The 2014 FIFA World CUP Brazil - Why we should Stop Hosting Events.

 

 

“People in Brazil are absolutely delighted that they are hosting the World Cup in 2014, but what they are saying is -- if we can have world-standard football stadiums, why can't we have world-standard housing, world-standard healthcare, world-standard education?" Clare Dixon, from the UK Catholic Agency for Overseas Development said.”

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/09/13/Brazil-poverty-overshadows-hype-over-World-Cup-Olympics/UPI-34041379093556/#ixzz34dvbIrRY

The football Hype is on – the 2014 World Cup has already started and millions of fans are watching. People either in Brazil screaming inside the newly built stadiums or people watching their TV’s all over the world.

Here in South Africa the 2010 World cup left us with massive expensive stadiums that cannot bring in enough profit to cover the maintenance cost. People are demanding to have the Cape Town Stadium demolished, because it is costing the citizens who are the tax payers. There were many allegations of corruption when it came to building those stadiums – it seems that the money spent to build some of them was far too much and nobody knows where the actual money went. A total of $3 billion was spent.

Communities were promised that they will benefit from the world cup – that the government will not only spend money on getting the stadiums built, but also help the people and give them better housing and access to clean drinking water – that did not happen. Allot of the communities said that they just built the stadiums and left.

The upgrade and improvements on roads and transport did help with the increased traffic of tourists, but now we are stuck with transport that was designed for tourists to travel on. The price of the transport thus increased and many South Africans cannot afford it. We are actually still paying for all the renovations made with this increase in price for transport.

The Jobs that were created was only for the duration of the world cup – the world cup left and took the jobs with it. So the questions is how did the general population of South Africa Benefit from the 2010 FIFA world cup – we did not. FIFA made a hefty profit – along with politicians, the government and massive construction companies.

Brazil is going down the same path – we have seen the protest. How can you justify spending over $11.3 billion on a sporting event? That money can be used to improve the lives of the people. To make Brazil a better place for its people. Instead it is used for entertainment, when the World cup is over how will the people benefit? They won’t. FIFA will walk away with millions.

It seems we have our priorities all wrong. Shouldn’t the well-being of people come first over entertainment? Should we not care for and find solutions for those who do not have anything instead of evicting them from homes to make space for a sporting event. We should not be hosting Events in a country unless that country has every citizen out of poverty. IMPOSSIBLE!!! People will say. With a Living Income Guaranteed it IS possible – this will eradicate poverty. People will then have enough income to actually live and not just survive.