{"id":31545,"date":"2016-08-08T11:46:44","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T14:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=31545"},"modified":"2019-01-29T12:08:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T15:08:44","slug":"olympic-opening-ceremony-spectacle-draws-criticism-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=31545","title":{"rendered":"Olympic Opening Ceremony Spectacle Draws Criticism from Favelas on Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The world watched on Friday as the Rio 2016 Olympics<\/a>‘\u00a0opening ceremony took place in\u00a0Maracan\u00e3 stadium<\/a>. Incredible fireworks, colorful costumes and smooth Bossa Nova filled the air. It was, in many people’s eyes, a spectacular ceremony<\/a>. President of the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee\u00a0Carlos Nuzman<\/a>, a former Olympian,\u00a0declared that\u00a0\u201cthe Olympic dream is now a wonderful reality\u201d and the \u201ctransformation [was] promised and delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Brazil\u2019s history is complicated and painful<\/a>, and many from the historically disenfranchised groups\u00a0represented whimsically on stage\u00a0felt the ceremony whitewashed reality “for the English to see<\/a>” as is typical here and was described last week in a New Republic<\/em> piece entitled “Brazil’s Long History of Faking Progress<\/a>.” The opening ceremony, directed by City of God<\/em> director Fernando Meirelles, paid homage to some of those\u00a0themes, namely\u00a0mass enslavement<\/a> of Afro-Brazilians\u00a0and violence towards indigenous peoples, in recognition that they’re not \u201cpretty\u201d parts of Brazil history like beautiful landscapes and diverse culture<\/a>.\u00a0Time Magazine<\/em> called this depiction \u201ccompelling\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the case of\u00a0Rio\u2019s favelas, the overtly happy tone was seen by many as painful to watch, masking over\u00a0the pain and deep-rooted suffering such\u00a0communities have experienced due to widespread stigmatization<\/a> and public sector neglect<\/a> for nearly 120 years. One particularly poignant and present-day example was the contrast between the colorful backdrop of stacked boxes, which was an unmistakable nod to Rio\u2019s favelas, and\u00a0the huge number of forced evictions<\/a>\u00a0(77,000<\/a>) around the city due to the Olympics\u2019 arrival. What is the message here? Something along the lines of\u00a0\u201cfavelas are okay as long as we can portray them artistically<\/a> and appropriate their aesthetics and culture<\/a>, but we don\u2019t value them enough to upgrade them<\/a> and protect their culture\u00a0in real life<\/a>.\u201d This is certainly what we have\u00a0seen in the disastrous implementation of potentially beneficial public policies like Morar Carioca<\/a> and the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs)<\/a>\u00a0in recent years.<\/p>\n

\"Favela<\/a><\/p>\n

The attempt to reconcile and acknowledge the systemic issues that exist in Brazil extended throughout the ceremony. Before the show even debuted, one skit was cut because its message was deemed unacceptable<\/a>. As reported by\u00a0Folha de S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a><\/em>, supermodel Gisele Bundchen was originally supposed to be \u201crobbed\u201d by a young black boy while walking out to \u201cThe Girl From Ipanema.\u201d Meant to acknowledge the difficulties Rio and Brazil still face today, the mere consideration of this\u00a0skit is a testament to how disconnected the\u00a0ceremony’s producers appear to be with regard to their own assumptions, as well as the potential worldwide impact that such a\u00a0public display of prejudice can have.<\/p>\n

Residents from Rio\u2019s favelas and other commentators took to social media<\/a> during and after the ceremony to express their anger\u00a0at the portrayal of their city and country.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of those boys dancing next to\u00a0Regina Cas\u00e9 could have been young [dancer] DG that was assassinated<\/a> by the Rio de Janeiro Military Police<\/a>. To think that everything is a party and only talk about the beautiful stories of overcoming in the favela is a huge hypocrisy. Yesterday in the Olympic City here in City of God<\/a> a car was gunned down with a machine gun. Sorry, but I am not in the \u2018Olympic Spirit,\u2019\u201d wrote Wagner Novais, a filmmaker and resident of\u00a0City of God.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Other residents criticized the ceremony for only showing the parts of Brazilian history that would be agreeable for the foreigners to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has the city of Parintins and the indigenous in an Amazon without conflicts. It has black people only as slaves, but where is Black culture? Where is\u00a0Candombl\u00e9<\/a>? Where are the poor? The funk<\/a> music and pagode<\/em> are plasticized. It has ecology for the foreigners to see<\/a>\u2026 Strangely beautiful, absolutely competent, but without soul, without conflict and without truth! It is a lesson in the construction of brand advertising,\u201d said Ivana Bentes<\/a>, a communications researcher and professor at the Rio de Janeiro Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

L\u00e9o Custodio<\/a>, a researcher from Mag\u00e9<\/a> in the Baixada Fluminense<\/a>, offered\u00a0suggestions as to\u00a0how the opening ceremony could have been a more realistic depiction of Brazilian history<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n