Brazilian fans downbeat ahead of World Cup

Three weeks to World Cup kick-off and the Brazilians are downbeat, underperforming, and generally hangdog -- Brazilian fans, that is.

Their team may be hot, steamrolling Latin American rivals in the qualifiers and gunning for a record sixth world title in Russia. But the yellow-shirted fan base is decidedly blue.

Souvenir sellers report slow business. Newspapers obsess over the state of superstar Neymar's health. And the ghosts of the disastrous 2014 World Cup lurk.

According to an opinion poll by the Parana Institute, Brazilians are bullish about the actual football, which starts mid-June.

Two thirds think the "selecao" is favorite to lift the trophy and 35 percent see Neymar as likely to be player of the tournament, compared to 30 percent for Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo.

The problem, pollsters say, is not many Brazilians care.

Sixty six percent have little or no interest in the upcoming championship, while 14.5 percent don't even know where it's taking place.

"There's not the same level of enthusiasm as before," said driver Serafim Fernandes, as he shopped in soccer-mad Rio de Janeiro's teeming Saara market.

Fernandes, 62, blamed the economy for the lack of passion. It's only now edging from a record-deep, two-year recession, made worse by a corruption scandal tearing through the political elite.

"People are really suffering," he said.

Party poopers 

Four years ago, when Brazil hosted the World Cup, wall paintings and streets emblazoned in yellow and green sprouted around the nation well over a month before anyone touched the ball.

The enthusiasm was linked in part to the fact that the tournament was on home soil. But street painting, flag hanging and murals are an old tradition and the decorations' absence so far this year is glaring.

In Rio de Janeiro, there's even a threat to the staging of the 40-year-old World Cup street party known as Alzirao.

The biggest fan festival in the city is usually set up far in advance, attracting tens of thousands of people. This year Alzirao has yet to show any signs of life after losing its sponsor, the drinks giant Ambev.

"We are fighting to make the event possible after Ambev's disappointing attitude," organizers said in a statement.

At one of the many Rio de Janeiro stores selling Brazilian football kits, shopkeeper Paulo Santos Silva said he was being "prudent" about buying stock ahead of the tournament.

"Before, you could order 5,000 shirts, knowing they'd sell. Now you risk ending up stuck with them, so you buy 100, sell them, buy 100 and if we win a game buy 200," he said.

Silva, 60, says the economic slowdown isn't all that's spooking him. There's the "shameful" exit from the 2014 event, that 7-1 semi-final apocalypse against Germany.

"It's engraved on Brazilians' memory," he said gloomily. 

Victory solves everything 

For some, the lukewarm pre-cup atmosphere has even deeper meaning. 

Leftwing politician Paulo Pimenta says the adoption of the yellow team shirt by huge crowds demonstrating in 2015 and 2016 to bring down then leftist president Dilma Rousseff tarnished the national colors.

"The coup plotters even took away Brazilians' happiness from football," he tweeted. "The (team) shirt became a symbol of shame."

But Ledio Carmona, a leading commentator on SporTV, says the gloom and doom is over the top.

The idea that Rio should be swathed in bunting and paint is rooted in nostalgia for the joyful unity of 1982, when Brazil sent one of its greatest ever teams to the World Cup in Spain -- even if they lost to Italy in the quarter-finals.

"People in Brazil have a fantasy related to the 1982 cup," he told AFP. "It's almost a legend."

"But those who were young at that time are working now and those who are young today don't have the money to paint streets," he said.

Carmona says that once the action starts in Russia, Brazilians will be cheering as loudly as ever.

Fernandes, browsing for a good deal on one of the famous yellow shirts in Saara, agrees.

"We really need it a lot. We'll get into it."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UN slams Brazil bill that would ban all abortions

RIO DE JANEIRO - The United Nations on Monday voiced concern over a bill under consideration by Brazil's congress that would ban access to all abortions, even in cases of rape and women whose lives are in danger.

The bill "poses an increased risk to women's health," the UN Population Fund's Brazil office said in a statement.

Women in Brazil currently only have access to abortions when the pregnancy is a result of rape, their health is at risk, or in cases of the fetus having severe medical defects such as anencephaly, when most of the unborn child's brain is missing.

The new bill, which was green-lighted by a congressional committee two weeks ago, is seen as a "Trojan horse" by pro-choice activists.

Its initial goal was to extend maternity leave for mothers of premature babies, but ultra-conservative members of congress linked to evangelical churches inserted a clause stipulating that the right to life should be "inviolate from the moment of conception," which would deny access to abortions even for women who currently qualify.

The revised version of the bill "denies women the opportunity to decide on issues relating to matters that involve serious violations of their most basic rights ... doubly penalizing victims of sexual violence or women in vulnerable positions," the UN statement said.

The organization also denounced it as a "step back" which "distances Brazil from its international engagements" in terms of women's rights, and noted that backstreet abortions are "one of the leading causes of death in mothers in Brazil and around the world."

The bill is currently making its way through congress but faces a series of hurdles before it can become law. It must first be debated once again by the committee before a full vote in the lower house of congress, where it will need to gain the support of three-fifths of law-makers.

Demonstrations against the bill took place last week in a number of major cities in Brazil.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bodies of Colombia plane crash victims flown home

MEDELLÍN, Colombia – The bodies of the 71 victims killed in a plane crash in Colombia that wiped out a Brazilian football team began arriving home Friday, as mourners prepared a massive funeral.

The remains of the first victim, Paraguayan crew member Gustavo Encina, were handed over to his family early Friday in a coffin draped in his country's flag.

The other victims -- 64 Brazilians, five Bolivians and a Venezuelan -- were being flown home on a series of flights throughout the day.

"What we want now more than anything else is to go home, to take our friends and brothers home. The wait is the worst," said Roberto Di Marche, a cousin of football team Chapecoense Real's late director Nilson Folle Junior.

In the club's hometown, the southern Brazilian city of Chapeco, more than 100,000 people -- about half the city's population -- are expected to attend a memorial service Saturday in honor of the team, whose fairytale season was tragically cut short by the Monday night crash.

FIFA chief Gianni Infantino canceled a trip to Australia to attend the funeral.

Officials said Brazilian President Michel Temer would likely travel to Chapeco as well.

The last of the bodies were due to arrive in Chapeco early Saturday.

They will then go on a funeral procession through the city, ending with a ceremony at the team's stadium.

Authorities are still investigating what caused the charter flight to smash into the mountains outside Medellin, where Chapecoense was due to play the biggest match in its history -- the finals of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's second-largest cup tournament.

A harrowing recording has emerged of the panicked pilot asking the control tower for priority to land because he was out of fuel.

Colombia's civil aviation safety chief, Freddy Bonilla, said the plane disregarded international rules on fuel reserves.

- Bolivian probe –

The Bolivia-based charter company, LAMIA, had its permit suspended Thursday, and the government there ordered an investigation into its operations.

Bolivia has also suspended the executive staff of its civil aviation authority and the airports administrator for the duration of the probe.

Investigators are examining pilot error and air traffic control problems as possible factors in the crash.

Pilot Miguel Alejandro Quiroga's remains were flown home Friday along with four Bolivian crew who died in the crash.

The disaster killed most of Chapecoense's squad and 20 journalists traveling with them to cover the match.

LAMIA, which specializes in flying Latin American football teams, had ferried local clubs and national sides around the region, including superstar Lionel Messi.

- Haunting crash scene –

Six people miraculously survived the crash.

All remained hospitalized Friday.

"I'm in shock," said flight attendant Ximena Suarez Otterburg, who was found injured but conscious after the crash.

"God can't explain the pain I feel," she wrote on Facebook.

Other survivors were in various stages of recovery.

Chapecoense defender Alan Ruschel was in intensive care after back surgery, while goalkeeper Jakson Follmann has undergone multiple surgeries including the amputation of his right leg.

A haunting video meanwhile emerged of the moment rescuers found Bolivian crew member Erwin Tumiri.

"Alex! Angel! David! Where's my crew?" shouted the visibly disoriented man, as rescuers tried to calm him.

- Devastated families –

Co-pilot Ovar Goytia's 18-year-old son recalled his final conversation with his father.

"I spoke with my daddy 10 minutes before the flight took off. I only spoke to him to say goodbye and make sure everything was OK. He just said to take care of the home, of my brothers, that I was the man of the house, and that he'd be back," he told AFP.

Getting the news "was a dagger in my heart," he said. "As if my world was ending."

Goytia, who is in flight school to follow in his father's footsteps, called his dad a "great pilot" and said he was sure he did everything possible to save his passengers' lives.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Brazil's World Cup crowd mostly white, wealthy: survey

BRASÍLIA - Most Brazilians attending World Cup matches are white, wealthy and dissatisfied with leftist President Dilma Rousseff's government, said a survey published Sunday.

Of the Brazilian fans attending Saturday's round of 16 match between the host nation and Chile, 75 percent were men, 67 percent were white and 90 percent were middle-class or wealthier, pollsters Datafolha found.

It said there was little sign in the stadiums of the rising middle class that has emerged under Rousseff and her predecessor, fellow leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Only nine percent of Brazilian fans were from the so-called "C Class," the lower-middle-class income bracket defined as monthly earnings of $500 to $2,000 -- which now covers 49 percent of Brazil's population.

Sixty percent of those interviewed said their incomes were more than 10 times the minimum wage of 724 reals ($320) per month, Datafolha said.

The racial make-up of the crowd was also different from Brazil as a whole: More than half the country's 200 million people have African roots.

Datafolha said 55 percent of those interviewed disapproved of Rousseff's performance, nearly double the figure in its June poll of the general population, when just 28 percent of people said they disapproved of the president's performance.

However, 61 percent of respondents said they did not think it was right that fans shouted a profanity-laced insult at Rousseff at the World Cup opening match in Sao Paulo on June 12.

The jeers caused controversy in Brazil, where many Rousseff supporters said they only reflected the views of a wealthy minority.

Rousseff is up for reelection in October and faces growing discontent over an economic slowdown, rising inflation, accusations of corruption and the record $11 billion spent on the World Cup.

But she currently leads in the polls, with 39 percent of voters backing her candidacy, according to a CNI Ibope survey earlier this month.

Her top rival, Social Democratic Senator Aecio Neves, had 21 percent support, and socialist ex-governor Eduardo Campos, a former ally, 10 percent.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Evangelicals protest gay marriage in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO - Tens of thousands of evangelical Christians marched in Rio on Saturday defending marriage between a man and a woman, and protesting a recent legal ruling allowing gay marriage.

The event, organized by Rio de Janeiro evangelical ministers, gathered some 100,000 people, according to police estimates.

The throngs of faithful marched alongside floats, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with religious slogans and waving signs praising Jesus.

The march ended at the downtown Cinelandia square, where pastors preached, the faithful prayed in unison, and a gospel concert was held.

As acknowledgement of the political clout of the group, Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes was at the event, along with other politicians.

The "March for Jesus" is a main Brazilian evangelical church event.

The march and rally highlight "the principles that we defend: unity of the people of God... in favor of freedom of expression, freedom of religion, traditional families and life," said Pastor Silas Malafaia of the Assembly of God church, who organized the event.

"We say no to sin, no to corruption, no to homosexuality. We say yes to Jesus," a participant told local media.

Brazil, with a population of around 194 million, has the largest number of Catholics in the world.

Evangelical Protestant churches, however, have been making inroads. The 2010 census estimates that 22 percent of Brazilians are evangelicals.

In comparison, 65 percent of Brazilians say they are Catholic, down from 90 percent in 1970.

On May 14, Brazil became the third and largest Latin American country to give a de facto green light to same-sex marriage when a panel overseeing Brazil's legal system headed by the chief Supreme Court justice said that offices that issue marriage licenses had no standing to reject gay couples.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com