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.