FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 is in the knockout stages. Brazil’s team is through to the quarter finals, much to the joy and delight of home fans. Yet to what extent can Brazilians actually celebrate? The tournament has come at much social and economic cost.
Before the tournament a string of protests called the Brazilian government to account for misplaced spending due to the World Cup. The government of President Dilma Rousseff's Workers Party has put health, education, anti-poverty and transport spending on the back burner. In one case a stadium was built in an area where there is no locally based team. FIFA was rightly criticised for taking all ticketing and broadcasting revenue, meaning Brazil would find it hard to recoup its costs (some $11.3 Billion US – including what FiveThirtyEight calculates as ‘over $1000 of stadium construction costs per fan in attendance in four years.’) Brazil was simply told to benefit from a short term tourism uptake, only some of which makes its way into government revenue.
Watching on from Australia, we see brilliant players at work. We see stunning goals from Messi, Neymar and Cahill. We see teams striving to bring strategies and formations together. We marvel at the skill of the Dutch, the fall of Spain and the surprise of Costa-Rica. We see coaches trying to pull off a result with well timed substitutions. We see ‘the Beautiful Game’in action.
Between matches, we also see a little cartoon of sorts, where an idealised version of Brazil’s football loving society is presented as it hosts the Cup. There is wonder, hope and harmony. A boy scores a goal, the Amazon is fitted out with stadia, fans are full of a joy which leaps into the heavens. Social injustice and upheaval is out of sight, out of mind.
The disjunct between what we see and what we don’t see echoes a story by Ursula Le Guinn that Moira Rayner referred to in Eureka Street last year. In The Ones Who Walk Away From The Omelas, there is a society where everyone treats each other well, living harmoniously and happily. Yet the glorious city has a secret. Locked in the middle of the city lives a scapegoat child treated oppressively. When citizens come of age, they are given this knowledge. It is a terrible knowledge, calling each person to a fundamental choice about how to respond. The masses agree to keep the society