Beyond the fact that Chicago & America are out for the 2016 Olympics, to the unbridled joy of wingnuts nationwide, I've been wondering about the choice of Rio de Janeiro. I consider myself to be an Olympic junky, so I am concerned.
As soon as I heard that Rio was one of the front runners for the Olympics, I've been pretty skeptical. I don't have anything against Brazil or South America, but let's face it, Brazil is still a third world country, with all the problems that come along. They've made some big strides in the last ten years or so, but come on.
I mean, even I thought, with my superficial knowledge of Brazil, that there is a raging crime problem there. That you couldn't even stop at some intersections without being attacked, so the locals DON'T STOP. I'm sure as in most cities, some areas are worse than others, but it still rang an alarm with me. I thought maybe I was going on some outdated info, so I hit the Wikapedia, and sure enough, it says that Rio is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Even the cops there are dangerous. The latest stats (2006) says that the POLICE killed over 1300 people there that year (that was in the whole country of Brazil). Does this sound like a good choice for the Olympics?
There are a huge amount of visitors that will come in waves until the actual event. I wonder how they are going to feel and report back to their home countries, as more and more of them become crime victims.
My other thought was about the huge amount of capital a country has to spend to get the Olympics built and functioning. The host countries might make it back after the Olympics have been staged, but they have to spend a lot on the front end. This was a legitimate concern of a lot of (non-nut) critics of the now-not-happening Chicago games. With the staggering number of poor in Brazil, it seems callous of the government there to spend it on the Olympics, instead of their own population's needs. (It seemed a little callous of the US government, too. But there is a lot more money here.) Where is the government of Brazil even getting the hundreds of millions they'll need to stage these games?
Anyway, Olympic junkies more in the know than I, or people with a greater knowledge of Brazil, help me out. Am I missing something?