NYTIMES Roger Cohen’s excellent piece is a must read: Brazil’s
Uplifting Olympics
“First, Brazil was
never going to get the job done in time for the Olympics; now that it has, and
held a magnificent opening ceremony, it’s blamed for not having resolved every
one of its social problems in time for the Games.
There is something
in the developed world that does not like a developing country that organizes a
major sporting event. I heard the same jeremiads in South Africa at the time of
the World Cup in 2010: the crime that would ruin things, the poverty that was
shameful, and the inefficiency that would plague visitors. The tournament was a
triumph. I don’t recall reporters combing the poorest, most crime-ridden parts
of Britain in 2012 to find people ready to grumble about the London Olympics.”