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Al Jazeera America
RIO DE JANEIRO — Close to the geographical heart of Brazil, in the little-known state of Tocantins, soccer players argued with a referee over a decision.Tensions ran high at the state championship match in the small town of Peixe, and in the midst of the ruckus, an official observer called Silvio Santana Ribeiro, an Afro-Brazilian player, a “monkey.”
The incident barely made a ripple outside the town of 9,000, and police ignored the victim, a middle school teacher.
But as Brazil pulled behind its defender Daniel Alves after a banana was thrown in his direction while he was playing for Barcelona, the episode in Tocantins revealed the country’s complicated relationship with racial identity.
While a long history of intermarriage created an impression of racial tolerance, soccer is one area of life in Brazil in which scratching beneath the surface reveals lingering prejudices.
“We are men of science and principles, and we know how to deal with people,” said Santana Ribeiro, 36, from Paranã. “I was armed with substantiated arguments that I imagined would be enough, but he used a weapon that knocks down any science — prejudice — and called me a monkey.”
He said he wanted to believe the insult was not aimed at him, but his teammates refused to ignore it.
“People are indignant,” said Enedino Neto, director for the promotion of racial equality at the City Hall in Paranã, after the incident last month. “It rarely happens here.”
DW
Sao Paulo subway workers wanting a 12 percent pay rise defied a labor court ban on Monday and extended their strike into a fifth day. Three more Cup teams were due to arrive in the tense metropolis - Costa Rica, Honduras and the US.Protestors burned bags of rubbish to block entry to the city's downtown Ana Rosa station before riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse them.
Protestors chanted "there won't be a Cup, there will be a strike!" to back the subway workers' pay rise demand. Initially at 16.5 percent, the union has reduced it to 12.2 percent. The government is offering 8.7 percent.
Stadium station idleThe World Cup kicks off on Thursday as Brazil and Croatia face off at the Arena Corinthians stadium in the northern part of the sprawling city of 20 million.
On Monday, parts of the subway were active, but trains were not arriving at the stadium, where heads of state will attend Thursday's opening ceremony.
Al Jazeera
Brazil's police have clashed in Sao Paulo with striking subway workers who are continuing to stay away from work despite a court declaring their strike to be illegal.Riot police firing tear gas pushed about 100 striking workers out of a station on Monday, the fifth day of the protest that has thrown Sao Paulo's normally congested traffic into chaos.
"This is the way they negotiate, with tear gas and repression," Alexandre Roland, a union leader, told the AP news agency as he and others regrouped outside the station after confronting riot police.
The striking workers marched toward the city centre, where they planned to join a wide-ranging rally by various activist groups, including homeless workers demanding low-cost housing and a group calling for free public transportation.
Bruno Matos, a 24-year-old student, told Al Jazeera's Elizabeth Gorman in Sao Paulo on Monday that he came to the rally to support the subway workers who he saw as fighters for commuter rights.
"It's a fight not just for them, but also a fight over inequality in transportation. They have their specific fights for a salary, but also for the rights of the commuters," said Matos.
The Guardian
Less than four days before it hosts the opening game of the World Cup, São Paulo became the scene of protests, street fires and teargas on Monday as striking subway workers brought chaos to the city.The strike – which disrupted half the metro stations and worsened traffic in South America's most populous city – was the latest headache for organisers as national teams from the United States, Spain and Argentina flew in for the start of the tournament on Thursday.
Security is also a major concern, particularly in Rio de Janeiro – the base of the England team – following a recent flare-up of unrest in the city's favelas. Players from Roy Hodgson's England squad were due to visit Roçinha, the nearest shanty town to their hotel, on Monday night as part of an outreach programme.
Excitement about the tournament is steadily building among the public – evident in the growing number of flags in windows and bunting on the streets – but many Brazilians are still uneasy about the $11bn (£6.5bn) costs of hosting the tournament and associate the World Cup with corruption, inefficiency, evictions and misplaced priorities.