Letter from Brazil: Letting a little light in

There’s a man that comes by this part of town some evenings. Leathery skin. Bristly grey hair. Gravelly voice.

You get the feeling he’s aged faster than the calendar should allow, but such is the way of some lives. Usually he just roots about in bins looking for bottles and cans to exchange for a few coins so he can get by a little while longer, but last week he was looking for something else.

As the temperatures dip at night to the mid-teens — it’s not the cold but the drop off that makes you remember winter claws everywhere — he asked if there was a spare jumper about.

You try to keep him in mind every time you type a word about sports infrastructure. Thankfully, the man doesn’t know what more fortunate people are saying about such trivialities but others here do. They can’t get away from it because every whine and tut and sigh coming out of the first world are the same. It’s like we’ve become the sneery, preachy schoolteacher lurking around the classroom looking to have a go. And if all is well, there’s always the dog-leg in a jotter for him to fall back on.

It’s been that way since the eyes of the world started staring down this country and its people, digging for every slip-up and mistake, dredging for new worries and complaints. But we only care about our worries and complaints. It seems we can slap our standards onto whatever nation we want nowadays without perspective or knowledge of their reality, so long as we have to take a holiday there for a few weeks or, God forbid, just have to stare at it on the television.

Yes, there are problems surrounding the World Cup and Olympics which are, after all, only bloated sports tournaments that long lost their soul by demanding too much. And yes, these problems will be a brief nuisance for a handful across the time of their lives. And yes, the media has a job to do in reporting them and everyone will have a say. But whatever happened to balance and why ignore all the positives? This is the equivalent of forcing the unemployed man to spend what he’s left on a party before complaining about the cocktail sausages and heading off when the free booze runs dry.

Back before Christmas, a scan through the English papers gave a feel for what was going on. The Mail used TripAdvisor reviews to belittle their team’s spectacular five-star hotel. The Sun described the same place as a “dump” and followed it up by using the same word to assess England’s under-construction training ground. The Express claimed all the talk at the World Cup draw was of “violence, massed robberies and rapes”. And a scan through the world’s thinking this week shows little has changed as some media worried about 4G network issues while others revelled in Olympic sailors bemoaning the water quality — 805 days before they’ll compete on it.

Media from Australia to Ireland are still chock full of negatives and it’s little wonder as journalists heading off seem to be briefed with a clear job. Not so long ago, a colleague was here a matter of hours when he texted about the state of the airport, the traffic, a lack of English speakers and how “this was all going to be a disaster”.

There was a joy as he could feel the stories being mailed off in his mind and see Word files filled with misery and fear. Professionals aren’t the only ones at fault either. If social media is the window into the first world’s soul, then we’ve become one pathetic bunch of contrary people, terrified of anything different or difficult.

So those coming here might not have the roaming capabilities to tag themselves at a match but why not just watch it instead? The hotel they booked may be more three-star than four but why not walk down to the golden beach and get over it? The favelas are said to be dangerous, but why not go on a guided tour and learn rather than be scared of what you haven’t learned about? The flight time to Manaus is long, but why not realise the trade-off is being able to take a boat through perhaps the world’s great wonder? And if not, why not stay at home?

At a time when Fifa are spending €16m on a film starring Tim Roth, Gérard Depardieu and Sam Neill as Sepp Blatter, Jules Rimet and João Havelange as they portray “mavericks joining forces on an ambitious project: Fifa”, it doesn’t mean we’ve to be arrogant too. At a time when Yaya Toure bemoans a mere birthday cake as a present from a club that pays him €270,000 a week, it doesn’t mean we’ve to be vile too.

For sure, Brazil hasn’t been good to many of its own and as Viviane Senna — sister of Ayrton — said, this is a society built only for some. But you need to differentiate between internal and external issues, what are valid and invalid concerns, and who they are dilemmas for. Yet most lump them all together for the added weight.

It’s not just mild xenophobia either, it’s the hypocrisy because it’s fashionable to belittle Brazil. But where was the collective gasp when London was burning before its Games? Where was the angry mumbling when parts of tonight’s Champions League stadium blew off and caused the abandonment of the Lisbon derby due to debris endangering supporters?

If you must complain, there’s plenty to complain about. But try occasionally taking the right side and complaining with the people and about what they’ll be left with. come mid-July, the world will have moved along but if he’s lucky the leathery-skinned, bristly-haired man will still come by. If anyone bothers to ask, he could tell them about real problems.