The Punks are Alright!

            Growing up in a mostly white, middle-class, suburban area did a poor job of preparing me for a realization of the way people in other parts of the world live. In my part of the world I live a relatively privileged life, going to college was never a question, instead people asked where I was going. I never had to get a job to help support my family, finding an easy way out and selling drugs on the street was not even an option where I lived. Yet, for thousands, even millions, of young people my age they are stuck with the lives they were born into with little hope for change. The film, The Punks are Alright!, this realization became more evident than ever through the lives of several Punk Artists in Brazil and Indonesia.

            Henrike is the lead singer of the Punk band Blind Pigs, he lives in Brazil with his wife and two children and discusses his influences into Punk, the surrounding youth culture in Brazil, and the religious conflicts in accordance to Punk. Henrike was originally from England and eventually moved to Brazil, growing up his dad was a Naval officer and also the person who led Henrike into the Punk lifestyle. In his community the kids have little hope of staying out of a drug related lifestyle. For them it is an easy way out of a life of poverty, but unfortunately, for many, it can also be a way out of life.

 They grow up with an education that is incapable of providing them with the skills to more than survive in the world. The schools are a safe place to go to in the day, but when the sun falls drug dealers and gangs overrun them. Sometimes there are drive-bys at the police department. Once the sun rises again there will be a street covered with evidence of the previous nights activities. Living in a community like this, Henrike set out to make it better for families who live there by starting a school where he teaches the kids English. By teaching them English he is enabling them to have a better future. In the year 2002 Brazil was the most violent country; a fact that can be appalling to some. For the children growing up in crime-ridden areas, it is difficult for them to imagine any other kind of life.

            In Indonesia, Dolly, is a young man who works at a Nike factory six days a week with a two hour commute to and from work making less than three dollars a day. Punk in his life is what gives him hope when his life is full of everything but hope. Dolly’s life is constricted to working and living at home to help support his family, which might be all his life can be for years to come. I never realized that there were so many people in other countries living in ways so drastically from mine. Here I was raised with the intentions of going on my own and supporting myself, while people like Dolly are raised to support not only themselves, but also their family. I am given the opportunity to move up or even down in my social class, yet to him class is a sickness that he is stuck in and punk is the cure. As much as Dolly loves his music, his band can only afford to practice together twice a year. A reality for him that struck my heart, because I know plenty of teenagers that start bands and are able to practice at a moments notice without a thought.

            The youth in the areas have a lot surrounding them that lead to daily struggles. Yet, these struggles are common enough for them that they may not even recognize it as a struggle anymore, but instead as a fact of life. They grow up in communities ridden with crime and violence without much to live for. As Henrike said, religion is really the only thing these people have. Without their faith then everything would seem pointless, they might not see a point to even try and make something out of their life. I think that hope is something these kids need more than anything, if you give them hope then they will have the confidence to make something of themselves. Playing music, not necessarily punk, but any kind of music is a good healthy way for them to stay off of the streets.

            Relating my lifeway to the artists in the movie is tough. I am not much of a Punk, I would not consider much of what I do to be Punk either, but maybe that is from the standard of American Punk. From Indonesian Punk it could be that I am trying to better my living by continuing my education to increase my job opportunities. In Brazilian Punk it might be that I try and volunteer to help people when I can, trying to provide other people with the things they need in order to succeed in life, similar to the school Henrike teaches at. I may not have the classic Punk look going for me, but I like to be part of something that is changing the world around me.

            Economically, I am connected to Dolly and the people like him who are working in the factories making the clothes I own in poor conditions. Looking at the prices I pay for one article of clothing and comparing that to the conditions these people work in and the pay they get, things do not add up. Changing the working conditions of factory employees may not be an easy task, instead I can pay attention to the clothes I buy and where they come from and who is making them. Instead of supporting factories where if something is filmed a worker is at risk for losing his job, the factory has no shame in revealing their conditions. Yet, if I stop buying those products all together and other people join me, then the workers would lose their jobs and things would be no better off.

            Connecting my life to Henrike’s is a little more difficult; a way our lives intersect do not directly affect one or the other. Henrike expressed in the movie how frustrated he was with the institution of religion, he himself is extremely religious, yet the church has a hard time accepting him because of the way he looks. The hypocrisy of the church is something that I too do not agree with, in fact sometimes I am angry because of it. Like Henrike, my religious beliefs are personal and are not something that is easy to share all the time.

            Punk is not simply a music genre, the tattoos or body art one wears, the clothes or hairstyles, Punk is also a lifestyle. An important part of being Punk is DIY, do it yourself, seeing something that needs to be changed and being that change. Punks are rebels, rebelling against whatever the general flow of the population is. Rebelling is about upsetting, upsetting earlier generations and inspiring a change. Creating a change is what Punk is all about.