{"id":14884,"date":"2014-05-13T16:45:16","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T19:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=14884"},"modified":"2014-06-21T14:30:17","modified_gmt":"2014-06-21T17:30:17","slug":"the-2nd-international-mega-events-and-cities-conference-in-rio-de-janeiro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=14884","title":{"rendered":"The 2nd International Mega Events and Cities Conference in Rio de Janeiro"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2nd International Mega Events and Cities conference<\/a>, less than two months before the World Cup 2014, took place in the heart of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s busy downtown on\u00a0April 27 to 30. The conference welcomed not only academics, but civil society organizations and students, all to form a four day dialogue covering subjects of human rights, urbanization, public policy, law, violence and security, accompanied by an insightful and very close up tour to the main site of discussion, the Maracan\u00e3 Stadium<\/a> which will host both the World Cup 2014 and the Olympics 2016.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Run by an organizing committee led by Carlos Vainer, Professor at the Urban and Regional Planning and Research Institute at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (IPPUR\/UFRJ), the conference opened with a clear message to the audience by Vainer: \u201cThere are winners, and there are losers in life, this is also in the same context as any soccer match during\u00a0the World Cup. We are yet to determine who will win or lose between the government and the Brazilian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vainer spoke of the position adopted by\u00a0President Dilma Rousseff in response to the widespread protests, acknowledging the ongoing activism by Brazil\u2019s people and that this outpouring of energy should be used to\u00a0the country\u2019s advantage. Could this be an opportunistic line to recover a drop in popularity<\/a> steering towards political victory for the elections in October?\u00a0Rouseff has a clear focus: to regain power and host the two mega sporting events peacefully, followed by a transformed country. However the general consensus at the conference was that a peaceful and transformed Brazil is not likely in the foreseeable future, unless aggressive investments and forced evictions<\/a> stop and people can live without fear of an\u00a0increasingly militarized\u00a0police force.<\/p>\n

Mega-events and the\u00a0development of urban space<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea of mega sporting events as conduits for development has become a 21st century phenomenon. Countries that\u00a0win a\u00a0bid to host promote\u00a0hope of building future benefits for their citizens. These benefits grouped together are then deemed\u00a0the \u201clegacy,\u201d which may\u00a0englobe\u00a0intentions to\u00a0strengthen the\u00a0economy, employment, mobility and livable social environments.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>However in\u00a0Brazil, any possible\u00a0legacy benefits seem\u00a0so far in the distance that people can barely imagine them. The mass social clean-up tactics are overshadowing\u00a0any sight of benefit value from hosting the world\u2019s most popular games. The events have been seen as a convenient motive to regain control and reform the rife inequalities of living and Brazil is, as every recent host country has done, promoting the legacy as\u00a0leading to better livelihoods for all, irrespective of background. Yet state interventions in preparation for the mega sporting events are largely creating further disparities.<\/p>\n

At the conference, many agreed that Brazilians are predominantly\u00a0not\u00a0supportive of\u00a0the government’s current conception of urban development. The development of urban space currently underway in Rio de Janeiro was criticized. Cases of removals\u00a0in areas\u00a0that were labelled at risk<\/a>\u00a0was a prominent topic in panels on urbanization and evictions. The designation of risk was discussed as used politically in attempting\u00a0to remove favelas from prime real estate locations.<\/p>\n

James Freeman, a geographer and\u00a0professor from the University of Concordia in Canada presented his\u00a0paper<\/a> “Mega Event-led Capital Accumulation and the Strategic Thinning of Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas” and stated that: \u201cEveryone assumes that the favelas are all unlivable, but they are bound together by close community ties. [Favela residents] had no choice but to make life as livable as possible since the State turned a blind eye… Some of these evictions are corrupt, [looking] to gain the best areas in Rio de Janeiro.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public security and violence<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Public<\/a>The most discussed topics at the conference were\u00a0public security<\/a> and violence<\/a>. Many talks were led by students conducting research for their masters theses on topics surrounding the Pacifying Police Units<\/a> (UPPs), military tactics and the Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE)<\/a>. One woman researcher had researched police forces’ perspectives on the UPPs\u00a0and maintaining long term peace. She said: \u201cFederal Police Officers have shared their perspective with\u00a0me and do not believe this is a sustainable solution. They do not believe any solution can be a quick fix in time for the World Cup, the Olympics or even into the foreseeable future, but yet they are not opposing it either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis Pauschinger, a doctoral candidate jointly at the University of Kent and University of Hamburg, gave a presentation “Public security for whom? Cultural implications of the global security models of sport mega events at the Fifa World Cup 2014,” in which he affirmed that: \u201cGlobal security is a huge market for these mega event games–a huge catalyst.\u201d This point was also raised by Sara Koenders from the University of Amsterdam who gave a presentation on “Reconfiguring Insecurity: A Comparative Study of ‘Pacification’ and Local Governance in Rio de Janeiro’s Periphery.”<\/p>\n

Researchers shared that favela residents they spoke to\u00a0feel there is no one for them to turn to, given the corruption that can exist between drug traffickers and the police, with one saying: \u201cIt is hard for them to know who to trust. They are wedged in a war right now that they don\u2019t want to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional research found that people were aware of the citizenship rights at\u00a0stake due to\u00a0the hosting\u00a0of sporting mega events.\u00a0The laws and public policies that generate profits from private security to ensure Brazil’s global citizenship\u00a0could\u00a0lead to more government control and less privacy.<\/p>\n

Around the Maracan\u00e3 Stadium<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>Conference\u00a0participants visited\u00a0the Maracan\u00e3 site with\u00a0a volunteer guide who lives close to the stadium and introduced the group to one of the most prominent examples of the Brazilian government’s mega-events policy: the forced eviction of the Aldeia Maracan\u00e3<\/a>, an indigenous urban occupation since 2006\u00a0on the site of Brazil’s first indigenous museum. The residents of Aldeia Maracan\u00e3 were violently evicted in March last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0guide commented: \u201cMany people believe it was one group\u00a0that removed the indigenous residents, but it was a combined effort by\u00a0[various military and police forces]. Their occupancy didn\u2019t fit in with the \u201cnew image\u201d that FIFA and the Brazilian government are hoping to develop. It is such a shame. Originally they wanted to turn this into an Indigenous Educational Institute and Museum. We now understand\u00a0that it will be a museum to showcase the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young tour guide went on to give his\u00a0perspective on what it is like living near the development site: \u201cMe and my neighbors cannot sleep at night from the noises coming from the constant helicopters hovering over the stadium. It is every night and they are too loud for anyone to sleep through. I\u2019m praying every day that a\u00a0military dictatorship does not return to Brazil, but this is the image the government is\u00a0giving.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Graffiti<\/a>A symbolic reaction of people’s frustration could be found in the graffiti across the road showing the official Brazilian mascot and a pig representation of Ronaldo in suits flicking cigarette ash into the Maracan\u00e3 Stadium.<\/p>\n

The conference was informative on the broader issues\u00a0arising from the coming\u00a0of the World Cup and Olympics to Rio,\u00a0and what issues could arise\u00a0for future developments in Brazil and in future host countries. It also provided an opportunity\u00a0to dive into the\u00a0local effects being felt in Rio de Janeiro, the focus of both the sporting events and developments, and currently one of the most watched cities in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2nd International Mega Events and Cities conference, less than two months before the World Cup 2014, took place in the heart of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s busy downtown on\u00a0April 27 to 30. The conference welcomed […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":14899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1736,1333,335,336,1329],"tags":[1027,646,11,25,327,165,1259,918,5,15,671,809,980,167],"writer":[1196],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-1736","8":"category-event-reports","9":"category-policies","10":"category-violations","11":"category-by-international-observers","12":"tag-area-of-risk-designation","13":"tag-aldeia-maracana","14":"tag-forced-evictions","15":"tag-human-rights","16":"tag-legacy-myth","17":"tag-maracana","18":"tag-mega-events","19":"tag-military-police","20":"tag-olympics","21":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","22":"tag-president-dilma-rousseff","23":"tag-public-security","24":"tag-social-legacy","25":"tag-world-cup","26":"writer-janine-ewen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14884"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=14884"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=14884"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=14884"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=14884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}