Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Coke and Favelas

Article
The poorest people in Brazil live in favelas. I've talked about this already, but it deserves more than one mention.
70 percent of each favela's population consists of black people, or brown people. These people are the merchants selling ice cream or 'gucci' rings or sunglasses. The mulatto people, lighter brown skinned people, have jobs like security guards or secretaries and the majority make up the middle class. The mulatto people live in middle class communities. They don't have pools and don't live behind gates. The white people are the doctors, the engineers, the architects and the lawyers. The live behind gates and employ the favela-lites as gardeners, housekeepers and cooks.
The favelas are what I'm interested. The people that live in the favelas are what I am interested in. I, honestly, only got to know them as vendors or maids, but I somewhat regret that.
The author of this article tells us about the favela that was near his apartment on Ipanema. The first time he saw it he almost confused it for a used furniture dump and wanted to go ask if they had any nice tables. When he got closer though he noticed that young kids running wildly about. As he got even closer he could feel them eye him for anything of value. As he stood next to the favela they asked "Black? White?" (Weed? Cocaine?)
The author then goes on to explain a child, Paulo, whom he met on a bus and was complete strung out on glue sniffing. Out of pity he bought Paulo meat for his family and lectured him on the dangers of sniffing glue.
He saw Paulo many times after that. Often too strung out to move and sleeping in doorways or on the beach.
The author does raise an interesting point.

The poverty in Brazil only stands out because it really shouldn’t be there. Brazil is a country overflowing with natural resources, occupies about half the East Coast of South America and has hue potential for tourism. What holds it back are the cycles of corruption, discrimination and lack of education that cripples the country before it can stand up.