Don't Hate the Game!

In case you didn't notice, it's World Cup 2014. 

I'm not a big soccer fan, but I'm excited about the World Cup. Call me a fair weather fan if you will (this is your only chance - you'll never get the opportunity to say that about my support of the Wings or the Tigers), but it's hard not to be excited by an event like this. I was in Italy for the last World Cup series, and seriously, what college-aged girl wouldn't be intrigued by this?:

 In all seriousness, this is a great event. Everyone's wearing jerseys from their favorite teams, little kids are running around the parks with soccer balls that are half as big as they are, and the bars are full of enthusiasts. I work in a restaurant that attracts a lot of tourists, and you would not believe all of the places that these people come from - and it's never so easy to strike up a conversation with them as it is when their country's team is on TV. Just the other day, I got a great big hug from an Australian for answering his call of "Aussie Aussie Aussie!" Just yesterday, I was reprimanded for not cheering for Mexico loudly enough. People from all over the world are sitting at the bar together, talking together, drinking together, and, in the case of the Mexicans and Brazilians yesterday, making jabs at each other. 

Not everyone is so impressed, though. I came home from work last night and hopped on Facebook to poke around and see what the virtual world was up to. One of my Facebook friends had posted a news article about forcible evictions in Brazil for the World Cup, and followed up the post with a tirade against the event, everyone partaking, and everyone enjoying the mayhem, complete with hashtags such as #fuckFIFA. This was followed by a status that read "Pretty much when I read a #fifa status. All ur saying to me is I don't give a shit about the suffering of people and I want to support the taxes and killings by continuing to watch." 

First off, grammar. Please use it correctly before you accuse others of being stupid and provincial. Secondly, educate yourself about the entire situation, not just one aspect of it. Now, I'm not saying that forcible evictions are okay, nor should they be. But let's look at some other aspects of what's going on in Brazil. 

FIFA announced that Brazil would host the 2014 World Cup in 2007. That was seven years ago. This did not sneak up on people. This also is not the first major event that Brazil has hosted in the last few years: just last year, Rio was home to the World Youth Day celebrations, which brought over three million pilgrims to Brazil. The event, in addition to being a major pilgrimage for Catholic youth world wide, was largely considered a "trial run" for the World Cup. Does anyone really think that there wasn't some house cleaning going on for that event? 

Another thing we might want to consider in looking at this is the amount of revenue an event such as World Youth Day in 2013, the World Cup in 2014, and, in the future, the Olympics in 2016 will bring into the country. This article has a good breakdown of how the financial situation, especially taxes, stands on the international level: 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2014/06/16/world-cup-mania-figuring-out-fifa-soccer-tax/

International finances aside, these events will create jobs: someone needs to build the facilities, maintain the facilities, make sure the facilities are secure, direct event goers, sell snacks and giant foam fingers, and then come in and clean it all up. These events will also bolster other areas of the economy: people are pouring into the country looking for hotel rooms; these same people will need restaurants to eat in; they will also need t-shirts that read "My mom went to Brazil and all I got was this stupid t-shirt" to take home to the kids. Let us not forget that these people will be paying taxes on these goods and services (unlike FIFA, tourists are not tax exempt). 

I would never say that people are collateral, and I don't advocate forcibly evicting people from their homes. I merely stand to point out that the issue is not as simple as the government throwing people into the gutters for no good reason. Yes, there could have been a better way to deal with that situation. Yes, I believe that they should have found one. However, that was not FIFA's doing, that was Brazil's. No, it is not the fault of the 3.5 billion soccer fans on the globe. Perhaps most importantly, no, your passive aggressive Facebook posts are not going to help those people, especially when you are willing to overlook the same problem in your own country, often for reasons less than three major international collaborative events. 

I say our response to this should be threefold. First and foremost, we need to educate ourselves about the situation. Forcible evictions occur in the United States all the time, and not just because people fall behind on rent. Secondly, we need to take the action we can. Those of us that are registered to vote in the United States need, and I would say have an obligation, to exercise our right to take political action against things that we believe to be unjust. Brazil may be getting all the news cycles right now, but does that make Joe Schmo who lives in the building down the street any less important? We can take action immediately here - we can't in Brazil, given that we are not, legally or politically, able to do so. Thirdly, we need to place the blame where it belongs and hold that entity accountable. The guy sitting at the bar yelling "Oy Vey!" when Mexico missed that shot didn't force people out of their homes at gunpoint. Let's not pretend that he did. 

Let's go Team USA!