Brazilian community speaks out about World Cup

You can catch the full story and interviews in the latest issue of Hot Press, but in the meantime, here is a closer look at what the Brazilian Dubliners and São Paulo locals had to say.

William Ferreira

Dublin resident for roughly eight months. Originally from São Paulo.

“Everyone wanted the World Cup because they wanted to show to the world that Brazil is a good place, that people are happy, that people want to be friendly and to show the best of our country.”

“The protests are not just about the transportation. They are about everything. They are about the corruption. They are about a lot of money that the politicians and some organizations have been spending for the world cup.”

“Everything you see is not how it is. On television, it looks like the Brazilians are breaking everything. Like, ‘Oh, those guys lit something on fire. They are crazy.’ But it’s not really like that. I read the news from here and there. So I see things, and I say, it’s true, but it’s not true.”

“It’s time now for the population wake up and show the world the way the politicians have been doing things.”

Daier Benites

Dublin resident since 2012. Originally from Campo Grande

“We have really high taxes for everything, but we don’t see it come back into the country.”

“Imagine you are a French girl: you know nothing about Brazil. You just want to go to the world cup and want to enjoy yourself. You want to see the matches. You want to have fun, but you are now afraid to come. So these protests should happen but not right now when tourists are visiting.”

“I think visitors are going to complain about Brazil’s situation, but at the same time everyone is going to say, ‘Listen, this is a really nice country.’ It’s like you go to a nice house and the house is a mess, so it’s not to live there, but it is still a nice house. Just in a mess stage.”

Dayanne Arajúo

Lived in Dublin for seven months. Currently lives in São Paulo.

“Brazilians are not angry about the games. They are angry about the amount of money spent. If the amount was the same as previous cups, we would be okay about it, but it was so much more. And we need things here. We really need them.”

“Some people want to riot during the games. But here in São Paulo, we have a lot of people who have foreign friends. And if see a riot, and a foreigner is beside me, I will protect them because I have a lot of foreign friends, and I don’t want that people to see this and have this impression of my company. But others who don’t have foreign friends, they won’t care.

“We have a lot of people here who don’t want Brazil to win, but this is ridiculous because the anger is all about the president’s actions, all about the money. The government doesn’t care about us. They invest in the World Cup, but it appears they just want it for the rich people and the tourists.”

“But the games outside of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are going to be so good for these cities and for Brazil. The foreigners don’t know about these places, and Brazil is so big.”

Marco Prudencio

Dublin resident since 2008. Originally from Rio de Janeiro. Former professional football player in Brazil. CEO of a sports marketing company.

“We don’t need stadiums. We have stadiums. We need hospitals. We need better schools. We need better universities.”

“The money that the government invested so far in transportation is okay, but it’s going to last for maybe the next three, five years. Then it will be gone, and the public transport updates will need maintenance, and I can assure you that the government is not going to pay for it.”

“The government had a budget for the stadiums, but everyone knew from the beginning that they would delaying to build the stadiums. And when it was approaching the world cup, they would have to give more money as a emergency solution.”

“After all that has happened, I still want the cup to be in Brazil. It attracts attention to us, and we needed that attention because Brazilians knew what was going on in our country. Now, the world knows.”

Rodrigo Santos

Lived in Dublin from 2008 to June 2013. Currently lives in São Paulo.

“Brazil is the country of football, and every single Brazilian person was over the moon about getting to host the world cup here. If government didn’t overspend so much and build so many stadiums that we didn’t need, there would be no problems.”

“For awhile now everybody said that Brazilians only care about football, soap opera and ‘Big Brother’. Now I’m really happy that people are finally starting to fight for their rights and scaring the government that has been ruling us for so many centuries.”

“Brazil is chaos. It’s so bad here. If I had never left the country, I would never know how much we suffer in Brazil just because of the corrupt government.”

“The government is fragile right now because the World Cup is coming and the whole world has their eyes on Brazil. Because the protestors have more power then to ask something from the government, everyone is joining in.”