It’s official, in 2016 the Olympics will shed it’s gracious light on the Brazilian state of Rio De Janeiro in the city of the same name, with it’s stunning beaches, famous statues and vibrant culture. As the world turns it’s attention to the famous city it cannot possible ignore the violence in the slums and favelas.

Favelas are shantytowns that look like mountains of small boxes with windows and doors made of tin and red brick. The residents of Brazil’s favelas will not likely be attending the Olympics, many of them will not likely be making it to 2016. It was recently reported on the LEAP blog (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) that 2,757 homicides were registered in the city of Rio De Janeiro in 2008. It is estimated that the police are responsible for 1 in 5 of these killings.

The low-income areas have erupted into a battlefield where drug wars are being fought between the police and gangs like the Terceiro Comando. These battles are conducted over the heads of families who may or may not be involved in the illegal drug market. Men, women and children are dieing in the hundreds. Children especially, often these gangs prefer to use children to do their dirty work as they receive shorter prison sentences.

Rio has only six short years to amend this situation before the eyes of the world are firmly fixed on it’s every flaw. Surely this isn’t the only Olympic city that has it’s share of social problems. Of course millions protested the 2008 games in China advocating that the world should boycott the entire event for the sake of Tibet and His Holiness. For the upcoming 2010 games in Vancouver rumours are traveling rapidly through the city that the huge homeless population will be deposited on an isolated island for the duration of the games.

It’s seems strange that so many would speak out against Chicago hosting the games citing the extreme violence amongst the cities teenaged inhabitants and barely even a peep about the drug wars, gang violence and police brutality in Rio. Of course American teenagers have names and grieving families. But the hundreds of Brazilian kids lying dead in the streets before their thirteenth birthday? We’ll just not worry about them. What would the Olympics be without a little controversy to boost the ratings?

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Tags: rio de janeiro, rio olympics 2016, summer olympics

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Olympics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.