Cross-Cultural Blog

Every country has its shantytowns and Brazil is famous, or rather infamous, for its favelas. These favelas have over the years received more and more attention due to the continuous rise of illegal activity, particularly drug trafficking and urban violence. This specific issue has been tackled in the documentary “News from a Personal War” which has been created in relation to the movie “City of God”. The documentary raises a lot of questions by analyzing the case of a favela in Rio de Janeiro. What is the government of Brazil doing to combat the crime in the favelas? What are the changes that have happened since the appearance of the documentary? What are the reasons for those changes? What can be done to improve conditions? These are the questions this paper attempts to answer with relation to this favela and uses the case of Sao Paolo as a comparison in the methods of combating urban crime. The paper is divided into several parts. The first section is a short one describing the current situation in Brazil with regards to a relatively recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The second section is additionally separated into two; the first part talks about the economic improvements of Rio de Janeiro, which occurred partially due to the decrease of corruption, while the other part talks about how the government deals with the urban crime and the favelas. The third part talks about the political structure of Brazil as a major setback to fighting urban crime and uses the law enforcement forces as an example. The last part of the body talks about Sao Paolo as a case study, and comparison to Rio de Janeiro, because of their achievement in reducing the murder rate in the state. Even though the purpose of this paper was to analyze the government’s role in urban crime fighting, it did not manage to achieve this objective due to the scarcity of sources for research. However, it has reached certain conclusions with regard to what can be done and what are the aspects that affect the success or failure of resolving this particular issue.

Posted by AUC: Writing in the Social Sciences at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBacks (0)

In my paper, I examine the favela in the context of Brazil’s democracy. The favela is a state within the state; although geographically an integral part of Rio de Janeiro, it is a socially, economically and politically marginalized state within Brazil. This paper is an attempt to find out what role the democratic government is playing in the favela wars and how come the democracy is not benefiting the large class of Brazilian favelados? The huge gap between the rich and the poor is a major characteristic of the extremely stratified Brazilian society; also, the military regime, which ruled Brazil till 1985 initiating the social injustice, is still indirectly controlling the distribution of wealth and political power, even under the flag of democracy. I evaluate the situation on three interesting political levels: The first is the politics within the favela itself. I use two examples of favelas, one profiting from vote selling, and the other not participating in elections; at the end, both are politically apathetic and thus excluded from Brazil’s democracy. Instead, the favela has a de facto internal government headed by the dealers and acknowledged by the locals, a factor the documentary succeeds to show. The second level is the national level, the Brazilian democracy. Whereas Brazil undoubtedly has an efficient democratic system, its democracy seems to be operating with the favelas external to its drive. The government played a minor role in the last 50 years attempting to find new housings for the favelados and failed. The elite’s privileges are to be safe-guarded and the favelas neglected, even in the basic services, like health and education. The third level of political disintegration is the international level. The international level is surprisingly present, both in pressuring the Brazilian government and selling armaments to the dealers. Both the economic threat of Wall Street firms and the political power of Washington D.C were practiced against today’s president Lula, the Working Party candidate, during his first elections in 2002. The American ‘intervention’ might be explained as an anti-leftist stance, but its exaggerated intensity stays enigmatic. Those international pressures seem to represent an international (or mainly American) interest in the preservation of the status quo. Today’s Brazil is arguably moving towards a better democracy under President Lula with his plans for the redistribution of lands and a long term plan to end the seclusion of the favelados. The favelados, however, have established their own state with their own rules within Brazil, a new state, where they might finally get a voice.

Posted by AUC: Writing in the Social Sciences at 12:52 PM | Permalink

I just wanted to jump in here and reintroduce phase two of an assignment that my AUC students, in a "Writing in the Social Sciences Class" shared with Donna Hunter's Stanford class, "Rhetoric of Criminality." Back in September, both of our classes viewed the documentary, "News from a Personal War" which was filmed in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and focuses on the drug wars there. It includes interviews with favela residents, drug dealers, and young favelados hired by the dealers, and also with the police who regularly raid the favelas.

When our students watched the film we asked them, among other things, to identify questions that the film raises, but does not answer. Donna's students posted their initial responses to the film right away on the blog. My students did research-based response papers, looking to "answer" or at least further flesh-out some of the questions they had identified.

My students are now posting abstracts of the papers they wrote in response to the questions they had investigated. We regret the lag time between Donna's classes original postings (to which some of my students responded in the comments section) and our abstracts, which hopefully will still be of interest to them! Our month of September was a little truncated as we were on an abbreviated schedule because of Ramadan and then on holiday during that last week of September into the first week in October because of the Eid.

Posted by Belle Gironda, American University in Cairo at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This is my abstract to the response paper I wrote for my writing in the social sciences class. the paper goes on discussing an issue that is not fully addresses in the documentary and that it female role in the favela and how is that connected to the issue of labor...
“News from a Personal War” documentary addresses the life in one of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, Santa Marta, in Brazil. Its principal focus falls on the confrontation between the police attacks and the drug dealers facing that. The dynamics of those showdowns and the impact they have on the residents of the favela is adequately discussed. However, one of the major issues left un-visited is the issue of gender and females’ role in the favela. He who watches the documentary can obviously see the absence of the female perspectives on what goes on in the favela. Only two cases the documentary shows: Janete and Hilda. Both give an account on the female situation inside the favela. Janete’s narrative gives nothing but a desperate image of the women as she recounts the situation of the children in the favela and how uncontrollable it is for their mothers to try and divert the fate of being gangsters and drug dealers at the age of 12. It is clear through the documentary that women are not empowered and they are not able to alter the situation and the lives of their children. Even the children in the documentary are mostly males and there is no case of a female child among them. On the other hand, there is another instance of a working female mother, Hilda, whose condition is not much better than what Janete is talking about. But, her presence in the documentary throws the idea of female labor in the favela. It raises the question of how effective they are in the labor force in the favela whose main labor is dealing with drugs. As it turns out from research, women do have a role in the labor force as they essentially become the provider for their households at the times their husbands are imprisoned for being involved in the police-dealers’ confrontations. Consequently, women find their way in the labor market and usually work as domestics for well of families to try to cope to the precarious lifestyle they lead.

Posted by AUC: Writing in the Social Sciences at 03:00 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

Firstly, by highlighting the segregation between the police, drug dealers, and
the "dwellers" - normal citizens who live in the favela, the documentary shows
that the disconnection between the classes in the society seriously hampers any
potential improvement to society and contributes to the exacerbation of crime.
In one scene, we recall the narrator stating that the city's media for a long
time did not report on what happened in the favela. If the rich and other people
of the society behave in such an apathetic way, what reason is there for the
drug-dealers to turn over a new leaf? Also, we were given the impression that
once someone is born into the favela, there is no escaping the social class and
its implications. With no alternative career path, one would be hard pressed not
to get involved in drug-dealing and other crimes. Another result of the gap
between the social classes is miscommunication and consequential mistrust. When
the police arrested a minor, the women of the favela followed the police that
they would not illegally abuse the suspect before he reached the police station
to be lawfully charged. The suspicion and animosity between the police and drug
dealers will surely impede any efforts of compromise.

Secondly, we feel that the film also argues that there is no absolute good or
bad. At the start of the documentary, we saw a very positive image of a
righteous policeman willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good of the
society. Later on in the film, we were given a new perspective when the
drug-dealers were praised for buying medicine for the impoverished sick and
gifting presents to children. The documentary seems to argue that not criminals
do not necessarily harm society. Ironically, some dwellers of the favela
described the police as being corrupt and brutal, often accepting bribes, making
false accusations, and beating suspects regardless of whether they were minors.
The film confuses the audience's moral compass, and in doing so reminds its
viewers to consider matters from different perspectives and refrain from making
hasty judgments.

Posted by at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

What questions does the film raise and leave unanswered? What areas do you feel could be further investigated?
- The role of the middle class. How they interacted with the favelas?
- How cocaine made the transition from an upper class drug to the poorer class?
- What other governmental organizations should be involved with the favelas?
- What was the role of the rest of the world, and growing global drug culture in establishing the favelas as a centre for drug distribution?
- Why is it so easy to escape from jail? And why does nobody care?
- Why is the education system so poor, and what role does the lack of education play in the proliferation of underage drug dealers?
- Do racial interactions play a role in the favelas?
- Where does corruption in the police force stem from?

Source:Voices from the global margin : confronting poverty and inventing new lives in the Andes
Mitchell, William P.

Posted by at 05:07 PM | Permalink

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

“News from a Personal War” exposes the violence in the favela of Rio de Janeiro through candid interviews of the police, the favela dwellers, and the dealers. The film primarily relies on pathos to convey the full impact of the conflict within the favela but also employs, to a lesser extent, ethos and logos.

Ethos: The voiceover in the introductory scene immediately carries a strong local accent, helping the viewers identify with the setting and the subjects of the interviews that follow. That the interviews are self-incriminating for both police and dealers convinces the audience to accept the authenticity of their messages. Additionally, the vivid on-scene footage adds to the impact of these candid responses.

Pathos: Images of squalor are paired with the dealers’ economic justification. In addition, the director uses cuts between several contrasting scenes, most notably the cut scenes employed between both the police and dealer funerals towards the end of the movie. In doing so, the director leads the viewers to see the strong similarities in each group’s perception of the futility of their conflict, thus showing that violence is infinitely self-perpetuating.

Logos: Other than the statistics presented at the beginning of the film and the mention of the correlation between the rise of drug-dealing and the homicide rate, the filmmakers rely exclusively on the careful selection of images of violence and poverty as well as the words of the police and drug dealers to depict the hopelessness of the endless “personal war.”

By: Kiana Abram, Jeff Lu, and Michael White (Stanford University)

Posted by at 05:06 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

The inherent gap between the rich and the poor can be pinpointed as a root cause of violence. Cocaine originally began as the “rich man’s drug,” before trickling into poorer areas, known as the favelas. The result was a society with a large, drug-using population. However, since the elite did not want to give up their drugs but wanted protection from harm by the drug dealers in the favelas, a corrupt police force was formed, one that would repress the poor but turn a blind eye to the rich. At the same time, the dealers were forming a unified front as well. Established in the prisons, criminals began banding together against corrupt authority, leading to the growth of organized crime both in and out of prisons.

As time went on, the growing drug trade in the favelas became more lucrative. Drug-dealing paid $300 a week, and compared to the minimum wage of $112 a month, it became a more attractive option for favela-dwellers trying to feed their families. Furthermore, children in the favelas, disrespected by both the rich and their poverty-stricken peers, found respect as gun-wielding drug dealers.

The film supports these claims mainly through the use of personal testimonies from ordinary citizens and drug dealers in the favelas as well as from members of the BOPE police force.

Posted by at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

The film argues that the current situation in Rio de Janeiro is the result of cocaine being introduced to the city. Cocaine was much more profitable than marijuana, the previous drug of choice, and this helped make it worth the risks of dealing. Compounding this problem is the fact that educated political prisoners were imprisoned with drug dealers, allowing them to create an organized crime network. The resulting syndicate, called Commando Vermehlo, planned to expand social programs in the favelas (the slums of Rio de Janeiro) but financed them with cocaine sales. They gained popular support by helping many of the poor residents of the favelas, which has made it much more difficult for the police to arrest and prosecute the dealers. The syndicate collapsed in the wake of major arrests and murders in the 1980's and 1990's, leaving the favelas under the control of a patchwork of different drug dealers and gangs. The lack of organization has created large amounts of chaos as different drug dealers worked against and attacked each other. Furthermore, the current socioeconomic status quo in Brazil, that of wide income disparities between rich and poor, has encouraged the chaos by giving the state no reason to interfere in the favelas besides to contain them. These income disparities have also encouraged the drug trade since it is much more profitable to sell drugs than to have a typical honest job. Police corruption also contributes to the problem by further biasing the residents of the favelas against them and enabling the gangs to arm themselves much more easily. The wealthy elite also fuel the conflict by purchasing cocaine and failing to push for reforms that could create a more honest police force or improve life in the slums.

Posted by at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

Argument: People in the favelas feel the need to turn to crime in order pursue a better life for themselves and their families.

The documentary suggests that nothing is being done about this problem; at one point, the narrator states that there is no solution. There is a war present in the favela between the cops and the drug dealers, and this confrontation cannot be resolved because the people do not seem willing to accept an honest police force. The police chief, who is interviewed in the documentary, questions: Is there a real interest in an honest police? Although the drug dealers and the community living in the favela argue that the cops are crooks and are corrupt, the community does not actively seek out help from political institutions in Rio de Janeiro.

Our evidence can be broken up into two categories, as demonstrated below.

1. Reaction to police and society:
• The drug dealers believe that they have to arm themselves in order to protect themselves from police invasions. The biggest crooks are the police, by design, as the police chief admits in the documentary.
• Violence continues to rise as a form of retaliation against the police, who do not care.
• Organized crime brings a sense of community to the people in the favelas. The drug dealers help the people and commit their crimes for the people. The criminals begin to think collectively against the dictatorship.
• The new generation is in a suicidal mode. They do not really value their lives because they are so impoverished. As such, it is easier for them to turn to crime.
• Criminals just want peace, justice, and freedom, according to the man in jail. They want peace in jail, social justice for all, and they want to be freed from imprisonment.

2. Material possessions, pride, etc:
• The people in the favela can be paid R$120 without turning to drug trafficking, but by dealing drugs, they have the opportunity to earn R$300.
• Turning to crime and making money allow the underprivileged to obtain a sense of pride and power.
• Women love guys with big guns.
• Drug dealers do not want to take people’s lives. They just want money.
• Criminals like having good things. Working legally does not provide enough money for them to purchase material possessions like tennis shoes, clothing, etc.

Posted by at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

The documentary’s use of rhetorical strategies reveals that the conflict in the favela in Brazil is not clear cut as in the cops are good and the drug dealers are bad, but in reality the conflict started because of a corrupt society in which both sides have terrible faults.
The film shows the audience firsthand the terrible conditions these people are forced to live and how both sides view each other and who those caught in the cross fire support more. Throughout most of the film, the drug dealers are not shown as people who solely care about their profits, but as people who care about the community in which they live. By utilizing this unique perspective, the audience can hear the voice of these socially unacceptable professionals. In talking of their struggles, the documentary uses the rhetorical strategy of ethos as they visually and orally show the struggles the drug dealers go through. The drug dealers are given a certain validity as we see the trials with which they must live.
We also see the other side of the spectrum as the documentary portrays the police in a negative light as well. One particular scene comes to mind as the police lead an adolescent boy around the favela as his worried family trails behind. The use of pathos creates empathy for viewers as it seems that the police are the antithesis of their role in society: harming rather than protecting. The humiliation and worry of the family is evident and causes us to sympathize with the family.
The use of logos is a convoluted aspect of the film. On one hand, the situation in the favela is the opposite of what’s expected. The police are corrupt and arrest the common people while the drug dealers help the underprivileged. On the other hand, the basic needs of society are a logical perspective. The impoverished need to eat, the sick need medicine, etc and thus the role of the drug dealer is necessary in society.

Posted by at 03:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

Throughout the documentary, various people show that violence is glorified and commonplace in the community because of the increased benefits that the violence indirectly produces. A boy is shown singing a lighthearted song about violence, and women are described as drawn to men or boys with larger guns.

The “dwellers” perceive the dealers as guardians against poverty and the corruption of the police. In one scene, a dealer recounts how he has “an obligation” to protect the people while in another, this relationship between the dealers and the dwellers is reaffirmed when kids describe how the dealers “throw out Christmas toys” to them. Dealers also purchase medicine and other necessities when families cannot afford them. The dealers’ generous appearance also encourages the younger generation to join in with the drug dealers and thus gain the status and respect that comes with the job.

The director appeals to the audience’s emotions through wide shots displaying the squalor that results from having two million dwellers crammed into a small area. The police are also displayed as corrupt, violent, and uncaring, making viewers less likely to sympathize with them. Because of the corruptness of the police, we are more likely to empathize with the youth’s tendency to choose drug dealing as a job as opposed to a different, lawful job.

Posted by at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

What questions does the film raise and leave unanswered?
-Are the drug dealers more of a help or hindrance to the favela?
-Could Rio de Janeira handle an honest police force?
-What is the role of the women in the favela?
-Does anybody ever try to leave the favela?
-What is the role of the combat units in the favela?
-What happens to the good cops? Do they get killed or become corrupt?
-What is the life expectancy of members in the favela versus the rest of Brazil?
-Is the favela shrinking because the death rate is so high?
-Do some of the non-drug dealers in the favela want to stop the dealing?
-How does the favela compare to slums in other places?
-Do the people even care about going to prison since their lives outside of prison are already so bad?
-Do the prisons care about keeping up security?
-Is there any sort of rehabilitation system in Rio de Janeira for these chronic criminals?

What areas do you feel could be investigated further?
-family lives of the drug dealers
-education of the favela community
-prison enforcement problems
-government corruption
-the development of the favela
-rapping in the favela
-statistics of people who have been arrested
-organized crime in the prisons

Posted by at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

This post was written in response to a blogging assignment between a class at American University in Cairo and a Stanford University class on the Rhetoric of Criminality. For more details about this activity, visit the Stanford professor's introductory blog post about the assignment.

The violence seen in the film stems from the reality that the favela citizens are trying to take back what a highly disorganized and corrupt system has denied and taken from them. Due to police corruption and intense economic polarization, the people who live in the favela have had to resort to drug dealing and violence just to survive. We heard from the police chief that it economically makes more sense to deal drugs and get $300 per week, then work a modest job for $112 a month, so why not pick dealing? At the beginning, cocaine was seen as a high class drug. However, when cocaine became prominent in the poorer regions, the amount of violence skyrocketed.
Due to the dictatorship in Brazil, in the early 1950’s prison inmates found a way to make the present prison system work in their favor. Together, inmates formulated large-scale, organized crime units to provide for their community. They established themselves under the motto, “Peace, justice, and freedom”. Residents of the favela have since relied on the dealers for their survival; from affordable, easy access to much needed prescriptions, protection from law enforcement, to Christmas presents for children. Most people in the community stand behind the dealers because they have come to depend on them. Culturally, the dealers have achieved celebrity status; the bigger the gun, the more desirable the man.

Posted by at 02:58 PM | Permalink

This activity marks the beginning of communication between Stanford students in Writing and Rhetoric 1, “The Virtue of Vice and the Vice of Virtue: The Rhetoric of Criminality,” and American University at Cairo students in “Writing in the Social Sciences”: RHET 322. Professor Gironda explains that many of her AUC students are majoring in Political Science (with a few in Anthropology and Psychology) and that they have chosen to research and write about the internationalization of democracy "looking particularly at the EU and Eastern Europe and the Middle East," as well as "the role of children in local, national and international conflicts from Rio de Janeiro to Palestine." As a result of these interests, the students chose to watch and analyze the documentary, “News from a Personal War,” which investigates drug dealing, the police and favela residents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

What follows are a series of questions the students in Cairo and at Stanford were asked to consider when watching the film.

1.Does the film make, or at least suggest, any cause and effect or arguments about the violence and squalor it depicts and other social/political/historical/ economic events or circumstances within or outside Brazil?
2.If so, make note of these claims. How does the film support these claims or describe these relationships?
3. How is rhetoric deployed in the film? What is the role of ethos/pathos and logos and what is the balance among these strategies?
4. Is the film making an identifiable argument and, if so, what kinds of evidence does it present?
5. What questions does the film raise and leave unanswered? What areas do you feel could be investigated further?

If any of you readers have watched "News from a Personal War," we welcome your thoughts as well.

Posted by Donna Hunter, Stanford at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)