Rio shanty town reporter tells her story

Mayra finds damage left by gunfire all around the shanty town

I am 17 years old and live in Vila Cruzeiro, one of the shanty towns or favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In 2008, Desmond Tutu awarded me the International Children's Peace Prize for organising a protest against the frequent shoot-outs between police and drug traffickers in my community.

Vila Cruzeiro is in the north of the city.

Around 120,000 people live here and at times it can be a difficult place because of the violence. It hits us when we least expect it.

We are not able to do anything. We cannot go to school, people cannot go to work and we have to stop our lives.

School life

Violent confrontations often happen next to one of the schools in the middle of Vila Cruzeiro. There are bullet holes in the walls.

There have been times when armoured police cars have stopped beside the school and shooting has broken out from all sides.

A bullet entered through the window of my house and hit my computer Nathan, aged nine

Regina is a teacher who has worked here for 28 years.

She says she loves what she does, but adds: "When the violence happens it is very intense. Teachers feel ill, children feel ill and sometimes faint.

"It interferes with the children's learning.

"Thank God nothing has ever happened to any of the students in the school, but there are bullet holes on the walls."

Zaira Florinda Costa da Cruz has been a teacher in the favela for 10 years.

She says it is very difficult to find teachers to work there because they hear from the media that the place is worse than it is.

"I work in another school and there they ask me how I have the courage to work here in Vila Cruzeiro," she says.

"I tell them I love working in that school, the children respect me."

Children's view

Leone is 10 years old. She says she likes living in the favela but does not like the shootings.

"I saw a friend of mine get shot and then get taken to hospital," says Leone.

Brazil has invested 100bn reais (£30bn) to improve life in the favelas

She says she feels sad when her school has to close because she cannot study.

"There are a lot of people who can't read and write because of the shootings here," she says.

"Nobody can learn anything."

Nathan Bezarra da Costa is nine years old and also lives in Vila Cruzeiro.

He worries about the violence and was once caught up in a street battle between police and drug dealers.

"There was shooting and a bullet entered through the window of my house and hit my computer. I was crying," he says.

He now lives with his grandmother because he says her house is hidden and he feels he will be protected from bullets there.

I believe that society stigmatises us.

Some people think that everyone who lives here is a drug dealer but this is not true.

People here work, they study and they only want a better place to live.

Spring brings changes in New York

If there is one thing that often stands out about people from the United States, it is their optimism.

Even when times are bad they still exude a sense that everything will, in the end, be ok.

The former 'Masters of the Universe' are no exception.

I found some of them in a lecture theatre on Manhattan's East 55th Street.

Ed preferred not to tell me his last name since he is looking for work. He lost his job at the start of the year, after a 20-year career in finance and banking.

"It was a change, but I'm looking forward to new possibilities," he says.

Like the others here, Ed - who looks to be in his 50s - has gone back to school. They all lost a job in finance. Now they are being re-trained.

The idea is simple. Show them how they can put their financial analytical skills to use in emerging start-up firms.

It is a pilot programme set up by the Levin Institute at the State University of New York, and supported by the City of New York.

Re-invention

Each person will spend time with a start-up company, and while a job at the end of it is not guaranteed, it will - according to the co-director of the programme, Tom Moebus - "give them a solid entry" into a new part of the economy.

"New firms will form a little bit in the ashes of the old. Before the resources went to the financial sector," he says. "Now there's an opportunity to take the talent into new sectors. The digital sector, or the green sector for instance."

New York, in other words, is beginning to try to re-invent itself. It is diversifying, as it knows it must.

Financial services have been good for the US's largest city, but it had become over-dependent on Wall Street.

Jobs in finance accounted for about 9% of New York's total. They made up a whopping 34% of its total payroll - according to the city's office of management and budget.

By the end of this year it is estimated that New York will have lost about 65,000 jobs in finance alone - about 18% down from the sector's peak in 2007.

That is a big drop in tax revenue for a city already struggling to balance its budget.

'January panic'

It is also a worry for those who profited from the spending power of Wall Street's employees.

"January was the month where everyone really held their breath," says Daniel Blumberg, a co-owner of several restaurants.

"It was a moment of panic."

For a short time New York lost some of its famed self-confidence. As the crisis deepened towards the end of last year, people stopped spending.

Now, Mr Blumberg says he is starting to see a change.

"People seem to have decided the financial meltdown is what it is. They may not be as lavish as they were, but they've started to come back out."

Recruitment slowdown

There is then a sense that things have stabilised - though that is perhaps the only silver lining.

Universities in the city talk of a slowdown in recruitment.

Cornell University says that businesses have hired fewer full time workers and interns for the coming summer. Cornell's graduate school recruitment is down 18%.

It is not just the financial sector. Across the board college graduates in New York are finding it harder to get jobs.

People like Nick Goddard. He is 26 years old, has a degree in mechanical engineering, and is recently unemployed after losing his job as a computer programmer.

"It has been pretty difficult for people to find jobs lately, especially if trying to get back into the jobs they lost in the first place," he told me, on a wet afternoon in Manhattan.

"It's time for a transition from the shrinking industries into the growing industries - people will have better luck that way."

Changing course

Mr Goddard feels lucky. Losing his job has forced him, he says, to change career direction. He is now looking to work - perhaps even unpaid at first - at a bike-sharing programme.

There are signs that plenty of others are choosing this moment to change course.

Wall Street is no longer the get-rich-quick attraction it once was. Graduates are having to re-think their career plans. That in turn is changing New York.

Volunteer and non-profit organisations in the city are reporting an increase in people looking to work for them.

Of course for many thousands here who have lost their jobs, these are still worrying times. This though feels like a city that is large enough, and packed with enough innovative people, to get back on its feet.

More pain lies ahead, believes the restaurant owner, Daniel Blumberg. "When you lose 100,000-odd Wall Street jobs, there will be a knock-on.

"The next year or two will see an adjustment, but New York always comes out stronger and better."

The Big Apple may have lost some of its swagger, but it is still sounding optimistic.

Councils may recoup Iceland cash

Public bodies placed about a billion pounds in Icelandic banks

Local councils which invested hundreds of millions of pounds in Icelandic banks have been given indications that they may get most of their money back.

Banks in Iceland were taken over by the authorities when the country's financial system collapsed in October.

Administrators for Heritable Bank, the UK arm of Landsbanki, have indicated its creditors could get up to 80% of funds back - equating to about £300m.

It is thought about £1bn in UK public money was deposited in Iceland's banks.

Heritable Bank is a UK bank which was placed into administration after the parent bank, Landsbanki, was nationalised by the Iceland government.

BBC business reporter Ben Shore said local government officials had also indicated that negotiations over deposits at other Icelandic banks were going well.

The Audit Commission, which itself deposited £10m in Icelandic banks, has previously said most councils had "heeded warnings" about the declining credit worthiness of Icelandic banks during 2008 and taken action accordingly.

However, it has said that some did not do this, describing a handful as behaving "negligently".

It reserved particular criticism for institutions which continued to deposit money after 30 September, when the credit ratings of Glitnir and Landsbanki were downgraded to "adequate".

This is below that deemed acceptable under guidance to town halls.

The two Icelandic banks went under just over a week later.