polluting the air. Children are being kept indoors and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has been closed on and off because of this. Thousands of visitors and some residents from some hard-hit areas have had to be evacuated, even.

Kilauea has been erupting almost constantly for more than 20 years. But last month, the volcano opened a second vent at the summit, increasing the steam of sulfur dioxide into the air. Sulfur dioxide is also an ingredient in smog.

PESCA: As is lav (ph). No, I'm just kidding. So we'll cover vog on our blog, I'm sure.

MARTIN: I'm sure.

PESCA: Yes, yes. A company catering to tourists in Brazil's Rio Janeiro is offering tours of the city's shanty towns, and police are investigating claims that the package includes a chance to meet a real drug dealer, guns and all.

MARTIN: A real drug dealer.

PESCA: You know, if you pay a little extra, sure. The shanty towns that sprawl around a metropolis are known as favelas, I think it's pronounced. Drug gangs are known to rule the streets in certain areas, but some neighborhoods are considered safe enough to offer tourists a look at the other side of the tracks in Rio.

A Brazilian newspaper is reporting that one company offers tours that include a chat with an armed soldier. A reporter for the publication posed as a tourist. He says he was introduced to an armed man belonging to a drug gang in one of the largest shanty towns in the city. I have no idea if this is like Colonial Williamsburg. I think they might be real drug dealers.

MARTIN: Oh, my gosh.

PESCA: The reporter says he was introduced to another man armed with a machine gun who says he worked 12 hour shifts and earned 180 dollars a week. Critics have called the tours "distasteful" - I think the critics were being kind - and accused the tour companies of glamorizing criminal activity. Police say they are worried tourists will be endangered. But the owner of the agency blames the authorities for the presence of armed men in the shanty towns. Yes!

(Soundbite of laughter)

PESCA: He's saying, if you're so worried, address the root cause.

MARTIN: Yeah, how about that one? So, this is a cool story. France has reopened an underground hideout that thousands of British soldiers used during World War I. This is what happened. For eight days, 24,000 British soldiers hid in this network of medieval-era underground quarries as they prepared for the famous battle, the 1917 Battle of Arras - I think it's pronounced - a town in northern France.

And they just opened all these tunnels as a museum, and there are some really cool signs on there of the soldiers. They were doing all, you know, graffiti, and they would chisel their initials and other images into the walls that were made of chalk.

PESCA: A lot of respect for the medieval caves.

MARTIN: The medieval caves. Well, you know, you don't care at that point. You're just lonely and tired. You're a soldier. You miss your girlfriend.

PESCA: Yeah, exactly.

MARTIN: The British army converted the caves into an elaborate bunker. It included an operating room, kitchens, and even a light railway, which is, hm, puzzling. The soldiers left the Caves of Arras the day before Easter at 5:30 in the morning. The battle raged for six weeks. The British army recorded as many as 4,000 casualties a day...

PESCA: Times six weeks. My word.

MARTIN: A lot of people. War is bad. Hey, folks, that's your Ramble. These stories and more, always on our website. Go there, lots of good stuff, npr.org/bryantpark.

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