Walls Around Rio's Slums Protect Trees But Don't Inspire Much Hugging

[WriteDown]

Source: WSJ

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Luis Carlos da Silva is helping construct a 10-foot cinder-block wall around Dona Marta, the slum he calls home.

He is paid $90 a week by a contractor hired by the state government, which ordered the wall built. "They are surrounding us," he said. "They didn't even leave a door" to the rain forest on the other side.

China built its Great Wall to keep out marauders. The Berlin Wall kept in Germans. The wall around Dona Marta is meant to protect trees. At least, that's the official line.

More photos and interactive graphics Rio's state government calls this wall and others like it "ecobarriers" to prevent Rio's favelas, or shantytowns, from steadily expanding across the city's scenic, heavily forested hillsides....



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124501964322813585.html#mod=whats_news_free?mod=igoogle_wsj_gadgv1

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YIKES!!!

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. The stated reason for the wall might be a little more believable

if the government was doing anything to stop the rampant deforestation in the interior, where the rainforest is being destroyed to make way for soybeans and cattle grazing.

Protect the rainforest from the encroaching slums - fine.
Protect the rainforest from powerful agricultural interests - NEVER!

[CL455W4R]

2. Fuck Brazil

That is all

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. No, fuck YOU.

Ass.

[KamaAina]

4. Because no state or local government here ever did anything stupid

like, oh, I don't know, demolishing the equivalent of a favela in Sacramento recently? :eyes: