UNITED NATIONS, April 3 -- While the UN talks a good game, often neither neither the past or future's solved. Taking UN HABITAT, which bragged on April 1 about its World Urban Forum in Brazil. Inner City Press asked, what about the threatened evictions for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics? We talked about that, was the answer. But what if any commitments were obtained?
Previously, when HABITAT held an event in Angola, Inner City Press asked about evictions there. HABITAT responded that it chose to stay quiet, in exchange for a commitment that some percentage of Angola's oil would be devoted to poor housing.
But the evictions have continued, have gotten worse in fact. Click here. When Inner City Press raised this on April 1, HABITAT's presented implied that the purpose of the evictions was to create better housing for the poor. Video here. But in fact in these evictions, no replacement housing was promised, no recompense for that destroyed.
Twice, the HABITAT representatives highlighted that their conference was held in a previously derelict port area, and therefore did not itself displace people but rather "revitalized." One wonders of HABITAT's views on gentrification and other forms of displacement.
Just focusing on sports events, what did the UN or HABITAT do in the face of, according to the UN itself,
1.5 million people displaced for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. "Residents were relocated on a large scale. Mass evictions were reported, sometimes conduced by unidentified men."
2010 - World Cup in South Africa
More than 20,000 residents have been removed and transferred to impoverished areas of the city. The minister for Housing noted that plans to build thousands of low-cost housing units could be affected by changes in the demands of the World Cup budget.
2010 - Commonwealth Games in New Delhi
In New Delhi, India, 35,000 families were evicted from public land in preparation for the games.
Where is HABITAT on this? Watch this site.
