Some time ago my friend Jerry emailed this picture to me. In his email he was talking about the division between rich and poor in Brazil (he is an American living in Rio de Janeiro) and sent this photo as a rather shocking example of how the rich here are super rich and the poor are super poor. This photo was taken in São Paulo, and the name of the favela is Paraisópolis favela. The translation of "Paraisópolis" is roughly "Paradise City". Kind of ironic huh?Anyway, Salvador is in the state of Bahia, which is a poorer state than São Paulo, but we certainly have our share of rich folks living in the lap of luxury while the poor folks (many of whom live right next to the rich folks) have to stare this luxury in the face every day as they pass by the million dollar apartments on their way home to their simple houses, trying to make ends meet on the minimum wage that is shockingly low and seemingly impossible to live on (R$400 per month, which is about $250US for FULL TIME WORK!).
I don´t have any answers to the economic problems of Brazil, but I guess I wanted to post this to remind all of us that we need to really count our blessings and be thankful for what we do have. The picture here kind of speaks for itself.
2 comments:
Awesome post Pedra! I simply have to blog this photo. You mind if I "borrow" this one from you?
No problem Leo...I got it from a friend as well. And it is an incredible shot. Someone put a comment on the page I got it from that said, "Why do the poor people stay on their side of the wall?". I imagine the security guards on the rich side are armed.
-Cheryl
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