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758 thoughts on “Cui Bono?”

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  • frazer

    And no news on the poor people squatting near the main stadium brutally attacked by police when they tried to demonstrate for their basic human rights! Seems the news channels are focusing more on multi million dollar so called football stars rather then oppression in the favelas.

  • lucythediclonius

    Referee was frankly disappointing.Missed two or three clear opportunities to grant a dodgy penalty.

  • Phil

    Dreolin,

    Those images are interesting but the friggin page is link bait for a marketing whore web site. The spectacle will use anything to sell us consumerism. Food not football? The irony is haunting.

  • craig Post author

    Lucy

    Yes – if there had been a straight referee for the first game Brazil would be well on the way to being knocked out now

  • Resident Dissident

    Yes 3 out of the 4 BRICS have all spent vast amounts on vanity sporting projects and all have eye watering levels of inequality – yet our ersatz lefties all see them as models to which we should aspire!

  • Eduardo

    The white crowd in football stadiums is not a world cup exception, on the years 2000 the entrances´s prices increased in Brazil. One of the reasons was the violence inside the stadiums. Now they are called Arenas (Fifa Standard). It is good that is safer and more modern, but more and more the game is distant from the crowd. If you think about money, football is hard to enjoy anywhere.

  • Fedup

    Tweets intercepted by UK Government

    Facebook status updates and Twitter posts are being intercepted by the UK Government because they are regarded as external communications from countries based overseas,

    The Met turned me into a domestic extremist – with tweets and trivia

    I would describe myself as many things, but domestic extremist is not one of them. In the eyes of the Metropolitan police, however, that is what I am; and that’s why my name is on a file in their secret database of “domestic extremists”.


    Green party peer put on database of ‘extremists’ after police surveillance

    Political movements of Jenny Jones and Green party councillor Ian Driver were recorded, though neither have a criminal record

    Two Green party politicians, including its candidate for mayor of London at the last election, have criticised police chiefs who recorded their political activities on a secret database that was set up to track campaigners deemed to be “domestic extremists”. Neither politician has a criminal record.

    House Un-British Activities Committee is to be convened anyway soon;

    Q- Do you or have you at any time known a Muslim?

    Q- Do you or have you at any time associated with any Muslim?

    Trojan horse claims against Birmingham schools

    Appearing in front of MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee this afternoon, Mr Donaghy slammed public ‘ignorance’ of Islam and false allegations that his school segregated children and allowed extremism to fester.

    ‘There’s been a wilful misrepresentation of things that we’ve done and some things have been outright lies,’ he added.

    His remarks came after education watchdog Ofsted last week published a bombshell report following allegations of a Trojan Horse plot to radicalise Muslim pupils in British state schools.
    .
    .
    Mr Donaghy did admit that the school ‘could have done more to vet’ the hate preacher Sheikh Shady Al-Suleiman before he was invited to speak at the school – even though he had allegedly previously called for ‘victory to the Muslims in Afghanistan’.

    The teacher said he only spoke about ‘time management, preparing for exams and responsibility to community and family’, Mr Donaghy said.

  • Rehmat

    On Tuesday, British prime minister David Cameron, an Israeli poodle, announced that his government has decided to re-open its embassy in Tehran. He said the decision was made after realization that Iran under the presidency of Sheikh Hassan Rouhani can play a positive role in the region especially the conflict in Syria and Iraq.

    Talking to media representatives in Vienna on Tuesday, Iran’s deputy foreign minister Majid Takhte-Ravanchi said that exchanging ambassadors between the two countries was not on the agenda for now.

    http://rehmat1.com/2014/06/18/london-to-re-open-its-embassy-in-tehran/

  • Daniel

    Argentina 1978 excepted, it seems to me that white, middle class crowds have always been a feature of world cups going back until at least the 1970.

  • KingOfWelshNoir

    Res Diss

    ‘Yes 3 out of the 4 BRICS have all spent vast amounts on vanity sporting projects and all have eye watering levels of inequality – yet our ersatz lefties all see them as models to which we should aspire!’

    But we already have eye-watering levels of inequality and recently spent a shed load of money on a vanity sporting project so what is there to aspire to?

  • Kempe

    A good way to protest about the waste and corruption of the World Cup:-

    Stop watching it and find something more constructive to do.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !

    “Yes 3 out of the 4 BRICS have all spent vast amounts on vanity sporting projects and all have eye watering levels of inequality – yet our ersatz lefties all see them as models to which we should aspire!”
    __________________

    Well said, Resident Dissident, you’ve taken the words out of my mouth.

    I hope we’ll be hearing a little less in future on this blog about the BRICs being the shining new model for all of us.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !

    “But we already have eye-watering levels of inequality and recently spent a shed load of money on a vanity sporting project so what is there to aspire to?”
    ______________________

    Another foolish comparison from KingOfWelshNoir, to accompany the foolish comparison on the previous thread.

    Inequality levels in the UK are nothing compared to those obtaining in all the BRICs.

    That may be unpalatable news for (1) the BRIC groupies on this blog and (2) the West haters on this blog, but that’s just tough. LOL

  • Mary

    Never mind eh! They are back to executions by lethal injection in the US and Agent Cameron here is chairing a meeting of the National Security Council, so all’s well with the world.

    PS Brazil lost. That must have caused the BRIC haters to cheer

    oh and btw Petro has offered a ceasefire. He’s worried there might not be any Russian gas for his electorate to use come the Winter. Half way through the year already. My life!

    Ukraine’s president has proposed a unilateral ceasefire by his troops to allow pro-Russian separatists to lay down their weapons.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27902109

  • nevermind

    Well said Frazer. Brazils abilities seem to reflect the overal state of society, torn apart by some who want to exploit this poor country some more for their sporting/business aims.

    If promoting the potentially fastest ferry service from Norfolk to Holland and increasing tourism here is called domestic extremism, then I’m clearly one.
    If telling useless councillors that they are useless and can’t string two sentences together means that I’m extreme, so be it, this immigrant will not be intimidated.

  • Ba'al Zevul (The Tea's Great!)

    Seems the news channels are focusing more on multi million dollar so called football stars rather then oppression in the favelas.

    No money in favelas. Innit. And they are places where even hardened reporters rightly fear to tread.

    The answer is to run something like the Manx TT through plaguepits like Middlesbrough and peripheral Mexico City. Only locals would dare to be out watching, and the TV rights and advertising opportunities would be limitless. Rio, with its steep terrain and moderately endemic hunger, would be a natural for competitive cheese rolling, maybe.

  • Observer

    Mary “oh and btw Petro has offered a ceasefire. He’s worried there might not be any Russian gas for his electorate to use come the Winter. Half way through the year already. My life!”

    BTW-Russia also supplies ALL the fuel for Ukrainian power plants, which will be the next step. After which a small squeeze on oil (Russia exports MORE than KSA) and yats will be off to israel in a jiffy before the freezing Ukrainians hang him.

  • John Goss

    “Yes – if there had been a straight referee for the first game Brazil would be well on the way to being knocked out now.”

    As it is it just looks like our lot are on their way to being knocked out, yet they played remarkably well. Hope that’s not right, but has a high possibility.

    P.S. Tomorrow marks two years of asylum for Julian Assange. Another refereeing travesty.

  • Ba'al Zevul (The Tea's Great!)

    Thanks for that, Kempe. Not sure I agree I definitely don’t agree with Fr. Barron’s conclusion – proselytise, proselytise, proselytise – but a good contribution. In Clark’s time, the purely materialistic culture was still becoming formalised. Now it is institutional. The Market is prioritised over the needs, rights and, dammit, cultural expression of its serfs. Anything is justifiable purely in economic terms, usually untruthfully as even the word ‘economic’ has changed its meaning. And the old American model -if labour costs too much move the plant to a cheaper state – is now global.

  • doug scorgie

    Resident Dissident
    17 Jun, 2014 – 10:51 pm
    Says:

    “Yes 3 out of the 4 BRICS have all spent vast amounts on vanity sporting projects and all have eye watering levels of inequality – yet our ersatz lefties all see them as models to which we should aspire!”
    __________________________________________________________________

    I think that countries with vast poverty levels should not host expensive international events.

    I think the priority of those countries should be lifting people out of poverty through the redistribution of wealth.

    Do you agree ResDis?

    I doubt it:

    Such policies requires (among other things) higher taxation to pay for development of housing, healthcare, infrastructure, job creation etc…

    That is prioritising the poor (majority) over the rich (minority).

    Something the wealthy individuals and corporations don’t want and will do anything to prevent by fair means or foul.

    A good illustration of this is Venezuela where rich individuals and corporations have, for years, undermined the democratically elected government, which has been trying to bring about the elimination of poverty, illiteracy and health inequality.

    Democracy, of course, is only acceptable to the likes of Resident Dissident; Habbabkuk et al, if the government elected is right-wing neoliberal capitalist.

    Any other form of government should be overthrown, violently if necessary, and replaced by one acceptable to them.

    That is their “democracy.”

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