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The real Rio: what Olympic officials don’t want you to see

RIO is experiencing “the greatest transformation” of any Olympic city, according to Brazilian officials.
But the poor say it’s come at a cost to them as some are pushed out of their homes to make way for Olympic infrastructure and buses are re-routed from slums to prevent those who live there from accessing “upscale areas”.
The Olympics touch mostly the wealthy areas south and west of the city, where the real estate market was booming until a few years ago.

But across town in crumbling, working-class areas, there are few signs that the Rio de Janeiro Olympics open in just a month.

Rio’s northern favelas, the city’s infamous slums, underscore the vast gap between the rich and poor — the white, brown and black, in a divided city.

About 10,500 athletes and up to 500,000 foreign visitors are expected to descend on the city for the games.
Few will see the real Rio, where the poor are being pummeled by Brazil’s worst recession since the 1930s, soaring crime and unemployment over 10 per cent.

Most can’t afford an Olympic ticket or a $US100 souvenir soccer ball emblazoned with the Olympic logo.
Australia and several countries have instructed their athletes to stay away from favelas.

Maria da Penha is bitter. Her home in a favela abutting the Olympic Park, known as Vila Autodromo, was demolished to make way for new construction.

“For me the Olympics were awful,” said the 53-year-old, who led a year-long eminent-domain battle against Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes.

“They destroyed my life, my dream. I had my own house and I won’t have it anymore.”
 
Maria da Penha in front of the shanty town rubble where her house once stood. Picture: Ariel Guevara.Source:Supplie
Maria da Penha in front of the shanty town rubble where her house once stood. Picture: Ariel Guevara.Source:Supplied

Raquel Oliveira, a 25-year-old publicist, spoke while waiting for a bus on a busy road in front of the Olympic Park.

She complained bus routes have been changed, reportedly a security move to make it difficult for criminal gangs to access upscale areas.

“In reality, it didn’t change for the best because a lot of bus lines got cut,” she said.

“I have to wait for hours and I live in front of the Olympic Park. I really hope things will improve with the express-bus system or something like that.”

Rio’s organisers have budgeted about $US2 billion ($A2.67 billion) for operations. In addition, another $US10 billion-$US12 billion in public and private money is being spent on urban transportation projects driven by the Olympics.

Rio has installed new high-speed buses and a light-rail system to serve downtown. And there’s a still-unfinished $US3 billion subway line extension to connect the upscale Copacabana and Ipanema beach areas with the western suburb of Barra da Tijuca — site of the Olympic Park. It’s unclear if the subway line will be running when the Summer Games open on August 5.

The public-works splurge has generated civic pride, suspicion and some anger.

“The Olympics are bringing an incomparable legacy, in regard to the changes in the city’s infrastructure,” said Marco Araujo, a 48-year-old badminton coach speaking outside the Olympic Park.

“We are still working on these projects. But I think that once they are completed, these projects will benefit the population.”

A bike lane, suspended high above the sea and built as an Olympic legacy project, collapsed in April and killed two.

Visitors gather beneath the Christ the Redeemer statue as Maracana stadium, site of the Olympic opening ceremonies, stands in the background. Picture: Mario Tama/Getty Images.
Visitors gather beneath the Christ the Redeemer statue as Maracana stadium, site of the Olympic opening ceremonies, stands in the background. Picture: Mario Tama/Getty Images.Source:Getty Images

Promises that hosting the Games would remake even Rio’s most ramshackle neighbourhoods have been eclipsed by a myriad of problems: security threats and soaring violence, the Zika virus, slow ticket sales, and water pollution in venues for sailing, rowing and distance swimming.

Hanging over it all is the impeachment trial of President Dilma Rousseff, expected to start days after the Olympics’ end.

“Where I live, we don’t see changes like these,” said Julia Alves, an 18-year-old student speaking in the city’s renovated port area.

“They are things for foreigners,” Alves added.

Mayor Eduardo Paes, who initially bragged about using the games to push pet projects, has backed away from those promises.

“You can’t expect the Olympics to solve all the social problems here,” he said.

“We are not a city like London or Chicago. You can’t expect as much from us.”

IOC member Carlos Nuzman, the president of the organising committee, has stuck to his guns, saying repeatedly: “Rio will be the Olympic city with the greatest transformation.”

He said residents “are the ones who will get the most from the games”.

Oliver Stuenkel, who teaches international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation — a Brazilian university — said politicians view the games as “an amazing place to gain visibility and bolster their careers”.

“If it’s not a catastrophe, the Olympics could provide Brazil with greater legitimacy,” Stuenkel told the AP.

“You bring in a lot of people from around the world. You have heads of state coming in. It puts you on the map, and if you’re doing well, it could have a tremendously positive impact. But it will require a lot to compensate for the negative press that is inevitably going to be out before, during and after the Olympics.”

Brazilians are also wary of public-works projects, which typically produce only embezzlement and empty promises.

“People are not against the Olympics, but most people I know are indifferent to the event, or at least very, very sceptical that it will have any tangible effect beyond simply short-term visibility,” Stuenkel said.

In a poll published Sunday in the Rio newspaper O Globo, 49 per cent of Rio residents said they were in favour of the Olympics, and 61 per cent said they would be successful. Asked what could make the games a failure, 85 per cent said “the lack of security”.

The poll size was 2400, but the newspaper did not give the margin of error.

Wolfgang Maennig, an Olympic gold-medal rower who studies the economics of the games at Hamburg University, said the Olympics usually produce a “feel-good factor” when they get going. But he was unsure about Rio.

“For 17 days, it’s normally a honeymoon,” he said.

“But you never know what will happen in the case of Rio. I’m not sure it will be a typical Brazilian Samba or Carnival atmosphere, but I’m sure it will be better than normal, or better than now.”

Gustavo Nascimento, Rio’s venue management director, promises everything will be ready. He said a massive clean-up of the venues is set for July 15, and athletes are to have access to the venues on July 24.

He also said ticket sales are slow.

“There are still tickets available, very, very high-quality tickets,” he said.

Source: News Corp Australia Network:

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