Today, I'm going to focus on one particular issue from the Olympics debate: communities under threat from being destroyed.
Though I haven't seen much in the media about the government's plans to raze several favelas to make room for Olympic venues, there has been lots of talk about turning all of the city's favelas into "real" neighborhoods. There's also a little story about how the Rio city mayor wants to construct sound barriers on two of the major highways in the city, including the one that goes to the airport, which happens to be lined by some of the city's worst slums. The structure of the story was interesting, describing how favela residents who live along the highways are up in arms and against the measure, while the city government is arguing that it has to do with actually trapping sound from the highway (they do it in Europe! they said), but the last two paragraphs of the story described how an American athlete who came to Rio for the PanAm Games in 2007 wrote on her blog that it was "the poorest city she'd ever seen." Interesting.
The one story I did actually find about communities under threat was a poorly written tale stuck in the sports section, about favelas which will be destroyed to make room for a new stadium. The residents will be moved to brand new housing, the city claims, where they will be able to pay for their homes in small increments through a new government program. The story makes it seem like everyone is happy about this, since they will become a "model community," despite the fact that the 40 year-old fishing community's few infrastructure achievements, like a park and a soccer field, will be destroyed, along with all of their homes. But since I can't find much more information on it, I'm not really sure how accurate anything is.
Enter CatComm, a highly-respected NGO in Brazil and the US, which has a new project underway to make sure favela residents are heard. (Incidentally, one of their main projects is sharing community-based solutions from around the world, which was a project I'd been thinking about for a new blog, but when I discovered them I realized it's already being done! Anyway..)
The project, which is being featured on IdeaBlob, needs funding to get underway, and you can help with a single click by voting for the project. It's the last day for voting, so please do the quick sign-up to cast your vote (it's free and very easy). Here's the plan for the project:
If we win the $10k, in 2010 Catalytic Communities (CatComm) will train 200 community organizers across Rio's favelas to use online networking tools including Twitter, Facebook and WiserEarth, to ensure their voices are heard by authorities and the global community in the years leading up to 2016.
An online community will be formed in each of these online spaces where the general public can "hear" what leaders from the favelas have to say, support them, and follow their work. Links will be made with the press and the mayor's office.
We will then develop an online training program and continue face-to-face capacity-building in 2011 and beyond.
In other words, CatComm, which has been working with poor communities in Rio since 2000, will link up with favela leaders (that is, civic leaders, not drug traffickers) to make sure that they take a stand that is not just heard in Rio, but around the world, and is heard by decision-makers, as well. (On a side note, I'm not happy I just found out about CatComm just now, and not two years ago.)
If you have any information on other plans to raze favelas, or on other projects that involve working with these communities during the Olympics preparations, please leave a comment or email riogringaconsult at gmail dot com.
The Olympics are self destructive. With the threat of global warming we cannot afford such flagrant displays of excess and overconsumption. The best way to avoid 300,000 tons of emissions is for people to simply stay at home.
http://selfdestructivebastards.blogspot.com/2009/10/olympics-are-self-destructive.html
Posted by: Canada Guy | October 21, 2009 at 10:49 AM