Brazil: Inequality Cause Of Tension
Updated: 9:26am UK, Monday 24 June 2013
By Jason Farrell, Sky Correspondent in Rio de Janeiro
Some 40,000 people live in the Favela Dos Prazeres; just one of a thousand slums in Rio that cling to the hillsides looking down on the yachts and hotels of the iconic city.
Those who want to build a house here simply get some bricks and cement them on top of someone else's shack.
Then they attach bulbs to a web of wires that tap free electricity from the grid. The cables drape over a maze of narrow passageways that weave down a steep hillside of precarious structures, some held up by narrow concrete stilts that are prone to give way in mudslides during the heavy rains.
Below, in downtown Rio, the latest monument to Brazil's wealth for the people of Prazeres to admire is the Maracana Stadium. It has had a billion dollar revamp for the Confederation Cup and World Cup and, as with Brazil's wealth, those perched in shantytowns have the perfect view but are completely cut off from it.
"The amount spent on the stadium has caused a lot of concern," says Fabio Vinelli, a former director of Flamengo Football club. He has been working on projects in Prazeres and had hoped the World Cup bring some investment to the neighbouring favela.
"People in this favela love the game but the World Cup has brought them nothing, " he said, "The legacy of the cup should be education, training and jobs, but all they have is a new stadium that no one here can afford to go to."
Brazil is the world's seventh largest economy but it has one of the most unbalanced social divides and this lies at the heart of many of the protests across the South American country in recent weeks.
The richest 1% (2 million people) own 13% of the nation's wealth, about the same as poorest 50% (80 million people). To many, the billions spent on World Cup stadiums and Olympic projects is just another reminder of the country's inequality.
Alexandre Lopes Silva, a community leader, said: "The legacy of the World Cup is a joke. Personally, I find it a disgrace. The state are pocketing millions and the poor see no benefit. Look at the kids paying football barefoot - at least give them a pair of trainers."
British consultant Mike Halligan runs security for Manchester United and his company Controlled Solutions Group has been trying to encourage work training projects in the favelas for the World Cup.
He said: "If FIFA want to promote football in places like Brazil, they should be willing to provide greater assistance to help create a legacy.
"People in Brazil would be less focused on the expense of the World Cup if Fifa were contributing. They should do it because they walk away with all the money from the TV rights."
A recent survey by Ernst and Young predicted that 3.6 million jobs would be created by the World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil with 0.4% added to GDP. But the fifth of Brazil's population who live in poverty have yet to see how this will help them.
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