The World Cup Spilleth Over: As the Soccer Games End, Political Ones Begin
By Danny Schechter
New York, New York: The World Cup has spilleth over. With the FIFA spectacle about to pack up its goodies--most of their lucre has already been wired out of Brazil--it's time for hype for the next global spectacle, as the "host" country now tries to cope with its financial losses, intensified social conflicts and humiliating defeat at the hands of the Germans after earlier losing their star player to a nasty collision on the field, and their valiant Captain to a penalty.
On s symbolic level, Brazil's bashing at the feet of Germany using bum rush tactics compared to the Nazi "Blitzgrieg" brought smiles to Old Europe, and pain to a nation struggling with massive poverty and inequality.
In a way, it underscored the dependence and anger that so many Brazilians felt, even as the issues they have raising and marching to call attention to, have all been but ignored by the sportscasters who know game scores but not the scores of life--the great gaps that events like the World Cup paper over.
We saw this movie before, just 4 years ago, in South Africa where warnings of corrupt practices and unreasonable demands by FIFA---to have companies they pick build unwanted and unneeded stadiums, and control all TV rights, among other "requirements-- insuring they controlled the events and made the most money--were lost in well orchestrated patriotic fervor to bring the games to Africa for the first time.
South Africans were persuaded after years of struggling for freedom that they had finally arrived in the big time
In the end, FIFA made more money off the games in South Africa than in any earlier World Cup. There were plenty of photo ops and mutual congratulations, but, afterwards, the county was left with a large debt and white elephant stadiums, like the one in Cape Town which some critics want to turn into a low income housing project in a "Mother City" known for its shacks and packed slum-like townships
At the time, South African media turned down a powerful documentary forecasting these problems. To the ANC, the ruling party, the FIFA party was the one to embrace even as fans brought their own invention, to the games---wailing horns that expressed both joy and disquiet. Called the vuvuzela /vuË vuË ËˆzÉ"lÉ /, it produces a traditional loud monotone note that was barely tolerated by FIFA officialdom because it was seen as disruptive, interfering with their marketing and all the selling that was going on.
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