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| Port of Call - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
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| 'Christ The Redeemer' from behind, the most prominent landmark of Rio de Janeiro |
After our longest stretch at sea - an eight-day
crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, Peace Boat finally arrived in Rio
de Janeiro. Colourful Carnival! Sizzling Samba! Exotic Amazon! Typical
images of Brazil conjured up by most international tourists were not
what was in store for Peace Boat participants on the whole, although
swimming at renowned Copacabana Beach or visiting the 'Christ the
Redeemer' statue was a must for some people. Instead, participants
were exposed to some of the realities of a society where the difference
between rich and poor is the biggest in the world. In addition to
a five-day overland trip to the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre
(www.forumsocialmundial.org.br), participants joined in three particularly
notable educational and cultural study tours, made possible by Peace
Boat's NGO network in Brazil. |
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| Happy faces from Sao Martinho, a young people's support organisation |
Sao Martinho is an organization that seeks to 'rescue
the human dignity of children and adolescents from 5 to 18 in a situation
of social risk.' In practice, this means helping children get off
the streets where they are often involved in criminal activities and
drug use, by offering shelter, support and pastoral care. Where possible,
re-integration with families is encouraged although children can alternatively
live in one of the NGO's four Homes. A group of 40, mostly young Peace
Boat participants spent the day with children connected in various
ways to Sao Martinho. After taking a walking tour of the neighbourhood
where marginalized people in Rio de Janeiro tend to gather, participants
split into smaller groups and visited three of the many branches that
make up Sao Martinho. These included 'Sao Pedro', a Home for 5-13
year olds; 'Dom Bosco', a Home for 14-19 year olds; and the 'Ipiranga'
company office, where adolescents can experience a working environment
and learn valuable job-skills as part of the NGO's 'Working World
Project'. |
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| Glowing smiles from a crowd of Peace Boat and Sao Martinho samba dancers
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Bridging the communication gap is always crucial,
and so the Peace Boat teams made use of games, sport and craft to
allow the Japanese and Brazilian participants to interact more freely.
For example, the 'Peace Ball' crew brought soccer balls for their
new Brazilian friends, which instantly inspired some street soccer
action. Kites and letters made by Japanese school children were also
brought along for the younger children. A kite-making and painting
workshop was then set up so that the Sao Martinho kids could make
something in return. Enthused displays of samba, capoeira and Japanese
festival-dancing also became outlets for everyone's excitement and
energy, as well as an opportunity for some fun cultural exchange.
At the company office, participants watched on as teenage children
were taught how to do administrative jobs like mail-sorting and database
entry. Peace Boat's fourth visit to Sao Martinho helped 40th cruise
participants better understand how children with fragmented lives
can be empowered and re-socialised. And according to the bilingual
young people at Sao Martinho who guided the Peace Boat groups around,
after meeting international visitors, the Brazilian children feel
an extra incentive to study hard, especially in English and Spanish,
so that they can better communicate their situation, and that of Brazil,
to the wider community. |
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| Housing situation of a typical Favella (slum) in Rio de Janeiro |
Afro Reggae. It's a style of funky music. But it's
also the name of a Rio de Janeiro-based NGO which helps young people
from 'favellas' (slums) to learn more about their culture and pay
attention to things other than crime. A group of 40 participants from
Peace Boat took a bus to the district of Vigario-Geral, the home of
Afro Reggae, but also an area that suffers from an image of high crime
and poverty. There, participants met up with young people aged between
6 and 25 years old, who are involved with Afro Reggae's various creative
projects, including circus training and performance. People ate lunch
together and then sampled each other's cultural tricks and talents,
including juggling, magic, origami, calligraphy, samba and Japanese
dancing. |
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| Banda Afro Reggae electrify the audience with their powerful rhythms and words |
In the evening, the Peace Boat group increased
to over a hundred people for the live performance put on by 'Banda
Afro Reggae'. Act after act of energetic and powerful drum-beating,
rappin' and booty-shakin' made sure the night turned into an unforgettable
one. First, pint-sized eight year olds made big rhythmic beats on
their can drums. Then teenaged performers pumped up the volume with
their melodic rap commentaries about life in the favellas. Closing
the show were the most experienced Afro-Reggae stars, who have already
released their own album. Their captivating performance sent an electric
current of joy and energy through the already hyped-up crowd. Music,
art and dancing are like a magical weapon for these young Brazilians
who are so much more self-assured and focused than before their discovery
of Afro-Reggae. It's clear that audiences can't help but feel the
power and spirit of an Afro-Reggae performance, even when they don`t
understand the lyrics and language. It is also just as obvious that
the young people up on the stage are loving the experience and feeling
empowered by it too. |
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| Peace Boat guest Koshin Fukushima (left) and a Peace Boat participant help plant couve seeds at a MST village
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In Brazil, less than three per cent of the population
owns two-thirds of the arable land. The 'Movimento dos Travalhadores
Rurais Sem Terra' (MST) or Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement (www.mst.org.br)
was created by hundreds of thousands of landless peasants in order
to occupy a political space to fight for land reform. MST is the largest
social movement in Latin America and one of the most successful grassroot
movements in the world. A busload of Peace Boat participants travelled
two and a half hours north of Rio de Janeiro to spend the day with
a community of 60 people who are living on one of Brazil's 1600 'assentamentos'
(farms bought and divided by the State in order to settle landless
peasants on land which has been conquered by MST). Located next to
a river, in extremely lush, rich surroundings, the community are able
to grow a variety of vegetables and keep a small number of livestock.
Most of the crops are used to sustain themselves, with the surplus
being sold at a market in a neighbouring town. Peace Boat participants
spent part of the day helping to plant 'couve' seeds in punnets of
soil, as well as paddling in the canoes to see more of the farmland.
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| Rosana Velasquez from Venezuala imparts her ideas about peace |
Several houses have been hand-built to shelter
the groups of families while a disused barn has been transformed into
a community centre. Peace Boat participants learnt about the MST's
process of development and listened to individuals talk about agricultural
politics, especially how landless workers have been impacted by the
economic and technological transformations in Brazil over the last
decade. Especially interesting for some participants was coming into
contact with a MST villager who migrated as a child from Japan following
World War Two. Now in her sixties, the 'Nikkei' Brazilian lady could
still speak some Japanese and communicate directly with participants.
The encounter reminded participants the extent to which your immediate
environment can dictate your fate, as they recognised their life of
privilege in Japan as opposed to the life of hardship and struggle
that the MST villagers have experienced. For most of the villagers,
it was the first opportunity to meet Japanese people, and they were
all reportedly very pleased that international visitors had taken
an interest in their cause. |
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| Peace Boat's
40th Voyage index |
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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