Some may find it more medium than mild…
Two groups of men stood on opposite rooftops perched on a hillside overlooking Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach, taunting one another. It was a macho showdown between opponents wielding unlikely weapons — kites.
On this July morning in the impoverished neighborhood, they were using taut, sharp-edged kite lines — known as “cerol” in Portuguese — to slash their opponents’ lines, ripping their kites from the sky.
Kite fighting has caused horrific injuries and even deaths, and a bill moving through Brazil’s Congress is seeking to prohibit the manufacture, sale and use of the razor-sharp lines nationwide, with violators facing one to three years in prison and a hefty fine.
Sounds like this is more than ordinary kites.
Cerol is old story. You can do it at home. Ground glass and glue. That’s all you need.
Kite fight is almost a tradition in Brazil. The real masters of kite fighting are capable of even capturing the enemy’s kite, wrapping it their own kite’s tail (called rabiola).
Now, when they do this near a highway, the razor sharp line can fall into traffic and cut through the necks of people in bikes. I had a line crossed in front of me once. I was in a car and the line wrapped on my mirror. I didn’t stop there because I thought it was dangerous. When I finally did, the line was embedded into the mirror’s casing, having cut through the plastic.
Another thing that can cause death related to kites. Kids love running after the cut ones. And they’re usually looking up, not sideways when running. So, being struck by a car is easy.
Thank for the irl!
My in-laws are keen kite flyers and travel around the country to kite festivals. As soon as someone sets up an Indian fighting kite stall, the serious flyers pack up and go home. No-one’s going to spend thousands of dollars on materials just to let some 12-year old with a $10 kite cut their lines.
My dad told me stories about kite fighting and showed me how to use glue and glass on the string to make a knife that would cut the other line. It’s not a sport that’s directly harmful unless you try to grab the string.
Or unless a kite with a cut line drifts into power lines, or helicopter rotors, or traffic, or a factory smokestack…
