Rmpr

Yeah, Moses > Neymar!

Brazilians were always accused of being complacent with our government's corruption and mistakes. Most people complain but do nothing about it... Brazil has one of the highest tax rates in the world, but one of the lowest education, health and security systems. Don't tell me something isn't wrong when you pay above average taxes for bellow average public services!!! With that in mind, the protest started with a group of students from USP who wanted to show to people how the population was being mistreated. They created a website called "Passe Livre" (Free Pass) to demonstrate one of the atrocious examples of corruption and lies of our politicians, which is the hikes in public transportation. Fernando Haddad (mayor) was elected this year and one of his biggest focus of his campaign was the increase in quality and quantity of buses and subways without the increase in price. He also promised to create a monthly card to use on public transports that would translate to cheaper prices for the people who use it everyday. Instead, one of his first acts was to increase the price from R$3.00 to R$3.20... Last week, a very small group of students and teachers from some Universities from all around Sao Paulo gathered in Av Paulista to do a pacific manifestation against the increase on prices of transport tickets. However, the police didn't want it to happen and some tension started to grow between the two. Something trigged violence (I wasn't at the first one, so I don't know the truth of who attacked first) and a confrontation begun. The police started acting violently and so did the protesters. We all know how these things work: the policemen abuse of the power they have and a portion of the protesters always only go there to do shit and break everything independently of the cause...This was good and bad. Good because without the confrontation, the movement wouldn't have made the news and would be long dead by now. And bad for the obvious reasons! On Thursday, around 10 thousand people went to the City Centre to voice their discontentment. We were shouting many things and we wanted to do a walk through the city. The problem was the police didn't want us to walk around Sao Paulo, they wanted us to stay there and not move at all. It was all peacefully until a single policeman and a single vandal started fighting and a gas bomb exploded. You all can imagine how quickly that escalated and how big the confusion was after that, some people arrested and many more injured. Today (17/06/2013), a huge amount of people will gather in Largo da Batata to protest against the flagrant corruption that has been going on for centuries. While most people live absolutely inhuman lives, politicians live with incredibly utopian privileges (if you are curious, I can post the list of benefits they have). On top of all that, the two FIFA events are making the police act really violently so we don't make noise in the international media and scare people from giving FIFA even more money by visiting Brazil next year. The 20 cents of real have become a symbol to almost everyone here in Sao Paulo. It is a way to show the massive population that if we can stop them from abusing the transportation ticket price, we can stop them from abusing of our money in other areas as well. The nation can't continue to progress if we allow things keep like this, where our politicians promise a lot of things to get elected but do nothing and forget about their principles once they win it. In Brazil, you either pay for things or you don't have them (or you do but in extremely low quality): schools, hospitals, security, transport, roads, etc. If all of that didn't promote good reasons for one to fight for, a 'little' extra ingredient certainly has the impact to make people go on the streets: inflation. Last year the ghost of inflation that has returned to terrify us with 6.5% and estimates for 2013 are around 7-8% (in the 80s we had a couple of years with 1100% of inflation, which is something I bet you can't even imagine). To make it even worse there is the World Cup, which is the equivalent of not having money to pay for food but to buy an expensive dress for an expensive party, messing with everyone's life. FIFA and Brazilian Government are building a lot of useless venues (stadiums, buildings, fan zones, etc) for an absurd overpriced budget; where most of the money will go to their pockets and only a small percentage will be converted to benefits. And if the steal of money wasn't bad enough, FIFA is imposing a lot of ridiculous restrictions to our own behavior and culture (this is actually more inacceptable than the corruption that people knew it would happen since the beginning). To list a few: we can't call the stadiums as we want because it doesn't sound good for foreigners, we can't sing our traditional songs for Brazil because it has bad words, we can't drink our beer because FIFA doesn't want to, we can't have the traditional June Party in 2014 because it is weird to the tourists, we can't drive our cars because it adds to the traffic, we can't protest because it looks bad for BBC and CNN, etc, etc, etc. In resume…Brazilians pay for the event, they don't enjoy the event (due to the high prices) and we still have a ton of stupid rules and restrictions to follow? The protest has miraculously left the Campus of USP (which makes me even more proud of belonging to this institution) to dominate Sao Paulo and now to infest Brazil!!! I don't make this post longer than it already is, so I will try to rap it up…Each city will have its own banner (Sao Paulo has the 20 cents, Brasilia has the 1.5 billion stadium for a city with no football team, Salvador has the restrictions of FIFA, Porto Alegre has something I don't quite remember, etc), but it is much bigger than that, it is actually as big as it gets. Today, I will go to the streets of my birth city to shout for justice and to allow my future kids to grow up in a better country. Today I fight for my rights and to make clear that Brazilians will not tolerate to be treated as clowns and a bunch of shit anymore. And lastly, today I fight for the well being of others who depend on those greedy politicians, because I was thankfully born in a family with enough resources to give me every little thing one can possibly imagine, including honorable values and good education. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are obviously a lot of critics for both sides of the coins, but the most important thing is that people are political involved in all of this, there is no more alienation and it is always positive when the population voice their points of view.

More than the amount of goals he saved!

The silence before the storm...

I wonder who payed around 100 dollars to see Tahiti vs Nigeria tomorrow in Belo Horizonte!

The pitch in Recife seems much better than in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro!

There is no fun, just give Spain the trophy already...

Did you notice him now?

I refuse to comment on that...

The problem wih Spain is that they have way too many AMs but no top Striker!

LMAO, it doesnt help to start with Reina and Valdes, but it is indeed a superb bench!

Started the season winning 2-0 and both my offers were successful, onto winning another league!

I get what you are saying, but nobody is screaming at FIFA and saying its their fault, people are screaming at our government for wanting to host the World Cup to steal our money and building stupid venues that last 40 days rather than improving public services...

I agree in theory, but not in the expense of the population of the host nations...For instance, the South African World Cup was surprisingly well organised (nice stadiums, good crowd, epic games, etc). However, their government acumulated a gigantic debt to pay for all of this and there was no money left to invest in other areas (education, security, hospitals, roads, jobs, etc). Now, 3 years past the event, Cape Town and Durban are seriously considering imploding their 60k+ incredibly expensive stadiums so they can cut public losses (because these venues demand way too much money to maintain). Now I ask you, if you were a South African, would you say it was worth it? I dont know, maybe. But I, as a Brazilian, have my personal answer!

Brazil better play good against Italy, I get nervous thinking about Luiz defending Balotelli and Paulinho dealing with Pirlo! =\

Please tell me you dont buy into that excuse...

Sorry, lost my cool for a minute, but I get furious when people come with those naive arguments...The problem is that the World Cup only went to Brazil so FIFA and The Brazilian Government could steal as much as they could. The idea is to overprice the constructions so they can get a portion of the budget to their own bank accounts. Confederations Cup only comes to help them get even more money and have the 2013 deadline as an excuse for the high prices. It has nothing to do with promoting a tournament with the winners of each continent and there is nothing to do Brazil knowing it from the beginning. I will ask you something, why is FIFA choosing host countries with no infra-structure nor stadiums? Why they choose South Africa, Brazil and Russia instead of Spain or England? Because they cant steal if everything is already built and ready to go. The idea behind the Confederations Cup is only to facilitate all that absurd corruption there is in international football tournaments. So it fucks with the players, clubs and people from the host nation. How can you still defend it? However, its not okay to spend billions of dollars on stadiums and stupid demands FIFA makes when you dont have qualified public services (schools, hospitals, jails, etc). The protests are more than right, one shouldnt allow to see their child with no proper school or hospital to go to, but allow the government to spent billions with stupid football stuff. Yes, it is fun and all of that, but priorities are priorities and just because Brazilians are fighting for our rights, we are gettifng spanked by the police so Americans and Europeans dont read anything on NYT or Reutuers! In resume, the very basic concept of Confederations Cup might even be good, but in pratic, it is as dirty and unhuman as it gets...

Alright mate, you know fuck all of what you are talking about so better shut up before posting shit!

No, it is just a stupid event that rushes everything, and because of that, stadiums and infra-structure improvements are done with low quality in order to get ready by 2013. Without this competition, the level of focus, quality and detail given to 2014 would be bigger, (something that would be very welcomed). The Confederations Cup is a pain in the arse, only a bad distraction for 2014! Above that, nobody gives a flying fuck about it, so fans think its an obligation to win it. For a top nation, the downside of losing it (pressure and critics) doesnt compensate the positive side of winning it (a small recognition). One even greater downside of the competition is to take another summer vacation away from the players (with Continentals, Confederations and World Cups; they only have 1/4 full summers). For instance, Chelsea has 6 players getting tired for no reason (maybe even up to 8 with Cavani and De Rossi). It also comes in the worse possible time as there are protests going on against corruption. Without the Confederations Cup, the protests would have been peaceful; but because authorities dont want us making noise and going into the international media, they are abusing of their power and using of violence to contain the protesters. Yesterday in Brasilia, 2k individuals were chanting against the overpriced constructions of stadiums and tickets instead of investing in health, education and security and due to the tournament the police started to shoot rubber bullets (that hurst more than one can imagine) so they dont get close to the stadium or a tourist area. Dont tell me this tournament is helping anything in any way. The Confederations Cup is totally unnecessary and there is no arguing with it...

You lost all my respect... Friendship over.

Why? The Confederations Cup is being played on Brazil and the hours should be suited to GMT -3:00 and not to Europeans hours...

The one I saw by mistake?

Edinson is the best striker in the world. Getting him might be crucial, but I would understand if we dont sign him as the pricetag is way too high!

So what does Coutinho make Hulk look like?

Exactly! This is why I am against this deal. If we had a great RW instead of one of Oscar, Mata or KDB, signing Schurrle would have been a hell of a transfer. However, adding Schurrle doesnt solve our chronical RW problem. He brings depth and quality, but he is a luxury a squad with the problems Chelsea's still has, shouldnt be focusing on... Schurrle is not the player who is talented enough to break into the attacking trio of Hazard-Mata-Oscar, so he is basically a 18mi pound bench player who won't be able to balance the right side of our attack. That will mean another season with Oscar playing on the right and all the inbalance it brings with it. He will also not add the width and natural wing plays many want. Which, again, wouldn't be a problem if we had a true RW (but that isnt the case). For instance, Hazard-Mata-Oscar or Schurrle-Mata-Hazard is worse than Hazard-Mata-RW. A bench of Oscar, KDB and Moses is more than good enough for any team in the fucking planet. The squad would be more equally distributed and there are good RWs on the market for a bit more than 18mi (which isnt all that cheap) that we could have gone for. Schurrle is a decent player, but doesnt carry th bags of potential people think. It was better for us to have bought a true RW! He gets my instant support because he is now a Chelsea player, but I will only be convinced if he prooves to be above all my concerns listed in this post!