Global Girl

The rains over the past week in Rio de Janeiro killed close to 200 people. The government in Rio de Janeiro began the process of removing communities in high risk areas. These new removal policies began stirring the debate about whether or not the city should have the right to remove people from their homes. It really is a complicated debate, and I do not pretend to know the right answer. On the one hand, people are living on unstable land where they risk the chance of death by future mudslides; on the other hand, we must respect that many people have lived in these communities for their whole lives, some families for generations.

Will the government have the capacity, organization, and will power to ensure that the people removed get situated in new homes? I have my doubts, but I am also not in Brazil right now. I would love to know if anybody has an idea. I also dare question: If the city of Rio de Janeiro begins a removal policy in one community, where will it stop? We know that officials have been planning to remove several communities due to the Olympic games. Will this start a trend of community removals?

On a similar note, I ran across this post about a man who locked himself in a self-made cage on an elevated post that is located on the side of the highway between the airport and Rio de Janeiro’s city center.  He will remain in the cage protesting new sound barrier walls that Rio plans to put up along the highway. Many people have accused the city of planning these walls as an excuse to hide the favelas from tourists’ “gaze” during the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Games.

I read about this protester from the blog of Francisco Valdean. Valdean grew up in the Complexo de Maré, a large area made up of 16 favelas. He is a photographer and is studying social sciences at  UERJ. He has some really amazing pictures, which you can see here. Plus, a really interesting blogger. Just a side note; it’s in Portuguese!

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Vote for CatComm’s Idea and Give Every Brazilian a Chance to Wave Their Flag Proudly at the 2016 Olympics

Earlier this month, Rio de Janeiro celebrated an extremely exciting moment, not just for the city, but for Brazil and South America.  For the first time ever, the Olympics will be in South America, in the “Cidade Maravilhosa” Rio de Janeiro. However, some cariocas (Rio de Janeiro residents) are weary. How will the city handle the problems of drug trafficking and violence?  Will Rio will adopt an even harsher and more violent policing policy? How will Rio build the infrastructure in areas already home to many communities? Does this mean that Rio will uproot many communities?

The answer is yes. Some communities will be razed, others invaded by police, and finally others will be gentrified. All of this is due to happen in Rio de Janeiro’s infamous favelas (squatter communities) in order to prepare for the much-celebrated 2016 Olympics. And what is worse is that many times these communities aren’t being heard.

But now you can help give these favela leaders a voice. You can help give the chance for every Brazilian to feel proud of their country during the 2016 games. How? VOTE! (For instructions, click here)

Catalytic Communities, an NGO that has nine years experience working with Rio’s favelas, is now in the final round of the ideablob competition to win $10,000 for their idea: “Rio Olympics: Ensuring a Powerful Legacy for Rio’s Favelas.” And they need our help to vote. Its easy and quick, and the idea with the most votes wins.

If CatComm wins, they will train 200 community leaders from across the city of Rio de Janeiro in creative use of social media, which will amplify their voices so they are heard by the municipal authorities, the media, and the global community. Rio´s current administration is very sensitive to media and foreign opinion, so there is a lot of power in CatComm’s approach.

Why do I think this is so important? This summer I visited Asa Branca, and I was amazed by their leadership, initiative, and community organization. (You can read my post about it here.) Asa Branca is a peaceful favela and free of drug trafficking and militias, and almost all of their children are in school. Rio plans to build a highway over this community.

Another favela, Villa Autódromo, is the first community the city plans to remove in order to prepare for the Olympics.  Villa Autódromo is also a peaceful community  with almost full employment and most of their children in school. Municipal authorities are not consulting the community.

One resident from Villa Autódromo speaks: “The emotion for the Olympics isn’t worth the pain from the removal of the people of Villa Autódromo. The Olympics shouldn’t be able to just erase our past, our history… I’m not against the Olympics. I know that they will bring benefits for the city. We will have more jobs, but also more money going to the politicians pockets. Here, we don’t have drug trafficking, we don’t have militias, and we don’t do harm to anybody.”

I have been excited and hoping for Rio to have the chance to get the Olympics and make something out of the opportunity. It will take work to make sure that Rio makes a lasting effect on the city as a whole, and now you can make it happen by taking 2 minutes to vote. VOTE! –

1. Go here and click “VOTE”.
2. If you haven’t already registered, you will need to register. Registration takes putting in your email address and confirming it’s your address by one click. That’s it. Anyone with an email address, regardless of your country, can register.
3. Once registered, login and vote for Catlytic Communities before October 31st.
4. Blog, tweet, and facebook about it! Try and recruit at least five friends! Together we can make sure that all Brazilians feel proud to wave their flags in 2016!

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I didn't want to "expose" (or exploit) Rio like the photo shoot, so this is a picture of a protest against the violence in Rio de Janeiro.

O Globo, a large Brazilian newspaper, declared in its headline a few days ago, “It’s War: The Magazine The New Yorker Publishes Material About the Violence in Rio de Janeiro Four Days Before the Vote for the 2016 Olympic Headquarters.”

They responded to the New Yorker’s piece about Gang Violence in Rio de Janeiro that portrays Rio as a city of “Parallel Powers.” (If anybody is a reader of my blog, you know how I feel about the use of this phrase. “Parallel Powers” is a tricky one, mostly shunned by academics.) It is an interesting photo shoot, but a rather typical lets “expose the real world of Rio.” Photo shoots like these, those that are “exposing” the violence that occurs, always make my stomach turn. How much do they actually create a “better awareness?” How much to the “artists” exploit the violence for their own benefit?

Honestly, hearing what this guy has to say makes me think that he knows very little about what actually goes on. (Not to mention the fact that it annoys me how he tries to talk with a Brazilian accent and fails miserably.) He talks about the Militia while showing a symbol of the BOPE; however, the BOPE is not the militia. The BOPE is actually a special police force, and not necessarily part of extra-legal right wing milita groups. (However, some of these police could be taking part in the militias, as well). He talks about the Ilha do Governador as if there was just one favela, when in fact there are various favelas (as well as other neighborhoods). Last, but not least, the fact that his last words spoke, “there was a lot of fresh graves in that cemetery,” just put the icing on the cake for me. First, he was trying to be  poetic by ending with a cemetery, making the city of Rio de Janeiro look like one graveyard. Second, and worst of all, is that it’s true that a lot of people are killed by the violence in Rio de Janeiro, but the sad thing is they probably don’t even get proper respect and graves in a graveyard like the one he showed in his photo shoot. So not only did he exploit the deaths in order to end really artistically, but he got the story wrong.

There are photography projects in Rio de Janeiro that try and paint an image that goes directly against this sort of portrayal of the city and the violence in the favelas. I would love to know what an organization like Observatório de Favelas‘ Imagens do Povo would have to say about this exhibit.

Shortly after O Globo released the article, they were appalled about the portrayal of Rio in The New Yorker. O Globo, then, released another article with the headline, “Three days before the vote on the 2016 Olympic Headquarters, Youth is Beaten to Death by Gangs in Chicago.”

The magazine, Foreign Policy, released an interesting blog post about the whole journalism affair. You can read it here.

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A New Independence Day, Or a Day of a New Dependency?

For years people have used Brazil as an example of a country who is looking towards alternate energy solutions. After Monday, we are all left in wonder whether this is true. President Lula declared on Monday that it was the “New Independence Day” in Brazil because of new measures that will restructure the subsalt oil blocks in order for the state to gain more control of its oil industry.

This seems like a step back. Even President Obama, during his campaign, said that we, the United States, should look to Brazil as an alternate energy example. Should we be angry? Is there no paradigm country to look to now for alternate energy?

I actually believe that this is a much too simple statement. I believe the bottom line reason why Brazil has moved towards alternate energy is because: That was what they had, it was cheap and could be a way to even make money. Now that they have oil, they have another way to make money and “develop” as Lula said on Monday.

Today I started a class in Energy Security in the Western Hemisphere. For this class we read a really interesting article in the magazine Foreign Policy called, “Is a Green World a Safer World?” The article questions whether alternate energy is even the answer.

Is oil that bad? Or, is it our ways of life and wasteful thinking that should be changed?
Click here to see the specific changes President Lula wants congress to pass…

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Global Girl Attends a Conference on Public Security in Rio de Janeiro (or insecurity?)

Even though I think that the efforts of Rio de Paz to put up the “Billboard of Violence” are really great, yesterday when I was writing my post, I was a little skeptical about how much it will actually accomplish in waking up the citizens of Rio (and the world for that matter) to the realities of victims/families of victims of violence. I was worried that advertising the amount of violence that occurs in these areas would actually strengthen the idea that in poorer communities there is only violence, which then leads to the stereotype that the citizens are “almost-citizens,” which then actually ingrains the politics of public security that allows the police to enter in with their armored cars shooting in order to fight for “peace.”

My attitude has changed a bit after today. Today I went to a conference about Public Security in the state of Rio de Janeiro held in the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) on the Urca campus.

To say the least, I was really moved by this conference, and I realize just how important it is for people to be able to come together and speak and be heard about their experiences with violence. The Catch-22 that I talked about yesterday certainly does exist, but after today I have a better idea of what Rio de Paz is trying to do: Set up a space that is visible and audible to both tourists and Brazilians for people to come together and have a defined space to rally and really create a movement as Cariocas, as Brazilians, and as human beings. Learn more about the conference

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Global Girl Questions if a Billboard of Violence is Really a Solution for the Violence in Rio de Janeiro

About “Billboard of Violence” or Placar da Violência:

I recently read that the NGO Rio de Paz is currently undertaking a very interesting effort on Copacabana Beach. This NGO recently acquired the ability by the municipal government of Rio de Janeiro to put up a billboard called “Billboard of Violence” (My translation of Placar da Violência) that will show the official statistics of deaths in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The idea of the “Billboard of Violence” is to give even more visibility of the numbers of this tragedy that affects all parts of Rio’s society, but especially the poorer areas and the periphery. Continue Reading…

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Click here to watch the trailer!

A Global Girl Movie Review:

How I found out about the film Meu Brasil:

To begin my experience at Georgetown, I needed to spend a summer semester researching. Thus, I am here in Rio de Janeiro researching the roles of community leaders in the favelas cariocas to help professor Bryan McCann in his upcoming book. This is a tough and sticky research topic at hand. Two months is a short time to make contacts, establish a trust, and get helpful information. (If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to let me know! ). However, this tough research topic led me to see an interesting film this week. Meu Brasil is a documentary directed by Daniela Broitman and produced by VideoForum about the story of 33 community leaders who traveled to Porto Alegre in order to take part in the World Social Forum.

Daniela Broitman gave a special filming to a group of students from The New School in New York City who are participating in a class about Human Rights and the Media here in Rio de Janeiro. It showed on Wednesday at a small underground theater Cine Gloria. (Underground literally, it is under the memorial of Getúlio Vargas in Gloria).

Continue Reading…

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Click here to see the trailer!

A Global Girl Special on an Innovative Project:

Reflecting on my blog yesterday about Favela Tourism, I had to add one more layer to the puzzle:

I ended yesterday’s blog saying that for Favela Tourism to really work, it has to come from a more internal community effort, and the community needs to be okay with some possible negative trade-offs for turning their community into a commodity item. Well, the project O Morrinho has transcended these barriers.

I first became introduced to the work of O Morrinho when I was doing volunteer work in Rio de Janeiro with Iko Poran. Some volunteers were working with the project. Later on, I even helped a dutch girl translate some of the website into English.

O Morrinho has a blog and you can see it here!

About O Morrinho:

O Morrinho is an art project that has created a 300m2 replica of a favela in Laranjeiras in Rio de Janeiro. This project has called lots of attention both nationally and internationally. These efforts not only reveal the “transformative power of art,” but also allows a way to spread the word of the lives in Favelas without having to objectify any community residents. This project is a really amazing effort.

Eventually these boys, and others as the project grew, began filming their efforts. There is a documentary about the building of the Morrinho, and there is a documentary called “Deus sabe tudo mas não é um X9,” or “God Knows Everything But He’s Not A Snitch” which will be showing on July 20th at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Continue Reading…

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Click on the picture to read Bruno Agostini's experience on the favela tour.

The Debate Surrounding Favela Tourism:

In one of his articles, Bryan McCann tells a joke, generally used to refer to Eskimo communities, about Rio de Janeiro’s favelas.  Favelas historically referred to the illegal squatter settlements that emerged on the hills in Rio de Janeiro in the twentieth century. Currently, the term favela is used throughout Brazil referring to poorer areas of any terrain containing self-constructed homes on land that had been illegally invaded. Returning to McCann’s insight, the joke goes: Question: how many people are in the typical home in the favela? Answer: Five—a mother, father, two kids, and an anthropologist.

The growing attention to the favelas worldwide has affected their development as their problems have entered the international arena. Anthropologists are not alone in wanting to experience the favela for themselves. Tourists have begun to venture into the favelas in order to get a chance to experience what life is like for the 19% of Rio de Janeiro’s population living in these regions, and tourism agencies have responded creating a whole industry focused on showing the tourists the favelas–or the “real Rio” as the agencies would say.

Favela tourism sparked an intense debate: Some see the favela tours as an opportunity to make people aware of the world’s problems; other people claim that the favela tours are exploitative and represent a “safari of poverty” that invades the personal lives of the poor. The tourism agencies claim the goal of breaking the stereotypes that exclude the favela thus integrating them into the city of Rio de Janeiro. What aspects of poverty tourism spark much more debate and interest than traditional tourism? In all tourism outside people enter the space of another culture, however, poverty tourism creates a deeper and more polemic dynamic due to the nature of marginality that poor people often face.

Tourism creates a vulnerable relationship between locals and tourists due to the mere nature of the development of tourism in a marginalized area.  Within this framework do mainstream tourism agencies carry out favela tourism in a way that exploits the residents of these areas? Click to learn more about favela tourism

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Global Girl Turns Food Critic: The Delicious Things in Rio de Janeiro

“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” ~George Bernard Shaw, “The Revolutionist’s Handbook,” Man and Superman

One of my first experiences traveling in Brazil was through a voluntourism organization called, Iko Poran. After I finished the program, Iko Poran asked me several times to help give advice and information to people who were also thinking about participating in voluntourism with the organization. One of those girls was Nicole Zimmerman.  Nicole ended up coming to Brazil at the same time that I was returning, and so I ended up meeting her personally.

Nicole recently saw my Global Girl Blog and some of my posts about Brazil. She sent me a link to a blog post that she wrote for another blog, Zaji: A Girl’s Guide to Travel, Culture, and Style. The post describes all about the wonderful food in Brazil; it is called, “Day in the Life of a Foodie in Brazil,” and you all can, and should, read the post here. Nicole also has her own great blog about Brazil, Beijos do Brasil, which gives a lot of information about traveling, art, markets, and things to do. She is a great writer and you can check out her blog here!

In honor of her post about Brazil’s food customs, I decided to write a post about my favorite things in Rio that have to do with food. These are things that when in the United States, I really crave; or, as said in Portuguese, in the US I really feel saudades of these carioca “delicious-nesses.”

Click here to see my top ten favorite foods/drinks of Rio de Janeiro

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