Monica is so smooth and funky on that mike her vibe resonates in the homes, offices and cars of favela and barrio residents of Gran Tijuca. To my surprise she introduces me to her listeners and asks me to express my thoughts of Brazil. I talk of my instant love for the people, the beaches, the sunshine, the mountains, the nature and the whole Carioca world that has welcomed me to Brazil. I also talk of the unmistakeable segregation, which I equate with structural apartheid dating back to the 1500s. Monica grins and nods with acknowledgement as I express myself in Portunol, a terrible mix of Portuguese and Spanish.
The Radio do Gran Tijuca, or RGT with the T hanging off the G on the logo, is a tangible product of the Agenda Social. Patricia from Ibase works closely with local communities and introduced me to Monica. I visit the radio station to find out how it helps integrate the barrio with the favelas. Monica explains before I even have a chance to ask:
“We started the radio because of the violence between different communities living here. Whoever lives in one community cannot speak to someone from another community. For example if I am from Borel I hate those who live in Casa Branca [and vice versa]. Not everyone but mainly the rival gangs. So many people living in different areas couldn’t speak to each other. So we wanted to create something that could be a point of convergence for these communities. So why a radio station? A radio station can talk about everything that is happening in those communities; the people living in the ‘asphalt’, in official areas, and those living in favelas, in the hills… They conceived this radio, they created this radio, they built this radio with their own hands and they rose the funds that were needed...So this radio station converges all the ideas from the favelas of the hills, the street favelas and the official neighbourhoods.”
Monica explains how the radio helps create public politics: “Everyone who works here also works on a social project. For example I work on a work management project for women. Eduardo works on an environmental project. Miramar works for the church. So here in the radio we democratise information. Why? Because a woman at home, a woman without education, young people with no opportunities, they can learn through the radio. Through this radio. Because the big radios don’t speak the language of the people living in poorer communities. So we create public politics through the democratisation of information across the community radio. Informing, orienting, talking about violence in the family, talking about sexually transmitted diseases, talking about men’s health, talking about black culture, talking about various subjects that will stimulate growth of the poorest communities; those who don’t have access to quality information. Why? Because the large radios, the large medias, they talk about the dollar, they talk about the WTO they talk about NAFTA, they talk of MERCOSU, but people here don’t understand”.
I ask Monica if they accepted advertisers. She explains that the law prohibits them from any sort of commercial activity. In fact the government has recently closed down over 100 radio stations across the country because the large radio stations and media groups feel threatened by the proliferation of small, local radio stations. Monica explains, “In August or September a commission will go to Brazilia to personally re-vindicate the law [which prohibits the proliferation of small radio stations], so that us small people can express ourselves. This is part of an on-going campaign called ‘freedom of expression’. We are fighting against the steeling of our equipment and the aggression against our programmers”.
Market forces backed by government action stand in the way of the freedom of speech of communities all over Brazil. It seems that no matter what these communities try to do to organise themselves and integrate into mainstream society, they are faced with barriers that insure their exclusion. It just so happens that the poor and excluded in Rio’s favelas are predominantly black. But as we shall see, exclusion is not a racially conscious phenomenon, as it will quite happily capture anyone who happens to be left out.
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