Today we couldn’t be more excited to launch “Rooting for the Home Team”, the video and action campaign.
The short video sheds light on the strength and struggle of Trilha do Senhor – one of 22 communities known as Comunidades do Trilhos – in Fortaleza, Brazil, fighting to remain in the homes they have occupied for generations.
Throughout the video, the dire nature of the situation is made clear as this community faces imminent destruction and displacement in preparation for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. But unlike similar travesties in the lead up to past global sporting events such as the Beijing Olympics and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the story unfolds to show the opportunity to set a new precedent and prevent this grave injustice from taking place.
These communities have come together to form The Movement to Fight in Defense of Housing and have made significant gains in pressuring the government to change course. At this critical juncture, they have called on the international community to join their struggle and ensure that the delayed displacement turns into a commitment by the government to prevent it altogether.
With the world watching as Brazil prepares for this global celebration of soccer, the government must make a choice whether to listen to its local communities or perpetuate business as usual.
Watch the video, sign the petition, and share with the world!
precisamos fica pois e lá que nascemos contruimos nossas casa com o nosso suor
It is totally unacceptable to treat people’s homes as expendable and not to compensate them adequately for the loss. If they are to be moved, they need to be provided with housing they approve of. This is all being done in the name of profit not to better the lives of ordinary people. It is a disgrace to the sponsoring corporations.
I hope that this project can show to the world what’s going on in Brazil. It’s a country that started to appear in newspaper around all the world recently, but, well, most of the information does not match with what we see here. Maybe Brazil has turned into a good country to invest, but not as much as the media shows.
We have many people living in misery here. Data from 2011 shows that there are more than 16 million people in this condition, almost 10% of the population. And well, the government considers ‘misery’ as families with average per capita income of R$ 70 (about U$ 37). That’s obviously a ridiculous situation. We have many other people living with very low income that is not included in ‘misery situation’, including people who started to get support from the government, like ‘Bolsa-família’, that helps families with some money (some families get R$ 200 [US$ 99], for instance, and easily get out of the ‘misery line’, becoming a good propaganda for the government). According to Dieese, the minimum wage for a healthy life for an entire family is R$ 2.500 (US$ 1.235), while the minimum wage in the country is R$ 622 (US$ 307). And hell yea, you can bet that many families live with this minimum wage or much less.
The government (the political party don’t matter, because most of them harms the population) stopped investing in humans and started investing in marketing (for this reason Brazil is easily seen as a great country in another countries). We have a terrible situation in the public education. Data from the government (Ideb, 2010) shows that Brazilian public high school have a very bad quality in comparison with particular high school. The scariest part is that the government believes that in 2021 the public high school will have a worse education than the particular high school have TODAY. Kinda creepy, huh?
I don’t like to blame one or another government and neither one or another political party, because I live in a city ruled by PSDB, the biggest opposition party of PT, that rules the country, and both of them made bad things with the education and the population. I just want to see a better future for Brazil, and this surely does not include bringing Olympic games nor World Cup now, but investing in Education and Welfare. But the first step, I know, is promote changes in political subjects. We have many corrupt politicals with power, gathering so much money that would be invested in people that really needs it… this is one of the many problems that we see when becoming a political means that you can get rich.
I’m at your disposal! guerrajornalista@gmail.com
Kind regards,
Felipe Guerra