This Brazilian Artist Was Able To Get The Attention Of Millions With One Simple Mural

This is a poignant mural. A Brazilian child with a soccer ball on the dinner plate. You can’t eat a soccer ball. What’s the Brazilian government doing, spending over $11 billion on stadiums, paying construction workers next-to-nothing, under shoddy conditions, no less. The poor are moved around the city and favelas — famous in the Western world for their violence — are being monitored by security firms. What exactly is going on in Brazil? Is this a testament to superficiality and revenue?

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The discrepancy between the poor and the rich is obvious in Brazil. The poor live in small buildings that sit next to one another. The rich, separated by a wall, live in luxurious mansions, on the sides of hills, looking down at the poor below. The World Cup it seems, is just an extension of the Brazil’s elite’s focus to further their wealth and luxury at the expense of the poor.

Read more about Paulo Ito’s mural and what the meaning behind it is on Slate.