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