Indian Cricket: Corruption Runs Deep
Cricket, especially its neoliberal variant the Indian Premier League (IPL), is in a thick soup of corruption. The two main accused, Raj Kundra and Gurunath Meiyappan, have been suspended for life. Further, their teams Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) have been banned for two years. Back in the summer of 2013, players, […]
GDP, Money and the World Cup
By Gilbert Mercier and Dady Chery No. It’s not only a game. The World Cup is about money. Lots of it. Quite apart from the $15 billion that Brazil spent “pacifying” the favelas and building stadiums in preparation for the World Cup, or the $4.5 billion of profit that FIFA will make from this sports […]
World Cup 2014: Beautiful Game Showcases Ugly Inequality
The biggest sporting event of the planet kicks off in Brazil on June 12, 2014. Football, or soccer as it is called in a semi-demeaning manner in the United States, is by far the most popular sport worldwide. As an example, more than 1.3 billion people watched the television broadcast of the final of the […]
Glitter of Brazil’s World Cup Hides Inequality, Corruption, Human Rights Abuses
International financial and neoliberal institutions, most notably the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have created conditions in Brazil that led millions to protest throughout the country. Images of the protests bring to mind photographs of the 1968 hundred-thousand march against the military dictatorships. How did it start? It began with a demonstration at the Confederation Cup: […]
Olympics: From Celebration of the Human Spirit to Circus of Consumerism
At their inception in ancient Greece, the Olympic games principal meaning was- even more than a celebration of the human body and spirit- a sacred time of peace. The Olympics were a truce honored by every city in Greece. The frequent warfare between towns such as Athens and Sparta would come to a halt. Meanwhile, […]
