Punks Are Alright!

In the the film, The Punks are Alright, the punk music and the overall culture is presented in the communities of Brazil and Indonesia. One of the many interesting similarities of these two cultures out number the differences between the two. Henrike and Dolly do a very nice job in bringing similarities to the table in the long run as you can see by the end of the documentary. Even though their religious views differ between the two communities as well as Dolly and Henrike, both punk communities in the cultures share the similar values, making the 2 cultures come together on the same idea.

This documentary has changed my perception of the youth cultures in both countries. My perception of Brazil however has greatly changed more than any other. Henrike, a member of the Blind Pigs, shares with us the different ways the youth cultures are intertwined throughout the community of Brazil. He explains that the youth culture is a very tough, violent, and hostile environment clinging to drug traits as a main source, which causes the main source of youth corruption.  Because of Henrike's past experiences, he feels a sense of sympathy for these kids. As a result of his sympathy, he decides to teach a class to the youth to a small school in Brazil. We later learn that Henrike is fired from this job due to him cussing to much in front of the children. Henrike describes the school as a privately funded and publicly populated by the "Punk" phase. It is described as punk because of the contradicting do-it-yourself attitude that a normal punk people display. I think people really overlook how bad the situation with youth is in Brazil. however, my perception on Indonesia is a different story. Punk culture has been a contradicting issue with the Indonesia government for awhile. But in the youth community of Indonesia there is so much passion and vigor within the hearts of each youth the live the Punk lifestyle. I think it's interesting how Punk was loved by so many in a culture that's government is against punk.


To be totally honest none of us can relate to the people that participated in this documentary because i am neither poor nor disenfranchised, which makes me unable to relate to the different situations that occur in the documentary. however, my views on the the youth are exposed to the drugs and alcohol stay the same so I can relate to not agreeing to let the kids be around the alcohol. I also agreed that the religion aspect of Brazil are hypocritical  to the catholic religion. Henrike told the story of how he visited church with his family even though he is not much of a religious person. "as soon as we walked out of the church the nuns did the cross thing when they saw me....I felt judged." "I'm not religious, but I thank God for for my family."Indonesia has the most islamic population in the whole world.

The purchases that we make in America have an effect over the people overseas as well as the Americans. For example, Dolly from Indonesia works at the Nike company. He works for an hourly wage of $2.65. The common labor laws are changed by the government to help help increase their selling income. Because the US has labor laws, the Nike company has to move to Indonesia to be able to bypass these lass in order to up their income on shoe revenue.