Monday, 9 December 2013

The Dark Side of Brazil
Why Brazil Is A Disastrous Choice For The World Cup

Brazil-Living In The Past
I have mentioned Apartheid Brazil in a previous article-none of which you will ever find discussed on CNN, Fox nor any of the mainstream media, and how this country has been on the verge of racial warfare on a scale worse than that ever predicted (and which never happened) for South Africa.
Let me be clear for the record, South Africa is moving fast forward whereas Brazil
is stuck in a racial time warp-which will soon tear this racially fragmented and segregated country apart at it's very foundations.
Football violence is encouraged by the authorities and economically privileged White minority elite as a distraction from the deep underlying divisions in Brazilian society. This will not work forever-and soon the only recourse will be an even more brutalized suppression of the underclasses-the non-White majority (numbering at the last official census-before Gerrymandering abolished racial profiling on the grounds that racism no longer existed in Brazil-some 75% of the population of the whole country.) The World cup, FIFA, already knows, will result in many deaths but, for so long as an intensified police and para-military presence can confine the killings to 'locals' and protect foreign visitors then there are acceptable casualty numbers within a margin. To put it bluntly, the deaths of scores (if not considerably more) of locals (native Brazilians), should it unfortunately occur, as predicted, is unlikely to reach the mainstream media but the death of a single World Cup tourist will make world headlines-hence the priority will be to protect visiting tourists from abroad.
Let's be clear about this. We are talking about a country where ''35,000 disappearances reported since 2007 go uninvestigated and the culprits unpunished.''1

The Statistics

''Police abuse, including extrajudicial execution, is also a chronic problem. According to official data, Police were responsible for 372 killings in the state of Rio de Janeiro and 252 killings in the state of São Paulo in the first six months of 2011. Police often claim these are "resistance" killings that occur in confrontations with criminals. While many police killings undoubtedly result from legitimate use of force by police officers, many others do not, a fact documented by Human Rights Watch and other groups and recognized by Brazilian criminal justice officials. ''2

Be in no doubt about what I am saying here:
Brazil, because of widespread economic injustice and mass disenfranchisement as a whole, is a very violent society. The Police react to this violence with more violence-which sparks revenge killings of the Police, family members and friends, and then even more violence and extra-judicial killings by the police-and the spiral of violence gets worse as both lawless (and no-so-lawless,organized) gangs and the authorities desperately struggle for control of 'no-go' areas-off limits to any but heavily armed police and paramilitary assault teams specially flown or brought in from out-of town-to 'retake' the Favelas in the name of the State.
Why don't you read about this Brazil in the mainstream U.S. And European media? Partly because the Brazilian authorities go to desperate lengths to prevent foreigners getting access to the truth. The segregated nature of the society means that Brazilian tourist minders can shield visiting overseas guests.   Partly also because of a conspiracy of silence by 'embedded' foreign media outlets operating from inside Brazil and anxious not to upset commercial overseas interests who think they are benefiting from this division.  If they had a modicum of commonsense, they would realize that, long term, the opposite is, at the very least, the case. 
Fatherland-The Real Face of Brazil
Do any of you recall the film 'Fatherland' starring Rutger Hauer, based in a fictitious Nazi Germany in April 1964? You may have some trouble finding it listed and getting hold of a copy.  However the point I want to make is that the careful chaperoning of foreign (U.S. and European) guests visiting the country by the tourist guides, specially selected, is reminiscent of the tourist guide on the bus at the start of the film.  This is what happens with each carefully cocooned new European tourist-to ensure that only the pleasant life in Brazil is experienced and in the hope that they will 'spread the good word' [for trade, investment and emigration] when returning to their home country. With South Africa under Apartheid, at least you knew what to expect.  With Brazil, propaganda and technologies of societal control have been re-defined and upgraded to leave the average tourist oblivious.
The Ethics of FIFA and The Beautiful Game
But is this ethically acceptable in the name of FIFA economic long-term objectives?; none of which will ever benefit impoverished Brazilians?;other than perhaps the street vendor selling Brazilian flags or footballs?(He is a street vendor because Brazil banks (all of them) do not lend capital to their impoverished 75% majority to start-up businesses.)  Yes I have no doubt that the Brazilian authorities will do their utmost to shield their foreign (mainly White European) guests from the realities of everyday Brazilian life for the majority of it's impoverished and racially segregated citizens (who compose at least 75% of Brazil's total population.)
But the question still remains as to whether it is acceptable for FIFA to throw money at countries it knows will little benefit mainstream (in this case impoverished) society as a whole?
I will not even mention in detail the demolition of whole communities throughout the country to make way for the World Cup.3,4,5,6,8
The World Cup has been used as the pretext to drive tens of thousands of slum dwellers out of their homes in Rio de Janeiro. 
Are such acceptable prices to pay today (in the 21st Century) so that we can all enjoy the game of football?
Benefit Concert-For The Poor
When the Circus leaves town the only people celebrating will not be the shattered communities and shattered lives of the powerless citizens but wealthy minorities,
having  already sealed the World Cup  re-development deals with partners at home and overseas for business, housing and sporting complexes,benefiting the rich and super rich -'the folks who live on the hill'-all again protected by armed security,para-military security and prison bars surrounding their ivory towers, from the starving masses living on 'the other side of the tracks';and all courtesy of FIFA.

 The World Cup Spirit-Is Not What You Drink7

So when you arrive in sunny Brazil, spare one single thought for the hidden country you will never see nor experience (and believe me, I strongly advise you not to venture into Favelas, just for the sake of experience!) Don't believe the propaganda that the impoverished are lazy and just would not want to run a business, and, by the way, before you depart for home, do remember that street vendor and his family you saw on a corner whose only experience of the World Cup will be the football or trinkets he or she has sold to you-all having been supplied at an inflationary cost-to ensure their eternal impoverishment.


Patrick Emek


1 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/03/brazil-rio-police-charged-death-missing-man
2 http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-Brazil
3 http://www.panoramas.pitt.edu/content/maracana-community-resists-eviction-world-cup-brazil
4 http://www.graemegreen.org/Features/tabid/65/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/184/A-Kick-In-The-Favelas.aspx
5 https://nacla.org/sites/default/files/8-Barron.pdf
6 http://catcomm.org/category/cover/
7  ideal for sub-heading re-arranged from a line in  'Another Christmas Song' lyrics  by Jethro Tull  on the album            'Living In the Past' (1972)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdalBvgNAxI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VjPPuias1k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=928GexPP0Mg
8  http://www.gulf-times.com/us-latin%20america/182/details/373914/rio-accused-of-%E2%80%98social-cleansing%E2%80%99-of-slum-dwellers

'''The Beautiful Game''
Let me apologize for not giving credit to the originator of the phrase' The Beautiful Game'.
 I have heard it spoken many times in my lifetime but failed to check it's origin-and mentioned it as a sub-heading when writing this article.  It is not precisely known when this phrase was first used but the person who gave it it's eternal prominence was the legendary Brazilian soccer master, Pelé:
''In 1977 the famous footballer Pelé named his autobiography 'My Life and the Beautiful Game'. The book's dedication reads "I dedicate this book to all the people who have made this great game the Beautiful Game."[7] The phrase has now entered the language as a colorful description for football and as such was used as part of the title for the 13-part series charting the history of the game: History of Football: The Beautiful Game.'' (WIKIPEDIA)

Patrick Emek,December 2013


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