Thanks to Alexandre for this cartoon from last Saturday´s paper. It sums up to a freaking tee my attitude toward Brazilian soccer mania.
Mind you, I have nothing at all against soccer or people who like it. In fact, I am beginning to like it myself. Today I was home alone and watched the entire game between Argentina and Greece. My problem is with the people who would rather cheer for the Brazilian national team (and light firecrackers and blow horns in the street etc, etc, etc.) than look around them at the incredible economic inequity that confronts them everywhere.
One of the saddest things I´ve seen here was last Sunday night after Brazil´s victory over Ivory Coast when I was waiting for a bus to go meet a friend for coffee. There was a street person, who had somehow managed to find a green and yellow shirt, and a horn, begging for money to eat. I am convinced that Marx was wrong. Religion isn´t the opiate of the masses; soccer is. Well, religion is too, but I´ve got soccer on my mind.
If yáll see the same picture that I see as I am typing this, you will not be able to read the captions...but since I will need to translate anyway....
Panel 1 (with all of the Brazilian flags, which are omnipresent here during the world cup, by the way) = Victory
Panel 2 (with people sleeping in the street) = a trophy
Panel 3 = Nobody´s life is resolved or improved (this is the shakiest translation...Help, Alexandre!)
Panel 4 = But everybody cheers (or celebrates)
Panel 5 = The rat says "We´re going to win."
The whole thing is so depressing.
3 comments:
Sua tradução está satisfatória. Só gostaria de lembrar que "vamos vencer" também pode significar "let's win".
Gerry, your blog entry reminded me of the Roman emperor who was told there was a caravan of wagons about to return from, let's say, Gaul. The wagons could bring either grain for the hungry people or sand for the floor of the Coliseum. Bring sand, he said. The corn won't be enough to feed the people anyway, so bring sand for the Coliseum, where the spectacles and gladiators will get the people's minds off their hunger.
Oh, dear. I'm so amazed with your concern... it's nice to have your point of view of our country. I's hard for people living in a place see how really the place is. But one thing that I still can't understand is why the wreck did you cheer for Greece?????? :-)))
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