Mobissimo

So I've been to the favelas of Rio, yes dangerous, but they have some pretty cool parties there and 'security' is always pretty tight, i.e. gringos have their own area, but the dance floor is open, so I can pop it and lock to my heart's content.  Anyway, this isn't new at all, there have been favelas tours for years, and while the operators make a profit, part goes to the community, and visitors make contributions to the communities and get a first hand experience in an area where they would only be regarded as a walking ATM.  However, there is another side, a person's home, regardless of income is not a zoo, so it begs the debate whether or not such tours are really necessary.  You make the call, more here via NY Times.

MICHAEL CRONIN’s job as a college admissions officer took him to India two or three times a year, so he had already seen the usual sites — temples, monuments, markets — when one day he happened across a flier advertising “slum tours.”

“It just resonated with me immediately,” said Mr. Cronin, who was staying at a posh Taj Hotel in Mumbai where, he noted, a bottle of Champagne cost the equivalent of two years’ salary for many Indians. “But I didn’t know what to expect.”