{"id":16567,"date":"2014-07-10T10:18:19","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T13:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=16567"},"modified":"2014-10-20T11:41:39","modified_gmt":"2014-10-20T14:41:39","slug":"world-cup-fans-share-perceptions-of-rios-favelas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=16567","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Fans Share Perceptions of Rio’s Favelas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soccer fans from all over the world have gathered in Rio de Janeiro during the World Cup<\/a>. RioOnWatch asked visiting fans at the popular FIFA FanFest on Copacabana Beach about their perceptions of Rio’s favelas, revealing\u00a0a mixture of positive and negative attributions, preconceptions based on country of origin as well as changed perspectives after visiting a favela.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to see and get to know a favela so we went and walked around Vidigal<\/a>. We took a taxi there and we wanted to go to the top but our taxi only went halfway so we walked the rest. Maybe we were a bit lost at times but it was still okay. We weren\u2019t unsafe.\u201d\u00a0Mathieu, France<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe favelas are dangerous. We don\u2019t have time to know one here during our stay. But they\u2019re similar in Mexico. It\u2019s like the three monkeys really: you don\u2019t see them, you don\u2019t speak about them, you don\u2019t listen. This is society.\u201d\u00a0Diego, Mexico<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cWe haven’t gone to a favela yet but we\u2019re planning to go to Rocinha<\/a>, the biggest one. We\u2019re not sure where to go but we heard they\u2019re all the same. We already have an idea of how they are. Poor people live there, they\u2019re basically slums<\/a>. I guess it\u2019s safe. Brazil is a developing country so over the past ten years we heard they choose one, go there and take the police to go in and civilize them.”\u00a0Mikhael, Russia<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t visited a favela here. I think they\u2019re more controlled now for the World Cup. There are more police and it\u2019s more tranquil now.\u201d\u00a0Pablo, Argentina<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been [to a favela] because I don\u2019t have time and it\u2019s too dangerous. You have to go with a guide. I won\u2019t go during my time here.\u201d\u00a0Okan, Switzerland<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI ate inside of a favela near Barra da Tijuca. It was really big, Rocinha<\/a>. I was with three Brazilians, they took me to a random place. Before I read about them and they were referred to as slums<\/a> and poorer neighborhoods. After, I definitely see that it is a poor neighborhood. We all have the connotation that poor is bad and you have to be careful but it\u2019s really not as bad when you\u2019re in there. I didn\u2019t feel unsafe there at all.\u201d\u00a0John, USA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>\u201cI went to the\u00a0Vidigal<\/a>\u00a0favela. I thought it would be much worse to be honest. I was expecting second-hand waste materials not concrete homes. Again this is from my perspective. It\u2019s a city within a city. I wouldn\u2019t live there but I felt safe.\u201d\u00a0 Andreas, Greece<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t gone to a favela yet. They are dangerous. Very dangerous. Are you offering to take me there? Maybe I would go in a group.\u201d\u00a0Juan, Ecuador<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been and I don\u2019t want to go. They\u2019re dangerous.\u201d\u00a0Santiago, Colombia<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t been to a favela but if we had more time here in Rio we would go. Our perception has changed; before, we talked to people from Brazil and that changed our vision. We didn\u2019t know about them as much from home, we hope they will be better and improve.\u201d\u00a0Elise & Tom, Netherlands<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI have been to a few favelas here. They\u2019re very lively, very open. The people are very kind. I never felt unsafe, maybe out of place but not unsafe. I think that goes with anywhere though, you need to be aware of where you are.\u201d\u00a0Jerome, Belgium<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI haven\u2019t been yet but maybe I will go to the one close to Ipanema. I think the government doesn\u2019t function well there, there are weak social services. They are dangerous. It\u2019s a very beautiful country, with a lot of friendly cool people but it\u2019s still dangerous.\u201d\u00a0Luis, Mexico<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve heard [a favela] is an area with more poor people, with more violence than tourist areas like the beach. I don\u2019t know too much about them, just that the government is trying to clean them up.\u201d\u00a0Lisa, USA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had time we would like to visit [a favela]. We heard they\u2019re lively, off the grid. There are a couple shows about the favelas on the BBC<\/a> we saw before the World Cup. They\u2019re artistic and tight-knit communities.\u201d\u00a0Jack & Louis, England<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>\u201cI haven\u2019t been [to a favela] and I don\u2019t have time. I don\u2019t want to go and look at these people; they\u2019re not monkeys and it\u2019s not a zoo. They won\u2019t come to Switzerland to come and watch me. I hear some things about the favelas but I won\u2019t go. It\u2019s not my home.\u201d\u00a0Besfort, Switzerland<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing from Colombia, I know what a favela is. But I think it\u2019s disgusting that people take tours<\/a>. If you want to see it, do something for them. Don\u2019t go and take photos to post on Facebook. It\u2019s sad to see all the poverty and all the money invested here in the World Cup and not invested in social projects.\u201d\u00a0Juan, Colombia<\/strong><\/p>\n

“This is my first time in Brazil. I’ve been staying in the Vidigal<\/a> favela for the last couple weeks and it’s been an amazing experience. I didn’t want to have a normal tourist experience. It’s a bit hard getting around at times without Portuguese but everyone here has been very welcoming and helpful to me.”\u00a0Ian, Australia<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI haven\u2019t been, maybe I would visit. I think they are better now than before. But I don\u2019t know them, and I can\u2019t really provide an opinion about them, I just know what the media in Argentina tells us.\u201d\u00a0Fernanda, Argentina<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew people who had visited Brazil before, and they said favelas have a terrible reputation, but that\u2019s just because people hear the bad things about the violence<\/a> and drugs. Other people I talked to had been\u00a0working in a favela and said they built a lot of strong relationships with people who lived there. They felt that favelas do have problems but don\u2019t have a fair chance at having a decent name and reputation. What I most appreciate about favelas is the strong sense of community. I went to Rocinha for a forr\u00f3 party and the people we went with from Rocinha introduced us to every person there. I really enjoyed that they welcomed us with open arms, that in the largest favela in Latin America you can still have that openness and you can feel safe. I really appreciate that because I feel like a lot of communities in the US are not as tight-knit and personal as a lot of favelas are. I appreciate the sense of community I found there.\u201d\u00a0Pete, USA<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soccer fans from all over the world have gathered in Rio de Janeiro during the World Cup. RioOnWatch asked visiting fans at the popular FIFA FanFest on Copacabana Beach about their perceptions of Rio’s favelas, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":16568,"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":[1463,1329],"tags":[136,221,23,534,12,443,520,156,453,30,363],"writer":[1167],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-perceptions","8":"category-by-international-observers","9":"tag-copacabana","10":"tag-favela-culture","11":"tag-mass-media","12":"tag-misperceptions","13":"tag-rocinha","14":"tag-security","15":"tag-solidarity","16":"tag-south-zone","17":"tag-stigma","18":"tag-urban-violence","19":"tag-vidigal","20":"writer-rachael-hilderbrand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16567","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\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16567"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=16567"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=16567"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=16567"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=16567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}