After my previous article regarding the gentrification of my neighbourhood, I thought the next logical step would be to show the true meaning of gentrification, rather than the first world definition that my previous article gave. With that in mind it seems only natural that I discuss what’s happening in Brazil on the eve of one of the greatest sporting events, the FIFA World Cup.
Brazil is a country that has huge gulfs between rich and poor. A staggering 6% of the entire population lives in favelas. With that in mind you must ask yourself are they not spending beyond their means by hosting the World Cup? I know many people are looking forward to the tournament, which only makes uncovering what’s really going on all the more important.
Before winning the race to host the World cup and the Olympics, Brazil was being heralded as one of the fastest growing economies along with China and India. What most people may not know is just how polarised Brazil actually is; this is a country where politicians earn somewhere in the region of 116 times more than the minimum wage. So although the economy may be growing, large portions of the population are not seeing any fruits of such growth. The arrival of the World Cup also seems only to be benefitting a select few rather than the nation as a whole. I find this fact particularly distressing when you think just how important football is to these people, especially the working classes.
The World Cup has brought nothing but anguish to the people living in the favelas. The atrocities that have been taking place in the run-up to it are truly innumerable; atrocities which FIFA are complicit in and therefore will do anything to keep out of the public eye.
Hundreds of thousands of people are being kicked out of homes that they have lived in for decades to make way for the World Cup. Take the renovation of the Maracana stadium (where the final will be played), reportedly costing $500 Million. Residents in the surrounding favelas in Rio De Janerio are being evicted to make room for a 10,000 space car parking lot. They wouldn’t be politicians if they were not adept at lying and trying to deceive their own people, the city’s housing secretary has said that these demolitions and evictions have nothing to do with the World Cup, Jorge Bittar states that these homes were “precarious homes, built in an inappropriate area”. Cue, raised eyebrows. In reality it’s only “inappropriate” in the sense that it’s now prime real estate and they most certainly cannot have poor people living there! Many of these evictions are being carried out at gunpoint by the thugs in uniform: the Brazilian police. The very same police force that was sent into the favelas to “pacify” them, ironically the method they used to pacify these poor hungry and forgotten people was violence. It comes as no surprise then that the police are as equally to blame as the drug cartels for the rising murder rate, according to The Rio Times there has been an 8% rise in murders between 2012-13.
As if being kicked out of your home wasn’t bad enough, most of the locals will not even be able to afford to go and watch a game in their local stadiums. In a country where football is more than a national sport, it’s something embedded in national culture this is utterly despicable. Most locals will almost certainly be out-priced; although Deputy Sports Minister Luis Fernandes claims to recognize the fact that there could be a “gentrification of the stadiums” little action has been taken to actually address this issue. This is because he knows that in order to make sure these stadiums remain a sound investment, the ticket prices need to be higher. What this means is that the renowned atmosphere of watching football in a South American football stadium will be nothing more than a fallacy, as the inflated ticket prices will be attracting the kind of fans that ex footballer Roy Keane labelled as the “prawn sandwich brigade”.
A common way in which the residents of these favelas earn a living is to sell local cuisine and other football paraphernalia at stalls outside the stadiums. During the World Cup this will not be possible as FIFA plans to have 2KM exclusion zones around the stadiums; consequently only FIFA-approved brands will be sold in and around the stadiums. Surely one of the major pulls about attending a World Cup is that you get to experience the culture of the host nation? Clearly FIFA is trying to ensure that the World Cup is completely devoid of anything that isn’t an “official sponsor”. Why not just host the World Cup in the same place each year if FIFA are hell-bent on the World Cup having such a bland corporate identity?
The FIFA hegemony doesn’t stop there however; special judicial procedures are set to be implemented during the World Cup, which is no doubt something that is being shoehorned in by FIFA. In effect special courts will be set up in order to deal with any offences committed at the World Cup. One commentator claims that should these measures be accepted then acts of protest during the World Cup could be judged as terrorism. In order to keep the facade going, FIFA have greased the palms of Brazilian football legends Pele and Ronaldo, as both have spoken positively of the upcoming tournament, not once mentioning the suffering that is being faced by their own people as a result, with the latter even writing an article featured in The Guardian.
The Brazilian government is investing billions into constructing the stadiums alone; the figure stands at $7,261,000,000. When around 6% of the country’s entire population lives in favelas which are not in receipt of basic public services it’s not difficult to see why Brazilians are angry. Despite these facts, FIFA corporate goon ball Sepp Blatter has the audacity to suggest that Brazilians should not be using the World Cup for political ends. Of course Blatter’s only worry is that the protests of the Confederation Cup will spill over into his beloved World Cup and expose the countless human rights offences FIFA has been complicit in. To further rub salt in the wound, FIFA astonishingly is seen as a non-profit organization which means that it is largely exempt from taxes, thereby cheating Brazil out of $400 million in tax revenue. I use the word astonish because it truly boggles the mind that a corporation that is clearly motivated by profit and makes an obscene amount of money could somehow still be viewed as “non-profit”?
During this World Cup what’s happening off the pitch will certainly be more important than what’s happening on it.
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