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Rio Has Given Up On Clean Water For Olympics (go.com)
iONiUM writes: When bidding to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Jaineiro promised the International Olympics Committee that it would eliminate 80 percent of the sewage found in the city's notoriously filthy water, and would fully regenerate the lagoon in which rowing and kayaking events will be held. Now a few months from the start of the games, Rio has given up on keeping those promises. According to an article from Deadspin, "The U.S. will send 48 rowers to Rio, and they will be as forewarned and forearmed as the federation can make them, starting with squeeze bottles of hand sanitizer that will be distributed on the flight to Brazil. Hannafin says the athletes have been asked to get hepatitis A vaccinations and polio boosters and take the oral typhoid vaccine. Their oar handles will be bleached and their boats washed inside and out after each training session or competition. Gear will be laundered at a high enough temperature to kill microbes."
Why do third-world shitholes even bid for the Olympics then? All they are doing is highlighting what an embarassment their country is. It's crazy. Any why would a healthy, fit, above average jock want to risk his or her health or even life, by going to this shithole?
I don't think USA Olympic athletes are covered by health insurance, because 'Murica. If they even have Obamacare, they are probably lucky. If you get a serious illness that could take years to eradicate, our athletes might be begging on the streets to make their doctor payments. And nobody is putting a sickly bronze-winner on the box of Wheaties.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
And here I thought Zika was going to be the biggest stink... They couldn't clean up ONE body of water over half a decade??
Graft remains endemic
Endemic can't be emphasized enough. Graft and corruption are culture-wide in Latin America, not just Brazil. Native Latinos - usually by no fault of their own initially - are programmed from birth to just expect graft and corruption in all facets of life.
Corrupt police forces that oppress and/or extort. Militaries that become the tools of dictators to oppress. Illicit drug mafias and markets that corrupt politicians. The unnecessarily socialization of various markets (socialized initially to "protect the people" from dirty businessmen but ultimately become another tool of corruption.) The very public murders of any leader that tries to change the status quo...
So where to people turn in dark times? Religion... But consider those countries' primary religious source: the Catholic Church. It has been a corrupt institution for millenia now, led by a clergy with a known history of gay priests, child molestors, bribe takers, (and in the not too distant past, torturers and murderers) - hypocrites of all colors and sizes.
Why should anyone realistically expect any Latin American country to climb up out of its into the "First World" tier anytime soon, with all of that going against everyday citizens. They swim in spiritual/psychological shit everyday; Why would a little actual shit phase them?
As much as it pains me to say (I'm a Brazilian), it's not a matter of being poor.
It's just about being stupid. We have had a lot of news about corruption right now and some imbeciles equate corruption with the current leadership. No doubt they are part of the problem, but Rio de Janeiro, for instance has been polluted for decades.
Crime has been somewhat tackled in recent years (probably because of the World Football/Soccer Cup), but results are mediocre, to be frank.
Instead of solving the problems, Politicians are opportunists and want to profit from every failure.
If one looks at a sufficient long time period -- say 20 years -- , it can be seen that things improved. But it all happens at snail pace.
Other people fixed their problems: Japan, Korea, Germany... we could have done it, too. But we get lost in Political bickering, we fail at bringing education to the masses and now we must face a lot of shame when inviting everyone to a party here.
Maybe we need to go through all this, maybe it's karma, I don't know... it's not like other countries don't have also their share of problems.
But it's quite a shame, indeed...