Yeah, a short thing that is rather getting under my skin currently.
Everyone should know by now that the World Cup in Brazil is a very, very shady event.
Some may NOT know that the Brazillian government has been sending death squads into the slums to clear them out, so world cup tourists won’t have to see the poor people and their places (they are bulldozed to the ground).
Yes, after bribing their way to the world cup and olympic games, the Brazillian government is now employing its military and police to hunt the poor and get them out of sight. There have been pictures of people – men, women and children – shot at, wounded, some even killed, and radio chatter of policemen about their work that shows a horrifying disregard for human life.
I ask anyone who is the least bit interested in football, not to watch the world cup. Please, just boycott it. It’s evil, that’s what it is, and we shouldn’t support it in any way, even if it’s just by way of turning on the television.
Greetings,
Tieshaunn Tanner
Tieshaunn 
I shall be ignoring it, I would have anyway, but this is a far better reason than not understanding the appeal of football.
I usually do watch and was on the fence with all the controversy. This just tips it for me, won’t be watching.
As a brazillian all I can do, beyond boycotting it, is to apologize for the horrifying reality witnessed in my country. Horrible. Simply horrible.
Death squad … you mean BOPE? (http://www.bopeoficial.com/) Nope, not a death squad more a kind of swat team.
An yes, they kill. A lot.
But not beacuse of the world cup specifically. Another day, with more time I may explain the situation. Let`s just say that a large number of police officers die every month in Rio, the place is pratically a war zone in some senses (yes, I am brazilian and yes I have a brother that lives in Rio).
Anyway, I will go to a friend`s house to watch the game and I promissed that I would be there soon. I will not enjoy this world cup very much but for a very different reason.
ONE F ….. BILLION DOLLARS TO BUILD ONE F…. FOOTBALL STADIUM
While there is people dying in the corridors of the nearest hospital because there are not enough beds.
the money is a problem, too. But I’m pretty sure everyone already knows about that one.
The squads clearing out the poor from places near the stadiums are a reality, though. There have been numerous reports on them, including video and audio evidence
Where? In São Paulo where the game just happened it was not needed since the stadium is in a relatively plane area.
In Rio where someone can shoot from a hill into almost everywhere perhaps they will enforce a kind of curfew.
No information about killings in the news nor from my relatives in the area.
Of course the police blocked an area around the stadiuns and only residents or those with tickets to the game can enter, but this is standart procedure everywhere.
Where did you get your information?
To check if there are really other brazilians here:
Que desgrama é esta? De onde tiraram esta informação sobre massacres ao redor dos estádios?
and yes, I am aware of BOPE. I didn’t mean them specifically. As far as I know, the squads are both police and military. Dunno if BOPE is in that.
Ouch! Did not know about this, but it is sadly all too believable. 😦 Will boycott them
I will ignore the World Cup then
Don’t watch the world cup or football so can’t really boycott it but it is a terrible tragedy. In the case of the billion dollar stadium how much revenue does it have the potential to bring in and as long as the money it brings in is spent on public services then it may be a good thing. The world cup certainly has the potential to bring in tourism.
Is crime huge in the slums with little law and police presence are they not worried about the risks to tourists?. This however in no shape or form excuses what they do.
Does this count as the bonus page?
OK, the games will happen in cities spread in an area almost the size of Europe (not kidding, look at a map).
The first game was in São Paulo, around 20 million people living in the city mostly midlle class but with some huge eyesores. São Paulo has very dangerous neighborhoods but since the stadium is in a reasonably isolated area (as far as it is possible in such a city) I doubt that it will be a problem. The stadium though really was quite expensive and will be hard to maintain after the world cup. Money that could be better used in the public health system or in schools.
Rio de Janeiro is reasonably close to São Paulo (about five or six hours by car) and has poor communities (they hate being called slums) in the hills that surround the city. For two decades these hills were occupied by drug dealers heavily armed that made their own laws and could face the police easily. In the last years the government used the army and, BOPE to retake these hills and installed police stations in some of them. It is not working very well, the drug dealers disappeared when the armed forces came and now they are, with some support from the communities, trying to retake the land by corrupting or killing the police officers there.
Fortaleza is far away in the northeast and I really have little information besides the fact that it is a beautiful city, same for Manaus a city built in the middle of the forest far away up north.
Brasilia in our capital and remind me of the reports that I get from Washington. The central area where the government is installed is OK, but it was a planned city and nobody remembered that the people brought to build the city were to poor to go back home afterwards. This people stayed around the city that they built and formed what we call satellite cities, poor and crime ridden but far away from the stadium.
In other words, I don`t see where, except Rio they would need to kill people to garantee the games.
There was a confrontation today but between protesters against the world cup and the police that probably used excessive force. But no killings as far as I know.
I have my information from three sources:
1. German government news
2. several websites that track the world cup in brazil
3. an internet news show I follow, and which so far has proven very reliable
Any link please?
Notice that our president stood quiet in the opening of the games. If she opened her mouth she would get the highest BOOOOOO of history. We watch the game and hope our team wins since it is not guilty of what the government and FIFA did, but the president has to stay very quiet and we will remember at these years elections.
So, any link to post in my facebook?
it’s all in german, I’m afraid, but I can provide at least the newsshow’s link:
http://verdenken.blogspot.de/2014/05/anonymous-fifa-weltmeisterschaft.html
the second one has a LONG list of links to more information
Not sure, these photos seem to come from Rio, at least the kind of alley and the way it looks. The dead guys have the same age and dress like traffic soldiers, so, it is possible that there was confrontation or that the police shot first … unusual, these police officers are not BOPE.
Will keep my eyes open and look in my own sources but the photos may be old I remember something like this at the beginning of the year.
What I know that happened was:
Well that was thorough. The only reason that i could think of to even slightly understand the reason they are doing what they are is no longer valid. They might just be using the games to justify what they really wanted to do. I mean without your explanation of what was happening, i like lot of people would have had little understanding and just assumed they were doing it for the games. to English people most things can be justified when it;s to do with football.
Sad but true.
One of my friends is a representative of the Gay community and another is president of the local directory of a socialist party. I will also ask my brother since he works for the government and lives in Rio.
I’d really like to know how much of this is serious and how much is just sensationalism.
Well, just saw in TV that residents of Vidigal community are renting houses to the tourists that came for the world cup.
One or two months ago a big building that was empty, property of a telecommunications company was invaded and occupied by a bunch of people, some of them poor. When the police expelled them a TV station went to investigate what happened and at least one of the invaders was a poor woman that had to leave her home in the community because the landlord was now asking for a higher rent.
So, the people in the communities that have land or houses are using the peace created by the expulsion of the drug dealers to increase the valor of the rent and are renting homes even for foreigners.
Why would the police get violent and attack a community where foreigners are renting houses for the world cup?
Of course, there are many communities all around the city of Rio, but your news are very very difficult to track.
Imagine hearing news saying that police following orders from the government is killing immigrants in germany.
First thing that you would ask is: where in germany, no?
Now imagine this for a country that has the size of Europe. The state of São Paulo (capital São Paulo) is probably the size of germany and the news probably mix incidents from São Paulo and Rio. The game is in São Paulo, people may have been killed in Rio, same as saying that people are dying in Italy because of a game in Switzerland.
In a straight line the distance between São Paulo and Rio is 357,65 Km.
The map is in portuguese, but easy to understand:
http://br.distance.to/Rio-De-Janeiro/S%C3%A3o-Paulo
Sigh, and it’s for soccer. I’m not sure why a government wants the world cup or the Olympics. You spend a huge amount of money building things that only get used once, for what? Some tourism for a month? The world’s economy isn’t exactly all peaches and cream right now. I’m sure there are PLENTY of other useful things you can spend your on.
I am checking with my friend in the socialist party. He told me that 250000 people were really removed from their homes and that a few were killed. I asked him to be more specific: removed where, when?
After all Rio has 8 million people, but 250 000 is more than the population of the city where I live, I take this kind of news with a grain of salt.
Now, why did the government do this? Simple, to create a nationalist and optimistic feeling and win the elections of this year.
If this had been done ten to twenty years ago, before widespread internet, the violence would be hidden and the population would just be: OH, Nice, we are great, our football is fantastic, things are so good, lets keep things as they are.
Confirmed: a large number of people being moved out of their homes sometimes without the due repayment predicted in brazillian law.
It is done to benefit large development companies that will build closed gate communities in the areas that gained value due to the world cup.
The reason why this is so difficult to measure is because it is not a sudden move to take more than 100000 people out of their homes, it is a slow process that started at the beginning of the year and it is not localized in a city. Not even a conspiracy.
Simply put, now that the land has value the mayors of the cities started paying attention to it and are offering money for the poor to move. If they don`t accept the money and offers of new houses the pressure starts.
Not one mayor and not in one city and the cases are spread in large areas. Also it is not all at once, the judiciary is involved to some extent and part of the job is done properly, according to brazilian law.
Nope, not the same as military and cops getting into poor areas and killing people. It is more corporations wanting to make money and pressuring the mayors to disoccupy the land.