Something new is happening around the corners of Rio de Janeiro. Some street name signs are being updated with information about the person who gave name to it. As you may not know, here in Rio de Janeiro and throughout the entire country (except Brasília, the capital), all streets have names. They can be baptized in honor to someone important, like a general, politician, musician, journalist, etc. Also, names are taken from historical references, like dates or important events.

The funny, or sad, thing about that, is that the absolute majority of inhabitants don’t have a clue of who was the person honoured at the signs. Neither what happened in a certain date remembered as an important city address.

To try to make this a little less embarrassing, as I said, some signs are having information added to them. For example: John Kennedy Street (American president), and so on. But I’ve noticed that even with this sort of information, street names are still an enigma.

That lead my crazy thinking to what? To the lack of education we suffer around here. People have very few ways to run after information in Brazil. You may say “and the Internet?”. Well, only who have money can afford a computer and Internet, even though lots of community LAN houses are being opened nowadays in poor neighborhoods. But that’s not enough.

There’s a lack of culture, also. You may give a computer and Internet to someone, but it will be as dull as nothing if they use it only to access WordPress, talk absolutely nothing for hours via Messenger, or view funny videos in YouTube.

And what does that has to do with street signs names and information? Actually, I don’t know. All I know is that we can’t just be satisfied with small stuff, while there’s a world out there to be known.