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talkpoliticshttp://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-rio-olympics-political-economic-chaos-20160415-story.html
"With Brazil spiraling into political chaos and getting hit by a severe economic downturn, it’s easy to forget that Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Summer Olympics in only four months.
The crisis of democracy is using up all the political oxygen in the country. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is facing possible impeachment — which she’s openly calling “a coup” — in front of a commission with more than half its members facing fraud or criminal charges. The political class in Brazil is rife with corruption.
Meanwhile Brazil’s economy is gyrating. The country is suffering its worst recession since the 1930s. All three major rating agencies have downgraded Brazil’s investment-grade credit rating. Add the Zika virus and you have a recipe for gridlock. Against this backdrop, the 2016 Rio Olympics have been relegated to mere afterthought."
Economic collapse, zika virus, political corruption and turmoil, my oh my...
Sounds like a bedtime story gone bad, right? The collapse of the economy before all the event stadiums and venues are finished, which was supposed to have been accomplished last year(!)... Deadlines being pushed (again) just weeks before the Olympics have started this summer - and even then not being sure if the venues would be completed... Some venues have had payments stopped, and work has halted once again on the finishing works; countless deadlines have been pushed back dozens of times; and now the president of the country is facing impeachment, as well as almost half of the elected officials... Amazing... Perfect storm!
Most obvious question at this point: will the summer Olympics actually proceed in Rio? Will the schedule have to be changed because the venues are not finished? Or would another country urgently take over? And if this economic collapse continues, how will Brazil pay for the immense amount of security and services they'll need to deliver during the events?
Some might argue that the same or a similar situation was in place before the London and Salt Lake City Olympics, except the media mostly kept quiet back then. And of course, the same kind of bashing was given to the Sochi Olympics (mostly by the Western media), and also the South Africa FIFA World Cup - and nothing particularly bad happened in either place.
Except, we could hardly compare Rio to the London and SLC Olympics, which had countries who could shoulder and back the costs if anything went wrong. Sure, we could say those also had some timeline issues, which seem to plague every modern-day Olympic event these days, granted. But those countries were not in the complete economic collapse that we see in Brazil now, with empty store shelves in many cities as well as the inability to afford the import of goods, and the presidents of those countries were not being impeached, and half the elected officials were not under investigation for corruption and fraud at the time.
It's truly mind-boggling how steeply that country has plunged down - wasn't Brazil supposed to be one of the emerging economies of the world? Remember when these games were a hot topic as it transpired how much the government was spending on them, while people were starving in the streets? A country with so many poor people, and the government spends the money on a party, hoping it somehow changes their economy - well it would appear it's a resounding collapse of an economy, which was supposed to benefit and prosper as a result of all the economic spending. And this ain't gonna happen. All I could see from now on is still more trouble for Brazil.
"With Brazil spiraling into political chaos and getting hit by a severe economic downturn, it’s easy to forget that Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Summer Olympics in only four months.
The crisis of democracy is using up all the political oxygen in the country. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is facing possible impeachment — which she’s openly calling “a coup” — in front of a commission with more than half its members facing fraud or criminal charges. The political class in Brazil is rife with corruption.
Meanwhile Brazil’s economy is gyrating. The country is suffering its worst recession since the 1930s. All three major rating agencies have downgraded Brazil’s investment-grade credit rating. Add the Zika virus and you have a recipe for gridlock. Against this backdrop, the 2016 Rio Olympics have been relegated to mere afterthought."
Economic collapse, zika virus, political corruption and turmoil, my oh my...
Sounds like a bedtime story gone bad, right? The collapse of the economy before all the event stadiums and venues are finished, which was supposed to have been accomplished last year(!)... Deadlines being pushed (again) just weeks before the Olympics have started this summer - and even then not being sure if the venues would be completed... Some venues have had payments stopped, and work has halted once again on the finishing works; countless deadlines have been pushed back dozens of times; and now the president of the country is facing impeachment, as well as almost half of the elected officials... Amazing... Perfect storm!
Most obvious question at this point: will the summer Olympics actually proceed in Rio? Will the schedule have to be changed because the venues are not finished? Or would another country urgently take over? And if this economic collapse continues, how will Brazil pay for the immense amount of security and services they'll need to deliver during the events?
Some might argue that the same or a similar situation was in place before the London and Salt Lake City Olympics, except the media mostly kept quiet back then. And of course, the same kind of bashing was given to the Sochi Olympics (mostly by the Western media), and also the South Africa FIFA World Cup - and nothing particularly bad happened in either place.
Except, we could hardly compare Rio to the London and SLC Olympics, which had countries who could shoulder and back the costs if anything went wrong. Sure, we could say those also had some timeline issues, which seem to plague every modern-day Olympic event these days, granted. But those countries were not in the complete economic collapse that we see in Brazil now, with empty store shelves in many cities as well as the inability to afford the import of goods, and the presidents of those countries were not being impeached, and half the elected officials were not under investigation for corruption and fraud at the time.
It's truly mind-boggling how steeply that country has plunged down - wasn't Brazil supposed to be one of the emerging economies of the world? Remember when these games were a hot topic as it transpired how much the government was spending on them, while people were starving in the streets? A country with so many poor people, and the government spends the money on a party, hoping it somehow changes their economy - well it would appear it's a resounding collapse of an economy, which was supposed to benefit and prosper as a result of all the economic spending. And this ain't gonna happen. All I could see from now on is still more trouble for Brazil.
(no subject)
Date: 30/5/16 05:41 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/5/16 07:33 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/5/16 10:52 (UTC)Naw, fretting about the Olympics before they take place is a ritual up there with lighting the torch. It's a big undertaking and of course some things always go wrong or over-budget. The original budget is never really the budget anyway, it's just what the local politicians tell the
suckerstaxpayers to get approval. Then, once the games start, the athletes take over the stories and everything is fine. Of course, Rio might be pushing this to the breaking point and we might see some real problems that actually interfere with the competition.I can't imagine they can find a new place for the Olympics to take place. Maybe if the velodrome isn't ready, they can find a back up or move a couple of events, but I couldn't imagine they could move the entire Olympics at this point. As far as security, I hope Brazil will either come up with the resources or ask for some help. Having to have a cycling event on a less-than-world-class track would be embarrassing, but some kind of attack would be much worse.
(no subject)
Date: 30/5/16 12:01 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/5/16 12:21 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/5/16 13:44 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 30/5/16 13:47 (UTC)Or maybe put it on a ship.
(no subject)
Date: 31/5/16 06:57 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 31/5/16 00:27 (UTC)