Brazil's evicted 'won't celebrate World Cup'

I was checking my updates from one of the Occupy groups I follow on FB and came across this shocking article.

Brazil's evicted 'won't celebrate World Cup'

Features
Brazil's evicted 'won't celebrate World Cup'
Many of those forced from their homes in preparation for the football tournament are asking: 'World Cup for whom?'
Paula Daibert Last updated: 26 May 2014 10:17
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Every four years, Brazilians decorate their streets in green and yellow, celebrating the arrival of the most anticipated sports tournament in the country.

With the kick-off for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil less than one month away, the country's passion for football should be pulsating more than ever.

But there are some signs to the contrary. "World Cup for whom?" read the words painted on a wall on a street in Sao Paulo.

Many in Brazil's middle class are unhappy with the effects the World Cup has already had on their lives. The cost of living has risen in the cities hosting the games, traffic jams have worsened, and a construction boom aimed at improving urban mobility has only compounded problems, they say.

But it is the poorest Brazilians who have borne the brunt of the World Cup preparations. According to the Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics, a group opposed to how the games' preparations have been handled, 250,000 people across Brazil have been forcefully removed from their houses or are being threatened with eviction. Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre are the most affected cities, it says.

Marli Nascimento's family and 117 others had been living in the low-income Parque Sao Francisco area in the town of Camaragibe, just outside of Recife, for more than 60 years. Between February 2013 and March 2014, her whole community was levelled to make room for a highway leading to Arena Pernambuco stadium, where Germany, Italy, Mexico, Japan and the US teams will play.

Now I know Al Jazeera isn't always a trust worthy source but I have seen a similar experience in Canada.

For the Vancouver Olympics, many homeless & hookers were given one way bus tickets to the Okanagan. I know because I lived in once of the cities where a lot of them were sent. All of a sudden there was a big increase in homeless people & hookers. Plus because it's a small town, the local girls would work only at night and the ones from Vancouver would work all hours.

If it can be done for the Vancouver Olympics then I think it could be done else where for other big events.

a reply to: Margana

Well, you can't hardly blame them really can you. I'm sure they are well aware that when the World Cup is all over, it will be situation normal, at best. I've been there, I've seen the poverty and mindboggling opulence, it's an eye opener and no mistake.

To my knowledge there isn't really all that much that the government does to assist homeless people in Brazil. I also recall a significant number of them having obvious mental problems, again I doubt that there is much if any government assistance addressing that problem either.

I could be wrong, and if I am, I'll be quite happy about that.

Kind Regards
Myselfaswell

originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: Margana

Well, you can't hardly blame them really can you. I'm sure they are well aware that when the World Cup is all over, it will be situation normal, at best. I've been there, I've seen the poverty and mindboggling opulence, it's an eye opener and no mistake.

To my knowledge there isn't really all that much that the government does to assist homeless people in Brazil. I also recall a significant number of them having obvious mental problems, again I doubt that there is much if any government assistance addressing that problem either.

I could be wrong, and if I am, I'll be quite happy about that.


Kind Regards
Myselfaswell

Could start by NOT bulldozing low income family housing projects for a fancy new highway leading to a stadium...What kind of normalcy are we talking about here when your house is gone. There are over 10 fking stadiums where the cup is played this year, they didn't need to build a highway leading to this place.


Allow me to come to your neighborhood, knock down 4 blocks of houses and put up a 8 lane super highway that drives to the nearest arena and see how normal things are when that big event at the arena is long gone lol

I am of the opinion that, while there is some benefit to be had for the economy of a developing nation such as Brazil with all the construction, nations with such socio-economic issues as Brazil shouldn't be awarded these global events in the first place. They have spend Billions on constructing stadia and infrastructure for a 4 week tournament which would have been better spent on housing and alleviating poverty.

Nations such as England, France, Spain, Germany, the USA etc already have the stadia and infrastructure ready to host these type of events and could do so at a fraction of the cost and the drop of a hat. It might seem unfair, but that's the prize for developing properly and not having a good chunk of your population living in shanty towns on the side of the hills...

a reply to: stumason

2012 Olympics cost $13 billion, it seems any country have to make a huge investment regardless of current infrastructure.

In euro 2012 Ukraine spend $5-10bn of which there was an investigation by UEFA saying $4bn went to corruption.

a reply to: ThinkYouSpeak

For a start you can pull your head in. Read my post, you will find it entirely sympathetic.

Additionally, do not extract words, phrases or otherwise from any of my posts and attempt to use them contrary to the overall sentiment of the post that I have compiled. Consider yourself warned.

a reply to: Indigent

Yep - but the UK isn't a developing country - my point being, Brazil has far better things to be spending money on while a sizeable portion of it's population live in abject poverty.

At any rate, the actual cost of the 2012 Olympics was £8.9 Billion and actually came in under budget by £380 Million - a cost of £142 per person in the UK and, unlike the World Cup, all the venues are now available for public use, rather than simply being the preserve of the Professional footballer.

originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: Margana

Well, you can't hardly blame them really can you. I'm sure they are well aware that when the World Cup is all over, it will be situation normal, at best. I've been there, I've seen the poverty and mindboggling opulence, it's an eye opener and no mistake.

To my knowledge there isn't really all that much that the government does to assist homeless people in Brazil. I also recall a significant number of them having obvious mental problems, again I doubt that there is much if any government assistance addressing that problem either.

I could be wrong, and if I am, I'll be quite happy about that.

Kind Regards
Myselfaswell

Yes you can blame them & you should. It might be ok if it houses weren't destroyed but when the games are over, where are you supposed to go when your home was destroyed?

Henrique Frota, the executive secretary of the Brazilian Institute for Urbanistic Law, based in Fortaleza, told Al Jazeera that although Brazil has some of the most advanced urban policy legislation in the world, and is signatory to many international treaties protecting the right to adequate housing, there have been violations in every eviction case he's been following in the World Cup's host cities.

Similarly, Raquel Rolnik, the UN rapporteur on adequate housing, told Al Jazeera: "According to international norms about the right to housing, when an eviction occurs, the housing condition for the [affected] people needs to improve or at least remain the same. What we have been seeing in Brazil, in general, is conditions getting worse."

I also recall a significant number of them having obvious mental problems...

Even though homeless means you don't have a home so obviously it's not homeless people getting kicked out of homes, I'll still address this comment. You make it sound like it's ok for these people to be evicted from their homes & have their homes destroyed because they have obvious mental health problems. >_< I know it's Brazil & they may not have a lot of programs for those who have mental health problems but that doesn't mean that they should be treated so poorly.


I agree with stumason that countries like Brazil should not host events like this where money is being stolen from those who need it most.

a reply to: Margana

Apologies if you got that impression, that was not my intent. Granted though I do have a certain level of ambivalence regarding this story.

Why the ambivalence, because it happens every single day in pretty much every country around the world. Governments resume land for all sorts of reasons, sometimes the process is as fair as you can expect, others such as the case in Brazil, much less so.

Reading the source article it's clear that people were supplied with alternative housing or given financial compensation. Were people adequately compensated, obviously not, but they were hardly turfed out onto the street, unlike the next example.

Instant Homelessness at the London Olympics

From the article above;

Housing and homelessness charity Shelter has seen numerous cases of families being forced to seek last minute accommodation after being evicted by their landlords.

London Olympics

From the article above;

The Games are not simply hosted to ‘clean up’ the city, but to fundamentally reconfigure it, to ‘cleanse’ it of its poor and undesirable; to not only make way for a city by and for the rich, but to expand the terrain of profitable activity.

Add all of the above and include your example of Vancouver and any others from similar events around the world and you will see that this is the norm. Some are not as harsh as the story from Brazil, some more so, it's pretty much what countries do as far as I can see.

Kind Regards
Myselfaswell