Sao Paulo realities - behind the World Cup

Watch this video from UK charity CAFOD on the realities of living in Sao Paulo. Actress Jo Joyner visited the city to find out how its people were preparing for the World Cup.

A resource prepared for youth leaders and teachers to help young people evaluate the positive and negative aspects of football. CAFOD is also calling for better housing for poor and vulnerable communities in São Paulo, Brazil. See also cafod.org.uk/worldcup.

No sport on Sundays? That's a bit old-fashioned.

Michael Jones

No games today in the Football World Cup (Friday, Brazil time) - a holy pause, a Sabbath rest in the global game. Time for reflection and consider this piece Never on Sunday, which looks at the issues around Christians playing sport on Sunday. It's a longish piece (a chapter from a book) - and offers no easy answers, but things to consider. Here are some highlights, featuring 1920s runner Eric Liddell, and New Zealand rugby player from the 1980s-90s: Michael Jones.
Eric Liddell chose not to run in the 1924 Olympic Games 100 metres, because the final would be held on a Sunday. Instead, he chose to run the 200 and 400 metre events - he gained bronze in the 200 and gold in the 400. The win was made the more poignant by a note handed to him before the race: 'He who honours me I will honour.'(1 Samuel 2:30.)

Later, he said, 'There are many people today who think of those who honour Sunday in an old-fashioned way as kill-joys. They feel that during the years of their youth they ought to have a chance to "have their fling". Give me the day of rest, when all the savours of organised games can be put on one side and all life's joys will be greater because of it.'

Michael Jones refused to play on Sundays. But in the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup, he was good enough to play in the quarter-final, opt out of the Sunday semi-final and still be chosen for the final. He missed out of more games in the 1991 World Cup in Europe.

'Opinions differed on Michael's decision to make himself unavailable for the Sunday games. Some saw it as the supreme example of a Christian sportsman putting his principles first and saying that his faith in God - and his view of Sunday - were more important than a game of rugby, even a World Cup semi-final. Others saw it as a waste of his talent, arguably denying his team the chance of winning the World Cup.'

Of his stand, Michael said: 'When you stop playing rugby people easily forget you; one thing for which I would like to be remembered is as a person who put God first, before rugby. If it's been worthwhile doing that then it is worthwhile, and I feel it's important that people who never would have heard about God have done so through my stand. If I've been able to show people that there is obviously a God who must exist or else someone wouldn't be prepared to do that, then I feel it's been worth it. If I can do that I'm happy.'

Doing without - young Brazilians counter money focus

While FIFA and World Cup sponsors are raking it in, two young Brazilians are showing the other side of the coin. They’ve been living, travelling and working their way across Australia and New Zealand for the last 13 months without forking out a cent (or a plastic card). Natale and Marielli shared their story and their vision last night at the Lower Hutt Transition Town Sustainability Centre, where I met them.

‘Money is not a really good story for the last few years,’ says Natale. ‘It’s time to do something different.’ He grew up in one of the major World Cup cities, Sao Paolo. Twenty million people, lots of traffic and huge inequality – as evidenced by the picture here.

Natale is the only child of a middle-class family. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life, so followed his father into law – studying environmental law at University. Mahatma Gandhi became an inspiration to him – ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’, and he became a vegetarian. He ended up advising theme parks on sustainable and healthy food sources, and while doing so, read three books: The Man who Quit Money by Mark Sundeen, Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein and The Moneyless Man by Mark Boyle.

They changed his life. He wanted to try this ‘living without money’.

It set him on a course to travel to Australia, for two reasons. One was that it was far away - his parents weren’t likely to come and drag him back. The second was that it was the home of permaculture – an approach to living on earth in a sustainable way – covering food, energy and how we organise ourselves among other things.

Meanwhile, Mariella had been enjoying lots of new, exciting experiences, culture and people in Europe. ‘Money was important to me,’ she says. But when she came back to Brazil, it seemed everything her family and friends were doing involved money. On her third day back in Brazil, she met Natale, who shared his dream of traveling to Australia and ‘living without money’. They spent about 10 days together in Brazil before Natale left to pursue his dream, and she followed him.

Natale spent the last of his money on a directory for Willing Workers on Organic Farms – one of many schemes whereby travelers can exchange their labour for accommodation and food. It has been the mainstay of their mission to do without money. They’ve hitched there way around, and offered their labour in exchange for goods, services and favours; or relied on the generosity of strangers-cum-friends. They’ll also go ‘dumpster diving’, rescuing perfectly edible food from waste thrown out by supermarkets and other shops.

They were wanting to get passage to New Zealand crewing on a yacht or boat, but when nothing turned up before Natale’s visa was due to expire,  a friend they’d made in Australia insisted on paying a low-cost airfare to New Zealand, where they have been the last few weeks.

The day after I met them, they were planning to hitch a ride on a yacht or boat to get to the South Island and continue their journey of love and goodwill. 

Why spend your money on what cannot fill the emptiness deep in your heart?

Marielli and Natale in Lower Hutt - Te Awa Kairangi.

The ordinary faces of Brazilian protest - teachers take the lead

State school teachers have been at the forefront of some of Brazil's ongoing protests. These aren't the violent 'Black Block' troublemakers. These are ordinary Brazilians, just seeking a pay increase and better, basic conditions in schools. They can't even get a meeting with their State governor, and now they've been sacked from their jobs - even though a court has declared their action legal. These teachers were due to be on the street again recently.

See ongoing coverage of Brazilian protest at Vice News - 2014 World Cup Live Blog

At home in the favelas

Hadley Freeman reports on how some favela residents are making the most of the world cup - with reservations - in The Guardian: Favela residents make World Cup work for them with home stays for fans.

Excerpts:

“If Fifa could, they’d take the stadiums with them when they leave, along with all the money. But when I saw big companies in Rio starting to make money from the World Cup I thought: ‘Why can’t I do that, too?’” says Maria Clara. …. “Many of my friends,” she says, not surprisingly, “are now taking in guests in the favela …”

“Favela” is generally translated as “slum”, but that isn’t quite right. It’s more like a community. Each one has its own character and Rocinha’s is bright, bustling and almost overwhelmingly friendly…..

Matthew Wilmington, 25 and from London, staying in the Babilonia favela in Rio says, "We feel safer in the favela than we do on Copacabana beach.”

Elliot Rosenberg set up Favela Experience, which arranges home stays for tourists in Rocinha and nearby Vidigal, as a way to help the favela residents. “We want to improve the esteem of the favela dwellers and break down stereotypes about favelas to outsiders,” he says. “Some guests expect things to work the way they do in the developed world. It is definitely a problem for them if they lose their internet connection.”

Wise words from Sócrates ring true today

Following on from yesterday's critique of the Brazilian and FIFA presidents, those two may be wise to heed some words from Sócrates. No, not the Greek philosopher - the Brazilian footballer. Yes - captain of Brazil’s 1982 World Cup squad (one of the best, and which beat New Zealand 4-0 in their World Cup debut), he was a champion on and off the field - promoting democracy and challenging the (then) Brazilian military dictatorship. Before his early death in 2011, he said this about the World Cup now here:

There will be lots of public money disappearing into people’s pockets. Stadiums will be built and they will stay there for the rest of their lives without anyone using them. It’s all about money. What we need to do is keep up public pressure for improvements in infrastructure, transport, sewerage, but I reckon it will be difficult… What needs to change here is the focus on development. We need to prioritise the human being. Sadly, in the globalised world, people don’t think about individuals as much as they think about money, the economy, etc.

Read more on Richard's blog: Sócrates: the Brazilian footballer who gave his goals to a better world.

Football, Brazil and the world deserve better

The future for the Presidents of both Brazil (Dilma Rousseff) and the FIFA empire (Sepp Blatter) may ride on how this World Cup competition pans out – both on and off the pitch.

Writes Misha Glenny in the Observer:

‘The progress of the Brazilian team has become the highest matter of state. There is more riding on the fragility of Neymar's metatarsal than there is on the monthly inflation figures (unpleasant reading though they may be).’

Read more at: Sepp Blatter: why football deserves better than Fifa's toxic president

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