Armor Cars are Big Business in Brazil
Over the last three years, the number of armored cars in Brazil has doubled as an explosion of wealth has sent the newly rich in search of ways to live safely in a class-driven society where the murder rate is nearly five times that of the U.S.…
Brazil’s armoring industry, including some 120 companies that convert vehicles, got its first big break in 1999, when bandits tried to kidnap the children of Jorge Paulo Lemann, the most famous banker in Brazil. A magazine story headlined “The Hero Car” told the gripping tale of how the bandits’ bullets bounced off the car’s windows.
Although the market is still small — less than one percent of all cars sold in Brazil get armored — sales are jumping again, but this time on a quickening of Brazil’s economy that’s expanded the ranks of status seekers. “They want to wear a suit, have a nice watch and buy a nice car, so then it needs to be armored,” says David Silva Ferreira, a salesman employed at a Mercedes showroom.
Jaclyn Wells on September 14th, 2009 8:00 am
I can certainly see where people would want to be safe from gunfire even in their car…but that at the same time is sad to think that the public has to go to these lengths in order to feel safe driving in their own car. Not to mention…wouldn’t this also give a one up to the criminals? i mean if anyone can buy these bulletproof cars then i’m sure criminals before too long will be driving around in them, so then how are the police to stop them?
GEE on November 16th, 2009 8:22 pm
I think you need to take one step back and ask why they feel the need to drive armoured cars. You need to rememeber that Brazil and most other South American countries have been shafted by there leaders and Western Governments for hundreds of years. Leaving a unbelievable gap between the rich and the dirt poor. Some governments are addressing this now but it will take time. Thats why there is so much poverty in countries that are so rich in resources and thats why there is crime and thats why armoured cars are needed. Lets hope the need for these cars decrease overtime.
Until the philosophy which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned -
Everywhere is war -
Me say war.
That until there no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man’s skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes -
Me say war.
That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race -
Dis a war.
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained -
Now everywhere is war – war.
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
that hold our brothers around the world
Have been toppled,
Utterly destroyed -
Well, everywhere is war -
Me say war.
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