Porquê mudei de idéia sobre o Rio2016 e Brasil2014

Depois de uma longa troca de mensagens, num intenso debate virtual, entre mim e a minha família, e também com um amigo, terminei revendo minha posição em relação à realização da Copa do Mundo e dos Jogos Olímpicos, no Brasil. Um amigo meu que mora na California me perguntou o que eu achava da escolha do Rio. Posto aqui minha resposta, só pra registrar que mudei de ideia e explico os motivos que me levaram a essa revisão.


regarding this rio thing. i was VERY skeptical about it, but after discussing it over with diogo and my parents, who are totally in favor, i have changed my mind. there was also a debate on aljazeera that i found quite insightful.
i worry especially about our lack of oversight institutions. the pan-american games in rio in '07 was, in my opinion, a total disaster in its after effects. since no public debate has followed, I wonder what lessons we as a society have drawn.
Diogo and I had a heated on-line debate over this on our blog, if you want to practice your Portuguese.

here's the aljazeera debate .


so, i changed my mind, because yes, we have loads of problems, on all levels, to deal with. but who doesn't? you have good and bad examples from all places. montreal's OG were a fiasco, financially. Barcelona's was a huge success (and one would think that Canada would organize things better than Spain). Rio has this urban violence situation. England has to deal with terrorism...

I just hope that our oversight institutions will function better this time around, that less public money will be wasted, that at least some of the infrastructure will bear in mind the public good and that some sort of lasting legacy comes out of this. I think post-Lula's Brazil will be better equipped to carry out this enterprise than the pre-Lula one which carried out the pan-american games.

I think rio's choice in large measure has to do with Lula's domestic social and economic policies and his diplomacy. To a certain degree it is a political victory for him. This, combined with the good news like the oil and those coming from the economy and how we have dealt with the crisis (as compared to other countries and to how we fared in the past) has also spread a wave of pride and optimism to all Brazilian people, which is also very important.

Sorry about the long message! I got carried away I guess!

um abração,
bernardo

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outras informações que me ajudaram a mudar de idéia:


- Un nuevo Río para 2016

- Brazil aims to win right to host Olympic Games

- None of the violence I saw in Brazil has changed my view that giving the 2016 Olympics to Rio is one of the IOC's greatest ideas

- Rio de Janeiro woos Woody Allen movie project

- Obras do PAC: Urbanização de favelas - Complexo do Alemão

- Discurso do presidente Lula durante apresentação da candidatura do Rio

- O Rio deve essa a Lula