Favela do Brazil

   

 Today I'm going to talk about the favelas in Brazil. Favela is like the slum or the ghetto area really poor people live in. Favela came about in the late 19th century built by soldiers who had nowhere to live. In the beginning, this was the place where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Until now, poor citizens are being pushed away from the city and forced to live in the far suburbs where the big favelas are. The people who live in favelas are called Moradores da favela, meaning The People Who Lives In The Favelas. Brazil has favelas because of the unequal distribution of wealth in the country. Residents of favelas have it hard on them because they were forced to live there for being really poor, discriminated against and on top of that they have difficulties finding jobs. So what happens is that the people from the favelas stays unemployed and the favelas keep growing.
     According to 2010 studies, about 6% of the population lived in slums in Brazil. This means that 11.4 million of the 190 million people lives in the favelas. That not the only problems, the cocaine trade are also growing within the favelas, which tend to be ruled by drug lords. There are regular shoot-outs between traffickers and police and other criminals, as well as other illegal activities, murders, etc. The traffickers in the favelas make deals with the people living. They guarantee their safety if they work for or help the traffickers. They do this to maintain order in the favelas and giving and receiving reciprocity and respect, despite continuing high levels of violence.
     Back then when we used to drive kinda close to the favela areas, my mom would make my dad speed pass them and we would run the red light at night for our safety. Usually people would stop at the red light for their safety, but if your close to the favelas you would have to run the red light sometimes for your safety. Another thing we would do is have couple change in the car to give it to the people who walks around the road asking for change. Sometimes it would be dangerous not to give them some change or distract them with candies for the kids. I remember we would have to be sharp and be on our toes because of them. Usually, kids were the dangerous ones and more courageous. Im just glad Im not there anymore. I still look behind me to check when I walk alone.