JourneyOnline
The passion sparked by international soccer matches around the world hides the painful reality of much of the planet, said Bishop Aldo M. Etchegoyen, general secretary of the Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches of Latin America and the Caribbean (CIEMAL).
The celebrity games should not stop humanity from "seeing the other side of the coin, that of a world that needs changes, justice, dignity and love", said Argentine Bishop Etchegoyen, whose country’s football team is one of the favourites to win the cup contested every four years.
"The World Cup is a snapshot of the world situation – extreme wealth, extreme poverty, extreme waste and extreme sacrifice – an imbalance that shows our incapacity to create dignified, equal living conditions for all individuals and communities," said the Methodist leader.
Etchegoyen described the world as living through an unprecedented phenomenon of globalisation as countries around the world avidly follow the 2006 World Cup games in Germany. He said that far from the host country, millions of Asian workers had toiled to make the shoes, balls, shirts and other accessories for this event.
Without seeking to spoil the party, the Methodist bishop noted the "cheap cost of this labour, barely a few cents per hour under difficult conditions, all to give life and movement to so much wealth tied up in this show that we are all watching".
Complicated mathematics were not necessary to realise the contracts and prizes enjoyed by many of the star players in the World Cup are equal to many, many hours of thousands of people, the bishop said.
He pointed to the million-dollar contracts surrounding the World Cup, some US$450 million for general expenses, $150 million for prizes, without considering advertising, transport and commerce.
Etchegoyen also described as painful the existence of brothels in Germany for people attending the soccer tournament. This was "a sad spectacle of the use of thousands of women as objects who are used and then discarded", he said.
(c) Ecumenical News International
Photo : WORLD NEWS
