Favela folk song

Categories: s1 and s2, Geography General

This is another reflective posts, students feel free to ignore (must be the time of year...).There are lots of songs about Favelas in Brazil, several of them bleak, hard hitting and/or political. Seu Jorge is one such artist who wrote a song called 'I am Favela' (scroll down page for lyrics). Some of the lines such as 'The favela is not only a refuge of thugs', 'They only have the right to a low salary and a simple life' and '..truth doesn't appear in the newspapers' cover some of the realities and misconceptions that we carry. As part of our work on favelas, I have asked s1 to imagine themselves living within one, and to write a song about their experience in pairs. I showed some images from flickr, including the happy family scene above, and posed several questions. What do they see from their front door? Are they happy, frightened, hopelessly depressed, proud? Do they think about leaving one day? What do they imagine would be different about their lives? Although I shouldn't be, as they are world's apart in their everyday experiences, I am always quite surprised about how little some pupils truly appreciate the depths of poverty that people can live in. I am equally intrigued in the simplicity of the thought that if people are poor, they must be sad. Hopefully, this exercise will help lay the foundations for the rest of the work we do, particularly about Rocinha and Dona Marta.