[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqswWDGmdbw[/youtube]
While the world’s attention is focused on protests in Turkey and Syria’s civil war, a growing wave of nationwide protests in Brazil has been met by a violent police crackdown.
For the better part of the past two weeks, Brazilians have taken to the streets to display their discontent and despair over a host of social, economic and political ills. It all started in the nation’s two largest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where residents angry about a 10-cent bus and subway fare increase turned out in the thousands to voice their indignation.
The Rio Times reports that 20,000 people demonstrated in São Paulo and as many as 10,000 took to Rio’s streets for Thursday’s protests.
“O Rio pra quem?–” Rio for who? That was the question many of the protesters wanted answered. Many Cariocas, as residents of the famous seaside city are called, believe the government’s priorities are seriously flawed, with tourism development, promotion of the city’s international image and enriching connected business interests taking precedent over serving the needs of the people of a nation in which tens of millions live in poverty while a tiny elite enjoy stupendous– and growing– wealth.