2016 Olympic Games

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

WHO warned about Zika and Brazil's health system

WHO has a problem in that it is an IOC partner.  They will be damned if they do postpone or move the games, and doubly damned later if they don't and this makes Zika a world wide problem.

[Easy Bakes 253]

I dont think we have ever had an modern Olympics ( post 1950's) have  as many problems as this one has.

looks like Russian  may not even be able to compete after failing steroids  testing

 

 

http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/35860851

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

WHO shrugs.

WHO has already declared Zika a world-wide emergency.  Their opinion is that a few thousand more possible cases won't matter much in the spread of this new plague.

[MintberryCrunch 83]

Rio de Janeiro state declares "state of calamity" ahead of Olympics:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/rio-state-declares-state-of-calamity-weeks-before-olympics/2016/06/17/5bd65b78-34d8-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html

This is what happens when you give the Olympics to what is, in some ways, a third world country. 

[Belfastsocrates 1,752]

On 18/06/2016 at 7:27 PM, MintberryCrunch said:

Rio de Janeiro state declares "state of calamity" ahead of Olympics:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/rio-state-declares-state-of-calamity-weeks-before-olympics/2016/06/17/5bd65b78-34d8-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html

This is what happens when you give the Olympics to what is, in some ways, a third world country. 

Brazil is not a third-world country. It's the world's ninth largest economy by nominal GDP, and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity. 

The problem is corruption and serious local and national government failings and inefficiency. 

[MintberryCrunch 83]

6 hours ago, Belfastsocrates said:

Brazil is not a third-world country. It's the world's ninth largest economy by nominal GDP, and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity. 

The problem is corruption and serious local and national government failings and inefficiency. 

That's why I said "in some ways". It has corruption and mismanagement the likes of which we often see in third-world countries, that prevents them from advancing. 

I know it's not Guinea-Bissau, but it will probably end up having been a poor choice for the Olympics (and I'm not talking about Zika). We shall see what happens, though. 

[Ocram's Razr 963]

On June 20, 2016 at 3:45 AM, Belfastsocrates said:

Brazil is not a third-world country. It's the world's ninth largest economy by nominal GDP, and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity. 

The problem is corruption and serious local and national government failings and inefficiency. 

Brazil is ranked #75 in terms of GDP per capita, behind Botswana. It suffers from corruption and authoritarianism on a similar level as the USSR.

 

Brazil is a transitioning early industrial country. That puts it a hair above the least developed countries. The term "3rd World Country" lost its meaning in 1991 because the 1st world was with the USA, the 2nd world was with the USSR, and the 3rd World wasn't rich or developed enough to deal with the Cold War.

 

EDIT: I participated in the boycott against watching Sochi and ended up watching some of the highlights on the Internet with Adblock enabled.

[MintberryCrunch 83]

 

I HOPE it goes well. But we shall see.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Why are so many Olympians agreeing to compete? Are they brainwashed or vainglorious? Who would take such high risks to one's health for a shot at a medal that will likely break no records (because of the health issues)?

[krbe 193]

The zika virus only produce very mild symptoms for those affected and very few die of it. It is a problem for pregnant women (and those who wish to have children for up to six months after the stay). Since very few Olympic athletes are pregnant, it's not really a problem.

But yeah, the water, security and infrastructure problems are ginormous. 

[Sabretooth78 808]

Wow, I always thought Brazil was better than this.  I realize some of this is inherent to tropical climates but some of the other stuff is inexcusable.  Leave it to what the Olympics have become to bring out the worst in the host.

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

I am Brazilian and I can confirm that all the bad things said in this thread are true. However I would like to point that what happens in Rio de Janeiro does not occur throughout Brazil at the same level, especially in small towns and far from large urban centres. Things in Rio are really bad.

In fact most people here do not agree with Brazil hosting the Olympics, and did not agree when we hosted the World Cup in 2014. Our country needs a lot more important things, while the government has spent billions of dollars to build stadiums. As a Brazilian I feel really embarrassed by Rio de Janeiro have 'gained' from Madrid to host the Olympics. Madrid had more than half the structure needed to run the event. In the end the bosses who run the Olympics and Brazilian politicians deserve each other, because the only explanation for Rio winning is corruption between them.
Our government says to be proud for our country to have hosted the World Cup and now the Olympics, but that is merely populist politics and only deceives maneuver masses, especially poor people.

Our problem of corruption has a long history behind it, and if I explain it here for sure I would make a giant text, it is really complex. I get sad because Brazil is a very rich country indeed,  economically and culturally.We could undoubtedly be a world power without those rats in power. But the big problem is that those rats are a mirror from the population. It's complicated.

[matias93 7,535]

In fact, if you ask people of all candidate cities, the most common perception is that hosting Olympic games is an undesired burden. Sadly, the games got stuck on the Cold War, when all this corruption and mismanagement could be forgiven in the effort of showing the host country as monolithically powerful, and a part of a powerful side of the world. Smaller sports events, thanks to be mainly dedicated to sports themselves, are relatively safe from this, by means of a much lesser spending.

Totally offtopic, Schriefer; how do you include the original portuguese message as alt text in the post? I cannot see any option for alt text on this form 

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

@matias93 you can paste the text on Google Translator, copy it there and paste here again  

[MintberryCrunch 83]

Well, I was going to mention how well the Olympics were going so far (and that's still mostly true), but here we have some of what was expected:

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-oly-rio-2016-was-ryan-lochte-robbed-at-gunpoint-or-1471189256-htmlstory.html

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

On 14/08/2016 at 3:02 PM, MintberryCrunch said:

Well, I was going to mention how well the Olympics were going so far (and that's still mostly true), but here we have some of what was expected:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-sp-oly-rio-2016-was-ryan-lochte-robbed-at-gunpoint-or-1471189256-htmlstory.html

Actually they were lying and everything has been cleared up.
I was very pessimistic and now I'm surprised. It was really well organized. Probably the only tragedy was the death of a German coach in a traffic accident, it's sad but it happens when you least expect it and everywhere.

[MintberryCrunch 83]

10 hours ago, JP Schriefer said:

Actually they were lying and everything has been cleared up.
I was very pessimistic and now I'm surprised. It was really well organized. Probably the only tragedy was the death of a German coach in a traffic accident, it's sad but it happens when you least expect it and everywhere.

Yeah I was glad to hear that didn't turn out to be what I (and many others) thought it was. Shame on Ryan Lochte and co though. 

 

Overall it was a pretty good games, and the "doom and gloom" predictions were not accurate. I'm glad for that of course.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

On August 21, 2016 at 8:27 PM, MintberryCrunch said:

Yeah I was glad to hear that didn't turn out to be what I (and many others) thought it was. Shame on Ryan Lochte and co though. 

 

Overall it was a pretty good games, and the "doom and gloom" predictions were not accurate. I'm glad for that of course.

Ryan Lochte likely gave an account he believed accurate. Between intoxication and the language barrier, he probably believed he was being robbed, as did the other swimmers. Paralympians actually were robbed but I guess no one cares about athletes with disabilities.

Rio didn't meet the qualifications for hosting because it was already infamous for its favelas and Brazil earned hatred for its corruption, deforestation and mistreatment of indigenous peoples. Between widespread doping, high pressure coaching, and what amounts to bribery, the Olympics have no credibility; its popularity is fueled by nationalism and sports enthusiasm.

[matias93 7,535]

In fact, the Olympics have been historically founded solely on nationalism and sports enthusiasm, that's the reason they were revived at the end of the 19th century

[CapTon 592]

On 8/29/2016 at 8:24 AM, OcramsRzr said:

Ryan Lochte likely gave an account he believed accurate. Between intoxication and the language barrier, he probably believed he was being robbed, as did the other swimmers. Paralympians actually were robbed but I guess no one cares about athletes with disabilities.

Rio didn't meet the qualifications for hosting because it was already infamous for its favelas and Brazil earned hatred for its corruption, deforestation and mistreatment of indigenous peoples. Between widespread doping, high pressure coaching, and what amounts to bribery, the Olympics have no credibility; its popularity is fueled by nationalism and sports enthusiasm.

That's basically saying that all of the athletes that worked their tails off to not only make it to the Olympics but win medals have no credibility. You don't give them ANY credit for coming as far as they have? Only a small amount of athletes dope, excessive and high pressure coaching is a part of training and comes as a sacrifice you have to make in order to succeed, and recall nothing involving bribery and the Olympics (at least recently).

[Ocram's Razr 963]

I'm sorry. I meant the IOC has no credibility. Brazil and Japan have been accused of bribery recently but mainstream media doesn't want to hurt advertising revenue. However, certain sports experience lower levels of doping & cheating and silver & bronze medalists from anti-doping nations are laudable.

 

Calling a ruling organization (including sports associations, employers, and governments) corrupt doesn't mean that its constituents are necessarily bad; however, certain powerful individuals within said organization are bad. For instance, the low-level employees at Enron were likely to all be typical, ethical office workers.

  Edited August 31, 2016 by OcramsRzr  
Typo

[CapTon 592]

13 hours ago, OcramsRzr said:

I'm sorry. I meant the IOC has no credibility. Brazil and Japan have been accused of bribery recently but mainstream media doesn't want to hurt advertising revenue. However, certain sports experience lower levels of doping & cheating and silver & bronze medalists from anti-doping nations are laudable.

 

Calling a ruling organization (including sports associations, employers, and governments) corrupt doesn't mean that its constituents are necessarily bad; however, certain powerful individuals within said organization are bad. For instance, the low-level employees at Enron were likely to all be typical, ethical office workers.

You don't have to apologize. I misinterpreted what you said, and I don't really have anything to argue against within your post. Everything you said is relatively correct.