The reality of Brazil's state as the World Cup looms over the country is a far cry
from the perfectly measured pitches
golden sands and incredible landmarks of Latin America
Death, corruption, poverty, violence,
drugs and prostitution run rife through the nation and its many slums
better known in Brazil as favelas
600 thousand foreign tourists are expected to descend upon the nation 600
thousand people that Brazil has paid to accommodate. People that will come for
a month
and then leave but the effect on the local population has been
devastating and could last for years if you want to know the truth
about what's happening in Brazil you're in the right place I'm going to tackle
each section separately so here's your chance to pick and choose the area
you want to find out about
for those on mobiles and tablets I've stuck the timings in the description below
Prostitution is legal in Brazil
that may be shocking to hear for some but something even more shocking is
that in March 2013
Brazil's Higher Court of Justice ruled that adults having sex with a child is not
necessarily
considered a crime. Since 2009 the age of consent has been
14 years old. Children as young as
10-years-old are being forced to sell themselves on the street in order to make
money from fans coming over
if you saw kids on the street during a normal celebration it would be completely
innocent in Brazil it could mean something entirely different
In preparation for the World Cup the prostitutes in Brazil have been offered
an opportunity
the chance to learn English to entertain the foreign visitors
Igor Fuchs, a volunteer teacher says we teach basic expressions and also have
demonstrations with erotic paraphernalia
so they can learn the names, how to use them and how to propose them. Both women and
children are being exploited to squeeze money
out of the tourists.
Individuals in Brazil may be protesting their rights to basic amendments
a fair wage, public transport and security but as a collective
they also represent a fight for progression and to fix what the past has left behind
Rio alone has 763 favelas
which are home to 1.4 million people
22 percent of the population. The poor living near the beaches, hotels and
shopping districts
have been chased back to the slums and many have lost their homes
to construction.
The Landless Workers' Movement marched the streets of Sao Paulo
against urban developments which have left many homeless.
An indigenous protest in Brasilia marched against the backdrop of the Mane Gurrincha
National Stadium
the most costly of them all. Protesting against the rise in real estate prices
and forcing lower-income families out of their homes.
Some could say the authorities are trying to sweep the dirt under the rug.
The people of Brazil deserve basic human rights meaning good health care,
education, food and sustainable living. The month-long tournament has brought wealth
to the nation
a wealth spent on constructing stadiums and giant state projects
which has bought only 0.2 percent
to add to Brazil's economic growth of this year.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has defended the $11 billion
dollar expenditure on the tournament but local residents say that the development
projects they were promised
have been delayed or were never spoken of again.
This graffiti in the Vila Flavia shantytown take center stage in showing the hardships of life
that people here are tired of seeing with the World Cup
as a backdrop.
The World Cup has brought the construction of many stadiums to host the matches.
This has left numerous unfinished infrastructure projects which will be
rushed to completion.
The way many Brazilians see it is giant state projects run by the government
full of injustice, lacking safety, being mismanaged
and halting any advancement in society. This safety and mismanagement
has led to death.
The death toll when this video was made stood at an estimated nine people.
A worker building the monorail in Sao Paulo died after construction collapsed,
one by electric shock, three fell to their deaths, 1 suffered injuries after
dismantling a crane
two died under a crane collapse and one died in a fire.
All these tragic deaths symbolize the danger that the workers face in trying to
complete the construction for the tournament. This statistic doesn't even
take into account the people killed in pacifying
the warring favelas. Brazil's murder rate has more than doubled over the
past three decades according to latest research.
Brazil slum are wracked
with violence. Widespread protests kicked off years ago and small scale demonstrations
continue.
A police unit to pacify urban areas and lower crime rates was launched
in 2008 which did work for a while with a 50 percent drop in homicide
rates in Brazil. That is until now.
Despite efforts by police to rid the favelas of crime before the tournament starts
it has had little impact.
President Rousseff has said the country is ready
but Metro worker strikes and demonstrations from Brazil's people
threatened to coincide with the beginning of the tournament.
Rousseff said, "there are people who claim the resources for the World Cup should've
been directed to health care and education
I hear and respect those opinions but I don't agree with them.
It is a false dilemma.
Protests have descended into rubbish fires and Molotov cocktails from the people.
Tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray from the police.
The anarchic group Black Bloc led an anti World Cup protest march in Sao Paulo on
May 24
They are linked with destroying banks, trashing public property
throwing petrol bombs and attacking police with stones and clubs.
People have resorted to violence against the vast sums of public money being spent
on the World Cup
as opposed to being used to ensure acceptable health care
education and housing. Nearly two billion has been spent on security alone
deploying a hundred
thousand police and fifty seven thousand troops although the place had initial
success
in evicting gangs from the slums the move has been criticized as just
displacing them elsewhere. With violence on the rise again in the pacified areas it
appears
drug traffickers are seeking to regain their lost territory.
According to Compassion International in Fortaleza that
approximate thirty-five thousand inhabitants earn less than the minimum
wage
of 223 dollars a month with families of up to 10
sharing less than 20 square meters in space.
All the children wnat is to be far from home so they quit studying and become an
easy target for the drug dealers
in order to maintain their addiction they simply go to the streets.
And where there are celebrations there are drugs and where do those drugs come from?
Drug traffickers. The First Capital Command cartel known as PCC in brazil threatened
to launch
the 'World Cup of Terror' as a powerful gang responsible for the murder of more than a
hundred up the city's police officers
this threat aims to show the Brazilian authorities how much control
the gangs have. The favelas are in conflict to who will be in charge of drugs demand
for the World Cup and the pacifying police are taking on the areas
one by one with many innocent being caught in the crossfire
According to reports they'll only be able to take back
forty of a thousand favelas by the time the World Cup starts
Soccer in Brazil was a turning point for those who didn't have much money
something accessible that's what it represented
The FIFA World Cup 2014 is the most expensive in history and
leaves many homeless, exploited or even
dead.
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