The preparations for the World Cup on the side of the local population have been going on quite slowly as the public has been somewhat overwhelmed by the slew of negative press both from the local and the global media outlets.
After tons of repetitive negative articles outlining everything that is wrong and could go wrong with Brazil (infrastructure, corruption, crime, dangue epidemic – none of which are anything new, by the way), I’m seeing now a few positive articles / blogs popping out. I suppose that being the bearer of bad (not)news got old.
Of course, commercial efforts are at full speed and every TV commercial is building on World Cup momentum and national pride ranging from the utterly retarded (Gas station Ipiranga welcoming gringos ) to the somewhat cool (TAM Airlines brings the national team back to Brazil). Coca Cola has been decorating public transportation.
But now I’ve finally started seeing neighborhoods starting to decorate as well.
9 more days to the start point
Grobetrotter 