Friday, July 29, 2016

Students Speak: the Rio Olympics come at a cost to Brazil's poorest...

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The Olympic Games is a nightmare for Rio as a city and for the citizens, who suffer [due to] the precarious situation of the education and transport systems, and in particular the health system, where people die from not having medical staff, basic tools for procedures and blood transfusions.

Rio de Janeiro is flooded with projects to revitalise the south zone, central Rio and Barra da Tijuca (where most of the Games are taking place) to create that image of the “Wonderful City” to the international media and tourists. Behind all this, people die in the favelas in the north and west zones in Rio because of police confrontations with drug traffickers. They become just statistics.

The Olympic Games is a dream that became a nightmare. We, from Rio and the favelas, used to watch the Games and dream for it in 2016. This nightmare has come, and meanwhile, our mayor, Eduardo Paes, continues to cite the “Olympic legacy”. The only legacy I see is the blood of the poor people who are removed from their home to build stadiums (like Vila Autódromo), and the blood in the favelas as an attempt to [exert] control during the Games. I see the millions and billions spent on overpriced Olympics construction, which should be spent on education, health and projects for people of the favelas to have opportunities to grow and participate in the development of the whole city.

Rio does not need the Olympics. We need basic things that, unfortunately, are not in the interests of the politicians, who live in Leblon and Ipanema, facing the beach. Full story...

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  3. The Rio Olympics are in total disarray...
  4. Brazil descends into chaos as Olympics looms...
  5. Brazil officials evict families from homes ahead of 2016 Olympic Games...
  6. UN: Brazil's police kill kids to "clean streets" for Olympics...
  7. Ten years later: The Greek Olympic wasteland in photos...
  8. Why would any city want to host the Olympics?

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