Amtrak + Olympics

[ALC Rail Writer]

Jim, its not about the money made by tourists-- its about the money that comes from business. Its about having global leaders and CEOs walk through the streets thinking "maybe I can put an office here" its about the host country telling world-wide businessmen what it has to offer.

Hosting the Olympics will force the Brazilian Government to face up to a lot of these challenges as well. It will force them to invest in initiatives that will reduce crime and increase security. The IOC will pull their host-ship if they don't follow guidelines.

Its also about getting on to the global stage. South America has been a very war-torn continent full of revolution ever since the Conquistadors landed. This will be the first time South America will host the Olympics.

South America will get major private aid for the poor and charity organizations because of this.

Go RIO!

 

[DET63]

Jim, its not about the money made by tourists-- its about the money that comes from business. Its about having global leaders and CEOs walk through the streets thinking "maybe I can put an office here" its about the host country telling world-wide businessmen what it has to offer.
Hosting the Olympics will force the Brazilian Government to face up to a lot of these challenges as well. It will force them to invest in initiatives that will reduce crime and increase security. The IOC will pull their host-ship if they don't follow guidelines.

Its also about getting on to the global stage. South America has been a very war-torn continent full of revolution ever since the Conquistadors landed. This will be the first time South America will host the Olympics.

South America will get major private aid for the poor and charity organizations because of this.

Go RIO!

It will be interesting to see what impact the Olympics have on the Rio transportation infrastructure, as well as on the transportation infrastructure of Brazil and even the rest of South America as a whole. Done right, millions of people in South America could benefit directly and indirectly for years to come from the Games. Done wrong, and we could see decades more of suffering for those same millions.

 

[tp49]

Well of course CHI is out, guess Brazil will have to figure out how to get millions to the Olympics in a Resort City ringed by mountains and with millions of poor not to mention the highest crime rate in the world!! :blink:

I don't think Brazil has the world's highest crime rate. Right now the city with the highest murder rate worldwide is Ciudad Juarez in Mexico and Caracas, Venezuela isn't all that far behind. As for general crime I'm sure South Africa is among the most crime ridden countries on Earth along with Zimbabwe. I would be surprised if Brazil was in the top three in South America.

Hopefully the games have a positive impact on Rio and Brazil as a whole. Part of me is glad Chicago didn't get the games though it might just be because I'm not a big fan of the Olympics or Mayor Daley.

 

[Ispolkom]

The October 5 New Yorker has a good story on Rio's drug gangs.

On p. 50, in "Gangland: Who controls the streets of Rio de Janeiro" we find, "Rio de Janeiro is the top-ranked city in the world for 'violent intentional deaths.' According to officials, there were just under 5000 murders last year, half of them drug-gang-related. (The numbers don't include such incidents as 'rape resulting in death' or 'riots resulting in death.') Twenty-two policemen were murdered. Rio's police, in turn, kill more people than police anywhere else in the world; in 2008, they acknowledged killing 1188 people who were 'resisting arrest,' or slightly more than three people a day. By comparison, American police killed 371 people -- classified as 'justifiable homicides' -- in the entire United States in the same period."

Given that the New Yorker tries to fact-check, I'd have to agree with Jim on this one.

But I'm sure that Rio is big enough to run an Olympics without involving the favelas, which is fine with me. My notion of sporting facilities is they are great as long as someone else pays for them.