A little more than a year ago I was crossing my fingers for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Chicago, a city that I love and visit often. But the final decision came in and my hopes were shattered. Instead the games are to occur in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This will be the first time that the Olympics will take place in South America, and the third time they occur in the Southern hemisphere. More than just a time of coming together for the world, the Olympics have historically given their host cities a chance to "prove themselves".
Politically and economically and even as a candidate for Olympic host South America has been left out of the picture, because the majority of it classifies as a developing nation. As the world "grows smaller", the need to take these countries into account becomes more obvious. What do they have to offer? We briefly discussed in class how China sees Africa as an asset for its raw materials. On a concrete level, let me paint a picture of Rio de Janeiro.
Since the Brazilian capital was transferred to Brasilia in 1960, Rio's fortunes have declined; most of the city's 1,000-odd shanty towns are now controlled by heavily armed and very violent drug gangs, and many businesses have abandoned the city in search of safer and more profitable places to set up shop.
taken from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/oct/02/rio-de-janeiro-2016-olympics
The city is, without a doubt, beautiful, but will undergo some serious work to impress the world in 2016. And hopefully the hosting of the Olympics will benefit the city in the "development" (ie. building and construction) that it will elicit. The Olympic games have an exceptional ability to change things for a location. the money they draw in, the publicity they get, and the work that goes into "cleaning up" before, that will last (hopefully) long after. I find this to be pretty impressive, for a sporting match. What kind of changes can this sort of thing bring to the Economy in Brazil?
Despite having a better record on human rights than China, I doubt that the steps taken by Brazil to mitigate the gang violence and shanty towns (or favelas) are going to be anything more than a short-term sweeping under the rug. Just as China whitewashed any undesirable elements when the Olympics came to town, Brazil will likely move to contain the impoverished areas, if not force the inhabitants out all together.
ReplyDeleteI stick by what I said in the previous Olympics post: any short-term benefit to the local economy will be vastly outweighed by the costs of constructing and maintaining the infrastructure required for the games, while little of the infrastructure will be helpful for the inhabitants in the long-term. The Brazilian government undertook an aid program to these areas starting in 2007, but, especially in this economic climate, funding for the Olympics is likely to sap the budgets of social programs.
I feel that Brazil will probably do like China did as well, and move their shanty towns to another location. However this will be harder in Brazil where the government has more violence and and resistance to deal with because they are not as strong as the Chinese government. I think that is will be a good opportunity for Brazil to improve its infrastructure and provide jobs for many of the shanty town inhabitants. I think it is a monumental task, like the one facing South Africa and the World Cup, because much has to be done in order to preserve security during these events, as well as providing jobs for those who need them most. A
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