Sao Paulo – city of contrasts

As the 2nd semi-final gets underway in Sao Paulo today, spare a thought and a small action for the 3.5 million people who live in poverty in this city of 11.4 million – the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and in the Americas.

Read the blog by actress Jo Joyner, where she says:

'São Paulo is a city of huge contrasts: home to 30,000 millionaires and 15,000 people living on the streets; the sky full of private helicopters, the roads full of over-crowded buses.
'And the biggest contrast of all: millions spent on a shiny new football stadium, while the poorest communities are told there is no money for essential services. During my visit, people kept saying: "With our hard-earned money, they are building FIFA-standard stadiums with FIFA-standard grass. We’d like FIFA-standard hospitals, schools and homes."'

Sign the petition, organised by CAFOD (UK) demanding justice, housing and basic public services for the poorest people in São Paulo and across Brazil. Let’s see ‘FIFA-standard’ hospitals, schools and homes – not just stadiums.

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But I’ll leave the last word for today to Rio resident Antonio Hipolito, reported by the Daily Mail. He works at a bookstore in a rich part of the city, but lives in a distant, poor neighborhood. Speaking after Brazil’s humiliating defeat by Germany, and with 5 October elections in mind, Antonio said, 'I hope this can make people wake up and start thinking with their heads and not their emotions and that people translate the anger they are feeling at the ballot boxes. ... Soccer is just an illusion and we need to wake up to reality.’

Perhaps, like the prodigal son, some good can come from Brazil’s $11 billion profligacy over the World Cup and the selling of its soul to FIFA.