Before I left for Rio, I was warned by a friend who had been here, and who has friends who live here, that crime, always bad, had gotten worse: be careful, stay alert, etc., etc.

On the one hand, the warning seems absurd. I have been in all sorts of places, from the Copacabana Palace, to scuffy neighborhoods just feeling the first whiff of gentrification, and out at all hours, from morning till middnight (admittedly early hours for Rio). The streets range from spotless to clean enough, the cops are evident while being discreet, the level of menace compares with post-Giuliani New York. I never feared for my life, my wallet, or my piece of mind.

On the other hand, the main drag outside my five star hotel was blocked off the other night because of an hour-long gun battle between rival drug gangs in two nearby favelas (squatter-villes). The traffickers shot out the transformers, plunging the favelas into darkness. If I understood the daily papers, someone was killed, and there was mention of a grenade.