...The documentary ‘Favela Rising’ directed by Matt Mochary and Jeff Zimbalist is based in Rio de Janeiro telling the story of the poor and privileged in Brazil. The documentary includes real life footage of events and interviews with individuals in the community. Matt and Jeff realized that in Brazilian favela/ghetto communities are wrecked by violence, oppressed by drugs and ignored by corrupt authorities. Over the time of the documentary the favela managed to achieve moments of glory through one mans vision. Police are the real beneficiaries of narcotics trafficking in Rio de Janerio. Most of the police are corrupt and are drug lords to the favela groups. Police in Rio are underpaid and by selling drugs and guns to the favela gangs they are earning a profit. One section in the documentary shows investigative journalist Andore Luis Azevedo saying that police dress as SWAT teams in black to...
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...A common person practicing a stable way of living does not have to be wary of the same risks, and situations as those in the favelas. Gordon Parks, a prominent documentary photojournalist, wrote “Flavio’s Home”, an article of comparing the life of a young boy named Flavio da Silva, and his family living in one of the most poverty based areas in Brazil, known as The Favelas. Also, including the journey of how Parks fights against poverty in any way possible, even if it meant taking in a boy doomed to die. The article was published in LIFE Magazine in 1961. Providing information and regards to how poverty in the world shouldn’t be taken lightly, especially in the case of Flavio. “Flavio’s Home” opened the eyes of many, especially on the line...
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...Anthropology as a study has always been more concentrated on study of small & isolated civilizations rather than complex ones in cities. However, cities are where the action is. Therefore, new subfield of anthropology emerged, urban anthropology, emphasizing issues of the cities in undeveloped and industrialized countries. This might be due to the reason that anthropology aspires to study universals and wider perspective of human condition. And also cities represent a ‘gateway; to fieldwork which mainly takes place in towns, peasants villages, rural areas etc. Gateway, not just in a physical sense of airports, train & bus stations, but also in sense of communication, expertise (universities, academics etc.), government etc. Although, to interpret issues of cities, the slums, & shanty towns can be done only in terms of forces which lead people to migrate from the countryside. 1. There are a lot of questions studied by both anthropologists and sociologists related to comparative studies of cities and understanding human ways. These phenomena are those of comparison of urban experience in underdeveloped countries. For instance, issues like kinship ties and stresses of urban life and its effects of crowding on aggression and frustration. Thus Anderson argues, on this topic, that due to cultural ways of dealing with crowding the pathological effects on urban Chinese living in Hong Kong are minimized. More importantly, Gideon Sjoberg, created so-called idealized...
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...Living in the Favela’s in Rio de Janeiro can be a very labor-intensive experience. Once a person is old enough to work, they are either contributing to the family chores or out in the community making money. Even after a full day’s work, most people will only come home with about a dollar. Flavio’s father was once asked “How much do you earn a day?” and he responded by saying “Seventy-five cents. On a good day maybe a dollar.” (Parks). “Flavio’s Home” written by Gordon Parks, showed the daily life of the poverty stricken people of Rio. My goal for this essay is to explain the responsibilities of Flavio, the way of life in the Favela in the 1960s, and how things have changed since then. Flavio had the responsibilities of an adult at the age...
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...in a place they call “home “ but we call “shanty towns”, bustees or favelas. Rio de Janeiro, known to Brazilians as the “Marvelous City,” is home to over 10 million people, of which nearly a third live in shantytowns or ghettos known as favelas. A favela is a Brazilian shanty town, which is generally found on the edge of the city. The first favela appeared about 100 years ago in Rio De Janiero. Today, there are more than 600 favelas in Rio De Janiero alone. Although many of these favelas are located in Rio de Janeiro, favelas have sprung in almost every large Brazilian town. A favela is generally found on the edge or outskirts of the city. Favelas are precariously built shacks constructed from a variety of materials, ranging from wood and corrugated cardboards to bricks. They have about one or two rooms but lack basic amenities like fresh water, electricity and toilets. Many favelas are very cramped and claustrophobic ! Infact they are extremely crowded with high population density which can reach a staggering figure of 150000 people/ square kilometer. Favela sites are generally prone to flooding , landslips and exposed to industrial pollution and consequently plagued by sewage and hygiene problems. Electricity is not officially available but the residents manage to get unauthorized connections from public areas. It is the poorest residents who generally live in these favelas. These residents have no choice about where they live or have no other...
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...build so high up into the mountians . my house was built by my father he built it with any materials he could find such as corrugated iron,pieces of board haphazardly assembled to provide a basic shelter for my family.my home is very overcrowded with all my family in it with only two rooms one for living in and one for sleeping in and with not toilet the house can somtimes get very dirty and smelly.in the fevelas around me the is no privacy what so ever the houses are build on one another.for my family to get water we have to go to a nearby source and very often it comes at a price . around the favelas it is very sad too see that the rubbish is never collected and the stench is terrible and it quicky degenarates into a place of filth and disease. The people who work in the favels are very poorley paid where the income is unreliable this is why so the people who live in the favelas are so poor and because a lack of money . Beacause of poor conditions and very badly piad jobs the amount of crime in the shanty towns has risen over the last few years rapidly .children in my area often dont go to school because their in some type of gang...
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...Predominantly within the post-modern, American context the "good life" is understood as the freedom and ability to do or posses whatever we want; a complete lack of nothing but the ability to posses anything one might desire. However, in Robert Neuwirth's book "Shadow Cities" readers are introduced to multiple people groups, more commonly known as "squatters", who's lifestyles and beliefs challenge what many might consider the good life as generally accepted by members of Western civilization. As Neuwirth takes us from Rocinha, Rio De Janeiro to Istanbul the reader is continuously faced with the same three issues plaguing our world: the fact that the worlds population is steadily increasing at an alarming rate, that everyone must have a place to live and that housing costs and must be lowered in order to provide the amount of houses necessary to sustain our world's growing population (Neuwirth xiii). In this paper I will seek to summarize Neuwirth's book, "Shadow Cities", beginning with a brief history of the squatter community. When comparing past and present examples of squatter communities Neuwirth begins by noting that, "very little has changed since the Middle Ages. The barracks of Rocinha, the mud huts of Kibera, the wooden shanties of Behrampada, or the original Gecekondu houses in Sarigazi are not far removed the dwellings that were common centuries ago in Europe and North America." With very little difference between communities of the past and present it becomes apparent...
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...The Venezuela mass movement event was a series of mudslides and landslides resulting from a series of floods in December 1999.There was many causes to this, some being human and some being more physical causes like heavy rainfall. This effected most settlements in the state of Vargas the largest of which being Caracas. It was the combination of these two things, a natural event being the mud and landslides and the vulnerable population in Vargas, many of which were living in shanty towns making them particularly vulnerable which made the event into a hazard and disaster. This can clearly be shown by Dregg’s model. As is clear from the first diagram that when the natural event does not affect people in anyway (shown as the two circles do not touch) then it is only called an event and no loss of any kind is observed. However when the people are affected by the event and in the case of Venezuela this effect was very large with many of the people defenceless in shanty town accommodation as well as living in a crowded and dense and living near in the shadow of the mountain. All of this meant a large interaction between the event and the vulnerable non resilient population creating the disaster. There were a number of physical causes to the event of both climatological and geomorphical nature. The largest cause of all and the trigger for the slides is the heavy rainfall in the weeks and days especially before the event. As can be seen by the graph, December had been an unusually...
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...Meghan Lazor GLS 310 Essay 3 Favela Rising Favela Rising was an inspirational film about how even at the most hopeless of times, anything can be possible. One man had the courage to take a horrible tragedy and use it to rebuild a violent community into a cultural and more positive place to live. Through blind faith and endless optimism, this man fought through every obstacle in his path against the drug run streets of Brazil’s slums. He stood as a symbol of peace even in the face of death. The filmmaker risked his life to provide an edge of your seat colorful look into the dangerous streets of Rio Di Janero’s slums or “Favela’s, through the eyes of its people. The Favela’s are broken up into sections according to each drug lord’s domain. Here, the law is just as corrupt as the criminals who govern the streets. The citizens are confined to their own section living life fearing not when, but how they will die. The children aspire to be outlaws because they have nothing else to look forward to. The filmmaker paid special attention to the citizen’s of the Favela’s. These people were the narrator’s of the story. Many times when they spoke everything else would be blacked out. The camera would zoom into their faces so close that all you could see would be their mouths. This technique isolated the emotions and words of each speaker. As each person told a piece of the story, the filmmaker would show clips of video to follow along. Since the area is so dangerous the filmmaker...
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...Las favelas: barrios bajo alta presión Mucha gente piensa en las favelas como sitios peligrosos por culpa de la droga y la violencia. Pero pensamos que la situación actual viene sobretodo de la falta de servicios y infraestructuras para la población y que la violencia es la consecuencia final de todos estos problemas Ahora, hay muchas dificultades encontradas por las favelas donde viven más de 2 millones de brasileños. Los problemas más encontrados por todas partes de las favelas son los de la violencia, de las drogas o de las pandillas. Además, el paro en las favelas es muy importante, la gente vive de pequeños trabajos en las calles de rio para tocar menos de 100 dollares cada mes. Es claro que no es suficiente para vivir y que la gente sobrevive con ese tipo de trabajo. Es por eso que mayoría de los jóvenes entre 13-14 anos eligen a menudo el trafico de drogas para tocar 200 -300 dollares cada semana. Lo hemos entendido, las favelas son sitios con mucha inseguridad, y no les recomendamos de dar un paseo sin conocer a la gente viviendo allí o sin ser acompañado. Si nos fijamos sobre los niveles de criminalidad en las favelas; en 2007, 1260 personas fueron matados por la policía de Rio. La última ola de violencia trata de 12 asesinatos en 3 días es decir 4 asesinatos cada día. Pero que no le hagan ilusión, a pesar que hay una “pequeña delincuencia” encontrada en todas partes, encontramos también una organización criminal mucho más elaborada alrededor de la...
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...in the area leads to the development of large favela communities. In Rio de Janeiro the first favela was recorded in 1920 (Green, 2012, p. 132) Poverty has been around for many centuries in Brazil. Most people see and hear about the beautiful beaches and the many festivals but many are unaware of what lies beneath, which are the Favelas and the many struggles their residents face. Over 85 percent of Brazilians are living in cities, a figure expected to rise to 90 percent over the next twenty years (The world goers to the city, 2007). With approximately one third of the city population living in favelas and other types of informal settlements, it is...
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...They argue that they get rid of the communities to make room for Olympic housing. A favela is a community of makeshift homes and businesses, they are clustered on the outskirts of Brazil. Although they are low quality and crumbling, Favelas are all that some people have. The buildings and the culture built around them have been passed down for generations. During the 60’s and 70’s the Brazilian government worked to move people out of the favelas and into government subsidized homes, however, the war on drug put the issue of the communities on the back burner until now. (lecture) The government seems to have very little sympathy for the people and are just motivated by making money off of the Olympic Games. For decades, the people of the favela communities have been neglected and persecuted. Favela communities have no infrastructure despite being around for more than 50 years, there has been no government effort to provide electricity, running, water and other necessities to the residents. (lecture) They have also been subject to unfair treatment by the police “The military police’s strategy of fear when it comes to their operations in the city’s favelas, including harassing residents and threatening activists.” (AMNESTY) It is clear that this is all part of a plan to socially cleanse Rio. The government is trying to remove the poor...
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...broken down into a series of vignettes which tell the story of the favela and the central characters, and ultimately which path Rocket decides to take. I argue that this film was imperative in raising awareness of both the existence of as well as the issues within the favelas in Rio de Janeiro, and was one of the first cultural representations to emerge from Brazil to show the darker side of the city and an alternate reality to what is commonly perceived about Rio, that is postcard images of beaches, sunsets and samba. Via this cultural vehicle I argue that it was possible to begin to conduct businesses in the city such as 'favela tour' and 'favela party' due to interest from foreigners in seeing and experiencing a slice of life in the favelas. Which raises the question: Did this film glorify life in the favelas, or did it depict a realistic perspective of reality? How has consciousness raising of the foreign public since affected the inhabitants of these urban spaces and has this effect been positive or negative? I argue that one of the key strengths of the film is realism. The actors are amateurs recruited from the favelas, and the central character Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) is from the Cidade de Deus favela itself, which lends authenticity and personal perspective to the characters. The film was shot inside a real favela rather than a film set, taking the viewer directly into the urban space of favela inhabitants. There are several key themes in the film which I will...
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...negatively effects in a number of ways. Brazil is unique in having the opportunity of hosting this event.The hope is that this event will contribute to Brazil’s growth as an emerging economy and significant financial investments will continue to benefit the country post-Olympics. While the citizens are excited about the Olympics, there are concerns about the large number of expenses required in Rio. This explains Brazil’s current situation, details financing for the 2016 games, analyzes past financial issues with Olympics, and evaluates the socio-economic impact on citizens from an ethical viewpoint. The funds and resources for such improvements can be controversial. For violent crime and the unsightly poverty of the sprawling favelas, or shantytown slums, it may be one of the most challenging Games in the history of the rings. That the International Olympic Committee on Friday decided on the Brazilian city for the 2016 Summer Games was certainly a bold move, but not necessarily a surprise. Now that China has held the Olympics, South America was the next untapped frontier. How the country bridges the extremes of rich and poor while the world watches is the great challenge that awaits. The city was criticized a year ago by a top IOC member who said Rio's preparations were the 'worst' in recent history....
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...In Brazil in Black and White we met Senator Paulo Paim one of the Afro-Brazilians in Congress and a supporter of affirmative action. Paim’s efforts have caused the University of Brasilia to adopt affirmative action quotas that have greatly benefited poor Afro-Brazilians. The mobilization of non-whites is present da Silva’s book and works. Benedita da Silva worked relentlessly to improve favelas. Da Silva led the fight to build schools, introduce sports, when the white dominated government refused to support those in the favelas. This theme has also been greatly discussed in our environmental section. In the environmental section of our course we encountered Marina Silva who is an Afro-Brazilian environmentalist politician. Silva served as Minister of the Environment under President Lula da Silva. Under Silva’s tenure, Brazil led Latin America in reduction of timber consumption in the rainforest. The efforts of Paim, da Silva, and Silva prove that Afro-Brazilians can have a positive impact across society in areas like education, favelas, or the...
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