tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97388732024-03-13T10:28:56.959-04:00squattercitysquatters and squatter cities around the worldrnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.comBlogger825125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-54564200867457507092014-04-30T21:26:00.001-04:002014-05-01T13:19:23.480-04:00the favela future<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/4/30/1398863486396/2fee7047-8a3f-4d8c-b29e-add4ca7c8c3e-460x276.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/4/30/1398863486396/2fee7047-8a3f-4d8c-b29e-add4ca7c8c3e-460x276.jpeg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
This thought-piece on the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, from <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/apr/30/rio-favelas-world-cup-olympics-vision-future-criminal-eyesore" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, manages to get it both wrong and right.<br />
<br />
The writer, Simon Jenkins, correctly notes that "the essence of the favela sovereignty is local ownership." And he clearly gets the surreal nature of the cable cars, complete with white-gloved attendants, that the city installed over violence plagued Complexo do Alemao. How strange, then, that he doesn't quote a single favela resident -- despite the fact that one of every five people he passes every day lives in a favela.<br />
<br />
In the same spirit, it's odd to find a picture of a normal young woman and her baby <a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/4/30/1398857704337/95431192-4965-420d-944a-3c183343c065-460x276.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/4/30/1398857704337/95431192-4965-420d-944a-3c183343c065-460x276.jpeg" height="192" width="320" /></a><br />
walking in front of a colorful mural on an otherwise empty street, captioned "Life in the Cantagalo favela" -- as if it's bizarre and amazing to simply walk down the street.<br />
<br />
What's more, as one of the commenters on the article points out, when Jenkins suggests that the so-called pacification program, which started in 2008, "rightly acknowledged that lasting improvements of favela living conditions required government control of law and order," he ignores the history of community-led improvements that have been made over the years and the fact that, for most favela dwellers, the police never have been a positive influence. Indeed, they've been responsible for lots of violence and killings over the years.<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; line-height: 17.261037826538086px;"><br /></span>
Similarly, when he suggests that "there has to be a compromise between gentrification and stasis. Somewhere in a freer property market lie the resources to update these places," he ignores the immense amount of resources that people already have invested. They built their homes -- building and rebuilding and rebuilding again over decades. They brought water and electricity -- stealing these essentials at first, sure, but making the investment to pipe and wire their communities and homes. Freedom to develop in the manner that Jenkins seems to advocate somehow always comes to mean freedom to evict. It's a nasty business -- and favela dwellers are quite understandably anxious about losing their homes. (I don't live in a favela, but I certainly was anxious when my landlord tried to evict me.) Besides, there's already a property market in the favelas -- people buy and sell homes all the time -- and it hasn't brought the Nirvana that Jenkins hopes for.<br />
<br />
Jenkins is right that most of us who write about or study the favelas don't get sewers built. But this is an issue of local organizing. I have <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_neuwirth_on_our_shadow_cities" target="_blank">argued for almost a decade now</a> that sewers are secure tenure, that organizing for infrastructure is a hugely important strand of a strategy for the future. But organizing doesn't come from the outside. Brazil's favelados spent decades remaining under the radar because they were afraid that powerful political and development interests would conspire to push them out. Now, as those same interests are using the excuse of the World Cup and the Olympics to wage war on them, they have to learn how to emerge. This is a difficult process, and it is happening in the most dire of times.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-72338025256116245042014-04-29T12:43:00.003-04:002014-04-29T12:43:40.509-04:00brazil wages war against 20% of its people<a class="short-url" href="http://bit.ly/1iwX9dd" style="background-color: #f3f8fb; color: black; display: inline !important; font-family: 'Source Sans Pro', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; min-width: 150px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; width: 150px;">bit.ly/1iwX9dd</a> (the perils of having several blogs....sometimes you forget where you're posting.)rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-40916224932601363722014-04-13T21:45:00.000-04:002014-04-13T21:49:43.516-04:00demolition, eviction, and bogus new constructionBetween Scotland and Brazil, you get the picture: sports is an excuse for displacement.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/apr/13/glasgow-commonwealth-games-scraps-live-celebration-flats-demolition-red-road" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> offers a successful cautionary tale from Glasgow, which proposed imploding five blocks of Red Road, a 60's era apartment development, as part of the opening ceremonies to the Commonwealth Games. Read the comments for the true outrage the article lacks: "<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;">the demolition of the Red Road flats is just part of the wider annihilation of social housing in Glasgow. The eight transformational regeneration areas (TRA’s) in the city, for instance, will see the demolition of 11,000 GHA (Glasgow Housing Association) homes. these will be replaced by 6,500 private homes and a dismal 500 social homes. an astonishing loss of 10,500 social homes in just one regen programme! (not even including Red Road).” If this is what First Minister Alex Salmond envisions for Scotland as an independent nation, it's a pretty sorry sight.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;">Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/12/world/americas/grand-visions-fizzle-in-brazil.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> opens our eyes to the myriad desolate and decaying projects Brazil's government has pushed over the past decade. Unsaid in the article is the accusation that, despite evictions and dislocations and war against its residents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-struggles-world-cup-preparations-094015306--spt.html" target="_blank">way behind on its construction obligations</a> for the World Cup. From the article: </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">Back in 2007, when the deal was cut, then president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the World Cup stadiums would be financed mostly by private companies, but today it's known that public funds are behind the vast majority of them, either through loans or tax breaks." And the government is continuing to evict people from favelas.</span>rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-69870613694226411122014-02-07T20:27:00.000-05:002014-02-07T20:27:21.603-05:00rolezinhos, IISo who says Brazil is a post-racial society? <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/02/brazils-rolezinhos-claim-young-peoples-consumer-rights/" target="_blank">IPS</a> adds its voice to the reporting on the phenomenon of young people from the favelas who gather in flash mobs at Brazil's fancy shopping malls. Mall security officers and police have used rubber bullets and pepper spray to attack the groups--and some participants and officials suggest that the violent response has revealed racial cracks in Brazilian society. In their view, the mostly-white elites who shop at the malls are afraid of largely Afro-Brazilian favela dwellers. Author and Green Party Activist Fernando Gabeira initially saw the rolezinhos as attempts to "democratise the space for whoever wanted to enjoy the beauty of the shopping centres." Now, however, he sees them as more political--and perhaps a response to the luxurification of many Brazilian cities in the run-up to the World Cup and the Olympics.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-51914348507730489382014-01-19T21:55:00.001-05:002014-01-19T21:55:30.316-05:00rolezinhos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/1/20/1390178917779/Shopping-Leblon-rolezinho-011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/1/20/1390178917779/Shopping-Leblon-rolezinho-011.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
The new face of social exclusion in Brazil, as management shuts an upscale mall because of a <i>favela</i> flash mob, known as a <i>rolezinho</i>. The first recent <i>rolezinho</i> was in Sao Paulo, and was mostly peaceful and fun. But <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/20/brazilian-flashmob-shopping-mall-closes-rolezinho" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reports that subsequent gatherings have involved alleged robberies and an increasingly violent police response, including teargas, rubber bullets, and bashing local teenagers with clubs.<br />
<br />
Brazil has, in recent years, reduced poverty, mostly through a system of cash payments known as the <i>bolsa familia</i>. Still, the elite and the authorities have got to understand that more must be done--including true social acceptance and integration. As one activist told the Guardian, "The movement aims to denounce inequality and open opportunities for the poor to come to places like this. It's not about stealing or destroying, it's about getting back to the idea of having fun."rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-41681282008354393462014-01-03T09:02:00.001-05:002014-01-03T09:02:18.246-05:00who owns Kibera<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2014/01/kibera-640-629x472.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2014/01/kibera-640-629x472.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/01/scramble-kenyas-kibera-slum/" target="_blank">IPS has posted a new article</a> about tensions between the Nubians and people from other tribes about land in Kibera. But the article buries the real scandal.<br />
<br />
Toward the bottom of the article, human rights activist Felix Omondi, of the group Bunge la Wananchi (the People's Parliament), tells the new service, "In September 2013, Lands Minister Charity Ngilu said that land in Kisumu Ndogo, Gatwekera, Laini Saba and Kianda <i>[four of the 13 major neighborhoods of Kibera]</i> has already been sold. Nobody knows who owns this land."<br />
<br />
Indeed, when I was living there, ten years back, there were tales of sales to members of Parliament and their families and, certainly, many structures were owned by outsiders. And the Nubians, Kikuyus and Luos who lived in Kibera were contesting the space.<br />
<br />
So what's new now? The IPS piece doesn't say.<br />
<br />
Still, if there's going to be a deal about land in Kibera, it should have two principles. First, the land should wind up in the hands of the people who are truly living there. Not outsiders, certainly not the rich, and not those with historic claims who have either moved away or sold off their stakes. And second, everything should be done transparently, so the rumors of sales and outraged claims that "nobody knows who owns this land" will be gone forever.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-5696598587453469752013-10-08T14:20:00.001-04:002013-10-08T14:20:14.501-04:00evictions continue in the Kenyan capitalAmnesty International's <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR32/005/2013/en/c7123be7-bd4a-46e5-bf14-2e300e09b869/afr320052013en.pdf" target="_blank">report on forced evictions in Nairobi</a> was largely lost in the coverage of the horror of the Westgate attack and follow-up reports detailing how <a href="http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-138226/cctv-footage-shows-soldiers-looting-mall" target="_blank">Kenyan security forces looted stores</a> in the damaged mall.<br />
<br />
While that may be an understandable news judgement, it's worth noting that Amnesty has documented 9 cases of forced eviction in the Kenyan capital in the past two years. Eviction seems to be quasi-official government policy in Nairobi.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-14020164924641872902013-10-01T17:40:00.001-04:002013-10-01T17:40:21.167-04:00Death in Durban<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/images/resized_images/706x410q70khadija-catomanor-subbedM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/images/resized_images/706x410q70khadija-catomanor-subbedM.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
A 17-year-old girl was shot dead by the police at a demonstration by Cato Manor squatters in Durban, South Africa. <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-10-01-in-durbans-cato-manor-death-by-protest-death-by-dissent/#.Uks6rT9WnKA" target="_blank">The Daily Maverick</a> has the tragic story of the death of Nqobile Nzuza. <br />
<br />
The squatters suggest that it was outright murder. The police contend they felt their lives were in danger and shot into the crowd. Either way, there's no defense for shooting people exercising their constitiutional rights.<br />
<br />
According to the police, the officers involved used "necessary force." KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni said, "We acknowledge and respect that the public has a constitution right
to demonstrate but the police also has a constitutional mandate to
maintain law and order. Violent protests are not acceptable and the
police has responsibility to protect property and lives during these
violent protests."<br />
<br />
Apparently, the police in Durban think this gives them a license to kill the poor.<br />
<br />
For more background on the awful history of violence on the part of the authorities in Durban and the ongoing dirty war being waged against the courageous squatter organizing group Abahlali baseMjondolo, read <a href="http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2013-09-27-there-will-be-blood/#.Uks7Wz9WnKB" target="_blank">this article</a>.<em></em>rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-10801556717599833922013-08-07T17:15:00.001-04:002013-08-07T17:18:19.664-04:00proud of being a squatter<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://thinkafricapress.com/sites/default/files/styles/400xy/public/ojewska.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="http://thinkafricapress.com/sites/default/files/styles/400xy/public/ojewska.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
“What we all want is to live with dignity. This means for me to
able to be proud of who I am – a slum dweller.”<br />
<br />
Those are the words of<i> Bright Dzila,</i> a resident of Old Fadama, the largest shantytown in Accra.<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://thinkafricapress.com/ghana/old-fadama-slum" target="_blank">Think Africa Press</a> offers a sympathetic account of the decade-long fight this neighborhood of 80,000 people alongside the Odaw River and the Korle Lagoon has been waging to stave off eviction and be allowed to live in freedom and dignity.</div>
rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-11847634447994922013-07-02T11:52:00.001-04:002013-07-02T12:12:03.896-04:00tons of money, but who benefits?China has allocated $5.73 billion for upgrading shantytown neighborhoods this year, <a href="http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-05/17/content_16508134.htm" target="_blank">China Daily</a> reports. For some perspective, that's more than ten times<a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/04/governing-council-ups-un-habitat%E2%80%99s-budget-to-390-million/" target="_blank"> the yearly budget of UN-Habitat</a>.<br />
<br />
Of course, if the past is any indication, China will probably use the money for demolition, destroying longstanding communities to make way for luxury highrises.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-70564061976940468482013-06-22T12:45:00.002-04:002013-06-22T12:45:58.481-04:00the World Cup runneth over<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Business/Pix/cartoon/2013/6/22/1371895266185/Brazil-protests-010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Business/Pix/cartoon/2013/6/22/1371895266185/Brazil-protests-010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/22/brazil-favelas-frontline-world-cup" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> offers a view of the Brazilian street demonstrations from Fortaleza, capital of the northeastern state of Ceará and, according to the United Nations, the 5th most unequal city in the world.<br />
<br />
Money quote:<br />
<br />
<b><i>For Forteleza's poor, the World Cup has meant changes including the
forced removal of 5,000 people from communities Lagoa da Zeza and Vila
Cazumba to areas without schools, and fears that the tournament will
increase exploitation of children in a city that has been trying to
shake off its reputation for sex tourism.</i></b><br />
<br />
Money stat:<br />
<b><i>While 133,000 people in Fortaleza live in extreme poverty, 1/3 of them without any sanitation services, the city spent $230 million to renovate the local soccer stadium. </i></b>rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-47610483251357794952013-06-20T13:08:00.001-04:002013-06-20T13:08:10.361-04:00squatter water torture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.irinnews.org/photo/Download.aspx?Source=Report&Year=2012&ImageID=201209121107510139&Width=490" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://www.irinnews.org/photo/Download.aspx?Source=Report&Year=2012&ImageID=201209121107510139&Width=490" width="320" /></a></div>
Let's hope that Bangladesh follows through on <a href="http://www.irinnews.org/report/98227/in-brief-piped-water-for-dhaka-slums" target="_blank">this promise</a> to bring water pipes to every Dhaka shantytown and squatter community in the next two years. As I said in a recent talk at TEDx Hamburg (not online yet, but it will be soon): if government's won't provide water, it's socially good for squatters to steal it. Two million people a year die of water borne diseases--and, whether squatters steal municipal water or government brings it, providing potable water to neighborhoods that have previously been denied it could save hundreds of thousands of lives.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-76826891864611792022013-06-03T03:40:00.002-04:002013-06-04T19:47:21.666-04:00Istanbul at war with itself<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://fre.habitants.org/var/ezwebin_site/storage/images/media/images/sulukule_forced_from_their_homes_turkey_1/497620-1-eng-GB/sulukule_forced_from_their_homes_turkey_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://fre.habitants.org/var/ezwebin_site/storage/images/media/images/sulukule_forced_from_their_homes_turkey_1/497620-1-eng-GB/sulukule_forced_from_their_homes_turkey_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">what passes for redevelopment, Sulukule, Istanbul, 2009</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"Across the city, the urban poor are being paid to leave their homes so
that contractors — many with ties to government officials — can build
gated communities."<br />
<br />
This factoid was buried in a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/world/middleeast/development-spurs-larger-fight-over-turkish-identity.html?hp" target="_blank">New York Times</a> article about the Taksim Square protests in Istanbul.<br />
<br />
<br />
For years, the government of Tayyip Erdogan has taken an oddly punitive attitude towards poor neighborhoods. They were part of his power base, but also areas that politicians selected for eviction and what was very loosely called redevelopment. Roma neighborhoods like <a href="http://emrahkavlak.com/sulukule-eviction-process/" target="_blank">Sulukule</a>, Avcilar and <a href="http://www.eurasianet.org/node/63900" target="_blank">Tarlabasi </a>were among those in the cross hairs.<br />
<br />
By 2009, 12,000 people had been forcibly removed from their homes -- but <a href="http://mappingthecommons.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/forced-eviction-map/" target="_blank">millions more were threatened</a> as city officials proposed to 'rebuild' more than a million homes. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://reclaimistanbul.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/map1small.jpg?w=830" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://reclaimistanbul.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/map1small.jpg?w=830" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The government's methods were questionable, as the New York Times article suggests: As one Avcilar merchant told the paper, “One day we just got a notice, and bam, before we could put up a proper
fight, 300 to 400 police came and held us back from intervening with the
bulldozers that knocked down our restaurant. They said we didn’t have deeds for the
property, but we do. We showed them. They argued that we only had a deed
for part of the property, so they knocked the rest down.”<br />
<br />
Of course, the majority of title deeds in Turkey are partial -- conveying what is called <i>hisseli tapu</i>, an ill-defined right to a shared interest in a parcel. By this standard, almost every neighborhood in Istanbul could be considered at risk of eviction and demolition. <br />
<br />
Up until now, the Erdogan demolitions have succeeded because they destroyed neighborhoods with little political swat. Now officials have turned to Taksim--a popular crossroads for young people and tourists--and there's more pushback. In respose, Erdogan called the protestors "looters" and "bums" and denounced "a menace which is called Twitter."<br />
<br />
A <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/analysis-turkey-realizes-strength-with-occupy-taksim-protest.aspx?pageID=238&nID=48076&NewsCatID=470" target="_blank">Hurriyet</a> columnist suggests that the roots of the current protest stem from "the so-called “table
operations” nearly two years ago and the symbolic tiny streets were
“cleared off” from tables serving alcohol."<br />
<br />
The suggestion seems to be that this is part of Erdogan's social war against secularism. But the eviction drives over the past five years suggest that this is a far wider war for the shape and soul of the historic city.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-12102042606174276332013-05-18T15:23:00.000-04:002013-05-18T15:23:02.490-04:00eviction depictionBrazil's plans for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics have forced 30,000 people from their homes and is making Rio de Janeiro "an even more unequal city, which will exclude thousands of families
and destroy entire communities," a study by a consortium of non-profits has concluded.<br />
<br />
"Our fears are being confirmed. The benefits and social legacy that are
so widely trumpeted really hide a dark legacy: an elitist, segregated
and unequal society. It is a sad thing to see," said Orlando Alves dos
Santos Jr., a sociologist and urban planner and one of the coordinators of the study issued by the <a href="http://comitepopulario.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Comité Popular da Copa e das Olimpíadas</a>. In particular, the reports authors contend, investments and evictions for the two sporting events seem designed to push poor people to the outskirts--and this can be seen in a vast ramp-up in property values all around Rio.<br />
<br />
The report concludes that the two events amount to "a project that will appropriate the
majority of benefits for a select few economic and social agents."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/05/official-bullying-lurks-behind-prep-for-olympics-in-brazil/" target="_blank">Inter Press Service</a> has details.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-64285840840902397392013-05-14T12:49:00.003-04:002013-05-14T12:49:42.884-04:00the ultimate in favela tourism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media.philly.com/images/526*395/Travel-Trip-Rio-Shant_Kauf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://media.philly.com/images/526*395/Travel-Trip-Rio-Shant_Kauf.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Now there are two cable cars in Rio de Janeiro: Pao de Azucar and Complexo do Alemao. The Associated Press, via <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/living/Unlikely_tourist_ride_Rio_shantytown_cable_car_.html" target="_blank">Philly.com</a> has details.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-5195578407186572562013-04-29T11:18:00.000-04:002013-04-29T11:18:16.981-04:00Spain's new shantytown<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/video/europe/2013/04/201342982749100692.html" target="_blank">Al Jazeera</a> visits Madrid's outcasts in La Canada Real.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-53916529302352602502013-03-04T13:57:00.000-05:002013-03-04T13:57:09.945-05:00Corrala Utopía<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/04/corrala-movement-occupying-spain" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reports on the real occupiers--an organization of a network of squatted buildings in Spain. Learn more, in Spanish, <a href="http://corralautopia.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Money quote from the article:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In 2010 Spanish banks foreclosed on more than 100,000 households.
Macarena, the district of Seville in which Corrala Utopía stands, now
has the highest eviction-rate in the city. Yet in Seville's greater
metropolitan area alone an estimated 130,000 unsellable, unrentable
homes are lying empty.</blockquote>
It's simple math: thousands of families made homeless, not through any fault of their own, but because they were victimized by the financial crisis and continuing austerity budgets + thousands of unsellable, unrentable homes = a natural match.<br />
<br />
There are now 5 million umemployed people in Spain. That's the Labor Ministry's number. Not to worry: the<a href="http://en.europeonline-magazine.eu/labour-ministry-data-shows-job-seekers-surpass-5-million-in-spain_268065.html" target="_blank"> official statistics agency</a> lists more than 6 million people as unemployed in the country--which means more than 1/4 of the country's working population is out of work, and the economy's set to contract by 1.4 percent this year. <br />
<br />
For a contrasting tidbit, it's been a good year for Amancio Ortega, the Spaniard whose Inditex empire includes the global fast-fashion firm Zara. He's now the 3rd wealthiest man in the world, worth <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/04/us-billionaires-list-ortega-idUSBRE9230RL20130304" target="_blank">$57 billion</a>.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-2545431207995666342013-01-31T10:57:00.001-05:002013-01-31T10:57:38.302-05:00is is demolition one of the millennium development goals?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2013/01/LIberiaprotests.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ipsnews-net.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/Library/2013/01/LIberiaprotests.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
A dozen buildings in Monrovia have been demolished in a so-called clean up drive as Liberia is set to host a high-level UN panel on the millennium development goals later this week.<br />
<br />
“We want to make this city the greenest and cleanest city in West Africa,” Monrovia Mayor Mary Broh told the UN's <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/01/liberian-homes-demolished-as-global-leaders-meet/" target="_blank">Inter Press Service</a>.<br />
<br />
Money quote: The two contrasting images of a meeting of world leaders at a five-star
hotel in downtown Monrovia as blocks away locals decry the demolition of
their homes raises questions about the purpose and substance of the
meeting and the implications it will have for this post-war country,
student activist Janjay Gbarkpe told IPS.<br />
<br />
Indeed. If this doesn't make you angry, and doesn't make you question whether the UN's Millennium Development Goals are serious or meaningful, what the hell will? As the protestor's sign says, with dignified understatement, "All is not well." rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-79380120248139654192013-01-15T10:22:00.002-05:002013-01-15T10:22:34.793-05:00Gentrification hits VidigalThe <a href="http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21023261" target="_blank">BBC</a> reports on the massive property boom in Rio's favelas. A huge rise in prices is pushing people out. To what extent is this fueled by the Olympics and the World Cup?rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-12291325441025835672012-12-14T06:09:00.004-05:002012-12-14T06:10:39.182-05:00'living on Chiney man land until him decide fi run we'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20121214/news/images/RastaCornerA20121130IA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20121214/news/images/RastaCornerA20121130IA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
That's the desperate situation of squatters in Jamaica. With a close-to 50 percent increase in the number of families living as squatters over the past decade, the government is turning punitive. Dr Morais Guy, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Transport,
Works and Housing, says the government is proposing to implement a modern
trespass act to replace the permissive 160-year-old law that dates to the end of slavery.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20121214/news/news4.html" target="_blank">The Gleaner</a> reports on the difficult situation of several squatters in Rasta City, a shack community in Clarendon.<br />
<br />
Question for the government: if more and more people are becoming squatters, how do you expect turning them into criminals will help?rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-6981387837267568042012-12-14T05:49:00.002-05:002012-12-14T05:49:38.111-05:00Rome: Open for Squatting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/a.XeZx.sQWBbs5pIFB7z0g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0yOTE7cT03OTt3PTQ1MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2012-12-13T102151Z_2_CBRE8BC0SRX00_RTROPTP_2_ITALY-VOTE-SQUAT.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/a.XeZx.sQWBbs5pIFB7z0g--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0yOTE7cT03OTt3PTQ1MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2012-12-13T102151Z_2_CBRE8BC0SRX00_RTROPTP_2_ITALY-VOTE-SQUAT.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
According to government statistics, there are 2,850 squatter-occupied buildings in Rome. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/13/us-italy-vote-squat-idUSBRE8BC0C820121213" target="_blank">Reuters</a> reports on one, a former public archives building which is now occupied by 140 families. <span id="articleText"><span class="focusParagraph">Mariangela Schiena and her boyfriend </span></span><br /><span id="articleText">Henok Mulugeta moved in six months ago, after they lost their retail jobs. Unemployment among young people has passed 35 percent and those who do have jobs are often hired only </span>on <span id="articleText"> temporary contracts with limited benefits.</span><br />
<br />
<span id="articleText">The squatters are pooling their money and sprucing up the building for Christmas. </span><span id="articleText"><span id="articleText">Schiena and Mulugeta have been working cash-in-hand jobs as cleaners and have managed to furnish their room with appliances, a television (complete with cable subscription), and a video game console.</span></span><br />
<span id="articleText"><br /></span>
<span id="articleText">The danger is that Rome is also enforcing more evictions -- pushing people from 176 buildings in 2011. This is a 12 percent increase from the number of squatter-occupied buildings the city vacated in 2007.</span><br />
<span id="articleText"><br /></span>
<span id="articleText">The government claims its combination of tax hikes and spending cuts will ultimately end the economic hardship. But the street-level view is not so rosy. Said Schiena, "</span><span id="articleText"><span id="articleText">All my friends are losing their jobs from one day to the next. I don't think this crisis is over." </span> </span>rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-42558146964471779242012-11-12T12:04:00.001-05:002012-11-12T12:04:43.652-05:00Spain's squatter solution<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/12/world/europe/spain-evictions-create-an-austerity-homeless-crisis.html?ref=world&_r=0&pagewanted=all" target="_blank"><i>The New York Times</i></a> may avoid the word in the headline, but there's no hiding what this article is about: After the collapse of the housing bubble and the ruthless austerity imposed by the Eurozone, Spain is experiencing a a huge ramp up in evictions and homelessness -- and squatting is one of the solutions.<br />
<br />
The article starts with the story of Francisco Rodríguez Flores, 71, and his wife, Ana López Corral, 67, their daughters, and their grandkids. When their daughters lost their jobs, they were evicted and came home to live with their parents. But when the parents fell behind on their own mortgage payments, the whole extended family was evicted from their small Seville apartment. They wound up living in the hallway and in a van. Now, they are part of a group squatting in a luxury apartment block that had been vacant for three years.As <i>The Times</i> reports, "There is no electricity. The water was recently cut off, and there is
the fear that the authorities will evict them once again. But, Mrs.
López says, they are not living on the street — at least not yet."<br />
<br />
There's simply no reason why families -- including senior citizens -- should be condemned to a life on the street when there are, as the paper reports, 2 million vacant apartments around the country.<br />
<br />rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-72765157316827224972012-10-12T15:01:00.002-04:002012-10-12T15:01:31.769-04:00razings continue in Rio<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://rioonwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/metro-folha.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="http://rioonwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/metro-folha.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
Homes destroyed to widen a path. Communities ripped apart. This has become the daily threat to 1/5 of the population of Rio de Janeiro, where officials are pushing to tear apart the fabric of the city and its favelas. <a href="http://rioonwatch.org/?p=5577" target="_blank">Rio on Watch</a> reports on some of the latest outrages. In particular, Theresa Williamson and her worthy group <a href="http://www.catcomm.org/en/" target="_blank">CatComm</a>, also report that <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morro_da_Babil%C3%B4nia" target="_blank">Babilônia</a></span></span>, an 80-year-old favela on the hill above Leme and Copacabana Beach, is <a href="http://hosted.vresp.com/363276/4dddbd8298/1460511091/2ccc3c61aa/" target="_blank">under threat</a>. Residents are being asked to sign away the rights to their hillside homes, with only the purported promise of a unit in a horrible housing project 2 hours out of town.<br />
<br />
CatComm and Rio on Watch offer legal representation to these beleaguered homesteaders and want to create a community journalism program so people can document the threats to their longstanding communities live, as they happen. It's an extremely important cause.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-87278569766952658092012-09-12T06:49:00.002-04:002012-09-12T06:49:44.576-04:00squatter librariansIn what appears to be a tactical shift since the British government made it a criminal act for squatters to take over derelict residential properties, squatters have occupied and re-opened the Friern Barnet library in North London, which had been closed by the local council. According to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/11/squatters-reopen-friern-barnet-library" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>, 270 local libraries around the country have been shuttered due to budget cuts. The Barnet council has said it wants to sell this library site to a developer. The squatters haven't said what they'll do if the council goes through with its plan, but the new squatter library opened to the public yesterday, and local residents, who have been fighting to keep the library open, seem quite happy with the take-over.<br />
<br />
"One action is worth 1,000 words," said Mike Gee, who has collected 7000 signatures on a petition to keep the library open. "I fully endorse what the
squatters have done but I am concerned about the situation. Does the
council pay a librarian to do an honest day's work or does the council
chief executive, who is on 10 times a librarian's salary, get volunteers
to do the job for free?"rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9738873.post-46694916973591667042012-08-13T12:58:00.000-04:002012-08-13T13:02:10.526-04:00what providence?In a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/13/opinion/in-the-name-of-the-future-rio-is-destroying-its-past.html">New York Times Op-Ed</a>, Theresa Williamson, of <a href="http://rioonwatch.org/" title="Rio On Watch">RioOnWatch.org</a>, and Maurício Hora, of <a href="http://www.favelarte.org.br/?page_id=101&lang=en">Favelarte</a>, document how Rio de Janeiro's Olympic plans involve the destruction of most of the first favela, Morro do Providência.<br />
<br />
Here's a frightening detail: "at the very top of the hill, some 70 percent of homes are marked for
eviction — an area supposedly set to benefit from the transportation
investments being made. But the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTHUvqIN45o" title="Cable car">luxury cable car</a> will transport 1,000 to 3,000 people per hour during the Olympics. It’s not residents who will benefit, but <a href="http://bit.ly/Mekscw">investors</a>."<br />
<br />
<div itemprop="articleBody">
Their proposal is inclusion: "Rio is becoming a playground for the rich, and inequality breeds
instability. It would be much more cost-effective to invest in urban
improvements that communities help shape through a participatory
democratic process. This would ultimately strengthen Rio’s economy and
improve its infrastructure while also reducing inequality and empowering
the city’s still marginalized Afro-Brazilian population" </div>
<br />
Seems like a gold medal solution--but Rio seems determined to pave Providência and put up a parking lot.rnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01115499862681364911noreply@blogger.com7