{"id":656,"date":"2014-03-07T23:59:44","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T23:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=656"},"modified":"2014-03-07T23:59:44","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T23:59:44","slug":"2014-world-cup-in-brazil-off-to-a-rocky-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2014\/03\/07\/2014-world-cup-in-brazil-off-to-a-rocky-start\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 World Cup in Brazil off to a rocky start"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Alec Hudson<\/strong> – Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n

Brazil is on the move. With the first match of the 2014 International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) World Cup coming in less than four months, the nation is scrambling to ensure that the facilities are prepared and that the infrastructure is working.<\/p>\n

At the same time, they are trying to ensure the social wellbeing of an ethnically diverse population of over 200 million, a large portion of whom live below the poverty line.<\/p>\n

Brazil is one of the largest economies in Latin America, being listed among nations of growing economic power known as the BRIC\u2019s (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).<\/p>\n

\"Protesters<\/a>
Protesters express their opinion about the Brazilian government spending the country\u2019s money on building new stadiums for the World Cup.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But even with this status as a growing economy, it still faces many economic issues, along with poverty and wealth disparity \u2014 issues that have led to protests against the government that have sent thousands into the streets with signs and banners waving.<\/p>\n

Assistant Professor of Spanish Nuria Sabat\u00e9, who recently spent some time in the country, described the initial cause of the protests as a hike in bus fare rates in the major city Sao Paulo, a hike which reflects high government spending on sports centers and less on infrastructure and welfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who are protesting are saying \u2018we don\u2019t have enough schools, teachers are underpaid, hospitals are terrible, and people don\u2019t have access to basic needs,\u2019\u201d Sabat\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is spendng so much money on sports facilities it may only use once in a while and that won\u2019t provide stable jobs after the Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior Trent Haffler and senior Abhi Alur, both soccer enthusiasts, weighed in on the situation as well with Alur mentioning a concern of violence due to the presence of drug gangs in many of the large cities and their suburban slums known as favelas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you\u2019re hosting such a big tournament, people\u2019s liberty doesn\u2019t come into consideration when the government is trying to crack down on these drug gangs,\u201d Alur said.<\/p>\n

Haffler also expressed concern about the financial situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult seeing the people of Brazil so upset and protesting against the bus fare increases, and with them hosting the Olympics in just two years after the World Cup things will only get more expensive if the government keeps spending so much money,\u201d Haffler said. But this is not a problem unique to Brazil.<\/p>\n

Mass sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics have put nations in huge debt due to the infrastructure demands and the government contracts with private companies.<\/p>\n

Debt from the 2004 Summer Olympics was a major factor in the Greek economic collapse, while South Africa is still reeling from its huge expense from the 2010 World Cup.<\/p>\n

But Professor Sabat\u00e9 thinks the events may be good events in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the games will be successful; the government may rack up a lot of debt, but the government is also responsive to the needs of the people. Even President Dilma Rousseff made a public statement agreeing with many of the critiques of the protestors, and the fact that so many people can peacefully march freely in Brazil while being listened to by the government is incredible,\u201d Sabat\u00e9 said.<\/p>\n

As for the upcoming World Cup itself, Haffler and Alur both agree that this looks like Brazil\u2019s year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrazil took out Spain in the Confederations Cup; they have one of the best chances to win this and I think they\u2019ll take home the trophy,\u201d Alur said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Haffler mentioned the tough grouping of the U.S. team with Ghana, Germany, and Portugal in Group G, but remained optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the third U.S. World Cup in a row against Ghana and we\u2019ve lost every time, and with Portugal the threat is in Ronaldo \u2014 if you give him space he will score. Germany is also a threat, but honestly this is one of the most talented U.S. squads I\u2019ve seen. Maybe we\u2019ll get lucky,\u201d Haffler said.<\/p>\n

Lucky or not, the 2014 World Cup is shaping up to be an interesting test, not just for the teams competing but also for Brazil\u2019s government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Alec Hudson – Staff Writer Brazil is on the move. With the first match of the 2014 International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) World Cup coming in less than four months, the nation is scrambling to ensure that the facilities are prepared and that the infrastructure is working. At the same time, they are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":659,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}