#complexo alemao

[naborga]

Homem apanhado a assediar uma criança é agredido por populares

Homem apanhado a assediar uma criança é agredido por populares

[adinserter name=”Abaixo video”] ATENÇÃO: As imagens contidas no vídeo podem ferir as susceptibilidades dos leitores mais sensíveis. Alegadamente, este homem foi apanhado a assediar uma criança de seis anos, no Complexo de Alemão, em Rio de Janeiro, no Brasil. Segundo o jornal Metro UK, a mãe da criança, que faria seis anos nesse…

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[theprinceandthepauper]

Ordem e Progresso

Rio de Janeiro already has one famous cable car system; the one that serves the iconic Sugarloaf Mountain, but now the Cidade Maravilhosa has a new system that is worlds away from the touristy, picture-postcard setting of its famous landmark. This new cable-car serves the notorious Complexo Alemão, a huge amalgamation of various favelas in the city’s North Zone and last Friday, whilst working with one of Time Out Rio’s editors, I had the opportunity to travel on this extensive network which goes for about 2 or 3 miles and includes several stations along the way.

My colleague and I boarded the cable car at its starting point in Bonsucesso train station in the North Zone. The cable-car’s platform has been neatly integrated with the original train station and we were guided in the right direction by attendants as we walked through the sparklingly new concourse. As we got on we were wished a good afternoon and safe journey by another attendant on the platform and were subsequently whisked up into the air, towards the first cable car station on the line. After only a matter of seconds, we were high enough to take in Rio’s breathtaking views with its incredibly beautiful landscape and its gravity defying favelas that populate the city’s hills and mountains. We passed through the first station and there we realised the sheer size of the Complexo Alemão, a city in its own right, were it for its size alone, and we finally got an idea of the cable car system’s extent. It links hill after hill, each with its own station that serves the community built on the steep hillsides. It was an incredible experience and I remember thinking “all of this for R$1” (about 40p) given that the cable car up Sugarloaf Mountain was a staggering R$54!   

  So why so cheap? The answer lies in this cable car’s purpose. Unlike Sugarloaf mountain, this system is not aimed at the (affluent, exploitable for their naiveté) tourists. This cable car was built for the needs of the inhabitants of the Complexo Alemão, solving a transport nightmare that these people faced for many years. Up on the hills, the majority of people were miles away from any main roads, and thus any buses, and given that the roads within these communities are more like alleyways, the only thing that could get up them were motorbikes. The new cable car system has now linked the different communities within the Complexo Alemão, providing them with journeys of 5-10 minutes that used to take an hour or two. It now means that the inhabitants that lived towards the top of these hills no longer face a pilgrimage-type trek up the steep slopes and myriad of steps to get home from the main road. Perhaps most importantly, the cable car’s integration with the trains means that hundreds of thousands of people now have easier access to the rest of the city and therefore the cable car continues the government’s ongoing efforts to integrate the favelas, unplanned and initially illegal settlements, with the rest of the city. This process of integration has been going on for a few years now and started with the government’s attempt to pacify the favelas, disbanding the drug gangs and establishing a permanent police presence within the communities. By laying down this foothold, the government hope to re-incorporate these communities back into mainstream society, promising to do things such as provide benefits and to improve the precarious infrastructure. With this whole re-integration of the favelas the government appears to be following the very words of the country’s motto, Ordem e Progresso, to a tee. By establishing order with the pacification of these communities, the subsequent progress is certainly being made here with a very practical transport innovation which will benefit hundreds of thousands of people. I’m not sure if you can tell, but I am a big fan.

  There was a low point to my day though. It was when we got off at the last stop in a community called Palmeiras, where a local lady noticed that we looked liked journalists and asked us if we were willing to do a story. She then proceeded to tell us about how the authorities had not followed through with their process of pacifying the favelas properly by providing the various government benefits they had promised. Things such as lunch coupons for the children as well as various other benefits had failed to reach these people despite the promises of the city’s government. She explained that behind the glossy finish of this new transport installation remained a lot of corruption, money falling into the wrong hands and the welfare of the people that need the help not attended to. And I sighed, not just because it is a sad truth, but indeed a sad truth that I hear so often in Brazil. Whenever I talk to Brazilians about the future prospects of the country, they are optimistic but it is this issue of corruption that always seems to overshadow this optimism. I am told it is everywhere, but where it is damaging the country most is at the highest levels of politics. They tell me that corruption is so entrenched that they have come to accept it as part of their way of life, a mentality that is engrained in the psyche that will take generations to break. I remember talking to my friend about a recent building collapse in the city and she said that all the efforts to improve the city’s infrastructure are noble but superficial. As they try to smooth over the cracks, to present a squeaky-clean looking Brazil, new cracks appear. She summed up this weak approach to fixing Brazil’s problems in one common expression: “para os ingleses ver” literally translated as “for the English to see” ie this is all done just for foreigners to think all is well, when clearly it is not.

  I think it is great that the government is providing such innovative transport solutions; it will truly benefit scores of people, many hardworking citizens, as well as reintegrating large swathes of the urban landscape back into the city. I have high hopes about Brazil’s future too, especially with the World Cup and the Olympic Games on the horizon. However there are still many underlying problems in Brazil that need to be addressed. I am a fan of Dilma Rouseff’s (Brazil’s President) gung ho attitude to tackling the issue of poverty here, especially her government’s new motto, “a rich country is a country without poverty” (País rico é país sem pobreza). It is just that until the country’s overwhelming corruption is actively dealt with, may be the Brazilian flag’s motto should in fact read: Ordem, Progresso…e Corrupção.

Ps. I never got to say how much I recommend this to anyone who visits, or even lives in Rio. It hasn’t got the glamour of Sugarloaf Mountain, but will open your eyes to how many people live here as well as treating you to some unforgettable views. It’s a steal at R$1 too!