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| Real deal |
| Constantine Courcoulas / Oct 06, 2009, 00:37 IST |
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Olympic follow up: The real work for Rio de Janeiro begins now. As the caipirinia-enduced hangover wears off, the host city of the 2016 Olympics faces the daunting task of delivering a spectacle whose success lasts longer than a few summer weeks.
After five failed Olympics bids, Brazilians have every right to feel satisfied. A decade of stellar growth has finally being recognized internationally. Still, when President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declared that if he were to die right now his life would have been worth it, he was missing the point.
Equity investors joined in the festivities. While markets elsewhere fell on Friday after the shock of unexpectedly rapid US job destruction, Brazil’s Bovespa rose. Airlines, steelmakers and infrastructure groups led the charge. Hotéis Othon, which operates hotels around the country, surged a whopping 78 per cent.
There is reason for enthusiasm. The city needs to double its hotel space by 2016 to meet the demand for rooms. A Sao Paulo business school study for the Ministry of Sports estimates the games will add 120,000 jobs annually through 2016. Most of these will prove to be temporary, but the boost through 2027 comes to a substantial $50 billion.
There are no records of complaints that the labour that went into building the Egyptian pyramids would have been better used to help to the poor, but some critics always complain that Olympic investments could be better used elsewhere. Brazil will be no exception to this modern rule.
And there are good reasons to be concerned. Rio is plagued by economic inequality and violent crime. The state has almost ceded control of large areas of the city to drug gangs and private militias. A dazzling Olympic infrastructure may do little more than distract foreigners’ gaze from the city’s vast favelas.
The Pan American Games in 2007 did little to help Rio. Now the city has a second, larger opportunity to make the world’s attention and tourist money serve the greater good. Partying is a fine national tradition, but Lula should turn to the serious fight against other local habits – corruption and failed promises.
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