The latest offering in my series about the other side of the World Cup is an article from "The Brazilian Canary" himself, Lucas Jorge. A journalism student and blogger based in Rio, Lucas takes us through some of his country's history to help us understand why a football-crazy nation would protest about staging the greatest tournament in the world.
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Well, I'm a young Brazilian, my name is Lucas Jorge and I'm only 19. But, I've seen interesting things happen in my country and have also studied a lot about his past. And it is from the past that I'll start to explain the current situation of Brazil and its people.
Since the end of the dictatorship and the beginning of democratic elections Brazil lives a drama. We managed a feat - the end of the military dictatorship - but could not, until now, find candidates to command respect from every state or other governments. Primarily we want a respectable candidate to be president of Brazil.
Tancredo was to have been the first president elected by democratic vote. He would be the first president of Brazil. It would have been... What actually happened was that Tancredo died two days before assuming the presidency of Brazil after the period of military dictatorship, I will not get into conspiracy theories that revolve around this fact, but for an unfortunate irony, Jose Sarney - at the time, party representative who defended the military dictatorship - took over from Tancredo. This was the first drama; the second was with the election of Fernando Collor. With media manipulation, especially TV Globo, Collor won. But impeached. He literally stole the country. After him came Itamar Franco, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula and Dilma currently.
You might be asking ... "But Lucas, what does this have to do with the current protests in Brazil and the World Cup?"
Simple! - I say - we Brazilians, since the democratic elections, never had respectable candidates to elect. Be it in elections for state or in elections for President of Brazil. The Brazilian people are tired of being cheated. Living in a country where you can not trust a politician is terrible! Unfortunately, there are a huge list of corrupt politicians here, you have honest account of his fingers on the hand!
Being honest, the Brazilian people are always festive, always lived and enjoyed life with what they have and without complaint, but with the internet - Thank my good God! - the news spread, it has increasingly come to all and with that comes the Brazilian people taking consciousness that it is our country and we, the people, deserve respectable politicians who know how to address the problems that our country has.
Lula, when he was in government, did not. Dilma and Lula were unable to say no to the World Cup and say: "Sorry, our country has other priorities; our country has a horrible education, bad hospitals and a precarious security so can not now invest in stadiums. We have to invest in life, our people! " Not to mention that Brazil is a big country; there are regions where there is no (yes, you read this right) sanitation. There is no treatment for drinking water, no sewage system ...
So, these are some of the reasons for the revolt of the Brazilian. Football has no fault. Football, it's a sport (and we love this sport so much; I'm Flamengo and Norwich fan!), and the football has not come here and said: "The World Cup will be in Brazil and over!" I and many other Brazilians, we are lovers of this sport. And the sport is not to blame if the Brazilian government, FIFA and other characters "important" were unable to differentiate the priorities of the country that is today hosting the World Cup.
Of course, in any protest there are radicals. People who try to "vandalize" during the protest. And politics too, there are always people talking nonsense. An example is Ronaldo "Fenomeno". He said a lot of nonsense, said police should beat the protesters, said that Brazil does not need public hospitals and stadiums. Yes ...it's true, Ronaldo was a genius on the field, but off the field he has been a big idiot unfortunately, because he remains a very influential person in Brazil.
Speaking of influences, here, one reason for the political drama in Brazil, are political ideologies. Here, in my opinion, we have a problem with political campaigns. In Brazil, there are no "political right and left" campaigns and yes, there are populist campaigns. Instead of showing the what the candidate will invest or can do for the country ... candidates try to invest in charisma. Showing the people who are criticizing opponents ... a recent example was Aécio Neves, rival candidate Rousseff, who took photos with Ronaldo Fenomeno (remember what I told you above?).
Well, the truth is that the World Cup is already happening and sure enough, it was not made for everyone, after all, considered to be poor no citizen should have bought a ticket for any game of the Cup. And it's true that everything done in the World Cup in Brazil was done with superfaturamente and corruption. Not to mention that Brazil currently has a huge inflation in the economy of the current government.
It is always worth protesting for their rights, but for the Brazilian, honestly, the best and biggest protest that can be done will be elections, when voting. The Brazilian people have increasingly become aware of the problems of the country and as Brazilians we know, as does anyone who lives here, that the country is good. And that indeed Brazil needs change. Stop being such parents who are "emerging" about 10 years ago and finally emerge and live. Every Brazilian politician says that Brazil will be: "A first world country". I hope so too, and just like in the stadiums, I hope to have hospitals, safety, sanitation and education of "first world" - built to "FIFA standard"!
It is not a question of whether or not the World Cup, having or not having protests. It is a matter of having a government that respects and cares for the people who elected them.
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You can follow Lucas on Twitter (in both Portuguese & English) @NorwichCityFCBR
To read more from Lucas, & hear his podcasts, visit http://braziliancanary-ncfc.
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