Fury at ‘ghettoisation’ as Rio slums are to be sealed off by 10ft walls

[Blue_Tires]

May 26, 2009

Walls are going up around the hillside slums of Rio de Janeiro, further dividing a city already separated between rich and poor.

Beneath the gaze of the statue of Christ the Redeemer, work is nearing completion on one of 19 walls to be built around the city’s sprawling favelas — the informal and often crime-ridden shantytowns that are home to more than a million people.

Critics say that the concrete barriers, up to 3m high, will seal the favelas as ghettos, segregating the inhabitants by sealing them off from the richer areas.

“We had the Berlin Wall, we have the walls of Palestine, now the walls of Rio,” José Saramago, the author and Nobel laureate, said.

Sérgio Cabral, the Governor of Rio, has plans to surround 13 favelas in the south almost completely in a project that he says is designed to stop their sprawl destroying the last of the city’s forested peaks. In a city riven by violence, mistrust and social inequality, few believe him.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6360807.ece

[Hannah Bell]

1. kick.....

[Butch350]

2. Hey, finally, the first sanctuary district.

[burning rain]

3. Oh man, this makes Rudy Giuliani seem like a bleeding heart.

`

[Hannah Bell]

4. 1959

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0jZRkFtksI&feature=player_embedded

http://listenrecovery.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/black-orpheus-orfeu-negro-the-movie-1959-music-by-venicius-de-moraes-brief-intro-part-1-extracted-from-wikipedia/