{"id":29373,"date":"2016-06-04T10:15:48","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T13:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=29373"},"modified":"2016-06-06T10:16:45","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T13:16:45","slug":"favelas-in-the-news-may-2016-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=29373","title":{"rendered":"Favelas In the News: May 2016 Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

May brought intensified mainstream media coverage to Rio’s favelas focused on the recent uptick in violence across the city, but significant social policy changes and ongoing struggles for housing and education rights were important stories this month\u00a0too. To help our readers digest the major news\u00a0and themes of the past month, we\u2019ve summarized the stories we published here on RioOnWatch<\/em> along with a few other must-reads in the media on favelas. Access past\u00a0monthly summaries\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and full digests here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n

As Rio grapples with a spike\u00a0in murders, Jailson de Souza e Silva of the Favelas Observatory\u00a0reflected on the ‘demonization of the other’<\/a> that sustains\u00a0acceptance of poor, black youth’s deaths. His message is pertinent to the brutal gang rape of a 16 year-old<\/a>\u00a0in Santa Cruz, which stoked a heated national conversation about the banality of rape culture in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Activist-blogger Marcelo Casta\u00f1eda argues that guaranteeing favela residents the\u00a0right to life<\/a>\u00a0is the most urgent and essential political reform needed. In a\u00a0period of intensified conflict\u00a0police suffer too, and research shows Rio’s Military Police have higher rates of suicide<\/a> than the rest of the population.\u00a0The\u00a0ComPosi\u00e7\u00f5es Pol\u00edticas art exhibit<\/a>\u00a0responded to the question of State violence and its representation in the media, while one of the exhibits itself\u00a0sparked controversy<\/a>\u00a0over racism in representations of violence.<\/p>\n

The exhibit also featured Vila Aut\u00f3dromo, where construction on new houses has begun and will leave very little<\/a> of the original favela behind. Two great successes this month, however, were the launch of the Evictions Museum<\/a>\u00a0and the awarding of the Rio State Assembly’s\u00a0first-ever Dandara Award<\/a>\u00a0to former resident Heloisa Helena for her struggle.<\/p>\n

On a visit to Parque Carioca public housing\u00a0RioOnWatch<\/em>\u00a0heard from former Vila Aut\u00f3dromo residents<\/a> who are frustrated with their new lives there. Meanwhile, remaining residents of Praia do Sossego faced the threat of imminent eviction<\/a> without a guarantee of public housing as compensation, and 83% of Niter\u00f3i families displaced in\u00a0landslides in 2010\u00a0still await promised housing<\/a>.\u00a0The right to housing is guaranteed at all levels<\/a> of Brazilian law. But\u00a0challenges facing ongoing urban occupations from S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a> to Rio<\/a> show that right is not truly guaranteed for all.<\/p>\n

Occupations continue at State public schools too,\u00a0with Rio\u00a0student occupiers connecting in solidarity<\/a> with counterparts in other states as aggression<\/a> towards their activism rises.<\/p>\n

This past month also saw rising\u00a0concerns about\u00a0the interim president’s policies threatening\u00a0key social programs<\/a> including public housing and PAC investment projects. The city’s stalled\u00a0Morar Carioca program\u00a0may still be implemented in Pica-Pau and neighboring communities following a\u00a0launch<\/a>\u00a0this month. After\u00a0years of waiting<\/a>, however, residents hesitate to raise their hopes.\u00a0Other failed Olympic\u00a0legacy projects<\/a>\u00a0include\u00a0the abandoned promise to plant 24 million trees<\/a>\u00a0and the collapse of the popular\u00a0bike path<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CatComm and RioOnWatch’s\u00a0Theresa Williamson\u00a0explained<\/a>\u00a0in a New York Times<\/em>\u00a0debate\u00a0why holding the Olympics in Rio was always a bad idea,\u00a0and gave a\u00a0point-by-point response to Rio’s Mayor Eduardo Paes<\/a> in The Nation<\/em>\u00a0sports journalist Dave Zirin’s podcast.<\/p>\n

In more positive community news, we profiled a tour guide<\/a> from Rocinha, covered the essential work<\/a> of a community cultural education organization in Vila Alian\u00e7a, and documented oral memories<\/a> from the favela of Julio Otoni. We also\u00a0spotlighted City of God’s\u00a0‘CDD Acontece<\/a>‘ platform dedicated to covering\u00a0good news and great community initiatives often ignored by other media.<\/p>\n

Look out for our next summary of articles from June\u00a0as we\u00a0enter the final two months before the Rio 2016 Olympics. For more information and links to favela news from the month, see our full Favela Digest for May 2016<\/a>\u00a0here. You can subscribe to receive the\u00a0Favela Digest straight to your inbox each month here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May brought intensified mainstream media coverage to Rio’s favelas focused on the recent uptick in violence across the city, but significant social policy changes and ongoing struggles for housing and education rights were important stories […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":29374,"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":[328],"tags":[1893],"writer":[1352],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-understanding-rio","8":"tag-digest","9":"writer-cerianne-robertson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29373","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=29373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29373"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=29373"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=29373"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=29373"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=29373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}