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World Cup fever in Haiti

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Haitians are gripped by World Cup fever. As The World’s Amy Bracken reports, Haitians are watching on donated big screens that have been set up in the Port-au-Prince stadium. But this has caused problems for some of the people who found shelter in the stadium following the earthquake. (Photo: Ian Lovett)

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

JEB SHARP:  I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH in Boston.  There’s joy in the streets of Port au Prince, but it has little to do with what’s going on in Haiti some five months after the devastating earthquake.  Haitians are gripped by World Cup fever.  Even though their soccer team isn’t playing in South Africa.  Haitians are largely rooting for Brazil who is set to play Portugal tomorrow.  As The World’s Amy Bracken reports from Port au Prince, the matches are giving Haitians a break from their post-quake woes.

AMY BRACKEN:  The once empty lots around Haiti’s Sylvio Cator Stadium are full of tents and improvised shelters.  UN peacekeepers patrol the stadium entrance.  And excited crowd has gathered around one of the military trucks.  But this isn’t about food distribution.  The peacekeepers from Brazil are handing out yellow and green soccer shirts emblazoned with Brazilian and Haitian flags.  On this day, Brazil is playing Ivory Coast and thousands of fans are pushing into the stadium to watch the match on huge LED walls set up on the Astroturf.  Since the World Cup got underway this month Haiti’s radio and TV stations have been dominated by live coverage, replays, commentary and World Cup theme songs.  When Haiti’s beloved teams, Brazil and Argentina are playing, everything comes to a halt.  Crowds gather around small TVs in tent camps and on the streets.  They also watch on 17 movie screens set up by the UN mission here.  But it’s hard to beat the set up at Sylvio Cator with the two giant LED walls.  A local soccer player acts as emcee, orchestrating a full on bleacher party, complete with a cheerleading squad.  The cost of all this is significant.  The LED walls alone are worth well over a million dollars.  They were donated, but the Haitian government paid for the shipping.  And the UN mission here spent half a million dollars to make it possible for Haitians to watch the games.  I asked the events emcee, Ben Constant, how they can justify spending so much on soccer when people still need food, water and shelter.

BEN CONSTANT:  When it come up to soccer, Haitian don’t care about food, place to sleep, government.  We don’t care.  It’s soccer.  For the World Cup, we don’t care as long as Brazil or Argentina, we don’t care, we’re just in the game.

BRACKEN: It’s not just the expense.  After the January earthquake, several thousand people set up camp in the stadium.  But a few months later they were coaxed by NGOs, then forced by Haitian riot police out of the stadium to make room for soccer.  These are the people now living in tents on concrete blocks behind the stadium.  But during the Brazil-Ivory Coast match, then tent camp is virtually empty.  Most of its residents are sitting in the bleachers next door.  One exception is Wilkins Dodin.  He’s a young factory worker standing outside his tent in a blue and white striped shirt, under blue and white street decorations, the colors of his favorite team, Argentina.  Dodin says he has mixed feelings about making way for the viewing of the World Cup.

INTERPRETER:  It’s nice to be able to see games there, but on the other hand, living in the stadium is better for us.

BRACKEN: For instance, he and other camp residents now face higher risk of flooding.  Still, many who emerge from the stadium after Brazil wins three to one, seem pretty euphoric.  Newspaper columnist Patrice Lerebours calls soccer in Haiti “the opiate of the people”.

INTERPRETER:  After the earthquake, people were starting to demonstrate in the streets because they felt they weren’t being taken care of.  Since the beginning of the World Cup, there are no more demonstrations, no protests, all has stopped for one month.  Even thieves aren’t in the street.  It’s total passion.  It’s insanity.

BRACKEN: Philippe Vorbes remembers when the insanity was about him.  It was 1974 and he was playing for Haiti in the World Cup in Germany, the only time his country has ever been part of the event.  For him, it was one of the most important events in Haitian history.

PHILIPPE VORBES:  We have two independence.  The first one is 1804, the second one is 1974 when we qualified for the World Cup because it was an opportunity to show what Haiti really is, at that time what Haiti was at that time.

BRACKEN: Today he says, even with Brazil and Argentina serving as Haiti’s surrogate teams, the World Cup has a special significance.

VORBES:  They still don’t have anything.  The only thing left is soccer.  So this is their World Cup.  This is the only way they can enjoy life.  They don’t have money.  They don’t have no place to go.  They don’t have nothing.  So give me my soccer.

BRACKEN: For The World, I’m Amy Bracken, Port au Prince.

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