Brazzil

Dear Russell Slater-
Great article! It engaged me to write a huge response, so I hope you don't mind! I agree, the "pacification" operations in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro never turn out to be a good thing. But there is one comment of yours that I don't fully agree with:

"There are no other successful ways of earning money in the favela; there are no shopping malls, or tourist attractions, only sale of drugs and arms. When they see the gangsters in designer clothes, driving expensive cars and seemingly untouchable within the community, this becomes their aspiration."

This is a common statement, but a rather simplified one. It almost depicts the favelas as being full of "almost criminals" that will be seduced by the trafficker-life by simply seeing a great pair of shoes. Although people are seduced by the money of trafficking, there are also a lot of hard workers who are not involved with trafficking in the favelas. There are many people in these communities that have created tourist attractions in the favelas (See the book: Gringo na Laje by Bianca Freire-Medeiros). There are many innovative projects going on in these communities. One that comes to mind is the Morrinho, you can see it here: http://bit.ly/N9kzR (I also wrote a blog about it here: http://bit.ly/QafSi)

The whole idea that the police go in and shoot up the place is part of a bigger problem: the politics of security in Rio de Janeiro. It is rarely a problem of those police who are actually participating in these operations (many times the police come from similar backgrounds as those they are "operating against.") The #1 problem is that the people in power don't want to stop with the war. (See the film: As Notícias de uma guerra particular") Often times the traffickers are getting the arms from the police itself.

The thought (awful as it is) behind these politics is: "If these areas are being controlled by traffickers, at least it isn't our problem."

There is another interesting thing that it going on with the gun trade. A lot of the communities in Rio de Janeiro are becoming under the control of police or ex-police, "Milícias." These are groups that go in with the statement, "We are stopping drug trafficking in these poor communities," but in fact are also violently controlling the communities and making money of their control.

Thanks for writing this article! I think it is an important topic to talk about.

This guy doesn't know what he is writing about, and appears to be fresh off the boat. The favela problem is much more complex than that.

Hi Amanda, I just wanted to say thanks for your comment. It's obviously a huge issue and I possibly should have left more ambiguity in some of my statements, however I just wanted to highlight the actual price on the youths who live in these favelas, and how the reporting can be completely wide-of-the-mark. I know of some of the NGOs that work in the favelas, but not of Morrinho, I will definately look into that one when I have a spare minute. I hope that by bringing any story that sheds some further light on the situation in the favelas to the public domain is a good thing, and that it will mean the debate will continue.

I'm sorry to reaffirm this, Russ, but as Jakob says, your article is pretty amateurish andd very superficial. There's an immense amount of material that's been written and published about favelas in the past 50 years and you need to engage with it if you want to produce anything other than hand-wringing pablum.

It seems to me that like alot of people in your generation, if it's not on the silver screen or Youtube, it's not of any interest to you. City of God and Elite Force, for all their evident worth, are works of FICTION. Maybe you should engage with the written journalistic and social-scientific works which informed them? Just a crazy, radical thought here...

As for your shock at finding 22 year olds running arms depots, I`m surprised at your surprise. After all, your nation has 22 year olds running arms depots in Iraq, does it not? War has always been a young man`s game. you`re only discovering this now? And you think it`s any different here than in your home country?

Let me suggest that you start with the Leeds and Licia Valadares and work your way out from there. You maay be "on the road to find out", son, but life's a bit more complicated than Cat Stevens lyrics might lead you to believe.

Btw, Amanda, tourism in the favelas? Do you have any example to show us other than Rocinha?

Jakob you make a comment but I would like very much to hear what you have to say..If you are going to criticize then back it up with something. I would like to read what you have to say.

I live in a favela and this life I see every day. I am not a criminal not do I use drugs. Things are not easy, but I am doing ok. But my life is not so bad of hearing or seeing bad things every day. My life is simple and manageable. I am trying to make a diference in my comunity.

There is tourism in other favelas..I know people who make tours in Chapeu Mangueira, Vidigal, Cidade de Deus, Santa Marta and Tavares Bastos. CDD,SMandTB are under control of police.