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Brazilian protestors clash over excessive expenditure in World Cup stadiums

Monday, June 17th 2013 - 07:01 UTC
Full article 16 comments

Police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse around 3,000 protestors from outside Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium ahead of the Confederations Cup match between Italy and Mexico on Sunday. Read full article

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  • DennisA

    This has had little coverage in the european media, in fact I would say zero.

    Jun 17th, 2013 - 08:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    Police poorly trained to manage flash-mobbing.

    Europe has G8/Syria on the agenda atm. Brasil's flash-mob is 'small beer'.
    Saw footage on BBC, CNN and RT, but the YouTube footage of police chasing the scattering protesters on motorbikes and literally running them over did not figure.

    This was always a risk when a poor country like Brasil tried to play in the 'big boys' league'. The costs are always massive, and a country so divided into the haves and the havenots is always going to spark street action.

    Brasil is nearly ready to join the First World and, like South Africa & China, the hosting of these great world events is their signal. I hope Brasil succeeds in showing the world its developed face rather than its underdevelopment.

    Jun 17th, 2013 - 09:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yankeeboy

    Brazil, is not anywhere near ready to join the First World. There are too many uneducated poor people. The first world doesn't have favelas and those are not going anywhere for a very long time.
    My bet is Dilma will squander the last decade's gains and they'll be right back to the 70s in no time.

    Jun 17th, 2013 - 12:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Condorito

    I agree with Yanquiboy there. Brazil has 1st world islands surrounded by a sea of the 3rd world. Just look at the GDP – about the same size as the UK or France but divided among 200 million people. Add to that the very uneven wealth distribution compared to European nations.

    Jun 17th, 2013 - 01:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Conqueror

    Just look at a simple comparison. The UK. Happy, willing and capable of hosting the Olympic Games. Brazil. Not too happy, not too willing and, apparently, incapable of building stadia of adequate standards. If you want to attend football matches at these stadia, go ahead. Don't blame us if the roof falls on your head and you die.

    Jun 17th, 2013 - 02:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • ChrisR

    Brasil are learning the hard way that saying you can do it does NOT automatically mean that you CAN do it with these big, world stage events.

    Don't let us kid ourselves that it was all plain sailing for the UK - it was far from it and only by having a high profile team leader, and yes, I know Lord Coe did leave a lot to be desired, but those around him did come up with acceptable performance when it mattered.

    I have to say I have yet to see any such performance with Brasil.

    Jun 17th, 2013 - 07:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • mat

    Brazil near to become first world? Hahahahaha. There are plenty of Latin American countries way more developed than Brazil, like Chile, Mexico, Argentina... Brazil is only propaganda and now we are seeing the reality of this third world country.

    Jun 17th, 2013 - 08:47 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Fido Dido

    “There are plenty of Latin American countries way more developed than Brazil, like Chile, Mexico, Argentina.”

    Just a typical silly comment from a hispanic that envy Brazil, because the facts are that neither Chile, Mexico and Argentina are developed. All four nations are “devoloping nations” that needs to get their act together.

    And lets be honest, neither are so called “developed nations” are in reality “developed nations”...where there are arseholes ruining the nations slowly by overspending on crap that does not benefit the people at all, push austerity to the people, continue to lie and lie and lie to the people and what bothers me the most is that people put up with it and continue to believe and vote for the same arseholes over and over.

    Now these demonstrators have the right to demonstrate, they had/have the right message, but when “violence” from their (the demonstrators..many of them are middle class yuppies) part came in, the police did the right thing.
    My question to them is, why didn't they demonstrated before?

    If Brazilians demand a government that works for the people (what they suppose to do, remember they are public servants) they should get more active by coming up with own solutions that improve their community and stop voting for the same clowns over and over who suppuse to work for them but don't do it.

    Jun 17th, 2013 - 09:58 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Condorito

    8 Angry Dutchy
    “where there are arseholes ruining the nations slowly by overspending on crap that does not benefit the people at all, push austerity to the people”

    So which is it? Are we over spending or do we have austerity.

    Have you got your dutch gold back from the US yet?

    Jun 17th, 2013 - 10:36 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • jakesnake

    Fido!!! What's up sister?? Well even Fido's undying love for Brazil, where she never seems to end up living, seems subdued. Based on a lot of your previous posts regarding Brazil, I thought everybody in Brazil was shitting on a solid gold toilet. What's the story Fido, protests got you down?

    Jun 18th, 2013 - 02:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Fido Dido

    condorito, yes i am angry because where I live is not in a real crisis but in an engineerd crisis..in otherwords we who live here in the US are being robbed. okay, you get it? no you don't. Matter of fact, that is happening in all nations that suppose to be in the “big boys” club. Big buys club are sadly ruled by losers with a small wiener and are adored by kool aid drinkers with a small wiener (aka yankeeboy , the mexican, who doesn't understand that his nickname means dickhead)

    Anyway condorito, do you also believe that your country chile is developed? I got news for you..it isn't.

    “Have you got your dutch gold back from the US yet?”
    I got my gold and silver in my hands. That silly government in my country, well they can kiss the gold that is in the US goodbye. Anyone that believes that they will get it back is a moron, include the idiots that keeps supporting the crooks in the government that does not represent the country at all (its them who made sure the country is and stays in the corrupt EU)..i did not voted for, nor they never asked me.

    “Based on a lot of your previous posts regarding Brazil, I thought everybody in Brazil was shitting on a solid gold toilet.”

    You thought that, because you a moron with a low self esteem and have the need to type nonsene about other countries you never visited (doubt you have passport like most idiots here). Do yourself a favor, face the problems in the land where you and I live, rather than being an ideological troll infront of the computer. Say hello to Obumbo or to your GOP clowns for me, they love spying on you.

    “protests got you down?”

    Protesting are good, but should have happen long time ago. Protesters that burn buses and destroy windows are losers and don't win and you don't win by protesting only, specially about events that are already planned. Proves that Brazilians can be as dumb as their english speaking cousins up north, who are dumber because they keep believing the government.

    Jun 18th, 2013 - 04:09 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Math

    Fido, hold on! We might not be Venezuela (yet), but we can't beat our developing neighbors of the Southern Cone also. Even Mexico has its paved roads, some highly skilled workers and consumer brands like Bimbo. Buenos Aires has more bookstores than the entire Brazil. A lot of things must change. I'll get surprised if we catch up Colombia or Peru in terms of economic institutions in the next 5 years!

    Jun 18th, 2013 - 04:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • jakesnake

    Now there's the Fido we all know!! Are you a tweaker Fido? Your posts when you're really riled up make even less sense than when you post when you're only mildly riled. You're just chock full of anger aren't you? It seems that Dutch education maybe didn't quite work out for you and that has created that inner fire that consumes you? Maybe if you moved to Brazil and took advantage of the education system there, you could articulate yourself more clearly? Yeah that's the ticket...

    Jun 18th, 2013 - 01:55 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Fred

    @ 2 GeoffWard2: This isn't a flash-mobbing but riots. Most of people are peaceful during the demonstration but some throw rocks, burn urban equipments and robber stores.

    @ 3 yankeeboy: There aren't much uneducated people in Brazil. They're less than 10% of population. As for favelas, they're gradually being demolished and being replaced by public housing.

    @ 5 Conqueror: Only one stadium had problems with the roof among hundreds of stadia used all over 100 years of football in Brazil. So I guess it won't be a problems.

    Brazil is capable to host any world stage event and is a “big boy”. There's no lack of money but waste of it in a country that needs to invest on more crucial sectors. That is the truth.

    Jun 26th, 2013 - 12:28 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • GeoffWard2

    Fred @14

    you may be Brasilian, but how long is it since you lived in Brasil?

    Re: Flash-mob- v - riots.
    The street demonstrations have more in common with the London (etc) marches preceding the war in Iraq; they have significantly less in common with the Tottenham riots.
    They were only flash-mobs in the sense that the use of cellulars was central to the coming together of the thousands/millions of people on the streets. The miniscule amount of urban destruction attests to the better behaviour of the Brasilians c.f. London's rioters, arsonists and looters. No, this was - and is - no riot.

    Favelização – or the expansion of the slums – grew massively in the 1980 and 90s.
    Rio’s slums grew from 7% of a relatively small population in the 50s to 25% of a huge population in the 90s.
    The 2010 UN report grossly underestimates the urban slum housing in Brasil and says little about the extreme housing-poverty of those living outside the big cities.
    Urban migration has slowed in the 21st century as the mass-migrations to the cities – especially from the North East (poor and black) populations – has gone about as far as it can go.
    So the (arguably) 10% of Brasilians that live in the urban slums represents some 20 million people living in the type of extreme poverty that English people only understand from reading Dickens.

    Brasil CAN produce civil engineering works of renoun - Brasilia's Oscar Niemeyer showed the way;
    but corruption and bad project management can more frequently produce the likes of Salvador's metro - a world-scale example of all that is worst and dangerous in Brasil.

    Jun 26th, 2013 - 04:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Fred

    @ 15 GeoffWard2: When it comes to stadia only the old Fonte Nova had an incident with deaths. As for transportation no metro or bus caused deaths during events. Obviously mismanagement and corruption cause other problems as you mention.

    Jun 26th, 2013 - 11:03 pm - Link - Report abuse 0

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