Brazilian President hosts dinner to defend World Cup preps

Brazil's preparation for the world cup was nothing but a big fiasco. Showing once again the incapacity of the current government, Brazil makes promises it cannot fulfilled. The article linked below reports the last public enunciation of President Dilma Rousseff defending the spending of the World Cup and saying that all the money made during the games will be invested in infrastructure. She once again goes on public television to lie about the government's future plans (no Brazilian believes that is going to happen, and hopefully she won't be reelected to prove us right). When President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva won the rights for the World Cup in 2007 (he is from the same party as President Dilma), the speech was that most if not all the stadiums were going to be build with private money. One week before the games start, 97% of the stadiums were build with public money or investment from BNDES (Development Bank of Brazil) which is partially funded from taxes. In a country that still struggles with poverty in the Upper North,  with zones of extreme poverty and lack of infrastructure even in rich states such as Rio de Janeiro with the Favelas, the last thing the population needs is FIFA standard stadiums. What scares me the most is that if Brazil wins the World Cup everyone (from the rich to the poor) is going to think everything is alright. Brazilians have the ability to put soccer above everything, even above their own rights. Now that the World Cup is going to start there is only one thing left for me to do... cheer... but for Argentina because the last thing I want is for my people to be fooled by politicians that use public money for their own interests in detriment to the interests of the population.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/04/world/americas/brazil-world-cup/index.html

Mariana Cury

PSC 102