World Cup: 100 days to go

This tuesday marked the 100 day countdown to the 2014 World Cup. It is really an interesting coincidence that this event that fueled the protests of last year reaches this symbolic milestone now, as millions of people are occupying the streets of Brazil -- just this time for a different reason: to celebrate the Carnival. 

[If the tranquility of the Carnival mass celebration, in clear opposition to the violence of the protests, may strike you as a contradiction bear in mind two things. First  the Carnival is a people's party, so it may be seen as opposed to the opulent stadiums built for the benefit of a few. Another hypothesis is that the Carnival is the moment when the "silent majority" that actually disapproves violence in the protests (as seen through the Data Folha survey) actually comes to the street. These are at least two reasons I could think of.]

In Rio, millions celebrated the Carnival,
that had no reports of protests

Both O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo dedicated different stories to the landmark towards the World Cup. Just O Globo put with all the letters that the event is dividing the country. In a beautifully written article published on the sports section, the newspaper interviews two former players from the Brazil football (I'll always mean soccer by that) team with distinct visions of the World Cup and its meanings. The text start by saying that so far the sole legacy from the event are the protests and calls this 100 days journey as a journey to self discovery. 

Folha decided to approach the event with a different strategy. In the Economics section, the newspaper talked about the inflated prices in hotel rooms and how they are driving an increase in temporary rents from people that own houses near the stadiums that will host the event -- an american tourist paid US$ 1,640 for renting a three bedroom apartment near the stadium of Porto Alegre, more than what could be earned in a whole month in the area. In another related article it also says that the hotels in the cities that are just serving as training sites for the football teams are not receiving much reservation from tourists. 

The controversial part of the tournament was raised by the OpEd section in an article signed by Ronaldo Nazario (Ronaldinho), a member of the committee in charge of organizing the World Cup. The former Brazil forward plays defense on the text, saying the US$ 3.4 billion investment on the stadiums since 2007 were not much compared to the  US$ 323 billion spent on health care in the same period. "Brazil is progressing a lot, in social and economical terms, and has been correcting the inequalities in the recent years. We need to keep pursuing a better country. This final is played every two years in october and not in july", says Ronaldo calling protesters to express their dissatisfaction in the ballots and not inside or outside the stadiums.