I was searching for the New Yorker piece and your blog came on the top of the list.

You do an amazing job on your blog!

See you at lunch,

Renata

Todd mentioned he wanted to read the “full” New Yorker article, and I thought I’d share it in case you guys haven’t read it yet. It’s too much. Lately since I’ve been here, I’ve been disappointed by how the U.S. media often unfairly and inaccurately portrays Rio and Brazil.
This comment form won’t allow me to post the link but the full article is on the blog called Eyes on Brazil under the heading Economist & The New Yorker in a PDF.
Whether in little or huge ways, it seems there is a lot of fear-mongering going on, even with “reputable” news sources…this New Yorker article is no exception. I read an MSNBC article recently comparing crime in future Olympic cities where crime statistic numbers for Brazil (country) were referenced with statistics about Vancouver (city).

Thank you for your comments! I’m glad you like the blog! Yes, I understand where you are coming from. Thank you for posting the article on my blog.

My friend is actually in the running to win 10,000 dollars so that she can teach community leaders social media techniques which can amplify their voices and allow them to have a better say in what is going to happen with the Olympics in 2016. Right now, 19 communities are slated for removal. If your interested in knowing more information, you can go here: http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/6590-Rio-Olympics-Ensuring-a-Powerfa

I hope you stay tuned. Although ever since I started graduate school, I’m so busy and can’t post as much as I like. What are you doing in Rio?

Thanks again!
Amanda

Todd mentioned he wanted to read the “full” New Yorker article, and I thought I’d share it in case you guys haven’t read it yet. It’s too much. Lately since I’ve been here, I’ve been disappointed by how the U.S. media often unfairly and inaccurately portrays Rio and Brazil.
http://www.flip.org.br/upimages/Anderson%20Rio%20Gangster.pdf

Whether in little or huge ways, it seems there is a lot of fear-mongering going on, even with “reputable” news sources…this New Yorker article is no exception. I read an MSNBC article recently comparing crime in future Olympic cities where crime statistic numbers for Brazil (country) were referenced with statistics about Vancouver (city).

With that said, I really agree with what you’ve had to say. I think it is a shame that politicians from Rio de Janeiro try to glaze over their problem of violence. I have lived off and on in Rio for quite some time (although I don’t know if it is anywhere near your “very long time.”)

I especially liked this:
“I guess in the process of writing this comment, I’ve formed my own opinion about the article and the Brazilian response: Brazilians should be ashamed of themselves for getting more upset about the article than about all the murders they have here. I wish more articles like this would appear. I wish magazines and newspapers from all over the world would send reporters down here and give some space to this story. Because only then will Brazilians actually do something about it.”

Of course Rio de Janeiro does have a lot of serious problems with violence. I guess my negative feelings about Anderson’s piece in the New Yorker come from the fact when the favelas of Rio de Janeiro get any attention at all, it is purely because the violence. On the other hand, we can’t deny that many of these communities have to suffer from the effects of violence on a daily basis. Many people living in the favelas aren’t involved in the drug trafficking, or militias. There are even some favelas that don’t have trafficking, thus they aren’t on the politicians radar, thus they don’t get as much investment as favelas such as Rocinha.

I guess the way I see it is that there is a huge catch-22 in how to approach ways to improve the lives of people living in those communities. I think that people need to be really careful not to stereotype the communities as violent areas run by “parallel powers,” yet, on the other side, the solutions can not deny the fact that the violence exists and deny the chance to let the people speak up against the violence in their community.

In other words, I don’t disagree with what you said either. I think you are very much right on the money. If sometimes I seems contradicting in what I feel about the situation, I think it is because what I feel about the situation sometimes is contradicting!

I also don’t know if you have read this book, but it is absolutely fabulous and I would recommend it: Vida Sob Cerco, organized by Luiz Machado da Silva. Also, Bryan McCann is writing another book right now, and in the next few years you should look out for it! It is about the evolution of Rio de Janeiro’s politics, both formal and informal, from 1969 to the early 90s. To mention some other of my favorites: As Cores de Acari by Marcos Alvito; Enrique Desmond Arias has both a great book and some good articles; Teresa Caldeira wrote City of Walls, it is about São Paulo and it’s really good. All the books by Alba Zaluar. Márcia Pereira Leite has some great articles and works with Luiz Machado da Silva.

Also, if you’re interested in ensuring that Rio de Janeiro’s favelas aren’t treated like they were during the Pan American games, you should check out the work of Theresa Williamson at http://www.catcomm.org. She is also in the running for $10,000 for a project that will help community leaders play a more direct role in making sure the Olympics has better outcomes for their communities.

Thanks so much for your comments!

I’m an English teacher from the United States and I’ve been living in Rio for a long time, so I was very interested to follow this whole story. (I just discovered your blog today because I’m reading Bryan McCann’s book on the recent history of Brazil.)

I think you’re referring to the audio slideshow the New Yorker put up on its website, but I was much more interested to read the article itself. Anderson was here in June or July doing the research and interviews for his story, and he was interviewed by O Globo, which ran the interview on the front page of its culture section. So it wasn’t like they didn’t know the article was coming. I don’t think the timing was intentional, but even if it was, I don’t think that’s the writer’s decision.

The article overall seems pretty accurate, although it can’t go into as much detail as needed about the complexities of the problem. It’s more like a snapshot of what’s going on, focusing on just one favela and on just a few people’s personal stories, to try to make a far-away problem real for Americans.

The numbers on violence in Rio are always different, depending on which source you consult. Anderson says that there were “just under 5000″ murders last year in Rio; I’ve read elsewhere that it was around 2000. In any case, it’s obviously a serious, serious problem, and one that I wish Brazilians and the “international community” would pay more attention to. What bothers me most is that these deaths simply don’t count, here or abroad, because it’s mostly residents of poorer neighborhoods being killed. But no one appears to be very concerned if those people are killed, so it’s allowed to continue. It’s of such little importance that no one is even sure exactly how many murders there are.

I can only hope that with Rio being more in the international spotlight now, with the World Cup and the Olympics, politicians here will be forced to come up with something more than the usual “solutions” to truly make the city safer for all its residents (not just the rich) — if only because the continued level of violence will make for bad public relations and could become really embarrassing for them.

The usual “solution” I’m talking about is, of course, a police crackdown. Two weeks before Rio hosted the 2007 Pan-American Games, the police killed 19 people and wounded a lot of others in a “mega-invasion” of one favela. That didn’t get much attention from anybody, however — except the people who lived there. Just a blip on the radar screen; that sort of thing happens here all the time. Hopefully, that kind of “solution” won’t be possible in the period leading up to the Olympics.

I guess in the process of writing this comment, I’ve formed my own opinion about the article and the Brazilian response: Brazilians should be ashamed of themselves for getting more upset about the article than about all the murders they have here. I wish more articles like this would appear. I wish magazines and newspapers from all over the world would send reporters down here and give some space to this story. Because only then will Brazilians actually do something about it.

If Brazilians want to show off their country on the world stage, they can’t complain when the world comes looking at what’s happening here on a daily basis: a permanent low-intensity civil war that’s being waged in the poorest urban areas of their nation, killing hundreds of their fellow citizens. The usual Brazilian knee-jerk defensive response, pointing to violence in the United States or other countries, just doesn’t cut it anymore. They have to really address this issue, not just fall back on “pot calling the kettle black.”

Here’s a link to the full Anderson article:
www. flip. org. br/ upimages/ Anderson%20Rio%20Gangster. pdf

Now that I guess I’ve come out on the other side of this subject & disagreed with your opinion about the article, let me try to make up for it by saying thanks so much for your blog. Please keep it up!