World Cup: 1st Thoughts on Brazil

Brazil should never have gone into the running, nor should they have been voted as winners of the 'race' to host the World Cup.

They've spent millions/billion(s)? on stadiums which are not even ready with 1 week to go. This is going to be a rush job, which is dangerous in itself, never mind the 8 and counting people who have died during it.

This brings us to the most significant issues and the main justification for my first sentence of this post. The poverty. Did anyone else see the documentary on BBC1 (English TV) last night? The poverty REALLY is as bad as they make it out to be. I did (now apologetically) wonder if it was all over blown, I didn't quite realise how much trouble a country like Brazil was in.

There will rightly be protests. I hope for the countries sake they are relatively peaceful but still get a firm message across for action. The profits Brazil get from this World Cup should certainly be at least partly used to pick up the part of the country that has fallen down.

With all of this said, I will indeed watch the entirety of the World Cup, I'm a huge fan of the tournament and still very excited. I just think the wrong country was picked.


But while I encourage football fans to enjoy the tournement, Brazil, the country, must address THIS issue:

Not my pic - found it on Twitter.

 

If you ask me for "simultaneous thoughts related to hearing the world 'Brazil'" I will tell you:

hot, soccer (football), big cities combined with massive wilderness.



Hmm, outside of that I really have to dig for what I think.... possibly my brain being utterly stuffed with math atm.

 

I care very little for sport I'm not participating in. I do care, however, about the extreme poverty many are living in while their government spends massive amounts of money so that groups of men can kick a ball around.

 

I just hope that Brazil did the right thing and that the pay off is worth the risk they took. Brazil is a pretty poor country, no ignoring that, but hopefully enough people will go to see the matches and the millions of dollars put into the building of the stadium and hosting the world cup brings enough publicity and visitor's money to possibly help the economy.

 

I like the idea of the world cup going to a footballing nation and Brazil is a massive football nation (Unlike Qatar, greedy FIFA). But I dont think Brazil is ready, as like others have said, it is a very poor country with a lot of poverty. I just hope the poor can benefit from the World cup. Iv heard that the government and the police are very corrupt and crime rates are very high.

The only reason that I would ever want to go there would be to see the Amazon Rainforest, I just hope they stop destroying it soon. The Carnivals do sound quite cool and Rio looks quite nice too.

 

I have friends who are missionarys and the pictures I see from the shanty towns are appalling. On the other hand on the t.v. Itcomes acRoss as a fun place.

 

It was a terrible idea from the start, but it needs to be more than just the Brazilian government addressing the issue; foreign manufacturers (including those who invested in the World Cup) have their fair share of responsibility for Brazilian poverty, instability, and work-place dangers.

The best that can come out of this is publicity, but then again, I doubt that publicity would do much more than make a few richer people (even the more sheltered in Brazil) realise poverty's pervasiveness without actually making them do anything to change it.

 

Unfortunately, FIFA seem hell bent on sending the World Cup to the wrong countries. Remind me, where is it destined in 2018 and 2022?

I think the spotlight needs turning on the sports' governing body and the odious people who lead it.

 

I couldn't agree more. Also, sponsors' records, investments, and business deals should be put into the scrutiny. It's a truly dreadful and corrupt (or at best morally bankrupt) organisation.

 

It's almost as bad as giving the Commonwealth Games to India or the World Cup to Qatar. In the former case, most of the venues were shoddy and unstable, and in the latter, corruption and human rights violations are rampant.

It seems like most countries failed to qualify this year anyway, lol.

 

We are surely not ready for it! I live in São Paulo and it's just a big mess around here.
It's very interesting to see though what's the international awareness.
I've heard the protests and general problems involving the cup are news all around the globe, which is a good thing if it raises international awareness about the situation here, mostly the corruption issue.

For example, some subway lines in São Paulo are supposed to be working since 2012, though they are not ready yet. The line is working, and i believe it wouldn't take more than a week to finish building these stations if they really wanted to spend some money on public improvements.

It all starts tomorrow, now we can only hope everything stays under control.