The World Cup 2014 has started. It is held in Brazil, a country that everyone calls ‘the land of football’. Holding World Cup in Brazil is like uniting a true love couple. This makes the euphoria stronger, louder, and more exciting than when World Cup is held in other countries. We see Brazilian citizen welcoming World Cup in a strong and passionate euphoria. The other countries around the world are also welcoming and celebrating World Cup 2014 in every possible way they can. And in this level, the matter is not just about supporting our favorite team to win, but there many other things involved in this euphoria.
In what ways do we celebrate the Brazil World Cup? Is it only supporting our favorite team and just watching them when they play? We know it is more than that. Take an example in Indonesia. We buy jerseys, posters, scarves, and everything related to our favorite team. Alfamart is the official store for selling merchandise such as sandals, meal box, and many more. We may also buy World Cup merchandise such as the ball, the mascot doll, or the trumpet in stores. And it does not stop there. We can also find Brazilian decorations and face paint. Another choice is Brazilian pizza, a new menu from Pizza Hut. We can see that World Cup, a sport competition here has been exported into people’s lifestyle. When we hear the word ‘Brazil’, we think about World Cup. For football fans, World Cup is the party of all parties. World Cup in Brazil? Heaven. For those who cannot go to Brazil, they can have the feeling of being in Brazil in Indonesia. They can buy Brazilian decoration and put it in their house, eat Brazilian pizza in Pizza Hut, wear jersey, put posters in the wall, put face paint, and many other things to have the feeling of being in Brazil and supporting their favorite team. If we do the above, we are then the victim of what Karl Marx calls time-space compression.
Time-space compression is a term by Karl Marx to describe ‘the era of things speeding up and spreading out’ (Massey 146). In this case, people around the world, especially in Indonesia, experience the spreading out of Brazil in their places. When people experience this, they think that they are in Brazil even though they are not geographically there. The idea of being in Brazil has been more generalized from the geographical matter to the feeling matter, or what we know as the euphoria. Why do they feel that time-space compression? This euphoria of World Cup in Brazil is benefitted by producers of food and beverage, sports apparel, clothing, accessories, and many more to obtain more income by selling Brazil-related products so people can ‘celebrate World Cup’. These products are the cause of the time-space compression experienced by people. In this period of time (World Cup period), people prefer ‘Brazilian’ products to local products. In this time too, people are being colonized by imported culture and products. People become more wasteful.
What about the non-football fans, do they experience time-space compression? I can say that they still somehow feel it too. Even though they do not have interest in World Cup, their environment does not ‘isolate’ itself from the euphoria because there are in fact more football fans than non-football fans. The euphoria must have dominated the places and environment and no one can avoid it. When we turn on the TV, we see World Cup news, talks, documentaries, and the matches. When we read newspapers we see the similar things. We see World Cup banners and flags in malls, merchandise in stores, and many more World Cup stuffs everywhere. Therefore in World Cup period, there is practically no one can isolate themselves from World Cup euphoria. This condition is contrast to what Massey said that time-space compression does not experienced by everyone.
So in conclusion, the idea of being in Brazil has been generalized from a geographical matter to the euphoric matter, and it is the result of time-space compression generated by the producers through their ‘Brazilian’ products they sell to people. Those products and the euphoric effects have been experienced by everyone, even just for a glance. Celebrating World Cup is allowed, but just be more careful at the way we do it :)
Thank you for reading.
♡NSЯ ♡
Reference:
Massey, Doreen B.Space, place, and gender. U of Minnesota Press, 1994.