In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hundreds of homeless men and women from dozens countries participated in this year’s Homeless World Cup. But the event wasn’t just about soccer, it was about changing lives.
It could have been New Orleans as it was pummeled by hurricane Katrina-the torrential rains, the rising waters, the families separated, bodies lost and still missing-but it was not. This was Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2010, and the culprit was not a breach in the levee, but dozens of mudslides that leveled whole neighborhoods, burying homes and families alive. Favela in Rio
"English Trash Going Home" read the front page of Brazil's Porto Alegre journal, Correio do Povo on Monday, August 3rd. The image showed the hefty MSC Oriane tanker piled with dozens of containers. The photo's caption explained that 920 "tons of domestic and toxic trash, imported illegally and which were in Rio Grande, were embarked and will make the return trip home to England." On her way North, the tanker stopped by the Santos port in Sao Paulo and picked up another 41 containers. For Brazil, it was the welcomed resolution to what had become a small-scaled international scandal. But globally, it is not even a scratch on the surface.Garbage Heap in Philippines
With his pleasant smile, his thick beard and curly shoulder-length hair that he twirls while he talks, Richard Stallman looks more fit to be following the Grateful Dead, than attending Latin America's largest technology and information event. But Stallman is not just attending, he is the guest of honor: The Jerry Garcia of Free Software.Richard Stallman
In this interview, Brazil-based independent journalist Michael Fox talks about what lessons US activists might consider from social movements throughout
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019