The excitement of the World Cup is upon us. When once every four years we can celebrate an international sporting event that doesn’t involve something as ridiculous as “ribbon dancing” or “curling.” Even Americans will pretend to care about fútbol for roughly two weeks as the world celebrates the one sport that connects us all. But did you know not everyone in the host city of Sao Paulo is happy about the World Cup? It’s true. Apparently some folks are upset that the country of Brazil spent billions of dollars to host a one-time event while thousands of citizens live in squalor.
Seems like a worthy cause to get angry, which is why a few hundred thousand people have been heavily protesting since the start of June. And though the Homeless Workers Movement did win a victory when officials agreed to demands that a piece of land occupied by poor families be used for low-income housing near the World Cup stadium, most of the protests continue daily. At times paralyzing the city’s public transit with subway strikes, and erupting in spurts of violence that have seen Brazilian police forces retaliate with pepper spray, batons, rubber bullets, and in new reports, live ammunition. All the while, the U.S. mainstream media is paying very little attention to these protests, or at least the reasons behind them, proving that the one thing Americans like less than watching “soccer” is watching “poor people fight for equality.”
If Brazilians protesting during the World Cup won’t get you riled up, we wondered ‘what would?’ Then we remembered that during the last World Cup in South Africa everyone was incensed to the point of homicide by the vuvuzela. So we thought, maybe if the police were using vuvzelas instead of guns, then we could all find a common source of rage. Because if our school systems have taught us anything, it’s that we don’t give a fuck about guns.
Just try not to get too angry by these graphic images.
Luckily, thanks to a ban on the vuvuzela, we won’t have to witness such carnage. Unless they start using the caxirola.
