What Is It Like To Live In Sao Paulo.
Brazil's richest city, Sao Paulo, is a city of two halves. The core of the city has the headquarters of the majority, and produces about 30% of Brazil's annual GNP. This urbanised core, however, is the complete opposite to the periphery of the city, built by the poor people who can't afford to live in the core.
The core of the city looks like the cities typical of an MEDC, such as London or Milan. Luxury flats, headquarters, factories, office blocks and many more buildings show off the wealth generated by the Golden Triangle of Brazil, and also why Sao Paulo is Latin America's most important financial and industrial city. The Golden Triangle of Brazil is beginning to bring lots of money to Brazil's government, which they are using to make Brazil into a strong MEDC country, much like the Industrial triangle of Italy. Sao Paulo's part in Brazil's Golden Triangle is to manufacture many of the goods sold to other countries, and it also has many of the headquarters of Brazil's large rich companies, like Milan in Italy, which does the same jobs as Sao Paulo. .
Sao Paulo's core houses most of Brazil's rich and famous, who can afford to live in their luxury flats, with a maid (usually paid about £8 a week) who cleans up their mess. The children of the rich and successful people spend their days having fun in the city, sure of a good life, because of the good education their parents can afford to give them.
An hours bus drive away is the periphery of the city. A complete opposite to the core, the periphery of the city is a shanty town, called favelas by the Brazilians. The shanty towns make Sao Paulo look like an LEDC city. These shanty towns are built illegally, on land owned by the government. As a result of being built illegally, almost every one of the houses in the periphery do not have access to electricity, clear running water, gas, toilets, etc.
