Rio Olympics: Brazil goes for the gold in 2016

On October 2, the International Olympic Committee determined that Rio de Janeiro would host the 2016 Olympics. Several videos immediately appeared on YouTube showing the wild celebrations following the announcement, reminiscent of the famous Rio carnival celebrations. Masses of Cariocas—residents of Rio—jumped and waved their shirts, showing off the yellow, green, and blue of the flag as samba blasted through the air. President Lula da Silva cried from happiness on international television. The joy is not for nothing: Brazil will be the first South American country to host the Olympics, ever. This is a success for both its domestic and foreign ambitions, as well as for developing countries throughout the world.
The Olympics are sure to make Brazil into a better place for all, not just the rich, starting with Rio. Rio is infamous for its crime and its favelas—sprawling neighborhoods where shelters are made out of cardboard, without plumbing, air conditioning or heating, where the poorest live together in misery and filth. The first project will be to eradicate these favelas and crime in order to accommodate the masses of athletes and tourists who will be coming. Easier said than done: Brazil has been trying to get rid of favelas since they first appeared as neighborhoods of former slaves in the late 19th century.
Luckily for Brazil, though, hosting the Olympics will increase healthy tourism (as opposed to something degenerate, like sex tourism), ameliorating living conditions for millions. The government will be forced to finally find an effective solution to the poverty problem that has plagued the country for decades. Hosting the Olympics can be nothing but beneficial, both economically and culturally, to a country beset with problems. Look at Athens when it hosted the Olympics—the city was completely transformed and revitalized.
Hosting the Olympics will change Brazil’s image from a country full of beaches and soccer and scantily clad mulatas dancing the samba into something a bit more respectable—into a country that can, when necessary, get its act together. Brazil is inefficiently governed and constantly plagued by corruption—but there are some things that work in the government. Lula’s socialist (and sometimes shady) policies have often proven to be beneficial, increasing economic output and living conditions in general. Hosting the Olympics is an opportunity to change this image of corruption and create an image of efficiency, impressing the international community with the Olympic buildings and infrastructures that will be erected. The first step has already been taken, with the inspiring master plan for the transformation of the city—but now it is up to the government to keep its promise and follow through with a city-wide revitalization.
The Olympics will be an opportunity to transform Brazil from the sexy and fun country it is today into something that can be taken seriously by the international community.
Following the Olympics held in Beijing last summer, it is incredible that another developing country should be chosen to host the Olympics eight years later—reflecting developing countries’ rising presence on the world stage. This is especially important for neglected South America, an area not poor enough to get attention through charity foundations—but at the same time, not rich enough, or organized enough, to develop into anything important on its own, doomed to be forever “developing.” Through these Olympics, South America may get some much-needed attention, perhaps increase its trade with other countries and help improve the quality of living in North America’s sub-equator counterparts. South America’s history of dictatorships, economic flunks and corruption may have just been a long transition to a new and better future.