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Folks, I would like to share with you some videos, totally in Portuguese, without subtitles, but that can give you a view of how Rocinha, the biggest "favela" in Rio de Janeiro, really looks like.
Rocinha has a total population of around 200,000 people (the city of Rio de Janeiro has around 6 million people - not counting the metro area).
According to last Census, around 6% of the population of Brazil lives in favelas. Rocinha is one of the biggest favelas in the country, and the biggest in Rio.
The videos I will share are very interesting, because they are part of a special report made a few years ago by Rede Record, Brazil's second largest TV network, that sent a TV crew to live in a house in Rocinha during one week, showing the daily life of the community from inside.
I guess most won't understand anything that is being said, but the images are interesting to see.
Folks, I would like to share with you some videos, totally in Portuguese, without subtitles, but that can give you a view of how Rocinha, the biggest "favela" in Rio de Janeiro, really looks like.
Rocinha has a total population of around 200,000 people (the city of Rio de Janeiro has around 6 million people - not counting the metro area).
According to last Census, around 6% of the population of Brazil lives in favelas. Rocinha is one of the biggest favelas in the country, and the biggest in Rio.
The videos I will share are very interesting, because they are part of a special report made a few years ago by Rede Record, Brazil's second largest TV network, that sent a TV crew to live in a house in Rocinha during one week, showing the daily life of the community from inside.
I guess most won't understand anything that is being said, but the images are interesting to see.
Rede Record did a great job with this special report. The crew rented a house in Rocinha and lived there for one week, showing everything that is possible to find there.
Rocinha has shops, supermarkets, bank branches, sushi bars, pizza for delivery, hair and beauty salons, and even motorcycle dealerships.
For example: the truth that the living conditions in the so called Brazilian "favelas" are not even slightly as bad as some imagine.
I do agree with you, and I haven't lived in Brasil before so I'm unable to completely talk on the subject.
However, there are different views than the ones shown in the videos. From what I hear about Favelas, a big problem that Brasilian people seem to have with them has to do with things like re-routing electricity, not paying taxes and collecting certain benefits.
I agree that it's not always a bad thing for people to see the other side of the Favela, but it also could cause some dumb tourists to go walking in a Favela hoping to take pictures of all the "interesting poor people" which would be dangerous.
One thing that bothers me more than anything are rich tourists paying to be herded like cattle through these places to observe the lives of these people.. I just see it as disrespectful.
I do agree with you, and I haven't lived in Brasil before so I'm unable to completely talk on the subject.
However, there are different views than the ones shown in the videos. From what I hear about Favelas, a big problem that Brasilian people seem to have with them has to do with things like re-routing electricity, not paying taxes and collecting certain benefits.
I agree that it's not always a bad thing for people to see the other side of the Favela, but it also could cause some dumb tourists to go walking in a Favela hoping to take pictures of all the "interesting poor people" which would be dangerous.
One thing that bothers me more than anything are rich tourists paying to be herded like cattle through these places to observe the lives of these people.. I just see it as disrespectful.
Well, of course most favelas are not that safe to walk alone, if you are not familiar with the place, and don't know anyone who lives there.
But they are very far away from being the "hell" that many imagine (including many middle-class Brazilians).
About electricity, it's true that clandestine electric connections exist in many favelas, but also there are lots of people in the favelas who legally pay for their electricity.
But my point is: people who live in the Brazilian favelas today are mostly happy. Of course not everyone is happy all the time, but people are generally happy, and they don't live in "abject poverty". Most people there have all the amenities of modern life. Maybe it's impossible to have a car in a favela, because most "streets" are too narrow, but many families have motorcycles.
What I mean is: life in the favelas is not nearly as "terrible" as many imagine, at least not today.
Well, of course most favelas are not that safe to walk alone, if you are not familiar with the place, and don't know anyone who lives there.
But they are very far away from being the "hell" that many imagine (including many middle-class Brazilians).
About electricity, it's true that clandestine electric connections exist in many favelas, but also there are lots of people in the favelas who legally pay for their electricity.
But my point is: people who live in the Brazilian favelas today are mostly happy. Of course not everyone is happy all the time, but people are generally happy, and they don't live in "abject poverty". Most people there have all the amenities of modern life. Maybe it's impossible to have a car in a favela, because most "streets" are too narrow, but many families have motorcycles.
What I mean is: life in the favelas is not nearly as "terrible" as many imagine, at least not today.
ahhh, yeah that definitely makes sense. Life in a Favela would not be near the same level of poverty as say life in Dharavi.
You can literally smell Dharavi when you're in a taxi a mile away, and i'm not exaggerating.
It probably has a lot to do with the growing power of Brasil. If you look at the United States, even people living in poverty have nice big screen tvs, cell phones with internet and nice cars. It's a broad generalization, but I think that's kind of the road that Brasil is headed. Maybe a bit more crime, but that is a completely different subject.
It probably has a lot to do with the growing power of Brasil. If you look at the United States, even people living in poverty have nice big screen tvs, cell phones with internet and nice cars. It's a broad generalization, but I think that's kind of the road that Brasil is headed. Maybe a bit more crime, but that is a completely different subject.
That's exactly my point!
There is no big difference between how is the life of the American poor who live in the American ghettos and how is the life of the Brazilian poor in the favelas.
The biggest difference is just the fact that the favelas look more "chaotic", because the houses were built with no plan or order, in land that is not owned by the people who built the houses and live in them. The land where the favelas were built is "occupied" land, people didn't buy the land. Because they were built with no plan or order, most streets are narrow, and many are dead-end streets.
Crime rates are also surely higher in Brazil than in the US, for a series of reasons that I won't discuss here.
But besides that, the differences are not that big.
The Brazilian poor today have nice cell phones, they have nice flat screen TVs, they have refrigerators, many families have washing machines, many families have motorcycles...
And I'm talking here about the Brazilian poor who live in favelas. Not every Brazilian poor live in favelas. In fact, the majority of the Brazilian poor don't live in favelas.
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