Specifically about transport

A friend that use to live here, is an avid transport geek... She has been following the protests keenly from overseas. Her blog focuses on public transport in sp, what she use to work with here.

I am currently travelling and it has been interesting to follow from the outside, the news that is available, what other people think - that I'm escaping the violence with my family - and I have to explain otherwise. I know that it sounds so naive, but it really is amazing to see what the 'power of the people' can do. In a country, (and many others, if not everywhere, is the same) where it is all about what family you were born into, what school you went to, who you know, what job you have, where you live.... To be able to cancel that all out by being just a mass of people who are staying strong in their beliefs, and being persistent, voting with (literally) their feet and getting a chance to speak and negotiate with the higher echelons of this government is amazing.What fairer election is there?


http://thevolcanic.com/2013/06/21/its-not-about-the-20-cents/

20 centavos

Posted by a fb friend today and she's covered pretty much what I wanted to say, plus she's a public transport expert...

At last an article that touches upon the actual issue of how poor public transport is in much of São Paulo, rather than just sensationalising some of the violence seen in protests against the 20 centavo fare increase. 

20 centavos may not seem like much, but this is a city where many of the poorest residents already spend more than a third of their scarce income on public transport - for the privilege of standing up for hours on buses which are poor quality, unreliable and way overfull.

Research by the LSE Urban Age showed that the combination of São Paulo's low quality public transport and peripheralisation of poor communities compounds existing economic and social exclusion, even worse than cities with comparable income inequalities. If the city is going to increase the fares, it needs to radically rethink the services it is offering.

And meantime, the brutalised culture of the riot police also needs to be addressed...in 2011 I watched riot police storm, teargas and shoot at a small peaceful protest on SP's Avenida Paulista...a violent response to this kind of oppression of democracy is not surprising, but sadly distorts the messages we get from the media about the real issues at stake.

http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2013/06/1295658-avaliacao-do-transporte-publico-de-sp-e-a-pior-desde-87-diz-datafolha.shtml

And some more reading on CNN and on Folha de São Paulo and a fellow blogger here.


And another protest this afternoon organised on Facebook. Even if you can't join, you can show your support by putting a white towel in your window.