World Cup Shackles

August 30, 2013

Some of my old Puma soccer teammates want to go to the World Cup next April. I could easily arrange to chaperone a group, to the preferred city of Natal, one of the smallest venues. However, my Brasilian friends are already protesting my participation, disturbed by the defamation of the black people (in Salvador, for example, the overwhelmingly black city, has chosen Ivete Sangalo, a white singer, to perform the national anthem for the inauguration,) destruction of many homes and local businesses, erecting masses of new spaces, injurious to the country, to create a more culturally appealing scheme. In the marketing pieces, large chunks of green space are dubbed-in to amputate the scarred and real impoverished segments of the cities. I am in doubt as to whether I want to contribute to this humiliation. The estimated cost to Brasil, to host these events, amounts to $33 million. Like South Africa and the UK, they will most likely lose their shirt and have years of recovery. Companies like Coca-Cola and McDonalds will represent the food venues in the stadiums, leaving out the local sources, even banning them from up to two kilometers from the stadium walls. Homes, albeit windowless cracker boxes, are being stripped from the areas, displacing so many. New transportation fares caused massive riots in my old home town and across the South American country not long ago. My heart bleeds for my kindred spirits, the grief and loss they are already experiencing. Just under a year prior to the kick-off and I mourn the changes, for Brasil and her people.