{"id":505,"date":"2015-06-14T23:44:31","date_gmt":"2015-06-14T23:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/inequalityinbrazil\/?p=505"},"modified":"2015-06-15T01:56:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T01:56:18","slug":"walls-for-safety-or-for-separation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/inequalityinbrazil\/2015\/06\/14\/walls-for-safety-or-for-separation\/","title":{"rendered":"Walls for Safety or for Separation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 13, 2015<\/p>\n

By: Aleksandra Syniec<\/p>\n

After a scrumptious breakfast at Caf\u00e9 Hostel, we headed out to Universidade Nove de Julho (UNINOVE).\u00a0 Unlike the University of S\u00e3o Paulo, this is a private university, meaning that most of the students we saw in attendance come from a working class background.\u00a0 In Brazil, public universities offer the best educations and are free; but institutional discrimination permits an almost impossible entrance exam into such universities, barring students of color and of working class backgrounds to enter.<\/p>\n

Our purpose for coming to UNINOVE was to meet with Professor Alan de Loiola Alves, who has his degree in Social Work, and to hear his research on child and adolescent sexual exploitation in Brazil.\u00a0 Professor Alves exposed us to a lucrative business where children from birth to twelve years old, as well as adolescents aged twelve to seventeen are exploited in prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, and sex trafficking.\u00a0 Exploitation happens in one of two ways; either in organized networks or disorganized networks.\u00a0 In organized networks, there are set prices for sexual acts as opposed to the disorganized networks that have less structure.\u00a0 Similarly to any other job market, females are paid anywhere from seven to twenty reais (US $2 – $6) whereas a male earns fifty reais (US $16).\u00a0 The same is true for race where a white child will receive more money than a black child.\u00a0 Brazil\u2019s \u201csymbol of beauty\u2026 has blond hair and blue eyes,\u201d (Goldstein: 2003: 122).\u00a0 A lot of times these children are priced higher depending on their sexual maturity.\u00a0 Many take supplements such as steroids, sexual stimulants, and other drugs to perform sexual acts numerous times per night.\u00a0 In the end, however, even if the profit is 250 reais (US $80), they owe their \u201cpimp\u201d or \u201cagent\u201d more than this, trapping them in a cycle of debt.\u00a0 Another key component of child exploitation is the gender identification of transvestites. \u00a0\u00a0Young boys, mostly in unorganized networks, going through the transformation from male to female, are thrown into this line of work because of rejection from family, the educational system, and society.\u00a0 In lower classes, mothers push their children into prostitution because of the profit it can bring in for the family.\u00a0 Social workers therefore play a vital role in attempting to remove these children from this sexual exploitation and place them into new homes and schools.\u00a0 Policies have also been enacted starting in 1990 to protect children from such work.\u00a0 Prostitution is legal in Brazil as long as it is an adult selling their own body; however in those cases where the sex worker is being exploited, the blame and illegality fall on the client not the prostitute.\u00a0 Therefore social workers are determined to take preventative measures to deter children from remaining in the sexual exploitation network by providing them other options.\u00a0 At the end of the lecture we discussed with the university students some similarities and differences between the sex market in the US and in Brazil.<\/p>\n

After the presentation, we hopped onto the Metro and then a bus to return to the University of S\u00e3o Paulo. But this time it was to see what lies next to the university: a favela named S\u00e3o Remo.\u00a0 We learned from Ms. Janeide de Sousa Silva, who hosted us along with her sister, Janete de Sousa Silva, for lunch, that she preferred to call her community a favela.\u00a0 She discussed the political connotation of a favela.\u00a0 For example, when applying for jobs, one can be denied the job if they are associated with living in a favela.\u00a0 But on the other hand, if the residents of the favela call it a community instead, they ignore many of the problems in the area.\u00a0 Janeide had pride in calling S\u00e3o Remo a favela and also acknowledged the advancement of the area.\u00a0 She stated, \u201cIf you can\u2019t speak about where you come from.\u00a0 You can\u2019t fight to have better.\u201d\u00a0 She herself does not live in S\u00e3o Remo because it has become too expensive.<\/p>\n

Both Janeide and Janete had worked on lunch from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., and boy was it delicious!\u00a0 It was a traditional Brazilian bean stew (feijoada) with sausage and beef, served with oranges, rice, and Brazilian style collard greens.\u00a0 We all were full and satisfied from the meal, which we ate on the roof of the Projeto Alavanca building.\u00a0 After this lunch we were led downstairs to learn more about the project and its goals.\u00a0 Janeide explained to us how she works alongside her sister and other community members to organize a \u201cSarau da Remo\u201d every month.\u00a0 A \u201csarau\u201d is an open space for expression, whether it be artistic or cultural, for the people of Remo.\u00a0 This space has promoted the idea of \u201cNa Voz, A Vez\u201d which means, \u201cby having your voice, you have your turn.\u201d\u00a0 Now people of the community can come together to share their ideas and be heard; once voiceless, now loud.\u00a0 Since the neighborhood has very few public spaces, this space is one of diversion as well as expressing a political voice.<\/p>\n

We then had the opportunity to walk around the community.\u00a0 There was a soccer championship going on between the community teams; dogs roamed the streets; children road on their roller blades; and men were building a home.\u00a0 The community was alive, with music in the streets.\u00a0 We stopped at Dona Maria Jos\u00e9, a community leader.\u00a0 There we were accepted with open arms and given coffee and cookies.\u00a0 The women started to speak about the relations with the university and the favela.\u00a0 Many including Dona Maria Jos\u00e9 have been working at the university for years.\u00a0\u00a0 However the women also discussed how the community was not always gated, before children could play on the campus grounds.\u00a0 The University of S\u00e3o Paulo is the best in Latin America and has many upper class, white students.\u00a0 This highly contrasts with the population of the favela.\u00a0 Hence a wall had to be built; a space had to be protected. \u201cIn a context of increased fear of crime in which the poor are often associated with criminality, the upper classes fear contact and contamination,\u201d (Caldeira: 1996: 330).\u00a0 The women also spoke before the bus that made rounds about the campus was free, but after many complaints from the students and the construction of a nearby metro station, the bus instated a fee to keep the poor from using it.\u00a0 Currently, S\u00e3o Paulo is planning to redesign the area, but it has never consulted the community on what it wants.\u00a0 The residents are eager for the city to intervene to have better infrastructure within the favela, however is fearful of what the city really plans to do with their homes and whether they will be able to afford to remain in them.<\/p>\n