Brazil

The Olympic games, so what?

Nail-biting Olympics In Rio to prepare for real Brazilian games. The major event of the demands not only of the inhabitants of the city, but also of the visitors, a talent for improvisation and patience.

First the good news: The Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro. All of the important
Sports are sites ready, the safety concept is, almost a quarter of the 4.3 million tickets are sold.

10,500 athletes are. of 5 to 21. August, around the sugar loaf mountain in 28 different sports to measure. Over 500,000 visitors will cheer them on in place, and around four billion viewers will follow the sporting event in the world on the TV.

The bad news is that Brazil has most of its
Obligations to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is not met. The new U-Bahn line, which will transport thousands of visitors from the city centre in the Olympic Park will be limited, probably only in the test mode run.

Please don’t look!

The cleaning of the picturesque Guanabara Bay, with sugar loaf mountain, a landmark of Rio. In the meantime, while treated nearly half of the sewage of nine million residents, the flow in the Bay. Actually, it should be 80 percent.

Rio’s mayor Eduardo Paes dampens expectations: “Rio is not New York, Chicago or London”

That was not enough, the lagoon of Jacarepagua, on the Shores of the Olympic Park is located, is like a Latrine. And the lagoon “Rodrigo de Freitas” threatens in the midst of the South zone of the city, where the rowing competitions are held, also to tip over.

“We don’t show ourselves from our best side,” admits
Rio mayor Eduardo Paes told the British newspaper “the Guardian”. Given the current political and economic crisis in Brazil for the country is rather unfavourable to stand up straight now in the focus of world attention.

Close your eyes and

The list of problems seems endless: traffic chaos, financial collapse,
Zika Virus, and forced relocation. However, the greater the pressure, so it seems, the greater the Serenity. Just three weeks before the start of the games a certain amount of Confidence in Rio. The deficits are named, now is the time to make the most out of the difficult situation.

“There is no Olympic games without problems,” says Lamartine Pereira da Costa, Professor of sports management at the University of Rio de Janeiro and employees of the research programme by the IOC. “Since the gigantism of the games in 2000 in Sydney all venues are struggling with problems.”

The new sports arenas are finished. However, the arrival with public transport is time consuming

Da Costa recalls the threat of the Committee in the year 2004, Athens-because of the delay in the construction of the sports, the games, sites to escape. Four years later, Beijing threatened the same fate, but for a different reason: The high level of air pollution was considered to be unreasonable for the athletes.

The population had become used to the criticism in the run-up to major international events, writes Lamartine da Costa. “Even at the world Cup, and the pan American in 2007, and at world youth day 2013 in Rio Play there was in the run-up to problems and protests. But at some point the people focus on the event.”

Brazilian Crisis Management

“The Brazilians will do everything that the Olympics work, and they also,” says Stephan Jentgens, Director of the Episcopal relief organisation for Latin America Adveniat. The Church in Rio set, however, the duty to defend in the run-up to the games, the rights of vulnerable layers of the population.

So Adveniat funded by the Archdiocese of Rio sporting activities in Rio’s slums and the legal assistance for residents displaced as a result of construction. For example, in the
“Vila Autódromo”, where a number of homes vacated due to the proximity to the Olympic Park and were demolished. Jentgens: “The last of the Vila Autódromo, the Catholic Church. As long as there people live, there also remains the Church.”

The dispute about adequate compensation for the residents of the “Vila Autódromo” fuelled the General debate on the explosion in Costs in the financing of the games. The original 2009 set Budget in the amount of the equivalent of 7.8 billion euros, has now risen to around 10 billion euros.

Political duel in the Maracana?

Almost two-thirds of which will be used in the Expansion of the urban infrastructure of Rio, the Rest is distributed to the expenditure of the organizing Committee, as well as the construction and renovation of competition venues. For comparison: In Athens, the costs for the Olympic games amounted to 11.2 billion euros, and in London they added up to about 13.5 billion euros.

Dilma Rousseff and interim President Michel Temer: to Be both heads of state present at the opening?

In view of the recession in Brazil and falling revenue from oil production, which hit the state of Rio de Janeiro particularly hard, moved to Governor Francisco Dornelles at the 17. June, the emergency brake and called the financial emergency. In the capital, Brasilia, it was explained then is willing to provide the state with a loan to help out.

On such a solution at the last Minute as Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, but on the political level hopes. Rousseff, who was dismissed in may, provisionally, in your office, don’t know yet whether, and if so, in what capacity, at the opening ceremony on 5. August will participate.

Only one fact is known: The political crisis which has paralysed Brazil, will not be solved until then. The question is: Can Rousseff bear it, if not you, but your political opponent and Vice-Michael Temer opened in your presence for the games? Or she prefers, for political reasons, the ceremony to stay away from?