Favela no Mangaka - Vol. 2 Ch. 8 - Dirty Hands

[MangaDex]

 

[pink_rabbit]

This is often something to think about mainly those that come from bad neighborhoods. In Mexico, I hear from my relatives about how some cartel gangs used to avoid tourists and would only kill those part of the gang. Never anyone outside of the gang such as family members of those in the gang or friends.

I came from a neighborhood that was basically we keep to each other and no one bats an eye. If you see anyone selling drugs then shrug it off if no violence happened.

Lots of celebs often brag about "humble beginnings" but this has me thinking about those that actually come from those humble beginnings often feel a little ashamed or try to look past where they used to live.

 

[Bireus]

Life ain't so black and white kid.

 

[JasonBourne117]

this is going to end in tears I can already see it.

 

[Doomroar]

This is often something to think about mainly those that come from bad neighborhoods. In Mexico, I hear from my relatives about how some cartel gangs used to avoid tourists and would only kill those part of the gang. Never anyone outside of the gang such as family members of those in the gang or friends.

I came from a neighborhood that was basically we keep to each other and no one bats an eye. If you see anyone selling drugs then shrug it off if no violence happened.

Lots of celebs often brag about "humble beginnings" but this has me thinking about those that actually come from those humble beginnings often feel a little ashamed or try to look past where they used to live.

I really hope i can keep this short, because this is a dense theme, but in essence it is territorial politics, population management, authority presence, and land control, all of these things are needed for order to exist in a modern society

The power that is given to The State known as a recognized government is composed of the approval of the people of said country in the case for democratic powers; by the approval of the people of that country after they recognize a rite of succession being it by bloodline or ideology in the case of monarchies (which still exist somehow) and dictatorships, that's what covers the recognized and legal parts of it, what gives them legitimacy at a local level, internationally is different, for example Russia doesn't recognizes Ukraine's government as legal one, ignoring the fact that the Ukranian people did elect their current public officials. However the common and crucial factor that gives The State the backing to exert power and control over a population, is violence, in the form of law and military might, and is the right to monopolize violence by the state what leads to order

But what happens to all those small and sometimes big areas in which The State doesn't has any reach?

Far deep rural areas too far away from any military base and public infrastructure? who is in charge and has the right to use violence in order to manage the land and its people? what about impoverished areas that exist within a city, but whose people are seem as so low priority that The State doesn't invest any resources in them, no sanitation, health, education, and also of course no "order" (no police, no military), who then is left in charge of managing the land and the people?

In an ideal world each county would have a complete control of its own territory and population, and they would be beholden by their own population to act respectfully and fair, but that sadly is not the case for a lot of the world

As thus when The State fails to enact its presence in a territory, (for whatever reason it may be, maybe they don't have the resources, literally their military might is not big enough to be everywhere; or maybe they don't care and are neglectful, they are purposefully discriminatory against specific populations so they left them abandoned to fend for themselves, maybe they are part of a minority, or extremelly poor, or composed of a political makeup that opposes the current ruling party, etc) in these cases (illegal, or not approved by the state) groups start to surge and exert violence in place of an absent state (also when the group is approved, but not necesarily recognized we call them paramilitary groups, which are also illegal, but act in conjuction and adjacent to The State)

Now these groups could be formed from within the same community that has been abandoned, in urban context these groups eventually grow to become gangs, mafias, triads, cartels, etc, since they are native to their own communities, and need them as a resource to keep the group alive, these groups start to act as law enforcement to protect the same community they control, of course the ideal would be for the state to be present and in charge, but given the circumstances people will take something over nothing, specially if the something offers a service despite the lack of institutional integrity and public oversight, because a criminal group despite being made by the people doesn't needs the support of the people to survive, they only need violence

When these groups spread to other territories, is when you usually get the most nightmarish sides of these criminal groups, because the same violence that they use against law breakers within their community, is now used against everyone from the new territory regardless of whether they broke a law or not, for these groups when entering a new territory using fear to control a population is more useful than offering a service and earning good will, and historic example of this is the Medellin Cartel of Pablo Escobar, who build schools and hospitals for its own community (aided in part with the fact that Escobar managed to be a successful politician), while viciously committing serial massacres everywhere else, earning themselves the good will and approval of their well cared local community, while spreading ruin everywhere else

For rural areas the same thing happens, but for those case we call these groups guerrillas and insurgents, being it from central Africa, the middle east, East Asia like Vietnam, or South America, what these groups usually have in common beyond the need for enforcement is land security, the presence of an entity or groups that would protect their rights to keep and live in their homes and land

Ok so where does drugs come in? protection taxes and donations can only take these groups so far, so they need to get a revenue from somewhere, after all weapons and personnel are expensive, and that's were trafficking of all kinds (from drugs, to people, to straight out rare metals, or even regular materials like sand), killing for hire, mercenary work, illegal gambling, kidnapping and extortion come in, it is at this point in which an stable and lucrative operation has been established, that all these groups change their focus from that of filling the estate's role of managing and protecting a local territory, into exploiting and using it to grow their earnings and expand their capital

That's when the local mafia/cartel/triad/guerrilla, etc starts charging protection fees to protect the local population from the group itself which becomes victims of the illegal group that no longer needs them to survive, rather than as a legit service to protect the community, of course some groups keep their original "service" and dedicate their human exploitation operations to people outside of their communities and territories, but this is how, in essence you can have people defending a group that is clearly predatory and antagonistic towards society at large, because at their local level they serve and act with a beneficial purpose in the absence of the state

Hilariously enough, and well... it is not really funny at all, but that changes into self exploitation, also happens to regular governments, given enough oversight and lack of public scrutiny corruption will lead to a government to start exploiting its own population just for the personal gain of its own public officials, of course an illegal or criminal group will have a substantially bigger room to become corrupt and abusive, even if it was born out of a real need for order, these groups don't need to answer to anyone but themselves once they grow big enough

 

[pink_rabbit]

Ok so where does drugs come in? protection taxes and donations can only take these groups so far, so they need to get a revenue from somewhere, after all weapons and personnel are expensive, and that's were trafficking of all kinds (from drugs, to people, to straight out rare metals, or even regular materials like sand), killing for hire, mercenary work, illegal gambling, kidnapping and extortion come in, it is at this point in which an stable and lucrative operation has been established, that all these groups change their focus from that of filling the estate's role of managing and protecting a local territory, into exploiting and using it to grow their earnings and expand their capital

That's when the local mafia/cartel/triad/guerrilla, etc starts charging protection fees to protect the local population from the group itself which becomes victims of the illegal group that no longer needs them to survive, rather than as a legit service to protect the community, of course some groups keep their original "service" and dedicate their human exploitation operations to people outside of their communities and territories, but this is how, in essence you can have people defending a group that is clearly pradoty and antagonistic towards society at large, because at their local level they serve and act with a beneficial purpose in the abscence of the state

That did not end up being short lol

However, that does explain a lot when you start talking about how it does human exploitation. In that way where everyone ends up falling apart and how in a perfect world would keep everyone in line. I wish I could give you a big reply back but you did explain to me enough about how directly does this affect others in the way that I had not thought about. I suppose I want to be thinking on the bright side that any help is better than no help at all. For that, I say thank you for explaining on the opposing view.

Hilariously enough, and well... it is not really funny at all, but that changes into self exploitation, also happens to regular governments, given enough oversight and lack of public scrutiny corruption will lead to a government to start exploiting its own population just for the personal gain of its own public officials, of course an illegal or criminal group will have a substantially bigger room to become corrupt and abusive, even if it was born out of a real need for order, these groups don't need to answer to anyone but themselves once they grow big enough

You are not wrong with regular government..... The USA has done a lot of questionable things that are just as bad with MK Ultra, forced drug experiments on prisoners, and working with monkey-human hybrids.... Corruption ends up coming out of any place and forgetting the people when they need it the most. An ideal world is an order looking out for the people instead of themselves

 

[Saybah]

A great concept for a manga. Followed but hopefully it doesn't end in tragedy.