The Russians aren't doing such a good job of hiding their latent imperialism lately. However, I hope this Crimean crisis will be cleared up by 2018 and if so Russia will do a fine job with the WC. If its not taken care of by then... Send in the Light Brigade.
Testimony from an danish journalist that was supposed to cover the WC but gave up: (It was in Portuguese, so pardon any mistake in the translation ) " Brazil world cup - A big illusion made for foreigners I was dreming about covering the WC in Brazil for the past 2 and a half years. The best sport in the world in an wonderful country. I came up with a plan, went there to study, learned portuguese and was prepared to come back there. And I did. I Came back in september 2013. My dream was about to come true, but today, 2 months before the World Cup party I decided that I wont stay here anymore. The dream had become a nightmare. For the last 5 months I've been recording and documentating the consequences of the WC. And there are plenty: People removal (from their homes), armed forces and military police on the communities, corruption, the shuting down of several social projects. In fact, I found out that most of these social projects are made and and run by people like me, a foreigner, and also some international press. I am the type of guy that is used to impress other people. In March I was in Fortaleza, to the meet the most violent city to ever host an WC game to date. I spoke with some people that introduced me to some street kids and it came to my knowledge that many of them are missing. Often they are killed in their sleep at night, especially in areas that tourists visit the most. Why ? To make the city more appealing to foreigners and the international press ??? Because of people like me ?? In Fortaleza I met Allison, 13 y.o., that lives in the streets of the city, a kid with a really tough life. He had nothing, just a bag of peanuts, and when we met, he offered me them. This kid, who had nothing, offered the only thing of value he had and his sole possession to a foreigner that was carrying a U$5.000 filming equipament and had a mastercard in his pocket. Unbelievable. But his life is in danger because of people like me. He's at danger of becoming the next victim of the cleansing that is happening in the streets of Fortaleza. I can't cover such event after knowing the real cost of the World Cup, that is far more than the public money stolen to finance it, which is the lifes of innocent people, including children. Today I'll return to Danmark and wont come back to Brazil again. My presence here only contribute to this unplesant show in Brazil. A show that 1 or 2 years before I was eager to attend, but today I'll do everything in my power, not only to critizise, but to unmasked and show to everyone what was the real cost of the WC in Brazil. Anyone interested in 2 tickets to France x Ecuador on 25/06 ?? Mikkel Jensen - Independent Danish Journalist " Full article (in Portuguese): http://www.tribunahoje.com/noticia/...s-se-decepciona-e-desiste-de-cobrir-copa.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, anyone still want to come over ???
Dude, I get that you and a lot of Brazillians are ticked at the government for wasting your tax dollars on the World Cup when you could be spending it on health care and infrastructure but get over it( or perhaps you're like some of my compatriots who really don't want to pay taxes period). A world cup can bring great economic benefits, and this shit is not going to get cancelled between now and June. Instead of trying to discourage everyone you should be promoting it so that local businesses can at least reap the windfall from a massive event that is the World Cup. Trying to shine a bad light on your own country in order to dissuade foreigners from visiting Brazil instead of just concentrating blame on the government is just counterproductive. And god forbid some shit goes down during the tournament, your country has the most to lose and then good luck trying to promote Brazil in the future as a hub for any sort of financial venture. But sometimes, I wonder if you are even concerned about that because the only words out your mouth about Brazil are ridiculously negative and sometimes vitriolic. Chin up dude, Brazil has some great things to offer and don't get angry because tourists don't just want to concern themselves with the worst shit about it because they are undoubtedly trying to escape the problems facing their own country.
Hope so ... Dude, you simply don't get it ... The World Cup in Brazil will cost around 30 BILLIONS Brazilian reais ... That's is more than the World Cup in Japan/Korean, Germany and South Africa COMBINED !!! You must be extremely naive if you think we'll get even a third of that back ... Fifa DOESN'T pay taxes and there's simply no f@cking way that tourism alone will cover that expenses ... In addition, we have no decent roads, we have no decent airports, we have no railroads at all and our public transportating SUCKS. Simply everything that is VITAL to have a somewhat decent event ... Back in 2007, when we got the cup our president said that the WC would be solely funded by private money/private sector. And guess what ?? Today, 7 f@cking years later 98% of thhe money used so far was from the tax payers ... I'm not even going to bother discussing our public health and education in here ... The situation in Brazil is worse than ever my friend, and after the world cup, it will get even worse, the economic crisis that hitted Europe and the US a years back will only hit Brazil at full force after the world cup, as the Real Estate bubble is about to burst in here, inflation is rising and the taxes that are already outrageous will go even higher (some already did) ... Things are bad now, but after the WC is when we'll be truly f@cked ... I'm sorry dude, but you don't have a clue what you are talking about ...
Do you think those expenses have yet to be made and they're just waiting for the WC to make them? Pretty sure the majority of the cost is already on the books.
So what's the point of still complaining? Everything you didn't want to have happened has already happened. Best you can do now is try to patch work whatever mistakes you believe were made.
It makes my blood boil, but to be honest, I already entered the "F@ck it mode" ... If all goes according to plan by the WC end I won't be in this shithole anymore, so screw it !!
You know what, I'll admit it. It really does seem like i don't know wtf I'm talking about with regards to this issue. I'm just saying though, what's the point of trying to trying to tell the world not to come? One would think that that just makes matters even worse for Brazil.
This event can damage Brazil's worldwide image even more, so that's why I'm advising against it... It would be embarrassing to see tourists get robbed, ripped off by taxi drivers and salesmen's, or get hurt in an manifestation... And not to mention how troublesome it will be for people to move along, as our public transport sucks and ALL of our airports stinks. Hell, on am regular basis we have delays and problems at airports, imagine how it will be in such a large scale event ... Oh, and don't you think we have enough hotels and hostels to comport such demand either... Hell, Germany had to build their on training center... This shows how chaotic this WC will be...
I love how Brasilia built a $500 million stadium......that doesn't have a club team. Ditto for Manaus, Natal, and Cuiaba. That is criminal.
I fear with the rush job on construction of the venues will rear it's ugly head when they start falling apart and collapsing on people. Corinthians' new stadium is going to be one hell of a hazard.
According to Sepp 'I had to much wine last night' Blatter the responsibilities for the delays in Brazil prior to the WC lie with the big German and French construction companies who were poorly organized...
Really? What about cultural disaster? Explain? You can't compare Russia and Brazil dude. The winter Olympics turned out great. It's the fcking media that's messing up your mind about Russia. Russians love foreigners and respect them. Been there a lot of times, learned that. They are up to date building the stadiums and infrastructure is great. Good quality roads, public transport consisting of subways and everything else, new airports ready for a lot of traffic, fast trains between bigger cities.
He's clearly talking about the civil rights issues with Putin's behavior and how the west is suddenly increasingly actually giving a ******** about his actions. My theory for why this is happening is that a sequel to the cold war would really fill a lot of articles and lock up a lot of votes now that people have stopped being terrified of terrorists in the US. And russia has good quality roads, as long as you are in moscow or peter. Head out into the country or the regional metropolises that have some of the stadiums that will be used and that basic infrastructure equation changes drastically.
Well it's a big country and clearly some parts of the country have issues. But the fact is that they built Sochi from almost zero, and a Winter Olympics it's not a small event so i guess they have the experience. Most importantly they have the funds to build everything on time. Kazan, Samara are also good cities. Sochi will also be good. Moscow two stadiums. Piter one. Politics is not the issue here, i am sure everything will be okay by then. For me racism is only serious issue.
Do you think there will be race related problems with such a heavy influx of foreigners and "brown people"?
Look, there is racism as a real problem in Russia. But racism is also a big problem in Italy and Spain. Mostly as in other countries the ultras do all the problems. The ordinary folks I know really see foreigners as something special and wow and tend to learn a few things about other people's culture.