Day 7: Is Something is Going to Happen?

World Cup Without the People of Brazil?
The number of demonstrations against the World Cup has increased over the past couple of days.

This morning there were a few quite cases of protesters blocking roads to/from airports and disrupting public transportation. 

Subway workers in Sao Paulo have gone on an 'open-ended strike' which is causing a lot of disruption up there. Photo below from a good article on the Aljazeera website (which is also where I got the previous photo from)

Not much has happened here in Curitiba. One of my students saw a peaceful demonstration march near the federal university a couple of days ago, but we don't think it was actually about the World Cup. One of the balloons somehow made it's way into our classroom (I think it was coincidence, rather than a 'message'), and it read "Nao, Aqui" which means "not here." 

There are definitely other protests directly against the World Cup going on. A popular slogan among the demonstrators is "World Cup without the people." 

Here is link to a video of a march in Sao Paulo yesterday.

My Two Cents
From what I can gather, it's mainly the middle classes protesting about the World Cup. My interpretation is that these people, who of course pay much of the taxes in the country, are simply not happy with the fact that billions of dollars have been spent to host the tournament while services (such as the free public health care, schools, roads, etc) have been neglected. I've seen president Dilma Rousseff on TV almost every day 'defending' the decisions to hold the tournament and 'assuring' the world media that it will be a success. 

There is definitely a faction in Brazil who do not want the World Cup to be a success because, if it is a success, it will mask the other social concerns. In fact, there are people who don't want Brazil to win the tournament for the same reasons. Again, it seems to me these are predominantly the (white) middle classes. I'm not sure what people living in the favelas think, but we are going to one on Monday and might find out more then.

And Finally...
Spent last night pumping up 20 soccer balls. Yep, it was an exciting evening. Tonight off to get my tickets for the much anticipated Nigeria x Iran clash next week.