Column: Brazil needs to take responsibility

Starting Thursday, ESPN and virtually every other news outlet in the world began covering the FIFA World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.

This comes as something new to Americans every four years.

When it comes to soccer, we imagine more postgame team trips to Dairy Queen and “participation trophies” than we think of national media coverage and player endorsements.

That said, the tournament has failed to disappoint so far.

Highlights have been a huge upset of Spain by Holland, a dominating 4-0 performance by Germany against Portugal, and Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa doing his best Patrick Roy impression and stonewalling Brazil in its own stadium.

Also, Brazil has had one of the fastest-growing economies in the world during the past 10 years – fastest in the world in 2009.

It even boasts the fifth highest number of billionaires on the planet. It’s a wonder how the country could do anything but benefit from the international spotlight.

But despite what many of our major media outlets report, everything hasn’t gone as planned in Rio.

The past year has been marred by some of the most violent protests in the history of Brazil: protestors denouncing the police corruption, government ineptitude and public transportation fiascoes leading up to and continuing through the World Cup weekend.

And the looming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio have only made residents more apprehensive about where the government’s priorities lie.

The World Cup became the symbol of this bureaucratic government’s greed. It’s already been the most expensive World Cup in history.  

Before the Cup started, 170,000 Brazilian military and police personnel were brought into Rio’s impoverished favelas to arrest protestors and “increase security” for the event.

Protests ended with gunfire from police Sunday.

Nobody was injured, but the police are now using live rounds to smother protesters.

So things in Brazil might not be quite as rosy as they seemed.

If the U.S. government deployed armored personnel carriers and riot police into the poorer areas of Chicago or Los Angeles, you can bet it would be a major headline across the globe.

But so far, the world media has come off as either ignorant or apathetic to the issues facing the citizens of Rio de Janeiro.

Major news sources such as ESPN and the like have a responsibility to examine both sides of the issue, instead of simply glossing over it or parroting the Brazilian government’s stance.

That’s as they’ve done during the past week in an effort to not rock the sociopolitical boat.

One of the best things about international sports is they allow the world to focus on one country, one group of people. We get a chance to experience their culture and their way of life, both good and bad.

So to ignore or misrepresent the negative consequences of events like the World Cup and the Olympics is irresponsible and, frankly, pretty lazy.

People need to know what happens when a country isn’t prepared for a world-class event, and what happens to the people who suffer as a result.

As of right now, the only way to stop the notoriously brutal Rio police from continuing to kill or “disappear” around 1,300 favela residents a year is to blow it up, and make it an international embarrassment.

But you won’t get that from USA Today.

aknorth@indiana.edu