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BRAZIL’S WORLD CUP preparations endured a rough Friday, as police clashed with striking subway workers in Sao Paulo, massive traffic jams snarled the mega-city 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.
The strike, affecting millions of commuters, will continue for a third day today after the workers’ union and their employers failed to reach a deal on a pay raise.
Across town, meanwhile, demonstrators blocked the street in front of the Central Bank in a peaceful protest organized by the Force Union against the economic policies of President Dilma Rousseff.
“Our problem is not with the national team. We will cheer for them. But on 5 October, 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 it 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 Friday, the first World Cup game will 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 are hard-pressed to resolve the metro strike because the subway will be the main link to the arena for legions of fans.
With three of five metro stations disrupted by the strike, bumper-to-bumper traffic stretched as much as 251 kilometers (155 miles) 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.
Rousseff slips in poll
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 football 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 $11 billion being spent on the World Cup, with more than one million people taking to the streets to demand money for hospitals and schools.
FIFA confident
Despite the latest troubles, FIFA president Sepp Blatter predicted Thursday that tensions would subside once the football began.
“I’m an optimist. After the tournament kicks off, I think there will be a better mood,” Blatter said.
Teams are trickling into Brazil. The Dutch team walked along Rio’s Ipanema Beach after arriving Friday.
Australia, Bosnia, Chile, Croatia, Iran, Italy and Ivory Coast have also arrived.
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The list just goes on and on and on…….
The whole country has been failed by you and your colleagues Mr. Donnelly
@ferrett: The absolute cheek of Donnelly to ‘blame the country’. HE is the health minister, paid a very handsome salary to manage the health department – sorry Donnelly but the buck stops with you and you’re incompetent.
@ferrett: I would like to take this opportunity as an Irish citizen to apologise unreservedly for the homeless/homelessness crises/ health and everything thing else that’s wrong to Mr. Donnelly and his party colleagues in FFG. We the Irish people have failed our FFG government. Shame on us.
100yrs of FFG has certainly helped
@Shaun Gallagher: And with your people it would be ten times worse. Medical care should concern you rather than electioneering. Any actual clinical suggestions ?
@thomas molloy: What medical care? Medical care in this country is a disaster, is that also electioneering?
Could you have a look into your chrystal ball there and tell me when is donnelly going to get his finger out? The whole health system is a mess, I’d hate to get seriously ill.
@thomas molloy: With my people? I’ve voted for independent for the last 4 elections. So you are saying they are to blame
@thomas molloy: Yea but that’s hypothetical. Entry-level arguing Thomas.
The country did it huh. Not the politicians. How convenient.
Nope, not failed by their own country. Failed by you Minister Donnelly.
Zero accountability -
If by country you mean the government then yes 100%
Donnelly says this like he is an innocent bystander on the sidelines. That’s the calibre of politicians and their actual regard for the electorate.
Zero accountability by both the Government and CHI, more useless commitments will be made by the government and will be broken while children suffer and their parents continue to listen to Donnelly’s and Harris’s broken promises.
@john dennehy: donnelly is predicting in the first phase of quarter one, all the data shows that going forward towards the second trimester all the involved parties should be in a position to phase in the next commencement of actions, thus ensuring that by the second phase of quarter one all involved parties will be in a position to move forward strategically towards the stated goal of at least being at the next stage of commencement of the plan layed out in the original documents. Of course that depends entirely on the development plan laid out in the original document, which isn’t actually signed off on yet by the civil servants, being in operation.
@Michael o connor: I chuckled, very Monty Python !
@Michael o connor: Simon Harris committed in 2017 that no child would be waiting no longer than four months for spinal surgery in this country, Donnelly can predict all he wants but both Harris and Donnelly have failed to meet their targets, and the urgent care needs of the helpless children reliant on these two incompetent chancers.
I’m raging for those children in pain. It would serve them better if the Minister for Health arranged to fly them to one of the many countries with a functioning and effective health system for treatment in their actual lifetimes. Clear the waiting lists before you start selling the notion of new projects that certainly won’t be built in time to employ the current generation.
‘Sometimes other people are in positions that block us from being able to accomplish what we want.’
@Thesaltyurchin: LOL, it’s like Steven Staunton putting forward the excuse that Ireland lost because the other team had players trying to take the ball off them.
“Failed by their own country”
As a country we would have made damn sure their surgeries were done and no waiting lists.
So no Mr. Donnelly, failed by FFG party yet again.
What a disgusting spin to put on such a sad story.
People please dont vote for this horrible party
The Health Service needs an additional 1,000 beds per year just to keep up with demand on services, it got 162 in 2023. Stop and think about that for a moment. This means, year after year, it’s running into a deficit, the government are well aware of it and yet chose to do nothing about it. The effects are inevitable, longer queues, overworked staff, the appearance that they’re throwing money into a Health Service without achieving results. The Health Service is collapsing before our eyes.
@Boyne Shark: Where are the staff going to live? It’s not going into adequate housing either.
Issues like this should make those who constantly objected to, delaying and therefore tripling the cost of the new Children’s Hospital should be ashamed. Obstructing progress for political vote hunting should be stopped.
@thomas molloy: nope, Bertie aherns building it where they have instead of a new site off the N7 has massively delayed it. But Fianna fail had to get there cut of brown envelopes.
@Michael o connor: If you have evidence of corruption and are not just venting you should go straight to the police.
@thomas molloy: we have guards here in Ireland, don’t know where you are posting from.
Let’s lay the blame where it belongs – on the state run health care system. Let the state take over food production, and you get food lines. Let the state take over housing, you get housing wait lists. Same for healthcare. The same can fund (or partially fund) healthcare it cannot provide the service itself. Public servants are too incompetent for that
@Tom D: Those who won’t or don’t pay for their own health cover are piggybacking on those who pay for their health and also pay tax towards services.
@thomas molloy: poor troll, you need to be more subtle.
@thomas molloy: ur not that failed FF advisor with his multiple accounts on here by any chance???
Why would they give a FK?. Anybody who votes ffg Thats what you will get.
have your say