International Studies

I am living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil also known as “A Cidade Maravilhosa”/The Marvelous city. And by all accounts it is a marvelous city, the ocean crashes against mountains, a gigantic statue of Christ sits atop a mountain watching the city, and palace like hotels are surrounded by some of the most infamous slums in the world known here as Favelas. Rio really has it all, you can find Favelas with 14 year-olds carrying guns. That is actually why I came, to see if I could help the people in the slums in any way. I quickly realized that the images you see on tv and the stories you hear are not as common as they make you believe. For the most part they are just people trying to get by, while surrounded by mostly high-income families and tourists that have a negative idea of them just because of where they live.
When I decided to come to Rio I had no idea how important the next few months will be for Brazil. Rio just won the bid for the summer Olympics in 2016 and in the next couple years there will be several new stadiums and buildings put up to get ready for this. Developing Rio is a great idea and I am sure it will be great for the city but the problem is how the government plans to get the land for the new buildings.
The government announced in the local paper their plan to remove several Favelas to make room for the new stadiums needed. For several of these communities (possibly all of them) the newspaper was the first time they heard that their communities were slated for removal. One of these communities is called Vila Autodromo and they are the first one scheduled to be removed. In fact to date, not one government official has talked to the community leaders of Vila Autodromo face-to-face. After a protest in front of city hall they finally got a meeting set for March 3rd but it is a closed meeting and seems very shady. Vila Autodromo is an excellent example of a peaceful productive community that the city should be showing off and encouraging and developing not ignoring and breaking up. There are still lots of details to workout and lots of meetings to organize but we will be working to make sure that the mayor is involving the the people in the process. If the government is paying so little attention to one of the most productive Favelas imagine how they would treat the ones that have more problems? I will keep you updated on what happens after the meetings and what is happening in Vila Autodromo and other communities in Rio.