Amidst my recent rush to dig for information about what effect world cups and high profile soccer tournaments have on nations, I almost missed a very valuable voice on a recent edition of Radio Open Source.
Who is Vishwas Satgar, I’ll use Chris’s description over at ROS:
Vishwas Satgar is a labor lawyer and leftwing activist, an insurgent ex-Secretary of the South African Communist Party who’s way out of alliance with the ANC on the uplift politics of the World Cup.
In this interesting interview, Satgar talks about the democratic deficit of this World Cup for his country. He gets into the struggles that have intensified in the time leading up to the tournament, by social movements demanding the state meet long promised needs. Specifically he talks about marches for Quality of Education, HIV-AIDS, and anti-privatization – among others, all which have held demonstrations during this high profile event.
Apparently at this very moment there is a national newspaper in South Africa that has gone to court to demand the government be transparent about the total cost of the World Cup. The total might turn out, when the information is finally released, to be around 5 billion dollars. Beyond that, many cities including Johannesburg went way over budget and have spent themselves into massive debt.
There is much more to talk about and be heard in this interview, I recommend you give it a listen of you’re at all concerned about this topic of what does this tournament DO to or for a country.
there and in any country where the game of interests between politics and big business that seeks to profit at any cost regardless of social benefits to the population
Hi there,
I think you will also find interesting the articles on the World Cup and development in South Africa, and on the commodification of sport, collected at http://links.org.au/taxonomy/term/312
thanks, will be interesting to know it will happen here as Olympics and World Cup are so we know where that money is flowing and invested in it
Its encouraging to think that the brazilian gov could implement transparency and.. hmm a bit of democracy.. when it comes to deciding what is built where and for who. But it really doesnt look like anyone is brave enough to stand up to Fifa.
Thanks Terry. Lots of food for thought. Glad to hear from you.
President Lula may perhaps be that person