Rio de Janeiro on Public Urination

Thank you Globo for the fabulous picture!

This weekend 96 people committing the unforgivable act of urinating in the streets of this great city were arrested. 13 were women.

While I would LOVE to be able to say "Thank goodness they arrested those uncivilized folk," I have been to far too many blocos to say it with a straight face. Hell, there is a damn good possibility that I urinated in the street 96 times my first Rio de Janeiro Carnaval. In my defense, that was before the city was kind enough to place 1 port-o-potty per 50 people at the site of a bloco. Actually, when I started the Rio de Janeiro Carnaval bloco scene the city didn't even get involved unless it was one of the ridiculously large traditional ones.

Also, if you haven't ever walked by a bloco and seen the urinals don't worry, I'm sure if you concentrated you can smell them from where you are. Let's not forget the fabulous bloco urinal pictured above. It's all about class. FYI, don't step in the puddle circling the base...

And while it is essentially wrong to pee in the street, disgusting even, imagine how it is for the bloco attendee. Let me look back and retrieve a memory from my wild Carnaval days. Take the big downtown blocos that start at something like 8am. You get there and you start drinking beer. By your 3rd beer you really have to pee, plus your already finding questionable people attractive. You just may be buzzed. Are you going to go search for a public bathroom when it's impossible to find one between 9 to 5 on a normal business day. No, you are going to squat behind a car and just go with the urine flow. Is it right? Not really. Is it a fact of Carnaval life? Very much so.

As for the 13 women arrest, WTF?! Do you know how much of a bitch it is for us to squat and pee in the street with hundreds of strangers around us? For a woman you either have to pee like a Rhino or you are seriously drunk. Either way, it is an emergency situation. That goes double if your friend found a vendor who would sell you 2 beers for R$5.

Regardless of all of this, if the city of Rio de Janeiro isn't going to arrest people for pissing in the streets everyday why the hell are they bothering during Carnaval?