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Comment by firekvz | Hacker News Reader

Hmmm, this article might be a clickbait, this is super normal to do in latin America

Is not about legalizing gangs, most latin america countries have been using culture/cultural movements and even sport to drive gangs members into the society.

Hiphop, street art, basketball, etc, are just easy and cheap methods to fight the delinquency problem, same as in the US.

You can go to any place filled with gangs, and follow the basic recipe: build a basketball court, build some cultural center and have it filled with organized neighborhood vigilance and in few yours you pretty much removed a big part of the problem, you will end up with some famous basketball players and some famous rap artists emerging from this community.

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You might get less people killing each other, and you might get a small amount of famous athletes or artists, but are you significantly improving the lives of those people and preparing them to work in a modern economy? Midnight basketball and street art might merely be bread and circuses, a way to keep that demographic quiet and avoid troubling more privileged levels of society.

I'd say that lowering the rate of murder is significantly improving the lives of the people it applies to. Not to mention the sense of belonging people get from a cultural center. This methodology works because people are happier. There can be no downside to that.

I suspect in any other context the idea that kids are playing more basketball or doing more art while growing up would be looked at as a huge positive.

However, because a lot of kids from “bad areas” are looked at as criminals by virtue of the place they were born and raised, their playing sports and doing art is looked upon negatively, because they are “not being prepared to work in a modern economy”.

As an aside, Id argue that in a modern economy it’s impossible to prepare kids anyways, because it moves so fast that we don’t know what it will look like by the time they are adults. As a result, a well rounded education, which includes sports and arts is the only way to prepare children for a modern economy, even if we are ignoring the mental and physical health related benefits.

"Less people killing each other" is a perfectly valid end in itself, obviously. It improves the lives of the people who don't get killed, the people who don't go to prison for murder, and all their families and friends.

Maybe they could do more beyond that. But being cynical about a big drop in murders is kinda weird.

... Yes, you are. Less killing significantly improved lives.

The cultural center, much like schools, can become a means to invest in the education of a community. Build a computer lab, hire tutors, and then... Oh crud, all the poor people cant afford to live there anymore.

Also of note, we can also draw a similar analogy to Motorcycle clubs in the US, though such demands more wealth from each individual than community centers.

This "all the poor people cant afford to live there anymore" doesn't apply to latin america, most (only chile misses this) the countries have free education at every level, the budget for a school is the same no matter if its a poor or a rich area.

It's almost like if people have better to do with their life, they don't seek destroying the system that holds it.

Why basketball and rap though? Is this a cultural thing I'm missing from Latin American countries?

I cannot talk from all Latin America, but at least in my city gangs imported a lot of the pop culture from the American ghettos, everyone has a sibling, cousin or friend who emigrated to the US, when they come back to their cities either because they were deported, or because they simply wanted to come back, they dress differently, they like new things and they share their experiences. Also American movies, TV and music make a big influence not only in Latin America but the whole world.

For the basketball part, part of it is likely that it is the mainstream team sport which requires the least equipment and space.

You don't need to take lessons to rap, you "learn it on the streets", you don't need an instrument.

Same goes for basketball, all you need is a Ball and a basket and some 5x5 space, football can be the next cheapest sport but it kinda needs alot of spaces plus alot of maintance to the field (expensive)

I would say, these are just the cheapest options.

Well it’s from Vox so clickbait headline is a definite, regardless of the quality of the article that follows.

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