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Brazil 2016: Olympiad XXXI


goose
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Who's going???

I have a friend who's taking his family down. He's been to Portugal before, and speaks the language.

Nice.

He's an pilot and adventurer, so the unrest doesn't phase him.
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Who's going???

I have a friend who's taking his family down. He's been to Portugal before, and speaks the language.

Nice.

He's an pilot and adventurer, so the unrest doesn't phase him.

That's good.

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Here's one heck of an article: (muggings, crime, nothing is done...)

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/opinion/sunday/brazils-olympic-catastrophe.html?ref=sports&_r=0

 

RIO DE JANEIRO — IT’S official: The Olympic Games in Rio are an unnatural disaster.

 

On June 17, fewer than 50 days before the start of the Games, the state of Rio de Janeiro declared a “state of public calamity.” A financial crisis is preventing the state from honoring its commitments to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the governor said. That crisis is so severe, he said, it could eventually bring about “a total collapse in public security, health, education, mobility and environmental management.” The authorities are now authorized to ration essential public services and the state is eligible for emergency funds from the federal government.

 

Measures like these are usually taken for an earthquake or a flood. But the Olympics are a man-made, foreseeable, preventable catastrophe.

 

I went to Rio recently to see how preparations for the Games are going. Spoiler: not well. The city is a huge construction site. Bricks and pipes are piled everywhere; a few workers lazily push wheelbarrows as if the Games were scheduled for 2017. Nobody knows what the construction sites will become, not even the people working on them: “It’s for the Olympics” was the unanimous reply, followed by speculation about “tents for the judging panels of volleyball or soccer, I guess.”

 

I asked the Rio 2016 press office for a tour, but it olympically ignored me. Almost all venues are still under construction. I managed to see part of the Barra Olympic Park, which will host many of the events, after buying a last-minute ticket to a Volleyball World League match. Although construction for the Games is progressing, it appears far from “97 percent complete,” as the organizers claimed recently.

 

I also saw most of the Deodoro Olympic Park, which is apparently open to anyone who wants to see it. I walked straight in and found half-built grandstands abandoned in the middle of a Friday afternoon.

 

The few projects that have been completed don’t inspire much confidence. In April, a newly built bike path along Rio’s seashore collapsed, killing two people.

 

Work on the beach volleyball arena at Copacabana stalled because the organizers failed to get the proper environmental licenses. Then the structure was damaged by waves. Workers erected a six-foot-high sand barrier to protect the site. It also protects thugs; tourists are being mugged behind it. A construction worker told me he’d seen a man stabbed there, and warned me to stay away. The robbers were so comfortable that they had left their backpacks and a beach chair nearby on the sand.

 

Safety is of great concern to athletes and tourists. They are right to worry. According to local news reports, drug traffickers are involved in territorial disputes in at least 20 Rio neighborhoods.

 

Eight years ago, the government established the Pacifying Police Units, a heavily armed force that tries to reclaim favelas from the gangs. But these units seem to have worsened the drug war rather than ended it. This year, 43 police officers have been killed in the state, and at least 238 civilians have been killed by the police. The United Nations has said it’s concerned about violence by the military police and the officers in the favelas, notably against children living on the streets. Everybody fears an increase in police violence during the Games. The country will deploy 85,000 soldiers and police officers, about twice the number used in the London 2012 Olympics.

 

Frequent shootouts near the Olympic arenas and on routes to them are also a concern: 76 people have been hit by stray bullets in Rio so far this year; 21 of them have died. On June 19, more than 20 men carrying assault rifles and hand grenades stormed the city’s largest public hospital to free an alleged drug kingpin in police custody, leaving one person dead and two hurt.

 

And the 500,000 people expected to visit for the Games should be worried about how easily they could wander into dangerous areas: There’s a dearth of signs and tourist information on the streets and on public transportation. A native Brazilian, I spent half an hour at the central train station just trying to figure out where to catch a bus to the Olympic Park — and I’d looked it up beforehand. The information booth inside the station was empty. Outside, few of the bus stops displayed information about which lines went where. I resorted to asking popcorn vendors and passers-by for directions. I’m glad I speak Portuguese.

 

HOW did everything get so messed up? Money is one problem. “The state is bankrupt,” Francisco Dornelles, the interim Rio governor, admitted in an interview with a magazine two weeks ago.

 

The incumbent governor, who has lymphoma, is on sick leave. Just before Christmas, he declared a “health system emergency” as hospitals closed units and money ran out for equipment, supplies and salaries. Months later, the state started delaying civil servants’ salaries and pension checks. Teachers have gone on strike and students have occupied dozens of schools in protest. The state already owes $21 billion to Brazil’s federal government and $10 billion to public banks and international lenders. A budget shortfall of $5.5 billion is projected for this year. An $860 million loan has already been granted to help cover the cost of security at the Games.

 

The fiscal disaster could be attributed to many factors, including a national economic crisis — but the huge expansion of the government payroll and reckless spending for the Olympics are likely causes.

 

However, the mayor of the capital, Eduardo Paes, claimed that City Hall is in good financial shape and that the fiscal situation would not affect Olympic preparations.

 

So if it’s not only money, maybe the problem is also politics. Brazil is, of course, having a major political crisis. The president, Dilma Rousseff, was forced to step aside on May 12 because of allegations that she manipulated the state budget. The political turmoil has paralyzed the country and frozen the economy. Decisions on important reforms and infrastructure projects are being delayed, and the uncertainty has discouraged investment. But Leonardo Picciani, who took over as sports minister after Ms. Rousseff’s suspension, asserts that the Games will be “fantastic.” Almost everything was ready by the time he took up his post, he claims.

 

Mr. Picciani has also tried to minimize concerns over the mosquito-borne Zika virus, declaring that all the proper preventive measures are in place. That hasn’t stopped athletes like Jason Day, the world’s No. 1 ranked golfer, from announcing that they’re skipping the Olympics because of Zika. In an open letter last month, 150 prominent doctors, bioethicists and scientists from around the world asked for the Olympics to be moved or postponed because of the Zika epidemic.

 

In Brazil, these concerns are generally greeted with scorn. First, August is the middle of winter here, so the weather will be drier and cooler, meaning fewer mosquitoes. Second — and more important — the virus seems like a relatively minor problem: According to one calculation, in Rio a woman is more than 10 times more likely to be raped than catch Zika. (Men are more likely to be shot to death.)

 

..............continues on.

 

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I have another friend who will be attending. He is a former student who married a Portuguese woman. He's down there right now and has been posting lots of pics of his adventures. It's been a nice reminder that Brazil's economic challenges and the challenge of putting on the Games don't tell the whole story.
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The swimming and the track and field events will the most interesting events for me to watch. The outdoor events not in a stadium are going to scary to watch, the Brazillian environment is not the best in any way.

 

A highway built for the Olympics destroyed by heavy waves

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/04/21/19/33697B0200000578-3552338-image-a-49_1461263836393.jpg

 

 

It appears they're resigned that they failed to get a 80% cleanup of Rio's waterway.

 

A-heavily-polluted-Brazilian-waterway-where-Olympic-events-will-be-held.-Credit-Pieter-van-den-Hoogenband-533x400.jpg

I wonder what would happen to him if he fell in. :scared:

Can't be completely certain but I think he'd probably get wet. ;)

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Who's going???

 

You are,

 

And here is why. :P

 

 

http://www.dailymail...d-Cup-flop.html

Based on those pics they can't lower the price enough.

 

:LOL:

:LOL:

 

I'm having flashbacks to that Marine dude Riv going on about visiting prostitutes.

 

And I feel gross all over again.

:LOL:

I did see that article actually...

 

Pack your bags son. :D

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Who's going???

 

You are,

 

And here is why. :P

 

 

http://www.dailymail...d-Cup-flop.html

Based on those pics they can't lower the price enough.

 

:LOL:

:LOL:

 

I'm having flashbacks to that Marine dude Riv going on about visiting prostitutes.

 

And I feel gross all over again.

:LOL:

I did see that article actually...

 

Pack your bags son. :D

:AlienSmiley:

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We Now have Super-Bacteria in the Rio water

This is it folks. This is how we all die.

People from all over the world go to 1 place for 2 weeks and all return to every little corner of the earth with disease

Maybe I watch too many films.......

http://www.usnews.co...eria?src=usn_fb

Edited by Disembodied Spirit
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Poland wins the medal count at the European championships in track and field. :haz: Bodes well for the Olympics. :atickhum:

As a Lad in Killarney described them, "Fekking squareheaded fecks!" :LOL: Edited by goose
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Poland wins the medal count at the European championships in track and field. :haz: Bodes well for the Olympics. :atickhum:

As a Lad in Killarney described them, "Fekking squareheaded fecks!" :LOL:

Who, Poles or Brazilians? :LOL:
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All of those Olympic athletes and visitors to Rio are going to be pissed when they land and Pokemon Go does not exist in Brazil.
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All of those Olympic athletes and visitors to Rio are going to be pissed when they land and Pokemon Go does not exist in Brazil.

 

thank gods it doesn´t!

YES, Keep it out as long as possible

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