Stories: Favelas
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The Contradiction of Brazil’s ‘Favelas’
In Brazil, slum tours are common in shanty towns known in the country as favelas. Brazil’s government has encouraged the tours as a way of earning money for a people said to live in some of the world’s most violent areas. Theresa Williamson stands at the foot of several stairs leading into Rio de Janeiro&rsquo...;
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From Gunfights to ‘Mansions’: Inside Rio de Janeiro’s Smorgasbord of Favelas
Just 50 days before Brazil hosts the World Cup, authorities beefed up security Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro after a violent clash between residents and police in a slum near the tourist haven of Copacabana beach. Turning the corner on a narrow, uneven footpath, a small white chapel comes into view in a plaza surrounded by whitewashed buildings with blue tile...
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How Are You?
Expecting social, political and economic degradation in an African slum is akin to saying it’s wet when it rains. Everyone knows the continent is the poorest, most abused, and most underdeveloped on the planet. But Kibera, the largest sub-Saharan slum, embedded in the capital of Kenya, Nairobi, frightens even the most prepared visitors. It is a hell under...