Slum Dwellers Are Defying Brazil’s Grand Design for Olympics
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: March 4, 2012
RIO DE JANEIRO — It was supposed to be a triumphant moment for Brazil. Gearing up for the 2016 Olympic Games to be held here, officials celebrated plans for a futuristic “Olympic Park,” replete with a waterside park and athlete villages, promoting it as “a new piece of the city.” There was just one problem: the 4,000 people who already live in that part of Rio de Janeiro, in a decades-old squatter settlement that the city wants to tear down. Refusing to go quietly and taking their fight to the courts and the streets, they have been a thorn in the side of the government for months.
“The authorities think progress is demolishing our community just so they can host the Olympics for a few weeks,” said Cenira dos Santos, 44, who owns a home in the settlement, which is known as Vila Autódromo. “But we’ve shocked them by resisting.”
For many Brazilians, holding the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics on Brazilian soil is the ultimate expression of the nation’s elevation on the world stage, and the events are perfect symbols of its newfound economic prowess and international standing.
But some of the strengths that have enabled Brazil’s democratic rise as a regional power — the vigorous expansion of its middle class, the independence of its news media and the growing expectations of its populace — are bedeviling the preparations for both events. Erika O’Conor and Taylor Barnes contributed reporting. Retrieved from
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/world/americas/brazil-facesobstacles- in-preparations-for-rio-olympics.html?r=1&pagewanted=all on October, 15th, 2012
In the excerpt “But we’ve shocked them by resisting.”, the words underlined refer, respectively, to:
