Version in Portuguese released in February, 24, 2016
Socrates
Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, or simply Socrates,
not the great Greek philosopher of course, but the great footballer
and a doctor of medicine, delighted the planet with his fellow
Brazilian teammates in the 1982 World Cup in Spain. But Socrates was
also notable for his political activism, particularly during the
1980s, when he led a movement for the democratization of football as
well as that of the entire country. While the military dictatorship
in Brazil officially ended in 1985, with the election of Tancredo
Neves as president, his election was not by popular vote but rather
indirect, by means of an electoral college. At that time Socrates
took part in the “Direct now!” movement, in which he militantly
stood for the right of the Brazilian people to elect the president of
the republic by a direct and secret vote.
Socrates
died in 2011, bequeathing to us both longings and lessons; not only
as a football genius, but also as a militant fighter for democracy.
By comparison, we can say that he was the Brazilian version of the
American boxer Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali), who refused to be sent
off to the war in Vietnam; or that of the champions of the 1968
Olympics, Tommie Smith and John Carlos who, in their courageous
protest against racism, held aloft clenched black-gloved fists in a
salute to Black Power when the American national anthem was played
after they received their medals, an act which caused such a scandal
at the time. But Socrates was the happy exception in every way.
Unfortunately, he has not been, and still is not, a model for today’s
sports idols.
Edson
Arantes do Nascimento (“Pelé”), our greatest example of
foot-balling perfection, renowned worldwide, named the so-called
“athlete of the century” in the 1980s, during an all out campaign
for the democratization of the country and against the military
dictatorship scandalously declared that “The Brazilian people are
not ready to vote, due to a lack of both practice and education. Vote
more out of a sense of fellowship!” Furthermore, Pelé always
denied that racism existed in football; in fact, in the mind of Pelé
racism simply doesn’t exist; for him it is rather an optical
illusion of the beholder, and supposedly the little that he himself
actually does witness, he recommends not to report, not to protest
against. Pelé is a true “Doubting Thomas.”
Ronaldo
Luis Nazário de Lima, known as Ronaldo, Ronaldo the Phenomenon, or
simply Ronaldinho, is considered by experts to be one of the greatest
football players of all time. Well, this so-called phenomena
commenting about expressions of racism at football stadiums, said
unbelievably “I think all blacks suffer (from racism). I, who am
white, also suffer from such ignorance!” But Ronaldo’s true
ignorance is his not realizing that he himself is of African descent.
This very same Ronaldo Nazário recently took part in the
demonstrations calling for the impeachment of the elected president
of the republic, Dilma Rousseff, thereby aligning himself with the
most reactionary and conservative forces in Brazil who are doing
their utmost to pull off a coup d’etat. During the preparations for
the 2014 World Cup, demonstrators protested against the criminal
absurdity of spending so much of public funds, invariably at the
expense of health, education and housing. When the protestors were
violently repressed by the police, Ronaldo Nazario gave his opinion
saying “The World Cup has got nothing to do with the building of
hospitals!” Of course, being a millionaire, Ronaldo and his family
have access to the best health care.
The
footballer Romario de Souza Faria, known simply as Romario, was a
team member of the 1994 Brazilian World Cup Championship which was
held in the US. In 2010, he was elected to the Brazilian Chamber of
Deputies for the state of Rio de Janeiro, as a candidate of the
Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) which, by the way, has nothing at all
to do with socialism. In parliament, Romario has delivered fierce
speeches against corruption in Brazilian football and FIFA. He is
currently president of the PSB for the state of Rio de Janeiro. In
April 2015, he gave a controversial interview to the sports
magazine Placar (Score) in which he first revealed
his desire to one day become mayor of Rio de Janeiro, and added what
became an emblematic comment about Brazilian politics: "I
thought politics was a place of thievery and dirt. And I was right."
Following publication of the interview, the senator apologized on his
Facebook page and said he was overexcited during the interview. In
his apology he claimed that "there are great politicians in
Congress." As the 2015 political crisis headed towards an
attempted impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, Senator stated
that care should be taken saying that "Regardless of whether we
are for or against (impeachment), we senators want the country to get
back to economic growth and to get out of this crisis. In the current
context, opportunistically, Romario largely stands with those
supporting a coup d'état. But nothing is by chance, as Romario is
now playing for his new audience: the reactionary proponents of the
coup and right. As already reported, he is one of the candidates for
in the elections for mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro to be held
in October 2016.
Daniel
Alves da Silva, commonly known as Dani Alves, a member of the Brazil
national football team who plays for Barcelona in the Spanish league
(where he achieved heroic status during that club’s fantastic 2014
season), was involved in another episode of football racism. During a
Spanish league match, a supporter of Villareal threw a banana at the
Brazilian Alves who responded humorously by taking a bite of the
fruit before resuming the match. The story went viral on social
networks worldwide, with an overwhelming number of comments welcoming
the player’s easy handling of the incident while condemning the
racist act. Among the various personalities who expressed solidarity
with Alves’s handling of the matter was the current great football
idol Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, better known as Neymar Junior.
Neymar
himself was a victim of racism in Barcelona’s match against Español
in January 2016. At the beginning of the match, fans began chanting
racist slogans and later in the game, when Neymar made contact with
the ball, some fans started making monkey sounds. The former head of
the Barcelona club, Toni Freixa, wrote on his Twitter account that “I
hope that the racist cries made towards Neymar will be recorded in
the minutes of any arbitration.” But, somehow, completely
inexplicably, Neymar commented that he “did not hear the screams. I
do not hear things off the playing field. It is truly difficult
things which bother me; I just play football!” In this reaction,
Neymar shows himself to be a true disciple of Pelé.
Currently
Neymar, along with his father and the former president of the
Barcelona club, are being accused in Spanish and Brazilian courts of
an alleged multimillion-real tax fraud involved in Neymar’s move
from the Catalonian Santos team to Barcelona. The Spanish press
indicates that the “unreported” amount of the transaction comes
to more than 170 million reals, with obvious negative implications
for the public coffers due to unpaid taxes. Strangely, in the
Brazilian media, in which headlines and entire pages are devoted to
crimes of alleged corruption and money laundering by politicians, the
only mention of the multimillion-real tax fraud perpetrated by Neymar
are relegated to the sports pages. Obviously, this is the media’s
way of hiding from the population that their great idol may have
withheld millions of reals in taxes, which would otherwise be
available for healthcare, education, housing, etc. In the end, Neymar
and Ronaldo Nazario are one and the same.
Meanwhile,
thousands of young people from all over Brazil, from the periphery to
the urban slums dream of being the next football phenomenon. This
dream can only become a reality for a very, very few. The vast
majority of the country’s football players never reach either fame
or fortune. The dream is almost in all cases an illusion as
impossible to achieve as winning the lottery. And yet, because of
this cruel illusion, many young people place no value at all in their
studies; rather they drop out of school early to participate in
tryouts for kids’ football clubs. And for most of the very few that
do become professional, their salary is no more than twice the
minimum wage. It is only when they mature, with no professional
success nor with the necessary educational background, at times even
semi-literate, that they realize that they have lost a considerable
part of their lives in search of an impossible dream.
The
current heroes of Brazilian football, and some veterans like Pelé,
are sad examples of political alienation, opportunism, the
ostentatious display of wealth, tax evasion, the complete ignoring of
the most grotesque acts of racism, homophobia, and sexism. By their
example, they confirm the truth of what the great German playwright
and poet Bertolt Brecht once very appropriately said: “Unhappy
is the land that needs a hero!”
http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-impeachment/
http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/latin-america/brazil-impeachment/
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