Bus Strikes & Broken Glass

The buses here look like any city bus in any city around the world. Yet the culture here makes the bus ride a different experience than most places on the map. This past week the two city governments and eight bus companies are at odds over the price of the bus fair where we live, Belém Brazil.

The bus companies have gone on strike and like most plances the local court justice has ordered that the bus companies must run at least 40% of their fleet. This is where normalcy ends, because here the city streets are filled with broken glass.

As we drove home from church this past Sunday morning, we witness the breaking of the back window of a city bus. The people looked scared and confused, those in the back end of the bus. As the glass rained down on a car waiting for the bus to move, he quickly back up and took off like a dart.

Protesters, mobsters and the general public who do not want to see the price of bus fare raise are throwing rocks and busting out bus windows. Not just any window but the front and back windows. Why?

Well it ends up there is a custom here that involves bus drivers. The bus drivers are personally responsible for the front and back bus windows. If they get broken the cost to replace these windows are taken out of his pay, in monthly installments of course. So if you are upset at the bus driver, you just bust out the window for revenge.

In São Paulo they are having other problems but using the simular tactics. The gangs and mobs have been busting out bus windows and have burned out over 60 buses causing the bus companies to stop operating until the police can get control of the situation in the city. We are 1,500 miles north of São Paulo, so the situation is much different than here in Northern Brazil.

So next time you pass a bus remember the bus may look them same but buses here represent political power and a way to strick back against the political system.