Pre-Olymic Rio de Janeiro: The Dynamics of Urban Change

William Vazquez

Professor Craig

World Politics

Date of Submission: 30 November 2011

Pre-Olymic Rio de Janeiro: The Dynamics of Urban Change

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to a very interesting presentation in the McDowell Formal Lounge that was by the Brazilian club, Partners AU, and more. The presenter was Dr. Theresa Williamson from Rio de Janeiro itself, who had come to talk about the favelas that Rio de Janeiro is famous for along with the scenery that is always highlighted in photographs and postcards. Since my only inkling of knowledge about the favelas stems from the film City of God as well as the representations in the popular video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, I figured this was a great chance to learn something factual from a real resident.

Dr. Williamson started off with a quick poll of the people present, asking who had visited Rio and who has a positive, negative, or neutral view of the favelas. The only person in the audience that had actually been to the favelas of Rio was also the only person to think positively of them. Dr. Williamson stated that in basic polls her organization had been conductiong, about 67% of the people who have been to Rio’s favelas say that their impression of the favela is positive. 100% of the people interviewed stated that even though they had not been to Rio’s favelas, their impressions of the favelas were negative. A lot of blame for this negative view fell on negative representations often caught in the media, whether that is in natural disasters or drug-trafficking and violence. Meanwhile it has so many wonderful aspects, like the natural beauty of the humongous urban rainforest, the iconic statue of Jesus Christ, and much more. Meanwhile in the favelas, the areas that most people look down upon, are becoming areas of large innovation, whether in organizing for community dental programs, creating new houses or more.

Dr. Williamson’s group, Catalytic Communities, works mainly out of its website Catcomm.org. This website has been regularly used to inform people of the new local projects in each community as well as garner attention for the problems of the favela. At this time, news was spread through community media centers, but by 2008 the Internet had managed to reach all of the favelas. Thus social networking began to rise while Catalytic Communities began to instruct and train community leaders and members on social media and journalism. In fact, they trained 180 community leaders to use Facebook, and now several NGOs for the benefit of the favelas can be found on there, like CIACAC and CIACAC Galway. This advancement is not just some little thing though: so far social media has managed to put a play a major part in stopping favela evictions. In one case that Dr. Williamson pointed out, within an hour of someone posting about being evicted in Rio on Facebook, 115 comments were made. In another instance just last Friday, a favela just by the main tourist area and beach was occupied by the police, and when people started being evicted, a women from that favela wrote about it on catcomm.org. By the next day, Catalytic Communities had sent a representative to interview the woman, Maria, and spread the news.

Dr. Williamson’s slide show was a big help in getting her points across, as she pointed out the significance of her organization. It is the only organization in Rio working at the intersection of community development, social media, and global networking. It also created another website specifically for the time before the major events coming up, the World Cup and the Summer Olympics in 2016, called RioonWatchorg. This site provides updates from the favelas themselves on any and all recent activities.

Dr. Williamson went into detail about why people have such negative views on the favela. Before 2009, the economy of Rio de Janeiro was essentially stagnant for three decades. The population was dropping, its industry and even its status as the capital city were lost, and inequality amongst the people was stagnant. In our present day, however, Rio’s economy has risen to be the third best of all cities in Brazil, its population is back on the rise and global investment in the city is increasing. Inequality remains stagnant, but it could take a turn for the worse. These factors have played major parts in forming the view of the favela. As Dr. Williamson listed on her slide show, most view the favela as a squatter community (implying that it is illegal housing), a slum (implying that it is squalor), a shantytown (implying that the homes are poorly constructed and could easily collapse), and a ghetto (implying a violent situation). In fact, most of the words commonly associated with the favela and its people are: criminal, unsanitary, miserable, over-sexualized, informal, dense, rickety, ignorant, unconnected, and complacent.

In Rio, there are about one thousand favelas. Of these, about 40 perecent are run by drug traffickers, but within those communities, less than 2 percent of the people are involved in the business. About 42 percent of the favelas are run by militias. The state only runs about two percent of the favelas, and the remaining 16 percent is run by community members and leaders, who stave off both drug trafficking and militias in order to run a safer, happier community. To combat the above statements, Dr. Williamson went over examples of how they are wrong, like how about 40 percent of the people living in the favelas are Evangelists who would never fall into the “over-sexualized” category. There are less people per room in the favela than in most low income housing throughout the world. While most of the housing may be unfinished, it is still sold because of its design. In fact, the fact that they are commonly built horizontally rather than vertically allow neighbors to bond more easily. It is the decades of stigmatization that led to so much crime.

Dr. Williamson prefers to describe the favela as a self-built neighborhood, a do-it-yourself community, and an un-helped neighborhood. In that last sense, the city and state government have done little to improve the favelas, so the people living there have taken it into their own hands. Yet recently the mayor has taken special interest in trying to make Rio look amazing for the upcoming games as well as just to make it into more of a “global city.” In theory, programs have started to improve infrastructure, security, housing, social programs, and to generally upgrade the conditions throughout the city. In practice however, many of these programs seem to be falling short.

Dr. Williamson pointed out that the housing program is building new apartments for the people to live in – the problem being that these are smaller and further away from the city. The security Pacifying Police Units, trained to work more effectively with the people, to not shoot on sight, and to more efficiently capture drug traffickers, are at least one good thing coming out of these programs. Still the main problem is that so much focus is put on improving the conditions of well-known favelas rather than all of the favelas. The City of God, made extremely famous in the film of the same name, now receives many of the benefits of these programs while other smaller communities have the people pushed out of their homes.

Two different favelas were shown on the screen. The first was Procinha, the largest favela in Rio with approximately 150,000 residents. 90 percent of the homes there are made of brick, 94 percent of its residents are employed, and about 6,500 business (90% of which are informal) exist within it. It dealt with decades of control by drug traffickers. After a police occupation of it on November 13^th, 2011, however, when the main drug trafficker in the area was captured as he tried to sneak away, the property values of the area rocketed up 50 percent in three days. Thus this neighborhood is receiving much of the necessary aid. Meanwhile the favela of Vila Autódromo, a small community with about 4,000 residents, has lived in relative isolation until now. Despite to rapid expansion over the past two decades, it is located right next to the site where the Olympics are to take place. Thus city officials have been going around telling people that they have to leave their homes. In fact, groups of nine to ten men began visiting homes to try and convince people through deceiving tactics to sign off on leaving their homes. In response, community leaders along with public defenders went around telling the people the truth of signing off on those deals and tactics.

Dr. Williamson said that the main source of conflict in Rio now is real estate. The city officials are trying to push the people of the favelas further away in order to improve the view of the city rather than improving the communities themselves. Oddly enough, only about 15 percent of the people living in the favelas who actually want to move have been. If the current policies continue, real estate values will rise, making real estate companies want to grab up more of the land. This is why community development needs to be refocused on what needs to be improved. On top of that, media coverage of the favelas needs to be less of what is good and bad and just show what is actually going on in the favelas as far as improving communities from the inside and outside goes.

In order to get involved, Dr. Williamson suggested learning Portuguese and joining Catalytic Communities to become an international observer. Then you could write on RioonWatch.org. She also suggested subscribing to Rioonwatch.org, researching the good qualities from the favela communities that are at risk because of forced evictions, becoming a fan of favela groups on Facebook (which I did last night), and encouraging media contacts to focus on the right things. The audience also gave great suggestions, such as having community-led tours through the favelas in order to break down stigmas. The improving economy of Brazil should have a positive effect on the state as a whole, but what about the poorest people? How are the overall improvements going to reach them?

Personally after our discussion of international development, I think providing aid in the communities that most desperately need it would be the most helpful. In fact if the community programs as well as state-led programs are effective in sparking and helping development thrive, why not use the ideas implemented in the favela worldwide in other developing communities? Even in the worst perceived global communities, a lot of good can come out. I think being able to vouch for spreading such great effective community programs worldwide will not only improve Rio de Janeiro’s image but that of all of Brazil. The Olympics and World Cup are there to celebrate the greatness of international understanding and coexistence. By spreading helpful ideas in development to the rest of the world, Rio de Janeiro can truly become the global city that is so desired.