Blog Post 3: Events to Promote Awareness

In order to become more culturally aware, you actually have to read or listen. I read numerous articles and got an array of different perspectives on the culture of Brazil after the two major sporting events that they held. I learned about the economic impact of them as well as the sporting impact as well. The next step is to try to think of potential events to now help others, who may not know anything about this subject, become more culturally aware as well.

A potential event to help more people learn about Brazil and the sports culture that comes with it would be to either host a “World Cup” event, or an “Olympic” event. You could divide into teams and compete for a certain country. The World Cup event would be great as soccer is the most popular sport in Brazil by far. Participants would get to play “Brazil’s sport” while competing and having fun. The Olympic event would also work well because you could try other different, up and coming (growing), sports that were part of the last Olympic Games in Brazil. And the Olympic events wouldn’t just be sports-based. There would be strategic and trivia events. The trivia events could include some questions about Brazil as a nation. This would help ensure that people truly are getting something out of it as far as becoming more culturally aware of Brazil. Anybody from the University of Iowa would be able to attend. You could almost just make it an Intramural sporting event. I think a lot of people would join because it sounds appealing enough and teams that got first, second, and third would be rewarded. I’m not exactly sure if there’d be a cash prize, or gift-cards, or just t-shirts. To be honest, the prizes would be why most people cared, but I will explain why people should care. People should care because this event would bring people together just as those two sporting events ended up doing. Despite certain people protesting, the majority of people agree that sports gave them something to cheer for, something to be inspired by, and something to show their pride and be proud of their nation. Brazilians were able to show their nation to the world and prove the doubters that said they couldn’t host big events that they could. That is exactly what we’d be doing with an event like this. Bringing people together to not only compete, but to learn about the culture of Brazil.

Those are two event ideas to have fun and “be a part” of two of the biggest sporting events in the world (both of which just took place in Brazil). Another has to do with the recent news of a professional Brazilian soccer team that was on their way to the championship game of a tournament and their plane crashed, and unfortunately killing them all. It hit so many people hard, including the entire nation of Brazil. We, living in America, may not be able to fully understand why this hit so many people so hard. Sure, we all know the impact of death as it is a very sad and tragic situation but we have to realize how much it meant to be this team. Imagine our favorite basketball or American football team have a plane that crashed with all of them on it while traveling to do what they love. That’s exactly what happened here for millions of people in Brazil and from around the world. These were guys who inspired many by playing soccer, guys who were doing something that about every kid in Brazil dreams of doing, guys with families. I would propose to do a fundraiser to raise money for the families of those who were on that plane. You could set up a booth in the IMU or somewhere else and I think you could get a decent response. And it’s not just about the money. I think people would stop by and be curious what happened (if they hadn’t already heard) and we could inform people not only on the tragic accident, but how much soccer means to the people of Brazil. This would be a great way to help others become more culturally aware of the impact that this sport has on that country and people while also helping those families.

Becoming more culturally aware is important. It helps to broaden our understanding of not just new places, but the people that come from there. I learned a lot about things that I have been curious about since the 2014 World Cup. My curiosity only increased with the 2016 Olympics in Brazil as well. You see I have been curious about the culture and the impact that these events had on Brazil for a while, but I have never taken the time to explore and learn until now. After doing this I feel much more informed and aware. Now the next step would be to help others learn and hopefully solve some of their curiosity as well. The research that I have done was extremely helpful in helping me learn and become more culturally aware.

 

Blog Post 2: What I Am Starting To Learn

My initial research showed me something that I wasn’t expecting. I explored many articles that were after the 2014 World Cup before the 2016 Olympics. I expected to find many reports of how the event brought stability to the economy. But, I found out that that was not necessarily the case. The World Cup failed to do much in the long-term (from an economic perspective) as they predicted it was going to. I’m going to talk about what I found out about this and then explore how it went after the 2016 Olympics, and find some positives as well. Also, I will explore the sports culture specifically after I touch on these issues.

Apparently, the 2016 Olympics will be no help for Brazil’s struggling economy if last year’s World Cup is any guide. Most of the civilians of Brazil are not excited about it. Contrary to government projections, Brazil has failed to lure to its beaches and jungles. Many of the 3.5 billion TV viewers that followed the tournament specifically. The flow of tourists to the country of Brazil, which spent more to host the mega-event than any nation before it, has remained flat from a year earlier since the final match July 13, according to tour operators and an online search engine. Spending by foreign visitors fell 7.4 percent from August through November, compared with a year earlier, central bank data shows.

“Brazil has attractions; it doesn’t have competitive prices, promotion, or infrastructure,” a man named Canteras said in a phone interview from Sao Paulo. “The World Cup wasn’t the generator of tourists that was expected.”

Brazil spent $11 billion on the World Cup, which was supposed to increase the nation’s visibility and consolidate an image of “happiness and receptivity” to boost its tourist potential, according to a government-sponsored study on the economic benefits of the Cup published early last year. Yet, there is no sign of that happening. “The Cup generated a lot of interest but no lasting business,” said Salvador Saladino, head of the Brazilian Incoming Travel Organization, an association representing travel agencies. Reservations for 2015 showed no significant increase from recent years, he said. Also, the number of consumers searching for trips to Brazil went up in the months before the World Cup and then returned to “normal” levels in the subsequent months, according to a study conducted by Skyscanner, a travel search engine.

That could raise questions for companies that have bet on growing tourism. For a business owner in Brazil’s perspective I did some research as well. In 2013, Alvaro Diago, chief operations officer of InterContinental Hotels Group Plc in Latin America, said the World Cup and the Olympics would be an opportunity for Brazil to consolidate its tourism image and that the company planned to triple the number of its hotels in Brazil to 39 during the next decade. He saw this, as many did, as an opportunity for a lot of business. Not just for these events, but long-term. Unfortunately that just has not happened.

Apparently a reason of this are the costs. Brazil is more expensive to travel to than other global destinations. Another according to tourism operators are that: few Brazilians speak foreign languages and not enough are trained for the hotel or restaurant business; assaults and theft scare off visitors; signs on roads and museums are poor in Portuguese, let alone English; flights are expensive and scarce, burdened in part by federal and state taxes.

The big question heading into the 2016 Olympics was would these games help drag the economy and the country out of the hole or would it just add to the burden. We know what the 2014 World Cup did as I just touched on before. The country facing its worst recession in decades, with all of the unemployment, inflation, and corruption.

Some positives did come from these games. It brought awareness and pride to Brazilians said a female athlete who competed for Brazil (and won gold) in the Olympics. She said her victory “brought adulation and rare positive coverage of the community where she grew up.” She said that she would return there as soon as her Olympic obligations are over: “I’ve received so many messages, people are happy,” she said. “I think the Olympics are helping the kids a lot.” She believes the Games helped Brazilians to become aware of a greater diversity of sport beyond the usual staple of football. The last two weeks have brought far more attention to women athletes. Some Brazilian’s loved having the games held there. They got to attend events or go places to watch these games (World Cup and Olympics) and see some of the best athletes from all around the world. That’s something not many people can say.

There were differing opinions regarding the event(s). Some called it a success and others called it a failure. For politicians and administrators who have staked their careers on these Games, there were no shortage of reasons to declare them a success: tourist numbers were reasonably high (in excess of the 500,000 target, according to the government), sales goals were reached, the infrastructure remained standing, Zika fears proved unfounded and Brazil won more medals than at any previous Games. But there was also plenty of evidence for critics who say the mega-event causes more harm than good: massive spending on stadiums at a time when the government can barely afford wages for doctors and teachers, a huge security presence that protected rich foreigners at the expense of poor residents, and massive inequalities.

So, as you can see, there are definitely opinions that differ between the Brazilians. Some loved these events and others hated them. The 2014 World Cup was huge to Brazil. As a matter of fact any World Cup is huge to them as soccer is easily the favorite and most popular sport in Brazil and it has been for years. They are always favorites to win the whole tournament and have had and do currently have some of the best players in the world. All the World Cup did was let some fans or young soccer players have a taste of what it’s like to experience this firsthand. It gives them something to aspire to, as some of them will maybe be participating later down the road. Now what the 2016 Rio Olympics did sports-wise was give these people an opportunity to see not only some of the best athletes in the world, but see these athletes perform in sports that they don’t see as often. This could’ve been track and field, basketball, swimming, gymnastics, and so much more. People getting to see these events firsthand would then up the chances of participation and interest in those sports. This diversifies the sports culture in Brazil by a lot.

www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/aug/21/rio-olympics-residents-impact-future-legacy

https://www.google.com/search?q=world+cup+2014&biw=1708&bih=841&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-wvK_p9TQAhUF4YMKHbh3BrQQ_AUICCgD&dpr=0.8#tbm=isch&q=world+cup+2014+brazil+fans&imgrc=1ERS25T0KK47xM%3A

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-16/rio-olympics-no-help-to-brazil-economy-based-on-world-cup

http://www.forbes.com/sites/shannonsims/2016/08/22/whats-next-for-brazil-post-olympics-a-cheat-sheet/