Saturday night and the scenery was the bar of a hotel full of Club World Cup fans, most of Palmeirense, in Miami. One of them turned toward me and asked if he could give the bad news: “It looks like the United States attacked Iran.”
It took a few seconds to process the information and understand the size of the news. Not to the world, much easier to understand. In a much smaller sphere, the impact on our own worldly life: it is my first time in a country at war.
Technically, no. Because Donald Trump, this lunatic, said he was not at war. You think it is a punctual attack. He entered a bar, punched someone’s face and said soon after that he doesn’t want to fight.
Tragically, there are ways of thinking about other wars present in our daily lives. It was in Rio, in January 2023, when the traffickers of the City of God decided to cross the yellow line, to control the Blue Gardenia community and take the militia there.
Shooting on the avenue that connects the North Zone to Barra da Tijuca was not treated as a national news. Just carioca.
Right here in the United States the signs of war had been explicit since arrival.
Certainly it was more severe in the days following September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, but at that time it even made the rigor sense.
Since I was not here, I was surprised to have been stopped and investigated in immigration at Miami International Airport. I had never happened to me before.
Police and security guards also seem fierce than in other international tournaments, such as the 1994 World Cup and the 2016 Centenary Copa. One hypothesis is the memory of the 2024 Copa America final, where there was invasion of the stadium and confusion outside Hard Rock Stadium.
Another possibility has a name and surname: Donald Trump.
Before Bayern 2 x 1 Boca Juniors, stadium security guards blocked press access without explanation. When reopening the gate, they reported that the blockade occurred because the buses with the teams were coming.
The FIFA inspectors present there was bothered by the poorly diplomatic way in which security acted, because the journalist’s door has nothing to do with the players’ route.
There were meetings after the incident, not to happen again.
Immigrants from different origins from South America and Mexico observe the changes. Uber driver born in Ukraine, Olexandr mocks the slogan of Trump’s campaign, “Make America Great Again”. “What does he mean with ‘Again’? Is it the biggest economy in the world. What do you mean again?”
With each sign of a policeman’s lack of education comes to memory the song of Caetano Veloso, composed in his exile in London. The verse of “London, London” says, “A group approaches a policeman. He seems happy to be able to serve them.”
The exact notion that is a public servant and, as such, has the function of serving the population. Unlike this, in this passage here, it always seems that we are all under the eyes and service of the United States.
