{"id":25185,"date":"2015-11-04T13:05:34","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T16:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=25185"},"modified":"2015-12-20T04:50:32","modified_gmt":"2015-12-20T07:50:32","slug":"favelas-in-the-news-october-2015-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=25185","title":{"rendered":"Favelas In the News: October 2015 Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/h4>\n

The media spotlight on Rio is growing ever more intense\u00a0ahead of the Olympics, as October began with the official Rio 2016 press briefing for international journalists. The month included a number of notable themed days, from UN-Habitat’s World Habitat Day, to Blog Action Day 2015 exploring the theme of ‘Raise Your Voice’ and the UN’s World Cities Day with a focus on ‘Designed to Live Together.’ To help our readers digest the major news\u00a0and themes of the past month, we’ve summarized the stories we published here on RioOnWatch along with a few other must-reads in the media. Access all our monthly summaries\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and full digests here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n

October brought more devastating ‘lightning evictions’ to\u00a0Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, where five homes were demolished<\/a>\u00a0by the City without warning to residents. 22,059 families have been resettled since 2009, according to the City, which has served to further segregate an already divided city<\/a>.\u00a0The potential severe psychological effects<\/a>\u00a0caused by\u00a0the destruction of a community have\u00a0been documented in other eviction contexts. Yet some 50\u00a0Vila Aut\u00f3dromo families remain strongly\u00a0determined to stay, continually updating the community’s People’s Plan<\/a> for how they can co-exist with the Olympic Park next door.<\/p>\n

As those families build their active media presence to denounce evictions, the growth of digital media<\/a>\u00a0is\u00a0empowering people across the city to tell their stories. A video of police tampering with a shooting scene in Provid\u00eancia went viral on social media<\/a> and within hours, drew\u00a0global news coverage. The Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics used its active\u00a0online network\u00a0to publish and share its latest\u00a0dossier, this one on violations of the right to sport<\/a>. Appropriately, this year’s Blog Action Day focused on the theme,\u00a0‘Raise Your Voice<\/a>.’ Favela-based\u00a0journalists contributed pieces on the power of community journalism<\/a>, as well as the censorship and threats<\/a> that challenge it. We also highlighted\u00a0the talented community photographers of\u00a0the\u00a0Imagens do Povo\u00a0collective<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The participation of diverse perspectives in the media has\u00a0been critical in the debate around beach robberies<\/a>, vigilantism<\/a>,\u00a0and the police actions and bus route changes\u00a0making\u00a0it more difficult for Rio North Zone residents to get to the South Zone.\u00a0One RioOnWatch article points out the irony<\/a> of the government’s investment in digital inclusion in favelas just as\u00a0police tactics and policies reinforce spatial\u00a0exclusion.<\/p>\n

Although dominant in mainstream media, the ongoing debate on beach security was far from the only important news story on police and security this month. Longitudinal research<\/a>\u00a0revealed that more Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) police officers\u00a0perceived negative attitudes from residents toward the program in 2014\u00a0than in previous\u00a0years. The complexity of life under the control of drug gangs<\/a> has clearly not become any more simple under UPP authority. Meanwhile,\u00a0Brazil’s prisons face a crisis<\/a>\u00a0of violence, intolerable conditions, and overcrowding.\u00a0Security is complicated in\u00a0Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) public housing too, where residents struggle with\u00a0the presence of\u00a0traffickers\u00a0and militias<\/a>. Significant new financial burdens, poor infrastructure, and long commutes<\/a>\u00a0in MCMV housing risk reproducing\u00a0social inequalities.<\/p>\n

In contrast to struggling public housing condominiums, favelas like Asa Branca are thriving with projects<\/a> to promote community integration. We featured\u00a0Asa Branca in\u00a0celebration of the\u00a0World Cities Day theme, ‘Designed to Live Together<\/a>,’ along with Vila Aut\u00f3dromo’s People’s Plan which has been\u00a0continuously updated<\/a>\u00a0to live together with the Olympics, and\u00a0Morro do Formiga, where\u00a0community gardens<\/a> and water societies<\/a> enable residents to live together with the environment.<\/p>\n

Environmental and sustainability projects like these and\u00a0the\u00a0sewage treatment biodigester in Vale Encantado<\/a>, are increasingly important in Rio. Scientists predict Rio will be the worst affected by climate change<\/a> of all cities in South America. These effects already disproportionately affect low-income peripheral neighborhoods as\u00a0important research in Rio’s\u00a0urban heat islands<\/a>\u00a0indicates.<\/p>\n

In other local community news, this month also saw the conclusion of Complexo da Mar\u00e9’s first-ever ‘Food of the Favela’ festival<\/a>. Like the Afro-Rio Walking Tour<\/a>\u00a0of the Port Zone, the food festival highlights an oft-overlooked but important aspect of its\u00a0locale’s culture and heritage. And finally, an event in Rocinha<\/a> empowered residents to imagined what Rio would be like if they\u00a0could participate fully in the decision-making processes affecting them. The reality of participation in Rio is not always so empowering, as highlighted by this satirical article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Look out for our next summary of articles from November\u2014Brazil’s Black Awareness Month. For more information and links to favela news from the month, see our full Favela Digest for October 2015<\/a> here. You can subscribe to receive the\u00a0Favela Digest straight to your inbox each month here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas The media spotlight on Rio is growing ever more intense\u00a0ahead of the Olympics, as October began with the official Rio 2016 press briefing for international journalists. The month included a number […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":25194,"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":[1288,328],"tags":[1893],"writer":[1352],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-understanding-rio","9":"tag-digest","10":"writer-cerianne-robertson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25185","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\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25185"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=25185"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=25185"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=25185"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=25185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}