{"id":33265,"date":"2016-10-01T11:52:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-01T14:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=33265"},"modified":"2016-10-01T11:52:33","modified_gmt":"2016-10-01T14:52:33","slug":"on-the-eve-of-the-mayoral-election-favela-residents-in-rio-speak-about-their-public-policy-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=33265","title":{"rendered":"On the Eve of the Mayoral Election, Favela Residents Speak about Their Public Policy Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

With\u00a0municipal elections<\/a> fast approaching, Rio voters need to choose from\u00a0the 11 candidates running for mayor<\/a>. Despite very different proposals, the challenges facing the post-Olympics<\/a> city management are the same for everyone, and include a city with compromised financial health<\/a>, an Olympic legacy<\/a> of exclusion, and old, broken promises.<\/p>\n

The impact of these challenges is greatest in favelas, where 23% of the city\u2019s population<\/a> and an expressive\u00a0percentage of the constituency is concentrated. Still, they attract less attention from the candidates than other areas of the capital, both with respect to specific policy\u00a0proposals<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0as targets for their political agendas.<\/p>\n

Claudia, a 42-year-old resident of the favela Guararapes in the South Zone<\/a> of the city, expressed this feeling of abandonment: \u201cThey don\u2019t know that I exist. If I die, it won\u2019t make a difference. They neither know that I lived nor that I died. They are really worried about themselves. About\u00a0the poor, I doubt it. For it to be\u00a0so quiet here, I think sometimes that we are forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notable exceptions were the meetings held on September\u00a015 in Complexo do Mar\u00e9<\/a> and on September\u00a018 in Mangueira<\/a>. But while the latter brought the six candidates present together with favela residents and their demands, the former was only attended by three candidates.<\/p>\n

Elis, a 46-year-old resident of Vidigal<\/a>, says that she is not following the debates: \u201cIt’s a lack of time and also lack of interest. They always promise the same things and do none of it<\/a>. They even campaign\u00a0here, but only to deceive the people.\u201d Andric\u00e9ia, 35 years old and also from Vidigal, says she wants to learn about the candidates before the elections. For her, it is important they have a clean record. \u201cIn addition, we have to analyze the proposals and what background the candidate has to be able to propose something,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Udson, 33 years old and a resident of Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a> in the North Zone<\/a>, is still undecided. \u201cThere is no easy solution. Some candidates I admire a lot as a person, others as politicians, but none of them would be ideal for the city today, and I wouldn’t say \u2018this is the guy who will change the history of my city\u2019 about any of them.” For him, the change in campaign finance law<\/a> to prevent donations from businesses was positive, but didn\u2019t prevent business owners\u00a0from donating large amounts in their names.<\/p>\n

Here\u00a0favela residents from different regions of Rio talk about their public policy demands and their views on the proposals and decisive issues for the upcoming elections:<\/p>\n

HEALTH<\/h3>\n

Carlos Eduardo, 37 years old and resident of Morro dos Macacos<\/a>\u00a0in the North Zone where he is better known as Kitinho, complains about the recent decrease in the number of\u00a0health<\/a> workers at clinics. But he welcomes the presence of the community health agent<\/a>: \u201cMost of them are from the community, they know everyone, and they pass this information\u00a0onto the doctor. It\u2019s not employment\u00a0which goes in circles, it\u2019s direct. It is also a way to generate employment within the community.”<\/p>\n

Claudia thinks that the quality of health services has improved quite a lot, but they are still lacking certain specialists. \u201cI should not need to go somewhere else for an appointment with an ophthalmologist. We have to have one here at the health center\u00a0and it shouldn\u2019t take that long.\u201d Udson now complains of the lack of another professional: \u201cMental health should be the focus<\/a> of any health policy within the community,\u201d he argues. \u201cA child hears any kind of a bang and drops to\u00a0the floor<\/a>. \u2018Is it shooting, is it shooting?\u2019” He says not only violence, but also daily traffic affects children and adults, and that this type of care cannot be found in either Family Clinics or at emergency health\u00a0centers (UPAs)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moreover, he does not agree with the proposal of candidate Fl\u00e1vio Bolsonaro<\/a> to contract beds in the private system with city money to unburden the public system. He believes this to be another opportunity for fraudulent\u00a0bidding to\u00a0benefit government allies. The money should be used to improve the infrastructure that already exists<\/a>. \u201cCity workers\u00a0should only be able to use city hospitals. So we would have about 30 hospitals served with better quality because they would know that one of their family at some point could need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Robson, 33 years old and a resident of Vila Aut\u00f3dromo<\/a> in the West Zone<\/a>, the solution is to strengthen a preventative health system<\/a>, going beyond the recovery of hospital infrastructure. \u201cThe stronger the preventative system, the less cases they are going to have to treat.\u201d He views\u00a0Marcelo Crivella<\/a>‘s\u00a0proposal to end the requirement of scheduling appointments through the Appointment Regulation System (SISREG) positively. \u201cI’ve been waiting months for an MRI scan on my knee and I cannot get one simply because there is no vacancy and they are tossing me back and forth. I understand that efficiency is not in the bureaucracy. You wait\u00a0or you pay a private hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

EDUCATION<\/h3>\n

Udson complains that the same candidates that wave the flag for education<\/a> are those who were at times positioned against the wage increase of teachers. \u201cThey are more interested in the poor being dumb,\u201d is his conclusion, \u201cwhile they put their children in private schools to give them opportunities. Investing in education would make everyone qualified and competing\u00a0for the same opportunities\u2014and we know that that is not what the elite class wants. No lawyer wants a young person from a favela to take the job vacancy of their son.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also says that more important than the proposals of most of the candidates (including Marcelo Freixo<\/a>, Bolsonaro, Crivella, \u00cdndio da Costa<\/a> and Pedro Paulo<\/a>) to expand the school day and include subjects on the obligatory curriculum, is to value the already existing subjects and the teachers who teach\u00a0them<\/a>. \u201cMotivation is the focus. A motivated teacher will teach with much more ease, more love and more quality.\u201d Bruna, 32 years old and a resident of Vidigal, says that the school where her children study is lacking teachers. \u201cThere was a semester\u00a0where they didn’t have math and Portuguese. Imagine to be without Portuguese and math?\u201d For her, before investing in computer classes it is necessary to resolve this problem.<\/p>\n

Kitinho argues yet another point, to him a lot more subjects could be taught\u00a0in high school, including\u00a0respect for the environment and\u00a0driver’s education. \u201cSchool should be complete in terms of cinema, theater, technology. You have to talk about politics, about reality. Everything in their time and with their limits.\u201d But, as with Udson and Bruna, he made a caveat: \u201cMany people put technology in their hands and forget about books.\u201d<\/p>\n

ECONOMY, EMPLOYMENT AND INCOME<\/h3>\n

Recognizing the difficulty for a young resident of a favela to enter the job market, Udson complains of the lack of an education that truly prepares them for the market, as candidates like Crivella, \u00cdndio, and Carlos Os\u00f3rio propose. \u201cVocational high school training does not exist. In technical schools there are too\u00a0few vacancies for the high demand,\u201d he says. In the communities, he says that the figures of\u00a0moto-taxi<\/a>\u00a0or van drivers are important and should be professionalized, guaranteeing more security in their work and benefitting all residents.<\/p>\n

With the proposals from Bolsonaro and \u00cdndio to reduce bureaucracy in the city by terminating a number of public positions, Udson is suspicious as to whether\u00a0this would translate into savings or a\u00a0better use of public\u00a0money. \u201cCutting red tape is to win votes. There’s no point\u00a0closing down\u00a0five departments if they are going to put\u00a0these people, who often\u00a0collect votes for them, in other departments,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Bruna talks about the business she runs with her friend Elis<\/a>: \u201cThe City took our cart while\u00a0it was in storage. But at the time that we start work\u00a0they aren\u2019t bothered because they are no longer working.\u201d As a resident of Vidigal, she also points out that the only bad thing in the community are the\u00a0high prices<\/a> due to the strong presence of tourists. \u201cThe worst part is the market. A good, cheap market is difficult here. Tourists only\u00a0want to buy the basics. But for us everything is more expensive<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

HOUSING AND SANITATION<\/h3>\n

Andric\u00e9ia also comments on the impact of the high prices in Vidigal on housing<\/a>: \u201cThose who work and earn R$1,000 or R$1,500 a month and pay a rent of R$900 will eat what? And if they have children? We had people who left<\/a>, who could not afford to pay rent.\u201d There were also those who owned\u00a0houses who sold them at prices that were \u201csurreal, like\u00a0you would pay\u00a0in the South Zone,\u201d as she put it. Elis recounts knowing\u00a0people who sold and went to live in Rio das Pedras<\/a> and in Muzema<\/a>. Given the distance of these communities and the difficulty of displacement, she considers that those people \u201cdidn\u2019t know how\u00a0to think\u201d and sees Freixo\u2019s proposal<\/a> to control land\u00a0values\u00a0positively.<\/p>\n

The issue of trash<\/a> is also delicate in communities. \u201cGarbage\u00a0collection here is pretty hard. The streets are narrow, and they come at a bad time. At 8am\u00a0the truck is going up and people are going down to go to work. Everything stops and if you don\u2019t go down before, you know that everything will be stopped and that you will be late,\u201d says Andric\u00e9ia.<\/p>\n

Udson raised the need to educate the population about waste. \u201cPeople perceive basic sanitation<\/a> only as city sewers. It’s\u00a0not just that, it involves the treatment of this sewage and public awareness of how to deal with their garbage,\u201d he said. Claudia agrees: \u201cYou have to have someone\u00a0explaining that you cannot throw garbage into the barriers, that you cannot throw it anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andric\u00e9ia also says she\u00a0witnesses\u00a0the city\u2019s role in the removal of waste in the community, \u201cbut we do not see anything more. The City doesn\u2019t take a position. On the issue of recycling<\/a>, I think that we should have someone to collect oil, because to throw it in the sewer you are wasting and polluting. And at times we suffer problems with our water pumps,\u00a0and then there is part of the hill without water.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

PUBLIC SECURITY<\/h3>\n

Claudia says that the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP)<\/a> has brought benefits to the community as a whole, but that it does not make her feel safer. \u201cIf I scream, the people on the hill come to help me. The UPP is here, I’d have to run from my home there to here? When I arrived here I’d already be dead, they’d have already killed me.\u201d Kitinho considers the security cameras that Os\u00f3rio, Bolsonaro, and Crivella propose to install in the city would help: “But do you feel safe with the camera or with the guard? I feel safer with the guard. ”<\/p>\n

Udson says that the first need that exists in the favela is the absence of war<\/a>. \u201cWe need peace to be able to\u00a0come and go<\/a>. Education, for example. When young people are going to school at 6am\u00a0and a police operation begins, they miss class. Then when they can go and are returning, there is another operation. It creates a certain stress that stops young people from giving their best to their studies.\u201d He remembers that in 2015 the residents had to fight to remove the UPP base from\u00a0inside the grounds of a school in Nova Bras\u00edlia<\/a>. \u201cThe fa\u00e7ade of the school is riddled with bullets. The youth did not know if they were more scared\u00a0of the drug traffickers\u00a0or the police, because the police were entering and slapping students on the face. We had youth who left their studies and became traffickers\u00a0because they couldn\u2019t stand the police slapping them in the face anymore<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the proposals of Bolsonaro, \u00cdndio, Os\u00f3rio and Pedro Paulo to arm the Municipal Guard<\/a>, they all declared themselves against it. Kitinho highlights the lack of preparedness and the need to rethink the work of the Municipal Guard, as Crivella and Freixo propose, and therefore that they should not have lethal weapons. Bruna fears that these changes could mean more trouble for her. \u201cI don’t have authorization\u00a0to work here. And they don’t come talking directly, saying that you cannot stay there. They come in ignorance<\/a>. This is already their way without weapons. Imagine with weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Udson, the commanders of the Municipal Guard act like colonels. \u201cAnd we know how colonels have acted since the time of slavery. If there were\u00a0jobs for everyone, there wouldn’t be a reason for a guy to become a\u00a0street vendor<\/a>; if he is a street vendor, it is because he needs to bring milk back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also advocates the reclassification of the guard’s work: \u201cThe Municipal Guard should be a force to help the population, with information, next to schools to avoid fights between\u00a0students. The guard does not need to be armed to have authority, he just needs to be in communication with the police. If the guard is armed, there will be more people armed and you cannot have peace with guns.”<\/p>\n

Udson is\u00a0against Crivella\u2019s proposal to reward officers for achieved goals, based on citizen assessment of their sense of safety and the quality of police performance. \u201cThere is no way that the police give me a sense of security if they themselves don’t feel safe<\/a>.\u201d Further, he believes that even if it were anonymous, a poor evaluation would cause the police to turn against residents because they see them as<\/a> criminal accomplices.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UPP has not brought peace to the community. Before, if there was a police operation, people stayed outside the community, letting what happened inside happen and entering when it was calm. Today, police and criminals\u00a0are in the same space. It is not a fight of the state against criminality, but a fight of factions: of the state against the drug traffickers. Police enter with vests, guns, ammunition, and uniforms. But our shacks are just of brick. When we turn against the police presence, they think that we are in favor of the gangsters<\/a>. No, we are in favor of our life,\u201d says Udson.<\/p>\n

TRANSPORT<\/h3>\n

On Crivella\u2019s proposal to continue the public transport projects that he says are well evaluated, like the Bus Rapid Transit line (BRT<\/a>) and the light rail line (VLT<\/a>), Udson says: \u201cNo one is doing any favors for the population. Public money is being used. Travel takes more time because the city has turned into a construction site, principally in Centro, which impacts the rest of the city a lot. It could be that\u00a0it improves for those who use this type of transport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, none of these things have been beneficial. The benefits will come now, but it depends on where you live<\/a>. For me, I don’t think there’ll be any benefits. I think Vidigal has been left to one side in this sense,\u201d says Andric\u00e9ia.<\/p>\n

For Robson, there was an improvement in traffic flow, but not in the quality of service. \u201cThere is the issue of overcrowding. Sometimes transportation is so crowded that I need to wait to get\u00a0another bus.\u201d In Vidigal, only two vans operate on the City’s Bilhete \u00danico (Single Ticket) system and they are always full. \u201cYou are on time\u00a0but end up being late because you depend\u00a0on the good will of the driver to fill a van to bring you down,\u201d says Andric\u00e9ia. Those who wait along the way cannot catch transportation. This includes mothers with small\u00a0children, the elderly, and disabled who are not able or do not want to go down by moto-taxi.<\/p>\n

Udson agrees with the lack of quality and complains of the price: \u201cIf the shortened routes<\/a>\u00a0decrease fuel use, costs decrease for the bus company, but the cost doesn\u2019t decrease at all for the worker. There is no comfort at all on the bus. We should already have air conditioning in all buses. There is also the issue of potholes and of longer routes set up to capture\u00a0more passengers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robson says he feels a lack of integration between bus, metro, and ferry\u00a0and of alternative means of transport: \u201cI see a prison of road logic. I feel a lack of cycle paths<\/a> throughout the city of Rio. I feel a lack of policies that support urban mobility<\/a>\u00a0throughout the city of Rio as a whole, to the point that if we wanted to go running or by bike to work, we would have the conditions for this. A place to change clothes, to take a shower. The fare is very expensive for a very limited service. I feel the lack of true\u00a0urban mobility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Udson says there’s a lack of\u00a0information about the bus lines, especially after recent changes in the routes and streamlining of lines: \u201cIn the South Zone there are signs every 10 or 15 meters. In the North Zone and West Zone it is save yourself if you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the greatest difficulty after these changes is traveling at night. Claudia says that before they had vans and buses that serviced Guararapes. \u201cNow at night, there is only one bus and this only runs until 3am. It takes a long time, in terrible conditions. It’s unsafe to wait for the bus here and down there. I have to\u00a0stay there in the Central Station alone? They allege that there aren’t\u00a0the passengers. Lies. Before, they ran vans and<\/em> buses and had passengers. How is it that with only buses they have none?\u201d But Claudia lives in the South Zone. \u201cTo get from here to\u00a0the North Zone is like winning the lottery,\u201d says Udson on the likelihood of getting a bus at night to Alem\u00e3o. For them, the proposals of Jandira Feghali and Freixo to implement a network of night transport is essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I go out at midnight and I have to die in money on a taxi. Then you ask for the love of God, wait more than an hour, and none\u00a0comes up,\u201d says Claudia, revealing another problem that residents face when taking taxis in addition to high costs: drivers who refuse to take passengers to favelas.<\/p>\n

Kitinho is clear about who he believes has benefited from the recent changes: \u201cThe mayor ended a few lines and put in the VLT. These changes have benefitted the South Zone. We need viaducts, transportation along Avenida Brasil<\/a>. And why not put an express metro from the Novo Rio Central bus station to Santa Cruz<\/a>? But that\u00a0would reduce the bus fleet and benefit Metro Rio, which (the mayor) doesn\u2019t want.\u201d This difference between the treatment given to different parts of the city<\/a> is also highlighted by Udson: \u201cthe cable car in Alem\u00e3o has been suspended<\/a>\u00a0and is only expected to return next year. Would they do the same if it were outside the favela?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kitinho concludes prophetically: \u201cIt seems that they will build a wall like the Berlin Wall, separating the rich from the poor. That is the only thing missing. It already exists, it’s just invisible<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas With\u00a0municipal elections fast approaching, Rio voters need to choose from\u00a0the 11 candidates running for mayor. Despite very different proposals, the challenges facing the post-Olympics city management are the same for everyone, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":33271,"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":[1668,1736,1288,335,328],"tags":[9,2234,1552,606,280,32,479,427,397,381,595,892,2228,386,65,2255,107,282,1278,2229,359,2226,1870,746,2225,630,545,1517,598,1170,37,790,15,152,594,2227,809,409,535,373,156,268,957,200,951,363,4,1140,21],"writer":[2247],"translator":[2254],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-participationwatch","8":"category-1736","9":"category-highlight","10":"category-policies","11":"category-understanding-rio","12":"tag-9","13":"tag-2016-mayoral-election","14":"tag-avenida-brasil","15":"tag-brt","16":"tag-complexo-da-mare","17":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","18":"tag-democracy","19":"tag-economy","20":"tag-education","21":"tag-electioneering","22":"tag-elections","23":"tag-family-health-clinic","24":"tag-flavio-bolsonaro","25":"tag-trash","26":"tag-gentrification","27":"tag-guararapes","28":"tag-health","29":"tag-housing","30":"tag-income","31":"tag-indio-da-costa","32":"tag-informality","33":"tag-jandira-feghali","34":"tag-light-rail","35":"tag-mangueira","36":"tag-marcelo-crivella","37":"tag-marcelo-freixo","38":"tag-mobility","39":"tag-moto-taxi","40":"tag-municipal-election","41":"tag-municipal-guard","42":"tag-north-zone","43":"tag-nova-brasilia","44":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","45":"tag-participation","46":"tag-participatory-democracy","47":"tag-pedro-paulo-carvalho-teixeira","48":"tag-public-security","49":"tag-public-transportation","50":"tag-sanitation","51":"tag-sewerage","52":"tag-south-zone","53":"tag-state-violence","54":"tag-street-vendors","55":"tag-transportation","56":"tag-upa","57":"tag-vidigal","58":"tag-vila-autodromo","59":"tag-waste-management","60":"tag-west-zone","61":"writer-luisa-fenizola","62":"translator-laura-fairman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33265","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=33265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33265"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=33265"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=33265"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=33265"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=33265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}