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Brazil

Erika Bulman

November 1st, 2007 | By: Euler Costa | 7 Comments »

I know that many people will celebrate because Brazil has been awarded with the 2014 World Cup. I also know that many will bash, believing that our country is not capable of hosting an event of such magnitude. I will not even be surprised if most of the bashing comes from Brazilians either. There are many people here that like to see the glass half empty all the time. Not me.

I felt sorry for the Canadian reporter Erika Bulman when Blatt got all irritated because of her question about violence. Everybody knows that the world have this impression of our big cities. Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo have issues like any other city with more than 6 million inhabitants. At the other hand, when she states that “…there have been delays in hosting some major events, problems with violence in the streets and the public transportation system in the country is often overloaded” it gets clear that she knows very little about our country.

We are very capable of hosting huge events. I don’t really remember any big event that have been delayed. The Rolling Stones show that brought nearly 2 million fans to the sands of Copacabana was great. The Red Bull Air Race was another event that gathered a crowd of more than 1 million people together. Of course there was a traffic gridlock near the area, but other than that, great success. Nobody burned any sound towers, like some people do in rock concerts far north from here. Also the Formula 1 race that takes place every year in São Paulo and always happen without incidents.

Our national football championship is a big event too. Near my place here in Rio we have the Maracanã “temple” that hosted matches with more than 60.000 people in the last few weeks. I went to watch the Brazil x Ecuador match along with other 73 thousand people. There were many woman and children there, enjoying that huge celebration of our sport. I wish Erika Bulman could have been there to witness such a grand display of our easygoing lifestyle and partying spirit.

Hey Erika, you are more than welcome to come visit Rio. We’ll have a nice caipirinha and I’ll tell you the episode of my brother being mugged in Rome’s subway. It is rather funny.

Interesting links:

Red Bull Air Race

Rolling Stones in Rio

Erika Bulman about 2014

Traveller’s Tale about Rio

Rock in Rio (no riots here)

Brazil World Cup RSS Feed

Comments

By Afshin Afshar | November 3rd, 2007 at 12:33 pm

Euler my friend, I am very disappointed in you! In your haste to celebrate the good news about 2014 you forgot to mention the wonders of beach football in Rio. Here is something that may help jug your memory

http://www.lastkick.com/?p=2558

Posted from United States

By Afshin Afshar | November 3rd, 2007 at 12:36 pm

Sorry, I actually meant to suggest this link:

http://iran.worldcupblog.org/group-d/beach-football-101-%e2%80%93-do-not-ignore-the-sideline.html

Posted from United States

By Julia | November 4th, 2007 at 10:41 am

You cannot compare any of the above mentioned events with a World Cup. A World Cup has a magnitude none of the events you stated have. I went to Germany and I have been to formula 1 in Brazil. There is no way on earth you can compare both.

Rio and Sao Paulo are, indeed extremely dangerous. It will be hard to control the violence in such spread out cities. You cannot be blind to these facts and think that it will be easy to manage a world cup in Brazil. That is too naive.

Although Brazil has issues, if they work hard the World Cup will be great. The Canadian Reporter raised good points, but that doesn’t mean Brazil cannot overcome them.

Posted from United States

By Sarah | November 5th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

Julia,

While I agree with you that São Paulo and Rio are dangerous, so are many other cities in the world, including those in 1st world countries that are as well. No one, including Lula and his posse, are forgetting that. You’re not a Brazilian if you’re not savvy enough to keep that in mind. We are aware of what our country is like. But we deserve this World Cup because, like Platini said, we gave the most to futebol in terms of players, number of World Cups won, etc. The poor of Brazil don’t have much to look forward to in life (well, there’s Carnival), and futebol is a national obsession and a way of life- it’s a way of life that helps the poor to be distracted from their hard lives. So you people who think that the Brazilians are going to screw themselves up for 2014, then don’t go! Then we can have more room for people who believe and will have fun in this beautiful countryfor Copa do Mundo 2014!

Salve Brasil!

By aleksandar | November 29th, 2007 at 4:21 am

Hi I am from Macedonia,small country in Europe and i support Brazil’s host for world cup.I know rio de janeirio is one of the most beatifull city in the world. you have beautifull country.i want Brazilian football, i am brazilian fan and its the best in the world.I agree with you the best players come from brazil. But one is the brazilian team, and the other is organization of world cup,its not same thing. To organize World Cup is such a big thing. How do you comment accident in salvador. that is horrible what happend in salvador(7 death people). I see matches from brazilian league and in first league (for example corinthians, flamengo, sao paolo etc.)and you couldnt organized good match like in europe,in brazil on match the fans are fithing each other, with the police, the fans enter on the grass……you cant say to me i dont know about brazil because i know and i am football fan and i see on tv like europes league.come on be honest compare brazilian matches with english, german, spanish,frennc matches.eej you have 7 deaths on football match(horrible) Imagine it what could happend on big matches on World Cup.Imagine what could happen for example if brazil lose and wouldnt be the champion (like in world cup final when brazil lose from uruguay).i think that brazil is not able to organize world cup and i think thet you should be wait abot 20-30 years to be host.I want brazil to be the host and i love the brazilian’s passion for football and i like the way how they play but i think that the lifes of people are more important. Give the world cup to country who is able to organize like Germany,USA,Japan,China, Spain, England,Australia etc.

By Sergica | December 28th, 2007 at 6:37 pm

Erika city….
http://sergica.miniville.fr/sec/

Posted from Italy