Brazil’s World Cup preparations endured a rough Friday, as police clashed with striking subway workers in Sao Paulo, massive traffic jams snarled the megacity and fans booed the national team.
The scuffle in the metro station and a separate anti-government protest that gathered 3,000 people raised fears of more unrest when Brazil and Croatia open the World Cup in Sao Paulo on Thursday.
Police fired tear gas and swung batons to beat back picketing strikers inside a central station after commuters tried to enter.
Photo: Reuters
The strike, affecting millions of commuters, was to continue for a third day yesterday after the workers’ union and their employers failed to reach a deal on a pay raise.
Meanwhile, across town, demonstrators blocked the street in front of the Central Bank in a peaceful protest organized by the Force Union against the economic policies of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
“Our problem is not with the national team. We will cheer for them. But on Oct. 5, we will send Dilma Rousseff to hell,” said union leader Paulo Pereira da Silva, referring to the upcoming presidential election.
The subway strike caused headaches for fans who attended Brazil’s labored 1-0 victory against Serbia in the team’s final friendly in Sao Paulo’s Morumbi Stadium.
Sections of the crowd jeered the team led by Barcelona star Neymar as they struggled to find the net against the Serbians.
“Our players are ready to accept criticism when they don’t play well,” said manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, whose team is under massive pressure to deliver a record sixth World Cup trophy.
While Brazil played at Morumbi on Friday, the first World Cup game is to be played in the city’s new Corinthians Arena, which is awaiting safety clearance to operate at full capacity, highlighting the authorities’ struggle to be ready for the tournament.
Officials must resolve the metro strike because the subway will be the main link to the arena.
With three of five metro stations disrupted by the strike, bumper-to-bumper traffic stretched as far as 251km as the subway system’s 4.5 million users turned to cars or buses amid torrential rain.
“I’m going to have to return home. I can’t get to work like this,” said Pedro Henrique Rodrigues, a 28-year-old pastry factory worker who stood in a massive bus line.
It was the latest strike to hit Brazil, where bus drivers, teachers and police have staged walkouts in other cities in recent months to demand better wages.
The chaos in Sao Paulo is of the sort Brazilian officials and world soccer body FIFA want to avoid, following the violent protests that marred last year’s Confederations Cup, a World Cup dress rehearsal.
It was in Sao Paulo that mass protests erupted exactly a year ago, as citizens took to the streets to voice anger at rising public transport fares. The unrest ballooned into nationwide demonstrations against the more than US$11 billion being spent on the World Cup, with more than 1 million people taking to the streets.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite