{"id":38491,"date":"2017-09-08T11:22:27","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T14:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=38491"},"modified":"2017-09-13T10:15:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T13:15:26","slug":"youth-from-favelas-launch-movimentos-platform-to-discuss-drug-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=38491","title":{"rendered":"Favela Youth Launch ‘Movimentos’ Platform, Take Role as Protagonists in Drug Policy Discussion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

For the original article by Luiza Sans\u00e3o in Portuguese published by Ponte Jornalismo\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Resulting from a year\u2019s work with the support of specialists in public security and drugs, the project Movimentos<\/a> was launched on September 2 in\u00a0Complexo da Mar\u00e9<\/a> in Rio.<\/b><\/h4>\n

\u201cFor the helicopters at (private) ranches, for the ministers, it\u2019s all authorized. But who dies, who pays, is us. To discuss drug policy, for us, is to discuss a number of rights, which are violated every time that an armored vehicle enters into the favela, which exploits the favela as though it were the focal point of the problem, exploiting us, our bodies, our day-to-day, our routine. War on drugs<\/a>, where? It\u2019s a war on the poor, a war on black people. We have to bring it up. Discussion doesn\u2019t exist without the presence of the favela, because who dies is us.\u201d – Raull Santiago<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The words of\u00a0Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>\u00a0community communicator,\u00a0Raull Santiago<\/a>, member of Coletivo Papo Reto<\/a>\u00a0(Straight Talk Collective) set the tone for a debate that lasted for hours at the Mar\u00e9 Arts Center<\/a>\u00a0in the favela complex located in the North Zone<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro. The event, which took place Saturday night, September 2, launched the platform #Movimentos: Drugs, Youth and Favela<\/a>, which brings together 15 youth from Brazilian favelas around the debate on drug policy, racism<\/a>, social inequalities and other issues related to State violence<\/a> against the population of the periphery.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the course of a year, the group studied various issues related to the topic of drugs in Brazil and around the world, with the support of public security and drug policy specialists such as Julita Lemgruber, coordinator of CESeC<\/a> (the Center for Studies on Security and Citizenship at the C<\/span>\u00e2ndido Mendes University), CESeC researchers Ana Clara Telles and Luna Arouca, and journalist and human rights activist Rebeca Lerer.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Lemgruber, Movimentos is the most important project in recent years for CESeC. \u201cThis project is central because this debate is central. For the city, for the country, for the favela. It\u2019s not possible any longer for us to accept that the police take advantage of this justification of a ‘war on drugs’ to violently enter favelas, and kill residents,\u201d affirmed the project supervisor, in an emotional tone, at the event\u2019s opening. \u201cThis is a victorious moment for these young people, from different favelas, who have been preparing for this for a year, and are now preparing to be, really, the voice of the favela when drug policy is discussed,\u201d she concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

The first result of their work was Saturday’s launch of a booklet about drug policy<\/a>, in which the youth of Movimentos urge society to debate the issue and defend the necessity for favela residents to be heard in this dialogue.<\/span><\/p>\n

To discuss the topic, the launch event opened with a panel composed of political philosophy researcher and feminist Djamila Ribeiro; historian, teacher and founder of the\u00a0Uneafro-Brasil<\/a>\u00a0movement Douglas Belchior;\u00a0O Globo<\/em><\/a> newspaper columnist Fl\u00e1via Oliveira; and resident of Caxias<\/a>, social communications student and Voz da Baixada<\/a> newspaper editor Jefferson Barbosa, all representing the Movimentos group. The debate was mediated by another member of Movimentos, Alem\u00e3o resident Daiene Mendes<\/a>. Everything was transmitted in real time<\/a> on the project\u2019s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMovimentos is so important because we start out thinking that it\u2019s enough to be black for us to know what all this means, but we aren\u2019t born with awareness of the oppression that we suffer. This is why it\u2019s so important for us to collectively organize. This is why it\u2019s so important for us to be able to have access to other narratives. And, working with youth for a long time, we perceive that, often, we end up reproducing a discourse in which we are victims, because we have a completely precarious education system. Because the way that the media treats these issues, in these programs that many of us end up watching, is to criminalize poverty<\/a>. From the way that things are treated, many times we don\u2019t know what the drug policy is and we naturalize many of the forms of violence that we suffer. This is why it\u2019s so important to be in collective spaces in order to deconstruct this type of idea,\u201d said Djamila Ribeiro during the debate.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201c<\/span>Youth from favelas don\u2019t have access to this debate\u201d<\/b><\/h3>\n

In an interview with <\/span>Ponte<\/em>, Barbosa, age 20, talked about the importance that youth from favelas, who are principally impacted by the current drug policy,\u00a0dispute the narrative<\/a> on the subject. \u201cWe are the ones dying, precisely because of the way the State deals with us, through the logic of confrontation, of war. We need to initiate this dialogue beginning with our experiences, but also, in the case of Movimentos, beginning with our understanding of this debate, because often youth from the favela don\u2019t have this dialogue because they don\u2019t have access to it,\u201d said the communicator.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

And who does this debate need to reach? The idea is to reach society as a whole, but the booklet aims to principally inform residents of favelas, according to Barbosa. \u201cThe next step is for us to consolidate a working dialogue in our territories, where we live. In churches, in schools, in Whatsapp groups, in NGOs, in residents\u2019 associations. It\u2019s for us to consolidate this dialogue directly. The booklet is didactic material, social networks are a tool to dispute the media narrative, but what\u2019s essential is for the project to do this face-to-face, talking with our peers,\u201d he explains.<\/span><\/p>\n

The young people still hadn\u2019t had this dialogue in their own ways, according to Barbosa, because they didn\u2019t understand how to communicate these ideas, which is precisely one of the reasons why the project was created. \u201cWe never had, or for that matter, heard about this in a perspective that we understood. Movimentos has this cool thing of communicators, so that at the same time that we were understanding all of this, we\u2019re understanding how to communicate it, for example, with the church. Because it\u2019s taboo in society as a whole, but with the Pentecostal Church, which is very strong in the peripheries, we need to talk about it, otherwise it won\u2019t be resolved,\u201d he affirmed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Symbolism<\/b><\/h3>\n

The choice of location was symbolic: rather than choosing a space in the center of Rio, the group chose the Mar\u00e9 Arts Center as the scene for the event, which filled to capacity. According to Luna Arouca, it wouldn\u2019t make sense to have the event in another space, because the central idea is to \u201ccreate space so that young people from favelas can be the protagonists of this dialogue\u201d and because it was in Mar\u00e9 that many meetings, workshops, and group discussions took place over the course of the past 12 months of project development.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe launch had to be in a favela, for us to show the potential of this space, to put this debate into motion within the favela, to show that there are thousands of young people, just like those who compose this group, who are full of potential. They\u2019re artists, they\u2019re intellectuals, who are thinking about proposals to change the country. So we chose to do it in Mar\u00e9, a place that has welcomed us,\u201d the researcher tells <\/span>Ponte<\/em>. <\/b><\/p>\n

After the debate, the event turned into a celebration: there were poetry and musical performances with rapper MC Martina<\/a> and composer J\u00e9ssica Souto, both of whom are residents of Alem\u00e3o and members of Movimentos. Outside of the Mar\u00e9 Arts Center, there were DJs running the party to the sound of funk and rap.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Reality<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For composer and group member J\u00e9ssica Souto, age 24, the first step to be taken in the country is for the State to take control of the drug market. \u201cMany people understand legalization as allowing anyone access, but that is already how it is today. Everyone consumes, buying wherever. To talk about legalization is to think about a market that regulates and controls,\u201d she explains, in an interview with <\/span>Ponte<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current drug policy is contemplated by people who don\u2019t experience the reality of the favela, but the consequences remain for those who are inside the favela. So, how do you build a proposal for a reality that you don\u2019t experience? It\u2019s fundamental for the favela to be heard, for us to participate in this dialogue,\u201d she argues.<\/span><\/p>\n

She recounts that before initiating the training process with Movimentos, she didn\u2019t associate human rights violations practiced by police in favelas with the prohibition of drugs. \u201cPractically every month there were bullets hitting the wall of my house, and neighbors, acquaintances, relatives who had died, and I had never related this to the prohibition of drugs, substances that people use at their own will, that they have the choice to use or not. Today, the only way that I see for the State to intervene in this is by way of health and education: informing the public what a substance is, how it can harm your body, and supporting you should you require treatment,\u201d said Souto, who lives in Alem\u00e3o.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u201cFor the media, it\u2019s taboo\u201d<\/b><\/h3>\n

One of the criticisms articulated by the youth that comprise Movimentos is directed at the way\u00a0mass communication outlets<\/a> treat the topic of drugs in their coverage. \u201cThe booklet talks about substances, effects, harms, use, and abuse with the intention of demystifying the topic of drugs and making it so that this debate is more accessible, principally for residents of favelas. So it\u2019s about taking the subject to the favela and also to mainstream media, which still regards drugs as taboo,\u201d said Souto.<\/span><\/p>\n

For her, the fact that the majority of reporters do not enter into favelas to produce their coverage distorts the way the reality of residents is portrayed to society. \u201cI think that the mainstream media isn\u2019t concerned with what\u2019s happening in the peripheries. One way to show that it cares would be to arrive, to come, and get to know the perspective of the favela resident. But, unfortunately, it\u2019s a choice of theirs to be separate, right? Some time ago, we gave interviews and they all had to be scheduled outside of the favela because they didn\u2019t even want to enter. This shows well that the mainstream media doesn\u2019t care. For us this is very clear and it\u2019s a shame, because the mainstream media shapes opinions,\u201d she criticized.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas For the original article by Luiza Sans\u00e3o in Portuguese published by Ponte Jornalismo\u00a0click here. Resulting from a year\u2019s work with the support of specialists in public security and drugs, the project […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":38497,"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":[1290,1333,335,329,1330],"tags":[247,2530,1606,1653,756,280,32,25,1900,2529,37,152,809,268,2444,259],"writer":[2525],"translator":[2528],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-civilsociety","8":"category-event-reports","9":"category-policies","10":"category-solutions","11":"category-translation","12":"tag-candido-mendes-university","13":"tag-cesec","14":"tag-coletivo-papo-reto","15":"tag-community-media","16":"tag-community-organizing","17":"tag-complexo-da-mare","18":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","19":"tag-human-rights","20":"tag-media-narrative","21":"tag-movimentos","22":"tag-north-zone","23":"tag-participation","24":"tag-public-security","25":"tag-state-violence","26":"tag-war-on-drugs","27":"tag-youth","28":"writer-luiza-sansao","29":"translator-ava-rose-hoffman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38491","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\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38491"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=38491"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=38491"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=38491"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=38491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}