Vishwas Satgar on The World Cup

Not the World Cup in Rwanda photo by flickr member kigaliwire

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.

ctrp342 Elected and Still Waiting

Amelia Andersdotter was elected to European Parliament in 2009. More than 6 months since the elections, she finds herself living in Brussels but still not allowed to do her job.  How can an elected member of paliament be kept from taking her seat? In this podcast this dynamic young representative from the Swedish Pirate Party explains how it happened. She also tells the story of the campaign that got her into office, and the issues and concerns she has once she is finally allowed to get to work.

The Costs of Cups

Aveiro Stadium, Photo by flickr member moacirpdsp

It is surely an unpopular topic when so much national pride seems to be placed on large international soccer tournaments, but while everyone is high-fiving each other or fuming about their team being eliminated, there is a tremendous cost for all this fanfare.  Who bares this cost? How much is it? Why is it so expensive?

Few are brave enough to ask these questions, to question such a loved and long-running tradition is surely a risky dinner conversation.  In an era where sustainability is so vital to the future of our existence on this planet, fans don’t seem to care if this applies in the context of the sports. But what if they knew the truth about their beautiful game?

In a future post I will get into South Africa and Germany, the current and most recent host of the World Cup. But since I have a personal connection to the Portuguese republic, I’d like to take you back their massive soccer tournament Euro2004.  In this case, not to go back to the highlights of what player did what unbelievable thing, but to go back to what was built, invested, loaned, and promised then as compared to how things are now.

Let’s do it by the numbers:

  • 6 cities, 6 new stadiums
  • Total cost of 6 projects – 445 million euros.
  • Total cost of these stadiums to these cities annually 19.9 million euros.
  • City of Leiria pays 5 million per year in interest alone
  • Aveiro, a city with around 73,600 inhabitants, has a new stadium with a capacity of 30,000.
  • Mayor of Aveiro once suggested blowing up their stadium, which costs 4 million per year in loans and maintenance.
  • Algarve’s stadium, capacity 30,000+ costing over 3.1 million annually, does not have a team in the 1st division of Portugal’s national soccer league.
  • Cities of Leiria, Aveiro, and Faro are all hoping to sell their stadiums.
  • The city of Braga is now expanding their previously expanded stadium in hopes of qualifying for a Spain-Portugal World Cup Bid.  They pay 6 million euros in loans annually

Ok so that wasn’t just by the numbers.  Because beyond the numbers, both the lack of use of these massive structures, and the tremendous cost burden for municipalities who openly want to rid themselves of these problems, indicates that when all is said and done the beautiful game has a financially crippling effect.

Yet the big name sponsors and FIFA would like you to ignore the man behind the curtain. Ignore the elephant in the room. Relax and enjoy the game, everything is fine.

Next up: Germany 2006, perhaps a better case?

Yours, Not Mine

Scrolling and clicking around the social networks on the 4th of July, you see alot of well wishes and people in the US getting together to celebrate. As a kid there were some years, when I wasn’t in Portugal, that I would of course enjoy the festivities on this day.  However now as an adult, I know more about what this day means, and instead of celebrating, I return to the words of Frederick Douglass, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine.”

ctrp341 Hacker Culture in Vienna

A unique group of people, a unique community space, and a unique event, all brought to you by the hackers of Vienna. My guests, Astera and Fin are both busy members of Metalab, Vienna’s internationally beloved hacker space. In part 1 of this podcast, Astera explains an upcoming conference she is helping organize in Vienna, called Plumbercon. In part 2, Fin explains how the hackerspace is organized. From how much it costs, to the club’s relations with the city government, Fin explains it all.

plumbercon.org
metalab.at

PS: For those who do register for plumbercon after reading-hearing this post, use the promo-code “Citizenreporter” when signing up. You won’t regret it.

Some Brief Vienna

A very brief and simple glimpse of 2 moments from a Saturday in Vienna. A protest in the university area and a folkloric band parade in front of city hall.