Rio's favelas, the women jailed for miscarriage, and the climate deal
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Version 0 of 1. As Brazil prepares to host the 2016 Olympic Games, the country’s most famous city is changing rapidly. Despite the hype, many people in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas fear benefits from the Games may fail to reach their doorsteps. In the second part of our Rio’s voices series, three bloggers share their diary entries of daily life in their communities. Daiene Mendes writes about pervasive gun violence in Alemão, Michel Silva argues for a new kind of policing in Rocinha, and Thaís Cavalcante explains the strong community bonds that exist in Maré. If you live in Rio’s favelas, or have ties with them, we’d love you to share your stories on life in these communities. Related: Rio Olympics: view from the favelas – 'Many deaths go unexplained here' | Daiene Mendes In El Salvador, women who suffer a miscarriage can face imprisonment for murder. Watch this powerful video featuring women for whom the physical and emotional trauma of losing a child has been the start of a life-changing ordeal of poor medical treatment, arrest without recourse to legal advice and imprisonment for up to 40 years. And, the world has a new climate deal – but will it be enough to save the planet? For both a glass-half-full and a glass-half-empty summary of the agreement, read John Vidal’s five reasons to be glad, and five to be gloomy. Elsewhere on the site Opinion The global community must do more to shine a light on corrupt leaders, says Transparency International’s José Ugaz. As his group launches a new campaign against grand corruption, Ugaz argues that the practice threatens security and locks citizens in poverty. “The corrupt behave differently when they know they are being watched,” he writes. In Kenya, there is growing concern over the safety of the sex industry after the killings of seven female sex workers in 10 days in October. Phelister Wamboi Abdalla, national coordinator of Kenya Sex Workers Alliance, says it is time to decriminalise the country’s sex industry for the sake of human rights and public health. Multimedia Gallery: Helping the women made widows by Boko Haram Gallery: Nepal fuel crisis bites as winter brings fear to quake-hit areas Podcast: Paris climate talks turn up the heat on world leaders What you said On the video El Salvador: ‘I had a miscarriage. The judge accused me of murder’, Aesaphyr wrote: This is shameful and as a doctor I feel personally disgusted by what is done to these women. One in four pregnancies will result in a miscarriage. A miscarriage is a traumatic event and can be life-threatening for the woman. On top of the pain of losing their child, they are torn away from their families and thrown into a cell for years... I can’t comprehend how such an inhuman thing can be done. Highlight from the blogosphere Triple crises: India’s time to lead the WTO And finally … Poverty matters will return in two weeks with another roundup of the latest news and comment. In the meantime, keep up to date on the Global development website. Follow @gdndevelopment and the team – @swajones, @LizFordGuardian and @CarlaOkai – on Twitter, and join Guardian Global development on Facebook. |