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The Lula Football Curse and the Lula Olympic Nightmare
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By Stephen Thompson
May 10, 2010
It's World Cup time again and we're getting ready for some fun. The Brazilian team has been playing well and should play entertaining football, and I'm hoping to find a mega-screen on the beach to watch it at. South Africa's will be the last cup before the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. The two countries have interesting similarities; they are joint-world champions for violent crime and social injustice. Both are classified as flawed democracies by the Economist Democracy Index. In both, white minorities control most of the wealth - despite the end of apartheid and eight years of Workers Party government. The poor find distraction from social exclusion through sport and carnival, while governments distract attention from their failure to pursue political reform with expensive events, when their education and health services desperately need more investment.
How will South African authorities protect fans from violent crime? The Brazilian authorities will be interested, presumably. Nervous Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa has promised "no mercy" for criminals during the games. They will pull out all stops - emergency services are to be diverted to venues, despite leaving the population uncovered.
Brazil has four years to come to a solution to similar problems. The government wants to create a good impression, to promote investment and tourism. Helicopters being shot down in Rio when the world's media is here will not help this. Will they deal with crime by addressing the roots of the problem, such as lack of opportunity for poor people? Or attempt to cover it up with a massive heavy police presence, backed up by the Army? Lula came to power promising "zero hunger", a slogan adapted from "tough on crime" New York major Guiliani with his "zero tolerance" on minor crime. Tramps were thrown in jail for street drinking and litterers got heavy fines. Now Brazil has invited Guiliani to Rio to help Lula clean up Rio. Do they really think they can start by stamping out jaywalking in Brazilian favelas? It's hard to argue with making sure everybody had enough food to eat, but this is a completely different approach.
Unfortunately this kind of scenario is all too familiar and to be expected. In the run-up to the last Olympics in Beijing, the authorities suppressed dissent, restricted access to the country, and swept up undesirables including sex workers and street traders, while all the time promising greater openness. They justified this in the name of patriotism. The government spent 44 billion on the Games, even though 35 million of their citizens have live on less than US$120 per year. The money spent was equivalent to 10 years income for each one of these poorest people.
Now Brazil has signed up to both the football World Cup and the Olympics. As one former Brazilian professional soccer player said recently, "they steal from the public funds during normal times, imagine what they'll do with all contracts for infrastructure. If it costs a million to build something, they'll put in a bill for 3 million".
Brazil has only recently paid off national debts which crippled investment on education for two decades. In the 1970s, governments built up massive debts with expensive projects such as the trans-Amazonian Highway. Now their pockets are flush from the commodities boom, they are at it again, with not one but two ruinously expensive, corruption fuelling mega-events.
Lula claims to represent the poor at home and developing countries abroad, but he acts more like a Roman emperor, pacifying his population with bread and circuses. He offers the poor "popular broadband" services, while cosying up to Fidel Castro, who doesn't allow the Cuban people to have an Internet connection at all.
No one can blame Lula for loving football or supporting his favourite team, Corinthians, and there's nothing wrong with his frequent use of football metaphors in his political speech. To borrow his style, he is now in the last minutes of injury time, and he has just scored two own goals against his team. The next coach to take over the Brazilian team will have ample reason to curse him in the dressing room.
You can contract Stephen via stephenthompson@hotmail.com.
To read previous articles by Stephen click the links below:
Are China and Brazil Ganging up on Google?
China-Brazil Relations: Amnesia or Ingratitude?
Running After My Boss
Brazil: Run for your life!
If God is a Brazilian...
Amazon Exhibition in Tokyo
Other Places to Speak Portuguese (Apart From Brazil): Macau
Brazilian Music in Translation
China is Quite Popular in Brazil These Days
Brazil: Physical Fitness and Personal Training in São Paulo Part 2
Brazil: Physical Fitness and Personal Training in São Paulo Part 1
Brazil: What‘s in a Name?
Brazil: Go East, Young Man
Brazil: This Is The Life I‘ve Always Wanted
Brazil: Stolen Computer
My First Business Failure in Brazil Part 2
My First Business Failure in Brazil Part 1
Getting your Brazilian Steak Fix in China
Brazil: Birth and Dying
Imaginary Voyages to Brazil
Brazil: Probably the Best Country in the World to Live In
Great Brazilian Inventions: The Kilo Restaurant
Brazil: Things you wanted to know... and will never know!
Brazil: Expensive, Trendy, and Extremely Beautiful
Brazil: Not Really British Enough
Package Holidays to Brazil are Back On Track
Brazil: Reverse Culture Shock
Brazil: The Legal System
Brazil: Saying Goodbye to a Bilingual Kid
How to get Brazilian Citizenship
Getting Work in Brazil
Acquiring and Running a Small Business in Brazil
Brazil: To Free Or Not To Free
Brazil: Trail Biking in Chapada Diamantinha
Brazil: So Near, but So Far Apart
How to Get Into University in Brazil
The Pleasure of Driving a Car in Brazil
Brazil: The Bairro of Flamengo in Río de Janeiro
Brazil: The Information Technology Law
Managing a Brazilian bank account
Brazil's Middle Class Ruled By Political Apathy
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5/10/2010
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