SPORTS

 

 

 

SPORTS - by André Luiz, adapted according to the thoughts of Huberto Rohden by Íris Gomes and Flavio de Mello.

 

 

THE WORLD CUP IN BRAZIL

 

 

If there are sports that help the body, there are sports that help the soul...

 

 

--  The march of duty rightly done,

--  The sweaty regatta at work,

--  The exercise of devotion to the study,

--  The effort to jump patiently over obstacles,

--  The marathon of good deeds,

--  The tournament of kindness,

--  To dive in silence before the prayer,

--  Swimming patiently during difficult waters,

--  The gymnastics of totally ignoring an insult,

--  The flight to the higher realms of thought,

--  The highest ever jump to “know thyself”,

--  The demonstration of moral strength in every day tests.

 

 

All these sports of the soul can be practiced in all ages and conditions.

 

In addition, believe that any of them will lead you to a Gold Medal Award, lighting up your heart to shine forever!

 

 

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Translator’s Note:

 

"I often had to recognize that the need “to do something special” was born of a restless spirit. Such persons wanted to dedicate themselves to larger tasks because those that lay nearest did not satisfy them. Often, too, it was evident that they had been brought to their decisions by quite secondary considerations. Only a person who can find a value in every sort of activity and devote himself to each one with full consciousness of duty, has the inward right to take as his object some extraordinary activity instead of that which falls naturally to his lot. Only a person who feels his preference to be a matter of course, not something out of the ordinary, and who has no thought of heroism, but just recognizes a duty undertaken with sober enthusiasm, is capable to becoming a spiritual adventurer such as the world needs. There are no heroes of action: only heroes of renunciation and suffering. Of such there are plenty. But few of them are known, and even these not to the crowd, but to the few.” A Schweitzer.

 

 

---   The Wold Cup in Brazil is about to start. However, all forms of sport, which produces a healthy body, helping the mind to better develop, are losing its lustre, on the allegations and evidences of corruption among its managers, the sponsoring organizations, official entities that promote it and within governments. And with that, the sport also contributes to the inversion of values ​​in our society, where anyone that excels in the practice of any sport, apart of gold medals as a reward, receives also incredible sums of money. And examples abound... footballers, tennis, basketball, rugby... etc. The list is large.

 

 

Official figures prepared by the authorities of the sport in Brazil report an expense of US$14 billions, however, this number is far from correct. The foreign press reports that the stadiums and infrastructure are still not completed. The owners of the construction companies are politicians or their allies, and generally, been public developments, are overpriced. Most sectors of the working class population are in strikes, riots, complaining about salaries and better infrastructure in areas of education, health, security and transport. Areas that historically are suffering most, in a country where its leaders, far from favouring the poor and destitute, divert the profits to their own pockets.

 

During my recent visit to Brazil, traveling the north-eastern states, scandals were released in the local press where politicians are diverting funds from schools lunch program, for their own benefit! Schools where teachers receive an insulting salary and  the students often eat at school, because the lack of parenting income!

 

Ironically, these same leaders were in the recent past, the same ones criticizing the military dictatorship and later governments for better living conditions for those who suffer financial hardship and pay taxes. The current president, Ms. Rousseff, was even arrested and allegedly tortured during that period; her Minister of Sports, Mr. Aldo Rebelo, a former president of the National Union of Students, relentless critic of the previous governments, certainly today, has ties to the oligarchs who dominate the lobby of the construction companies in charge to rebuild the stadiums. The former president, Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva, union leader of the workers party, very poor at the beginning of his political career, after, taking office, contributed immensely for the current status quo of the corrupt government that rules Brazil today. His son, nicknamed "Lulinha", a cattle ranger and lobbyist in other businesses, is one of the richest man in Brazil (Forbes Magazine).

 

Surely their wealth did not come at the expense of hard and honest work.

 

And so goes my poor country of birth. In the past, during the colonial era, its wealth in gold and precious stones were exported and smuggled into Portugal in order to pay for the luxuries of the court and the debts acquired with England, wealth that contributed greatly to the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century!

 

 

 

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