A Rio de Janeiro urban planner warns that next year’s Olympics will widen the gap between the wealthy and the poor in the already socially-stratified city.
Orlando Santos Jr of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro helped research a 190-page report that cites abuses linked to the Games and questions the legacy for most of Rio’s 12 million residents.
“Rio is already a very unequal city,” Santos told The Associated Press. “After the Games it will be even more unfair and segregated. There will be more wealth in a few areas, but no improvement for most people.”
Photo: Felipe Dana, AP
A Rio city government spokeswoman contested the findings, but said city officials had not seen the entire report and declined to comment.
In an e-mail the city said that transportation projects being built for the Olympics — a new subway line extension and high-speed buses — would improve commuting time.
The city said that “due to the Olympics,” Rio de Janeiro has been able to improve education, healthcare and housing. It has repeatedly said that out of the total Games’ budget of 38.7 billion reals (US$9.9 billion), 57 percent is private money and only 43 percent public.
The report titled Rio 2016 Olympics: The Exclusion Games suggests areas the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee (IOC) should monitor.
The report coincides with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach last week saying that the IOC would start auditing money it hands out to sports organizations, including the US$1.5 billion it is giving to Rio organizers to prepare South America’s first games.
The white paper, by The Popular Committee for the Cup and Olympics, touches on Games-related security, police violence, transportation, spending and housing.
BUDGET
The report disputes the city government’s contention that most of the money for the Olympics is from private sources. It concludes that 62 percent is government money and cites documents from the Olympic Public Authority, an agency comprising all three levels of government set up to oversee Games’ spending.
The report says that the private sector is paying less than 38 percent of the costs of the Games — not 57 percent as Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes contends.
It says the city’s accounting involves “omission of costs directly associated” with holding the Games.
“In the current financing structure created by the IOC, the Olympics are not good at promoting social fairness,” Santos said. “They [the IOC] are a billion-dollar business, which is OK. But the business has to serve a wider interest of Brazilian people.”
REMOVALS, EVICTIONS
Citing information provided by the Rio city hall, the report says 22,059 families have lost their homes (a total of 77,206 people) between 2009 and this year from infrastructure projects related to last year’s World Cup and the Olympics. The report estimates “at least 4,120 families have been removed and 2,486 remain under threat of removal by reasons directly or indirectly related to the Olympic project.”
The city hall says most displacements are unrelated to the big sports events.
“In the recent era the Olympics have been used as basically a steamroller to roll over marginalized communities,” said US political scientist Jules Boykoff, who has written three books on the Olympics and is in Rio on a Fulbright research fellowship.
“We’ve seen it in prior places like Beijing, London and to a certain degree in Vancouver as well,” Boykoff said. “This has become a bit of an Olympic tradition.”
The report said real estate prices near the Olympic Park in suburban Barra da Tijuca have increased by at least 200 percent, pulling in speculators and pushing out long-time residents.
FREE TICKETS?
Boykoff, who contributed to the report, suggested that the IOC should give away free Olympic tickets as a gesture of inclusion.
Mayor Paes promised a year ago to buy 1.2 million of the 7.5 million tickets to be issued for the games and distribute them to schools and poor children. He made the pledge after last year’s World Cup when Brazil’s poor were excluded by high ticket prices.
“We are trying to do something more democratic,” Paes said at the time.
Paes has been praised by the IOC and is widely believed to have presidential aspirations.
The promise has not been kept, and the city hall did not reply to several requests for comment.
Selling the 7.5 million tickets is a vital source of revenue for the 7.4 billion real operating budget.
To their credit, Rio organizers have tried to make tickets affordable for local residents.
SPORTS LEGACY
Track and field is king at the Olympics, but the sport will leave little legacy in Rio.
The report notes that Rio’s main track and field training facility — the Celio de Barros Stadium — has been closed since 2013 and will not be reopened before the Olympics.
The running track in central Rio has been torn up and used as a parking lot.
Brazil is expected to do poorly in track and field at the Olympics.
The main sporting legacy will be three sports halls, a velodrome, tennis center and golf course built in suburban Barra da Tijuca, the heart of the Games.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was