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Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

spiegel.de

31–40 of 180 posts

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#31
post #8
post #3

When you're at zero, anything happening is a "boom". I should know, I'm from a country where IT is "booming"... Most of it is tedious boring work that was outsourced by western companies because no one there wants to do it, plus it's cheaper than even creating some automated processes. Still, that's a pessimistic way to look at it. It's a good thing, and it can grow into something better.

Another perspective is that there are people who prefer to do those jobs (instead of say, working in Amazon warehouse) but can't because it's cheaper (and logistically possible) to outsource to another country.

If these people don't apply for these jobs, they might as well not exist.

Amazon warehouses are staffed with immigrants in Europe. And they would simply not be able to do anything IT related.

It might seem easy for us, but it's not. We're talking about people who can't reinstall Windows. They won't be doing manual unit testing anytime soon, or ever, nevermind anything more complicated.

German companies love keeping it local. Things like manual app testing are advertised as Minijobs, but very few are applying. And of course, they complain about a lack of workers. So outsourcing can make sense beyond saving every penny.

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#32

How the hell do they run these operations or have this amount of gear safely in a favela? When I did a full-on tourist experience of Rio, the guides were adamant that we not even go near any favela, as we'd immediately be robbed or worse. My understanding was that the crime in those areas was so astronomically high that nothing even resembling IT infrastructure could exist, as it would immediately be confiscated by t…

I am from Brazil and to be honest the government push for this is kinda silly. There are other problems to solve first.

There was an event I participated about this, I was teaching about gamedev using opensource tools, a lot of people paid to go, the government then brought in a ton of people from the favelas as part of their "digital inclusion" program, although I was happy to teach them, later I heard many of them just stole people's computers, mouses, keyboards, etc... and bolted, a good chunk of the "digital inclusion" people that went for free, didn't sit in a single workshop, instead they just disappeared, and a ton of equipment with them.

Even outside favelas, our infrastructure is just shit too, I work from home and losing power and internet is a constant threat, sometimes water goes out too.

And corruption in general just runs deep, I know a TV producer that was hired to make an Ad for the government, he had to record a government building inside a favela, to make the ad for the government, yet the local government guy wouldn't let him inside to make the recording the government was demanding, he had to approach a congressman about it, and the guy just flat demanded 10k to "do his thing" and make it work.

He did paid the guy, then after that the drug lord demanded another 10k to allow the TV crew inside the favela without being shot.

After he recorded it, the congressman was seen with a new car... meanwhile the drug lord seemly dunked the entire 10k into meat, charcoal and booze and threw a huge barbecue party to the locals.

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#33
post #30

Such a waste on a great subject. There's this huge social and economic change in Brazil over the last 10 or so years where dozens of millions of people are acceding to the digital world; broadband (usually 4G) access to the internet is becoming part of their daily lives. This has huge consequences and tons of opportunity. Nubank is a quick example I can think of that knew how to take advantage of this movement and is…

as someone who had a previous carreer in journalism (and also happen to be a Brazilian as well), the media will always portrait the country in a way to make it seem "exotic" in order to gain more attention. that's why you will _never_ see news articles about boring countryside towns

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#34

How the hell do they run these operations or have this amount of gear safely in a favela? When I did a full-on tourist experience of Rio, the guides were adamant that we not even go near any favela, as we'd immediately be robbed or worse. My understanding was that the crime in those areas was so astronomically high that nothing even resembling IT infrastructure could exist, as it would immediately be confiscated by t…

Its exaggerated, there would probably be no remedy for you if it occurred but that doesn't mean people don't have other shit going on.

Most “dangerous ghettos” are the same way. If people dont have beef with you they arent just looking to take advantage. A sociopathic person with a badge is much more dangerous because they dont have to collaborate at all, unlike civilians.

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#35
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you live there and you earn your respect from the community, you are safe. In most favelas, criminals are not allowed to steal from other residents. They have their own rules. The real metaverse.

The drug dealers for all the bad they do they also support and help the community a lot. This is part of their strategy, the community in turn protect them, hide them. In many favelas the drug lord is the law, and the law is don't poop where you eat. You may be able to steal from people outside the favela but not inside the favela, if you do the punishment can be medieval, like cut hands or even death. It's not only…

Killing is legal in the favelas?

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#36
post #30

Such a waste on a great subject. There's this huge social and economic change in Brazil over the last 10 or so years where dozens of millions of people are acceding to the digital world; broadband (usually 4G) access to the internet is becoming part of their daily lives. This has huge consequences and tons of opportunity. Nubank is a quick example I can think of that knew how to take advantage of this movement and is…

but just because you don't respect game streamers doesn't mean that it doesn't have huge consequences and opportunities too.

the people doing that have income and access to capital now whether a bank showed up or not, which is way better than any neobank fintech company can achieve.

in the past, access to capital or electronic payments meant "bank the unbanked", now it doesn't mean that so there's no reason to cling to that goal.

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#37
post #32

How the hell do they run these operations or have this amount of gear safely in a favela? When I did a full-on tourist experience of Rio, the guides were adamant that we not even go near any favela, as we'd immediately be robbed or worse. My understanding was that the crime in those areas was so astronomically high that nothing even resembling IT infrastructure could exist, as it would immediately be confiscated by t…

I am from Brazil and to be honest the government push for this is kinda silly. There are other problems to solve first. There was an event I participated about this, I was teaching about gamedev using opensource tools, a lot of people paid to go, the government then brought in a ton of people from the favelas as part of their "digital inclusion" program, although I was happy to teach them, later I heard many of them…

> After he recorded it, the congressman was seen with a new car... meanwhile the drug lord seemly dunked the entire 10k into meat, charcoal and booze and threw a huge barbecue party to the locals.

It seems to me that one care more about his constituents that the other!

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#38
post #35
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The drug dealers for all the bad they do they also support and help the community a lot. This is part of their strategy, the community in turn protect them, hide them. In many favelas the drug lord is the law, and the law is don't poop where you eat. You may be able to steal from people outside the favela but not inside the favela, if you do the punishment can be medieval, like cut hands or even death. It's not only…

Killing is legal in the favelas?

Nope.

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#39
post #12

How the hell do they run these operations or have this amount of gear safely in a favela? When I did a full-on tourist experience of Rio, the guides were adamant that we not even go near any favela, as we'd immediately be robbed or worse. My understanding was that the crime in those areas was so astronomically high that nothing even resembling IT infrastructure could exist, as it would immediately be confiscated by t…

I lived at the edge of 2 favellas for a couple of months as part of my short life in Brazil. I can tell you, while their houses are small and simple made they often have high tech in their houses. Partly due to the fact that their government had programs allowing them to buy it cheaply. From my limited experience the problem wasn’t so much that tech wasn’t or couldn’t be available but that a lot of them couldn’t even…

> these gangs peace is more interesting and profitable than a lot of crime and chaos

I think it is enlightening to look at these sort of situations through the lens of feudalism. Criminal gangs are not sociopathic comic book villains interested in violence for the fun of it, they are more like landlords, and are in it for money, security, and a sense of community. Medieval kings, the Italian/American/Japanese mafias, South/Central American drug cartels, and Middle Eastern/African "warlords" are all cut from the same cloth.

Re: Young people from Brazil's favelas set out to conquer digital world

#40
post #12

How the hell do they run these operations or have this amount of gear safely in a favela? When I did a full-on tourist experience of Rio, the guides were adamant that we not even go near any favela, as we'd immediately be robbed or worse. My understanding was that the crime in those areas was so astronomically high that nothing even resembling IT infrastructure could exist, as it would immediately be confiscated by t…

I lived at the edge of 2 favellas for a couple of months as part of my short life in Brazil. I can tell you, while their houses are small and simple made they often have high tech in their houses. Partly due to the fact that their government had programs allowing them to buy it cheaply. From my limited experience the problem wasn’t so much that tech wasn’t or couldn’t be available but that a lot of them couldn’t even…

> Also remember that for these gangs peace is more interesting and profitable than a lot of crime and chaos. Especially over the long run.

Right - a lot of these places are essentially very poor neighborhoods under separate governance. For better (sometimes) or (often) for worse.

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