How city dwellers manage a lower carbon footprint than their country cousins.
Dear all,
Congratulations on completing your final papers. I look forward to reading them. A couple of notes before you head off into the great beyond:
- You should absolutely list this fieldwork assignment on your résumé when you apply to jobs and/or graduate programs. Companies and universities would love to know that you are capable of conducting independent field research, so I advise that you put this on your résumé under a title like “Research Experience.”
- I think it is a right of any student to get feedback on their work. Otherwise, you’re just working for the abstract notion of a grade, which is never gratifying. If you want feedback on your paper, please email me and I will respond with comments. If you want your actual paper back with comments written on it, you can leave a self-addressed stamped envelope in my dept. mailbox (notify me by email).
Grades and feedback will not be ready until early June.
Enjoy your summer,
Alex / Prof. Angelini
Dunier’s use of the word environment and habitat is less associated with nature such as plants and forest life than it is regarding the order of the urban environment. My perception of Duneir’s use of the terms is how the people are positioned in society. The vendors in this case can be seen as fitting of their place in society because of the way in which they conduct themselves such as living on the streets, excreting in public, and binging on alcohol and drugs. This is how I see the words environment and habitat suit Duneir’s writing. It is simply accepted by society as acceptable, perhaps even natural, for them to place a stand in the middle of any given block trying to “make ends meet” per say.
In regards to Wirth and how a portion of the society as a whole assimilate into the masses, the vendors of sixth avenue can be seen in two ways. They are indeed assimilating in the sense that they are working to make money rather than stealing or any other sort of illegal methods in making money. On the other hand, they are isolated from society, and not assimilating, because they chose a different path in life rather than the typical office job, service job, etc. They chose to gather abandoned books and other reading material in hopes to resell them back to the public.
Duneier, writes about how many of the men were imprisoned and how the system is bad, and when they are released from jail they have no type of job or program to turn to. He also explains how many of these men come from well sustaining, normal families. From the way he writes it, i think he, himself is a little suprised that they come from well functioned homes. Then he goes on to explain how a while ago many of these men used to live in the Amtrack or pennsylvania railroad facilites. They would bathe and masturbate in the bathrooms, and wait for restaurants to give them left over food. Duneier also, mentions that the men would make some money off the commuters by helping them with their bags and other things. He goes on to say that after a while the unhoused population grew, and commuters began to get irritated. So, as a result the homeless men from the railroad were asked to leave or kicked out. Duneier explains how officials from Amtrack thought of ways to prevent the homless from being able to hide. Like the closet that was shown to Duneier and reffered to as a “niche”. Then Duneier describes how sixth avenue became the new Pennsylvania station. The men describe that it had all the elements that the station did. People to ask for money, places to sell things, and restaurants that can serve leftovers. These pages can be related to the other article about the metropolis. The author of the metropolis article writes that the only thing people care about in the city is money. People guard themselves, they think with their head and not their heart, i guess because the city is rough and people are always cautious of getting hurt. Money is the most important thing and people are only concerned with selling, and making money. The author says that most of the time people don’t even look at the faces they are selling to as long as they are getting money for it. He claims our minds have almost turned into a mathematical equation, where we add up and subtract the money we gain and lose. Our lives have turned into a set schedule and without this schedule we wouldn’t be able to properly function. Because of the quick lifestyle and our desire for money we live on nerves, which he calls the blase attitude. Nobody knows their neighbors, and the division of labor and money is quite evident. Finally, he mentions how people feen to be different, in the city. And lastly, after all of this he writes that we cannot judge other people only understand them. This article can be related to the book, because the reason the homeless were kicked out of the station was because they didn’t benefit anyone, no one was making money off of them.instead the owners were making money off the commuters so when people complained the homeless were kicked out. Also, when the men sell their books or products they could careless to who they sell these things to as long as they make a profit. Lastly, the only thing that doesnt make sense is the fact that restaurant owners on sixth avenue give these men food with nothing in return, that doesn’t fit in with the metropolis article. It’s sad but i agree with the metropolis article, it’s like we all live within the same parameters but we act like we are the only ones in the area. No one really tries to talk or get to know one another. And a big reason for that is the fact that people think other people are crazy, and also everyone is scared that if they talk to someone that person will think they are crazy. And so New Yorker’s, probably as well as other city people put up a guard.
You see what is happening is that as globalization is affecting more and more countries, racism, sexism, classism become forms by which people can now compete with one another and do better then others depending on which category they feat into from the above categories. Are they high class or low class, female or male, black or white? All of these determine a person’s accessibility to work and education. This is where the informal economy comes in. It doesn’t surprise me why so many people choose the informal economy. When one is unable to sustain under the formal economy because they cant get a job because of either lack of education, race, class, or their gender, people turn to what ever mean possible to make it. Even when individuals do get in the formal economy at times it isn’t enough to support them or their families because of raising prices or lowering wages due to globalization & gentrification, people turn to the informal economy. Moreover, as we can see from the video, the government doesn’t really help its people and so people need to do what ever they can to survive on their own. It is difficult to have corruption and at the same time peace and order. From the movie it seems that people would prefer corruption because at least that way the have people from the community like the drug dealers helping them more then the government helps them. And so they have someone to turn to when in need.
Invisible cities in an interesting book in that it fool’s you to believe that there are several cities being described when in fact it is all the same city just different aspects of it. Also it was interesting how Calvino arranged the chapters and named them after women’s names. Overall this book opens up your imagination about how cities can be. It shows you how one can view cities in a magical way. Ultimately Marco Polo describes one city without actually mentioning that city but in reality the whole time he was talking about one city.
I sent you an e-mail for this post a long time ago, Sunday, March 2nd, but i keep on forgetting to post it.
As Hakim i would definitely disagree with Wacquant.I feel like Hakim as
well as Mitch are both biased in the things they’ve written and their
feelings towards the men on the street. Hakim is out there everyday with
these men and as he says he doesn’t even have access to them. In order for
Mitch to start interviewing these men Hakim had to introduce him to
Marvin. For this reason i feel like Hakim has no idea of what it is truly
like to be a man on sixth ave. He is one of those rare cases that decided
to take a weird path in life. He’s not homeless, or addicted to drugs, or
has he done time in jail. He has no relation to the men on the street, the
men that Mitch was really focusing on. This is why Hakim is not an author
or a character he is simply the middle man. The man that got Mitch
interested in writing about the homeless people. I completely agree with
Wacquant, yes it’s true Duneier mentions some of the unpleasant things
about being homeless, but the way he writes it makes it seem like these
things are not a big deal. When everyone in class was arguing about how
people think that Duneier was romanticizing the book, the people didn’t
understood that the argument wasn’t that he wasn’t mentioning the harsh
times but the language that he used took away from the true weight of the
problem. In a novel the way an author writes can greatly scew an audience
and Duneier did just that, he has our whole class believing that the
unhoused people chose this path and that the zero tolerance policy in
states like New York and California are too harsh. But i think that’s
nonsense. Being an individual like Hakim and not wanting to be a slave
under capitalism is one thing, but completely throwing out all types of
understanding and manners or values is another. Homeless people should not
be praised for being homeless and going through hard times. They should be
taken off the street and taught that it’s not the way to live. Duneier is
ridiculous when he tries to claim that the homeless people create some
type of comfort for people on the street, or what Wacquant mentioned. The
reality is i don’t know a single person who says” wow, thank god there’s
homeless people on the street, I’m really glad”. I think that they are a
nuisance to everyone. I’m not saying that some homeless people really have
no other choice, but the truth is a lot of those homeless people are just
lazy, and drug addicted and think that living on the street is normal. i
mean we live in America not in the inner cities of a third world country.
And I’m not saying that it’s ok to be homeless in third world countries ,
because it’s not but i can actually have sympathy for the people in those
countries because they really don’t have any other choice. The homeless
people in America live in one of the wealthiest most helping countries in
the world. With all of the outreach programs and jobs there is a way to
get off the street, because in America there is always a way for most
especially healthy citizens. There should be no reason why someone who can
afford to live in an apartment, (like Ishmael if i recall correctly),
should choose the street instead of a comfy room. And there’s no reason
why hard working people should be disturbed and constantly annoyed because
some lazy drug addicted person decided they want to live off of other
people’s hard work. There’s no excuse, yes people might have grown up in
bad neighborhoods with nothing, but there’s millions of people like that
and not everyone is homeless. This is wrong, and Duneier in my opinion
made it seem like it was totally ok. Even the chapter with the urinating
and the defecating, he could have used stronger language instead, he made
it seem like it was the restaurants fault for people peeing on the street
in front of others. Yes, why not let homeless people go into restaurants
and bother people for money and food while they are eating? I obviously
don’t have an answer for the homeless problem we have in New York but i
think the last thing we need is people writing ethnographies in a very
biased way.
During the discussions yesterday, someone mentioned an article discussing how public spaces are never used as their intended form. if someone can email to me the article name, my email is sammhaddad@gmail.com THANKS!
Duneier wants us to appreciate and honor the people from sidewalk. We should not give them any cold eyes. These people are trying their best to keep up and “fix” their window.
He mentioned he lost his job and started working at his book, which eventually lead him to become a street vendor. As a matter of fact that he is ashamed of the title of street vendor, he revealed he had to come up with an excuse when he met his ex co-worker while he is selling books on street.
If I were Hakim, I would definitely on Duneier’s side. For the fact that he had spent tremendous time us (street people). Even though Duneier clearly did not want to become a member of the street people, especially in the eye’s of others. Yet, he certainly attempts to defense the street people in his book.
So the question is what is space and how we use it. well from the readings from lefebvres he breaks down space as spatial practice, representation of the space, representational space and social space. the spatial practice is how we perceive space because you don’t see things to be one way out of no where it takes time for you to see space as it is. its like you learned to see space a certain way and now thats the way you teach others to see it. yet in bordens article you see that the skateborders perceieve space differently from others. they see things as objects and life less and they don’t take into consideration the foundation as a whole. for example skatersborders will skate all over sculptures and statues and not think for once who made it and why its there. they just see it as a place to do tricks and ride all over it. they see the city as a collection of objects and they don’t see the real characteristics of the city. to skateborders the city is just one big surface to ride on, its like a big play ground. thats why in lefebvre describes how, each person percieves space different or you learned to see space in a certain in way. its like you can make space anything you want it to be as long as it fits what you are trying to accomplish.
In Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino describes in great length the cities Marco Polo visited ad nauseum. My favorite city is the one on stilts, it reminds me of the favellas in Rio that we watched in City of God. However, every city has some feeling of New York, it also occured to me, every city mentioned in Invisible Cities has an element of every major city in the world. It is also interesting to see Calvino’s structure of the chapters in the way he numbered and named the chapters (Cities and Dreams etc.)
Italo Calvino essentially did an abstract of every city, and used a somewhat socratic method until Kublai Kahn realized the game Marco Polo was playing with him…
In the reading “Men and Jobs,” by Liebow and Bourgois, was about men who basically doesnt care about theirs job, or even having a job. It was really funny when i read up to the part about the employer’s “wage-theft system.” The employer would include stealing in their employee’s regular earning. So if the employee worked 50 hours a week, they should normally receive $50 on their paycheck ($1/day). However, the employer would assume that their employee had stole something, which would be deducted from their paycheck. This method would be good for the employees that actually stole from their workplace, but it would be sad for the people who didn’t steal anything. They would basically work twice as much with half the price. They might as well steal!
For the men that are good-natured and works for good-will, normally won’t steal. However, working in these kind of work environment with these kinds of work ethics and employers, it brings their self-esteem down. It makes them feel really ‘low’ of themselves. To some people, it is a clever idea to steal from their employers, but they will have no self-respect from doing that. In today’s society, there are codes of conduct for everywhere you work. However, this reading doesn’t seem to have any of that. The people in the community are looked upon as lazy, irresponsible, not trust-worthy and EVIL.
I guess man doesn’t care if they have a job or not in the beginning of the reading, because their job doesn’t show how helpful, educated and constructive as other occupations. They are not doctors, lawyers, or teachers. They feel useless and they no longer have any respect for themselves.
I think the statement, “it becomes hard to remain a Puerto Rican man in the new economy,” means that Puerto Ricans are looked upon as uneducated, but hardworking, so it’s hard to remain that way. Uneducated people will no longer be hardworking because they have no more self-esteem and self-worth.
Gentrification today is seen as “white-washing” particular underdeveloped area. Contrary to popular belief, i feel that gentrification is the same all over. A venture capitalist or real estate group starts buying up a particular area and making it more expensive, the process is quick and harmful. As a New Yorker, gentrification is everywhere, Coney Island is a perfect example… Thor Equities Group bought up all the properties and drove out all the good people of Coney Island, they are turning it into a gambling resort and night clubs. What kind of clientèle does this invite?
A rich, unethical person.
Here are some questions I asked to one of my Brazilians friends regarding the Favelas in Sao Paulo (you should take a look at them to have a perspective from someone who grew up in Sao Paulo)
1. Have you ever been or lived in a Favela?I’ve been to, never lived in one. Favelas are ghettoes, only poor and uneducated people live there. It has to do with background, income and lack of opportunities. 2. If you ever been in a Favela, What is it like for you? It’s architecturally ugly and lacks infrastructure and planning. They’re illegally built on either public or privately owned properties or lots that have been invaded. 3. Why do you think the Favelas exists?Because there is poverty, uneven wealth distribution, high illiteracy rates, scarce investment specially in the poorer regions, and to top it off, politicians that, for years, turned a blind eye to the problem allowing it to escalate to the current chaotic level. 4. How many Favelas are there in Sao Paulo? Way too many! 5. Can you name the most popular Favela in Sao Paulo?Heliopolis, Paraisopolis. 6. Do you think racism is involved in the creation of the Favelas?There is no doubt about it. 7. Since when do you think the Favelas exists? It started out when slavery was abolished and the freed blacks didn’t have a place to dwell in and began to build illegal shacks. It got worse during the 70’s (and since then has only grown) when a lot of impoverished peasants from the Northeast (by far Brazil’s poorest region) fled their rural hometowns in mass looking for better chances and wages in big cities like Rio and Sao Paulo. 8. Do you think the city goverment should be blamed for the existence of the Favelas? including govermental corrupt practices.Corruption is the cancer that weighs Brazil down. 9. Is the goverment doing anything to help the residents of the Favelas?Many favelas now have a neighborhood status, meaning it’s now “official”, not “illegal dwellings”. They are granted benefits such as paved streets, electricity, buses, schools, etc. Starting in the past decade a number of programs have been implemented: Bolsa Escola, Fome Zero, Bolsa Familia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolsa_Fam%C3%ADlia). 10.How is the relationship between the residents of the Favelas and the rest of Sao Paulo residents, in terms of acceptance?Of course there is prejudice, people in general look down on favelados but, Brazil is pretty laidback in terms of social interaction, everybody just lives next to each other and deal with it. 11.Do you personally know anyone who lives in the Favelas?I guess most of the housekeepers we’ve had in our homes, as well as construction workers, street vendors, etc….One of the housekeepers that used to clean my apartment in Sao Paulo would tell me horror stories about watching people being shot right in front of her house, having to duck and dodge stray bullets when rival gangs fought over “drug territory”. It’s pretty rough! 12.If you know anyone from the Favelas, How is your relationship with that individual?Just as it would be with anyone regardless of where they live. The difference is the stories you hear. 13.Do you think the residents in the Favelas should be blamed themselves for living in those conditions? I’m sure there are people, in general, who don’t put much effort into achieving better conditions for themselves. However the problem is much more complex and it involves centuries of lack of opportunities for blacks, people with Indian ancestry and peasants. Not to mention that Capitalism is only good if you happen to have money. 14.Do you think the Favelados are lazy? why?I believe some of them are, and those end up as drug dealers, because they want it “easy”, don’t want to be a “sucker” who gets up before dawn, commutes for hours and makes low wages that can barely feed their families. Most of them are hard workers, just poor and uneducated. 15.Do you think some residents in the Favelas like to live in those conditions and therefore they think there is nothing wrong? If you think so, why?I guess there are always people who seem to be content to be who they are and refuse to change, specially when changing means applying yourself and making some sacrifices to achieve a more prosperous life. Also, I believe that millions of people “think poor”, because they grew up in poverty, as well as their parents, grandparents, friends, acquaitances, etc, that’s all they know, they relate to it. Many of those people have that mindset that they deserve little, for instance, the school system is lowsy, and they accept it because it’s “free”, when in actuality it is provided by taxpayers money. 16.Is the federal goverment doing anything help the Favelados?(Question #9) 17.Do you believe the Favelas will disappear soon or they will grow larger?Eventually in a distant future they will disappear, currently they’ve grown bigger and bigger from the day they started. 18.Do you think the extreme poverty in the Favelas is as extreme as portrayed in the media?If you watch some of the recent Brazilian movies (for some reason the favorite theme now is Favela life), you’ll have the opportunity to see exactly what it’s like to be in a Favela, they’re pretty accurate portrayals.
I have to say that both the movies we watched were incredibly moving and interesting, in the sense that I have never seen any documentary quite like it. It was moving in the sense that it portrayed a whole side of life and this world that I think is mostly invisible to people. Even for me, I never knew the extent to which the whole situation was occuring.
The fictional movie was equally interesting because it came from a child’s point of view. I found that to be so impressive because, whether it was truth or fiction, a child’s point of view is very informative. They see life on a whole other level, partly because they have a different outlook. They have less responsibility for the overall society and yet they are the beneficiaries of the products of society. But, even more than that, they are very observant and quick to see things.
I liked that they made one kid be very focused on school and the other focused on the community and the drug dealers, but both kids had a good heart and they tried to do the right thing. Growing up in a culture like that, finding the right path is probably very difficult.
I had these questions circulating in my mind. How did they documentors and directors of the first movie even get the chance or the access to what they got? How did they establish trust, or did they establish trust? How true is City of Men? Is it actually located in a real favela or was that a recreation? How did poeple react to either film?
The favelas are clearly informal cities. Yet, they straddle a funny line because they are in “formal” cities. Do they follow social dictates? How do the people deal with the conflicts everyday?
In case you missed class today, the deadline to submit your ethnography in hardcopy is next Friday, May 16th, at 4pm in the SOC/ANT dept. (Room 4-260). There is a drop-box against the far wall near the department administrator’s desk. You will see a slot labeled “ANT 3153 - Urban Anthro - Angelini” in which to leave your paper. The dept. door is locked around 4:30, so do not risk being late.
It seems like in all of the readings and videos relating to favelas the police and poverty are the main enemies. It was very disheartening to read these passages and view the videos because you would think that in certain instances you would rely on the help of the police but instead these residents rely on help from gangs. It is sad to know that Carolina Maria de Jesus cannot feed her children most of the time and somewhat witnessed a young boy die of food poisoning because of hunger. Poverty is so rampant in these favelas as well as discrimination and unfairness because of class. It seems as though life has not changed since the 1950s when Carolina Maria de Jesus wrote her journal, except for the fact that there is technology such as televisions now. There is alot of discrimination going on still, and the poverty had not improved.
I would say that the reading relate to the video greatly because you see the hardships in the video and you can seee it in readings. HOwever, these people in the favolas are people that work long hours for little money and then there are the people that are risking their lives working for ten times that amount. its crazy when you see that these dealers are willing to lose thier lives for the amount of money instead of getting a job that pays nothing for long hours. i learn that these people work as indivduals to a certain extent because in of of the reading the dealers are given to much power and they stop business for a day to prove a point, which is really that theycan do it. but this makes people that are actually paying for food the hard way lose money and food for their families. The dealers take their power to the extreme, and thats why they pay a negative role to a certain extent. cause then the postivie part of having the dealers have to much power is that the cops give them a kind of respect that they just wont run up on them and take them down, instead they have to creep with a group of men and take them down. this gives residents in the favola some kind of privacy that they didn’t have before. this is when they work as a group with the dealers because they feel secure byt they and if they need anything they will help thme out. so when you think about it its almost like group work but you have to bring your individuality to it..
We can stay hours watching movies, analyzing all the books that we want and we will never understand the whole favela psychology… It is a different world, where who lives here cannot reach.
There is a lot of violence, inequality , poverty and other negative things. However, the movie we watched showed one day of violence and not the other 364 days. They forgot to show how these people have unity, get ready during the whole year for the carnival …how they have close friends and sometimes more happiness than many wall street people here. They dont need a lot to be happy, simple things can make them feel good. I lived in a building in Rio and as any person I had a Housekeeper, which is not expensive there. She was always happy and dancing her Samba and always talking about her community. They suffer but is not all about that. They have their community leader, they organize parties , they have more sense of community than many people here. I thought the movie was interesting, but it showed a little and bad part of it.
The poverty is the problem, the drugs just go along with it.The drug dealers are SIMPLY just like the MAFIA. The Mafia grew in Sicily because there the government did not do anything…they used to help the poor and of course commit their crimes…But the way of penetrating in the society is the same, but in Rio the difference is that there is less Glamour…and the drug dealers do not dress in suits….
What makes me mad is that those things that we have to watch or read shows the worst part of Brazil. It would be like if we would only show the reality of harlem or the projects….They dont show the good side, the good people.
I think Rio and Brazil is so much more than Favelas…
Growing up i always got what I wanted and life was never really too tough for me and I always knew I had it better than a lot of people but I never knew how privelaged I was until i read the readings. Although i’v been in some dangerous situations regarding guns and such it doesn’t seem bad as the people flashing guns randomly in public. As far as the rape issue goes, i dont think its a joke at all and is never funny to me. Everyone should be able to walk around without having to worry about being harassed for no reason and the people committing robberies need to be like the people who they rob and work hard for their possessions and stop taking what isnt theirs. people living in poverty stricken areas do have it harder than those who dont and i understand that but you always hear that story about that person that made it out and became successful and i feel as if most, if not everyone, can be “that person” if they all wanted it as bad as “that person”
The readings and videos all came as a shock to me, and almost seemed unreal. In the first video showing the troubles between the drug dealers, the residents, and the police I wondered if this was really going on in a place called paradise when it is first mentioned people. The violence that goes on in such a small space and the mindset of those who are not afraid of killing or being killed is troubling. How can you live in a place that creates such small possibilities of survival. I can only hope that this is not the future, the lack of development has to be the reason for such things to be occuring. I think the reality of these favelas can only get better because I honestly cannot see where it can get any worst. In the second video with the school boys, it gave hope that change for the better can occur, however you still see images like the one’s in the first video that slows down this process. The good things about life are what’s lacking in these videos, but seeing the living situation of these people makes me think about what aspect of their lives can possibly be good besides the fact that you still have your life.
In the “What’s So Funny About Rape” reading I almost did not know what to think while I was reading it. Were these people serious? Under no circumstance should anything about rape be humorous. It does not matter if you are trying to hide your true feelings or finding a way to cope, there is nothing funny about being rape. I found that out of all the jokes came anger on certain occasions in reference to the bad things that has happen to these women in the past. However, this still holds no explanation or any kind of logic about why this situation is comical.
The common themes that I have observed in these readings and the videos we have seen are displacement and denial. In the videos, authority is displaced from the conventional, such as police, to the drug gangs who have more trust and power over the residents of the favelas. The government authorities have failed to gain the trust of the residents and the control over the dealing. As a result, they are no longer seen as authoritative figures or leaders and the torch is taken is instead by the drug gangs. It is a sad circumstance, but nonetheless, an understandable one. When residents have been approached by police with hostility and corruption and their poverty disables them from obtaining even the most necessary and essential food or medicine, its no wonder that they find the need to turn to those they fear but in a sense trust. The drug sector becomes an appealing one to, sadly, young boys, with reason and the traditional society of authorizing police and government with the dutiful citizens fails to stabilize.
In “What’s So Funny About Rape?” the severity and the atrocity of the situation of poverty and rapes are disparaged as almost comical. But it is far from comical, it is tragic. But it becomes perhaps so tragic, that it becomes comical, as contradictory as that may be! The women, like Carolina, are pigeon-holed for their sexuality and abused. But with the odds against them, their role in the society is cemented.
Granted, I admire the significant strength that Carolina appears to have in resisting the temptation of committing suicide as an escape. But I think her manner of “escaping”, regarding the circumstances as humorous, are no healthier than suicide.
Wow! First I must say that after watching the movie and reading the assigned readings, it really makes you take a step back and think about how lucky we are to live our lives here in NYC, than in those horrifying favelas! From how those young boys walk openly through the favelas with all types of hanguns and machinery to how the women lived their lives in “What’s so funny about rape”, I realized that when when people complain about how they are living and how financial instable they are, its really NOT that bad! And granted, these people are used to these boys and men walking by their houses with machine guns, we, surely most have us have not even seen one!
Secondly, I really tried to understand how the story of rape could be humorous. At times I could see where it humor can come into play from the viewpoint of the storyteller, but it was is sad to see how these people living in the favelas were constantly victimzied for no reason. To read and view how these people would be completely robbed of their goods for no reason and would never be able to turn to anyone for help becuase of their corrupt governement was really disturbing.
Lastyly, learning about all the issues of poverty from drug-dealing to robberies and rape in these favelas, I really am able to sympathize for these people. I always thought never to have pity for anyone beacuse we all have issues and come to crossroads where we face many difficulties. After, learning how these people live in pverty like in the favelas, I realized that our lives arent so bad as we make them sound and try to think that everything could be much worse than it seems to be!
The videos that we saw in class and the two stories that I read have one issue in common, the corruption of the government. I know that poverty exsist, but reading these two stories made me realize the power of hunger and cruelty towards the poor society. These people from the stories and the videos arent poor because they choose to or because of the “fuck it” mentality, they are poor because they were born into it and there is no hope for them to become otherwise. Its like Carolina Maria de Jesus said in her diary, “The Governor’s Palace is the living room, the mayor’s office is the dining room, and the city is the garden, and the favela is the backyard where they throw the garbage.” This mean the people who live in the favela will stay there and have to survive on there on because government and upper middle class don’t want anything to so with them and their savageness. But i ask one thing, if all these people are put there to survive on their own, what is going to happen? Hunger is powerful. This is going to resort in violence and menice among eachother. This is why i kind of agree with the robbers in the first video, that live in the favela, they rob and sell drugs because this is how they can survive and eat. The police come and kill thim for this, but they don’t realize that these robbers and drug dealer are a product of their actions and i mean the government. How is it that you make them promises to get elected and then when in power you forget about them. Honestly just for living there, its going to be hard for them to find a job, and if they find a job it doesn’t pay enough to keep up with the taxes and constant increase in prices. Government is creating these creatures and now they don’t know how to deal with them. Its a shame how this cruelty is being commited to the people in the favela especially the women, my heart went out to anita’s sister. Even though they were both raped, she lost her virginity to a rape. What can you expect the future of that girl to be. Women from the favela all have the same story to tell, they were either raped, abused, or left pregnate to care for the child alone. Its sad, but it the truth. These women suffer a great deal and they keep getting pregnate but for the wrong reason, they look for a provider and don’t realize that they are doing wrong mean will this soicety is increasing, and all the govenment seems to do is throw more garbage in the backyard, which also increases the outcome. These two stories did a good job in creating a image and providing emotions to go with that image. The words felt like actions. I enjoyed the readings very much, eventhough they are tragic.
In reference to the story “What’s so funny about rape”, I believe the reason why the women find humor in their stories is that they are numb to the given circumstances of their society. When a person is deemed helpless and can find no feasible solution, they learn to accept their problem, and I suppose, try to laugh about it. This would be horrifying to our society, but in the community of these women, this happens naturally and in most cases, cannot be evaded. I believe the women in this society as also learned to be more submissive to men, especially when they grow up seeing these acts before them.
It wasn’t very shocking to me, personally, when watching the “Personal Wat”. This documentary was similar to the film “City of God”, and depicts what is actually happening in guerilla-war cities and those without a strong/stable government. When children grow up in a community where it is the norm to fight and use guns, they would surely follow in action. Also, children are the best learners and are devoted to their routines and teachings. If taught at a young age to fight a war, such as the one portrayed in the film, these children would live lives of gun-wars and violence. It is sad that this type of society is buffered more-so by their police and poor government.
Both readings and the movie talk about the “Informal cities” of Brazil; they describe the hardships of people who live in favelas under severe conditions. I was amaized how Carolina in “Diary of Carolina Maria De Jesus” talks about every detail of her hard life. And despite hunger, life in favela, hardship of feeding her children and waiking up every day without knowing whether she will eat today or not; Carolina doesn’t loose her love toward the sky, stars and the beautiful day. I can’t even imagine where she finds all these feelings. She has this very powerful spirit, that makes her wake up every day and go outside to find paper or metal to change it for money. Of course, I believe this book was romantisized by translators, but it is very clear, thath this woman has a very strong belief that no matter what the other day will bring: hunger, sickness of children or anything else she has her belief in God and she makes everything she can to stay alive and not to commit suicide how some other women did in her diary. And this is makes her unique among other people that we were watching in movies and in the book “What’s so funny about rape”.
At the same time, in movies that we saw last class we saw a bit different favelas rather than Carolina was talking about in her Diary. They are the same in the sence that people live under severe conditions, without food and with fear that any day one of their kids can get severly sick, or they don’t have shoes to go outside. But today, favelas are having war with the government in the face of the police of Brazilia. It looked to me as if favelas is the different conglomerate within the city. They have their own army (gang army), weapons, dirty money etc. They learned how to live under these conditions and now they are trying to establish themselves, they see that government doesn’t give a damn about thousands of people, so in a sence they had an oportunity to establish their own rules and regulations in favelas.
I didn’t find any humor in “What’s so funny about rape”, the only thing that I saw is a pain and a dead end for Gloria and her daughters. I believe there is nothing worse for mother than seeing her daugthers being raped. The rape itself is a tragedy for any person, and even after reading this article few times I couldn’t find anything “funny” about it. Or Marilia that had to poison her drug-addict husband that was beating her every day. I couldn’t even imagine neither of these stories in my worse dream. I have no idea where people find the spirit to have children in these conditions and try to live one day at a time, knowing that they probably will have nothing to eat next day, or their kid will be in prison or even dead.
As we watched the videos in class I was impressed to see that the occurences in these favelas are true. I could not imagine that such young kids were being involved in such violence and crimes. It’s so much easier for the drug lords to put young kids do their dirty work. Since theses kids are faced with so many problems living in the favelas and the poverty level is low, what better way to get fast and much more money thatn usual, then selling drugs, stealing and doing the “dirty jobs”. As the people who live in the favelas were interviewed, they seem to rely more on the drug dealers for money, medicines and jobs, than trusting the local authoritoies. Also, as stated in the video, that these Brazilian cops are trained way better than the American cops, then why is their training, mistreating and robbing the citizens. If government doesn’t put a stop to the crimes these cops are doing, how can they stop the actual crimes occurring in the streets.
As reading Goldstein’s ”What’s So Funny About Rape” I did not undertsand how Glory and her daughters can find humor in such a harsh topic. It is obvious that they may be in a state of denial and try to cover it up. I also knew that if such crimes seen in the videos occurred on a daily basis, and the authority was committing crimes themselves, reporting such cases of abuse and rape was going to be another joke to them. I ind of figured out that in these cases women had no say and had no wins when it pertained to such delicate issues, such as rape and abuse.
It’s sad to see in third world countries the hardships thses individuals go through just to live day by day. I understand that poverty, crimes and violence is a big issue, but if the government does little to work things out, how can such issues be resolved? Both of the videos and article I saw read can portray the real hardships of live in the favelas.
I learned several ideas in these two readings. One is to be optimistic in bad condition, because sadness and depression will make it worse instead of helping. Using rape and violence for humor topics are not necessarily considered as “bad taste” or “Out of place”.
Second, when people are in desperate need, they cannot take in account or consideration of who they are asking for help for because they have no choice. When the police are crooked, they would look for help in the gang or someone who are not considered as a good person. For example: “…impoverished women—with little or no legal recourse in their everyday negotiations with men, gangs and criminals. They best they can do…is to seek the protection of another (POSSIBLY ABUSIVE) male. ”
Third, living in tough condition like favela, people have two faces, like Maria said “I have a hard cold look for both men and women. My smile and my soft smooth words I save for children.”
Last, I know things that we have not experienced are often considered as myth; we heard, we knew and even we can study them (poverty, violence…), but we don’t want to have a taste of it. As a matter of fact, after reading all these materials during the semester, we sympathize and keep them in mind. But who actually would help them, or in other words, we would say we don’t have the ability to help because we are not like…
The videos we saw in class were very upsetting to me. The horror the people in Brazil living in the favelas have to go through. I find it scary to ever live in a place like that. It’s so sad how corrupt the cops are and how such young kids get into such a life. I mean for them to think that they have to prove themselves by carrying a gun and selling drugs. There’s so much poverty in this area and so many people suffer. I think it’s so sad how the people that live in the favelas trust the drug dealers more than they do the authorities.
The poverty level is similar in The Diary of Carolina. She is always suffering because she has to work really hard to be able to eat. They are so poor living in the favela and the welfare agency’s do nothing to help them. It’s like the goverment doesnt care about the poor people. The poverty in these favela’s is still the same as now but what has changed according to the video we saw is all the violence and drug dealings that goes on there. In Carolina’s time she definitely suffered alot and had to struggle everyday in order to provide food for herself and for her children but she didnt write of any drug dealings or men carrying guns to protect themselves from the police.
I found no humor in “whats so funny about rape”. I think that Gloria and her daughters don’t know how to deal with the situation so they try and find the humor in it. I think its sad how the youngest one Soneca says that Claudia suffered more than Anita because she wasn’t a virgin. I mean any victim of rape suffers the same because its not something they consent to. I think Soneca didn’t understand this because of the circumstances she lives in so she just thinks that its funny. It’s so sad how they don’t report rape to the authorities because they wouldn’t help them. And about the domestic violence men don’t get convicted if they harm their wives. I think this is unfair and it happens so much everywhere around the world. This is not something that anyone should get away with. This is why the women like Mariela have to stay with these horrible men or get another man like that.
We didn’t finish watching the video of Acerola and Laranjinha but so far I noticed that it is similar to reality because there are the drug dealers with guns who the people that live go to in the favela if anything goes wrong. They don’t go to the authorities.
I think all the readings that connect all have the theme of tension. There is always going to be a superior person and an inferior person with the inferior person always wanting to be at the same level with the superior. This causes tension. When Mike Davis spoke about living in the slums it was like there was always some kind of drama, with no calmness. The informalness of the events and experiences that happened was an effect of the way the people lived and the way they aimed for a place where they were not made to suffer. The shift towards neoliberalism in Mike Davis’ essay seemed like it happened because the people in the slums after a while lost hope, which was the only thing that kept them going. As I read the articles and watched the videos it seemed to me that this hope that was lost because of the ongoing hardships that people were facing. That again brings the tension into play, because of the ongoing circumstances.
In, what’s So Funny about Rape; there are the themes of tension, revenge/justice (which I found to be the funniest part), the relationship of women and men (while using virginity as a metaphor). The story of Marilia attempting to poison her husband, Celso, stemmed from Marilia being abused and getting her revenge. There seemed to be no structure, concerning having a base of rules, in their lives. So the unstructured caused tension. The other story of robbery and rape, tells the story about Gloria had to move her family into the favelas and out of real neighborhood. I do not get the humor in this story, I guess that is why it is, “laughter out of place.” the only interesting point that I found informal was that the article mentioned that it was because of a woman’s class that she was considered a target for rape. I found, The Diary of Carolina DeJesus, much more revealing about Brazil and the society of the favelas and the people that live in them. Carolina keeps mentioning hunger and using it as a metaphor, i.e. as a teacher. Carolina spoke about a loss of interest in life. Her diary talks about death and suicide as something that is common. They used to have more opportunities, now they said the world is being more primitive. The privacy in the favelas is non-existent. I found the rainbow, metaphor (on pg.53) so profound. How it was so far so she can not reach it, but she was fighting to get to it (fighting to get to better oppurtunities). She then talks about the white man being supreme.
The 1st video we watched yesterday seemed like it would be from a movie, it did not seem real to me because it is not the society I am used to. The young drug dealers going to prison, the multiple guns, I guess I’m not used to the informal nature of this society. There was so much distrust between the police/drug dealers/ people living in the favelas that is what was all tension and that is what drove the society. The second video we watched yesterday, but have yet to finish, been a happier version of what a child thinks about his neighborhood/living in the favelas. I found it profound that even the children know the drug dealers and where to find them. It does not seem that the kids get as nervous as Carolina in her diary was everyday. I do not think they understand the danger and it was just second nature. I guess it was the way of survival out there.
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