“I wanted to write a post predicting who will win the World Cup, but then truly, who really cares about my prediction? What do I know? I’m no pundit, not that pundits know anything anyway. Also, I’m a firm Bohrian. It was Niels who said, ‘Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.’ Basically, a child could do just as well as me. So why not have a child do it? Not just any child, but a refugee. I had friends who work with two NGOs ask kids served by their groups some questions about the World Cup. The first organization is the World Food Programme in Beirut, which provides essential food and nutrition to over a million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. The second is Faros, an NGO in Athens, Greece, that provides individual assistance and long-term, durable solutions for unaccompanied refugee minors, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan.” New Republic

“Mauricio Lima has been in Brazil for the World Cup. Not exactly at the games, mind you, but going deep into the hearts — and jungles — where love of the game sustains and thrills (at least until the Brazilian team’s loss this week to Germany). He has ventured to a floating village where children kick improvised soccer balls along narrow docks, to a prison where inmates make balls, to an amateur tournament where teams and beauty queens compete together and to indigenous villages that are an overnight boat ride away from the nearest World Cup match.” NY Times