Rising Hegemon
Notably two years after that the Olympics take place in and around Rio.
So it is notable that with the first and least significant of these global sporting events this is going on.
In addition to the increased costs and continued ineffectiveness of social services and issues with corruption and crime, many Brazilians are angry about the billions the government is spending to prepare for next year's World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
It's sort of like the perpetual NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL "build us a stadium or we'll leave" program writ large."We shouldn't be spending public money on stadiums," said one protester in Sao Paulo who identified herself as Camila, a 32-year-old travel agent. "We don't want the Cup. We want education, hospitals, a better life for our children."
Apparently there were 100,000 protesters in Rio alone.
It will be interesting to see if ESPN covers this to any extent.
4 comments:
Sponsors always say that the Olympics will be this huge economic windfall. As I understand it, the little research done after the fact suggests that they are at best a wash. Given the endemic corruption, both international and local (construction contracts), and that you end up with a lot of stuff you don't need that can't be easily re-purposed and that will require ongoing maintenance (stadia, dormotories, etc.), it's almost certainly a loser.
That said, the Olympics aren't about peace and brotherhood through sport or even about making money. It's about presenting a nationalist platform on a worldwide stage. The 1936 Berlin Olympics are the ideal not the nadir though no one would dare admit it.
Should Brazil being do this? Economically, probably not. But I have a hard time when the first world tells the third world "Be better than we are. Don't do what we do."
There's a reason the word "bread" appears first in the saying "Bread and circuses."
Has Any country actually made money off of an Olympic Park? Sure the guys that build it get wages and the bigwigs get rich but how does any 'working stiff' get money off that kind of a thing? More trickle down I guess.
w3ski
why counties have to pay for the venues is ridiculous. typical 2% avoidance of paying for anything.
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