Beautiful Horizons

50 Years of Brasilia

Mr. Trend is enthusiastic about Brasilia's 50th anniversary. I, alas, am not. I find the city to be unpleasant, impersonal, even downright Stalinist in its appearance.

It's a place in my mind utterly devoid of charm and a monument to the automobile. It is also a symbol of wasteful spending. There were no roads from the coast to the construction site, so building materials were brought in by helicopter. Even Oscar Niemeyer, the architect who designed the buildings is disappointed with what it has become.

It was wastefully expensive, but I suppose it's one of those places worth visiting once in your life. I have and have little desire to repeat the experience.

What Mr. Trend Said

Here. Every last word.

In noting some of the comments from people, it's remarkable how ignorant  some people are. The reliably tendentious and in this case, clueless Big Tent Democrat in the comments to this post at TalkLeft makes the following comment:

I think it is not going to be a particularly successful Olympics in Rio imo. I do not believe that holding a World Cup in 2014 will leave Brazil in a great position to do what is necessary for an Olympics in 2016. There is a huge crime problem in Rio.

Not content to trash Rio, (notwithstanding the fact that two of us point out to him that Rio successfully staged the Pan Am Games two years ago), he then proceeds to trash South Africa making this comment:

I think the World Cup is going to be a mess next year.

I think the Olympics in Rio are likely to be a mess too.

Hell, I think the World Cup in Rio is going to be a mess.

Think Seoul, but worse.

And he bases this on what? In addition to reminding him about the Pan Am Games, I also point out that South Africa staged a successful Confederations Cup three months ago. Surely he must remember that. Brazil almost lost to the US. One wonders if he has ever even been to Rio.

If he's concerned about the safety, I’ve been to Rio some seven times. I have used the subway and the buses there with no problems. Last time I was there I saw numerous people on the subway with Ipods and without problems.

On New Years Eve 1999-2000, we walked from our cousin’s place in Botafogo through the Rebouças tunnel to Copacabana and back for the New Year’s celebration. There was not one arrest made tha night. I have walked from Botafogo to Flamengo, from Jardim Botanico to Lagoa Rodrigo Freitas. I have ridden the tram from Santa Teresa to Lapa.

I have found by using good judgment and good sense I have had no problems. Indeed, many of the homicides taking place in Rio are the result of police killing civilians.

He also - without a scintilla of proof, remarkably so for an attorney - claims that Chicago didn't invest enough in bribery.

If ignorance is bliss, he must be an incredibly happy man.In any event he never responded to the facts regarding thee Confederations Cup and the Pan Am Games in 2007.

As for the question of benefits to the host city, yes it can work out quite well. Barcelona (pdf file) is the greatest proof of that.

It's Rio

It's Rio for 2016!

Vamos fazer farra, gente!

Give It to Rio, Already

I truly hope that President Obama is wasting his time by going to Copenhagen to lobby the IOC for the Olympics to be given to Chacago. Support in Chicago is weak and is about 50/50 at best.

Then there's this, a site started by Chicagoans urging Rio to get the games. Good for them.

I think Alexei Barrionuevo largely gets it right here:

On shimmering Copacabana beach, where Rio’s body-conscious residents play volleyball and soccer, giant screens are being readied for a live broadcast of the vote that will determine whether this city will make history by becoming the first South American city ever to host the Olympic Games.

On the streets and on the lips of radio and television broadcasters, Brazilians are abuzz with Olympics talk, and there is the distinct sense that this famous party city is ready to explode on Friday with a delirium rivaling its famed New Year’s and Carnaval celebrations if the vote for the 2016 Games goes Rio’s way.

Leaders here say winning the Olympics would be a transformational moment for Brazil, an affirmation of its rising global importance and a shot in the arm to the self-esteem of Cariocas, Rio’s residents, 85 percent of whom supported the Olympic bid in a recent poll by the International Olympic Committee.

I find this especially appealing:

Happiness, in fact, is part of Rio’s pitch.

The city has promised a private beach for the athletes, in front of a nature reserve in Barra da Tijuca that, in true Rio spirit, would be available at all hours. The Olympic Village would feature a Rua Carioca, a typical Rio street with cafes, bars and the swaying sounds of samba and bossa nova.

If the athletes could vote, Mr. Osorio said, “it would be a landslide.”

I've been to that beach. WhileBarra da Tijuca itself is more like Miami than Rio, the beach known as Barra Reserva is the best beach for swimming in the city.

While not by any means my favorite city in Brazil, Rio does always make me happy when I visit. If it's the choice between the city of the big shoulders or the marvelous city, I truly hope the marvelous city wins.

Regional Discrimination in Flood Response?

Deep in this article in Monday's New York Times about the horrific flooding in Northeast Brazil, is this point not to be ignored:

Mr. [Jânio] de Sousa Freitas [mayor of a city in Maranhão affected by the flooding] has not been alone in alleging that the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has done less for affected areas of the northeast than it did for wealthier Santa Catarina last fall.

Piauí and Maranhão, two of the states most affected by the floods, are also two of the country’s three poorest in per-capita income, with most residents earning far less than Brazil’s minimum monthly salary of $225.

“The people in the south treat the northeast as a subrace of Brazilians,” said Roberto Quiñiero, who owns a small food market in Pedreiras.

Several years ago I read an article in the Times about attempts by officials in Blumenau, a city in Santa Catarina that celebrates its German immigrant heritage by proudly holding the largest Oktoberfest outside of Munich, to send migrants from the Northeast of Brazil  - seeking nothing more than to improve their lives as the German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Ukrainian and Japanese immigrants whose descendants fill the South of Brazil did - back to their homes:

His blue eyes matching his blue inspector's smock, Milton Dallavalle patrols Blumenau's tidy bus station, looking for poor people.

"They come in daily," the inspector recently said of his job intercepting the jobless and the homeless from Brazil's less fortunate regions. "Just today a family arrived with six children. The bus station administrator offers to pay their fares home."

Conceding that Brazil's Constitution guarantees freedom of movement, city officials say that the most their unfriendly policies will do is to slow a flood of migrants. In the last 20 years, Blumenau's population doubled to 225,000 people. Despite an official policy of browbeating poor visitors, Blumenau officials predict that the population will again double in the next 20 years.

The differences in the financial aid going to the region is dramatic:

Brazilian officials denied any regional favoritism. “The citizens of the northeast will receive the same support that Santa Catarina received,” said Franklin Martins, the president’s chief spokesman.

Through last week, about $2.5 million had been donated for relief efforts in the north, compared to some $16.4 million that was donated to Santa Catarina, according to civil-defense figures, which include private donations.

Piauí in particular is bound to suffer greatly from this flooding. Unlike many of the states in Northeast, a region celebrated for its stunning coastlines and arguably the best beaches in the country, Piauí has a sliver of coastline (41 miles), much of which is at the mouth of the Parnaiba river and is cursed with brutal heat; its capital,Teresina, has an average temperature of 104 Fahrenheit. There are precious few opportunities for a rapid economic rebound.

This is where the national government should take the lead. If Lula's administration doesn't take the lead and drop the business as usual tradition in the region, it will be a massive letdown by him to his most ardent supporters.

Will Rio de Janeiro Get the 2016 Olympics?

No decision has been made yet, but based on this article in Monday's New York Times, it appears Rio de Janeiro's chances are looking good:

Questions about crime and transportation had been considered the main concerns with Rio’s $14.4 billion bid. But Nawal el-Moutawakel, an I.O.C. member from Morocco who is the chairwoman of the evaluation commission, said Saturday that she saw no weakness in the bid.

“Everything we have seen so far is positive,” she said.

The inspectors left saying they were impressed by the commitment of political leaders at all levels to back the bid — including Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. They said that Rio’s hosting of the 2014 World Cup was a “good test event” and a potential advantage over three other cities vying for the 2016 Games: Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo.

The seven-day visit was the third for the 13-member evaluation commission, which headed to Madrid on Sunday for the final inspection before the I.O.C. makes its decision, which is scheduled to be announced Oct. 2.

This may be one of the main reasons why:

In Chicago, area natives like Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Obama, and even Michael Jordan, showed the I.O.C. inspectors their support through videotaped messages. Brazilian officials showed up in Rio in force last week to make personal pledges to the evaluation commission members. Da Silva was joined by his chief of staff, the president of the central bank and a handful of ministers.

South America is the only continent other than Africa and Antarctica that has yet to host the Olympics. Rio's hosting of the Pan American Games in 2007 was an unqualified success. They deserve the games.

Brazil's Record on Disease Prevention

I have to respectfully disagree with Boz's comment here with regard to Mexico's response to the H1N1 flu:

That won't be the case for some other countries in the world if H1N1 becomes a global pandemic. Focusing on this hemisphere, I think all South American countries will face a tough test doing as good a job as Mexico, even with the extra preparation time they've had.

Brazil has an excellent record in responding to diseases far more severe than influenza. Last year when I went to Brazil, there had been limited outbreaks of Yellow Fever, but residents were able to get vaccinations at locations throughout the country. Dengue Fever is another dangerous illness and public advisories are routinely made as well inspections of locations to reduce areas of standing water to ward off this mosquito-borne illness. In addition, Brazil has been the trendsetter in not only the developing world, but throughout the world in treating HIV cases and cotrolling the spread of the disease.

Should swine flue spread to Brazil, I have every confidence that the response will be just as thorough.

Bulletproof Favelas?!?

This makes me uneasy:

Brazilian authorities have begun building “bulletproof” homes in Rio de Janeiro slums where innocent bystanders are among hundreds who die every year in clashes among rival drug gangs, police and vigilantes, the press reported on Friday.

Media outlets said the homes are being constructed with specially blended cement designed to be impervious to bullets.

“They are cement walls of 14 centimeters (5.5 inches),” the president of building firm Ultra Greten, Pedro Moreira Leite, told O Globo newspaper. “Not even a rifle bullet penetrates those walls.”

While I'm glad to see that something is being done to protect the residents of the favelas, this is ignoring the root causes of violent civilian deaths in the favelas:

• The utter lack of social services in the favelas.
• The tendency by the authorities, especially in Rio, to view all Favela residents as criminals.
• The failure to show restraint in using deadly force among the civilian population.

If anything, I could see this emboldening the authorities to use deadly force even more indiscriminately. After all the buildings are now bulletproof.

Getting Your Church's Priorities Straight

If you want to prevent abortions from occurring, instead of excommunicating the doctors who treated her and the mother of the 36 kilogram, 1 meter 20 centimeters nine year old girl you expected to give birth to twins at the risk of her life, perhaps, instead, you can focus your energies on putting an end to the raping of young girls, and thus, reduce the number of therapeutic abortions.

Just a thought . . .

Coming to Their Senses?

Von at Obsidian Wings points me to this update on the excommunication of the doctors who performed the abortion on the 9 year old rape victim in Brazil and her mother, but he is mistaken if he thinks it means that the excommunications have been rescinded. This may clarify things:

[Archbishop Rino] Fisichella stressed that abortion is always "bad." But he said the quick proclamation of excommunication "unfortunately hurts the credibility of our teaching, which appears in the eyes of many as insensitive, incomprehensible and lacking mercy."

The Vatican teaches that anyone performing or helping someone to have an abortion is automatically excommunicated from the church, and the Vatican prelate underlined that abortion is "always condemned by moral law as an intrinsically evil act."

"There wasn't any need, we contend, for so much urgency and publicity in declaring something that happens automatically," Fisichella wrote.

Writing as if he were addressing the girl, Fisichella said: "There are others who merit excommunication and our pardon, not those who have allowed you to live and have helped you to regain hope and trust."

It appears that the objection is to the public aspect of it, although one gets the impression from the article that Archbishop Fisichella is disturbed as well by the utter lack of compassion on behalf of the Archbishop of Recife as well as the fact that he publicly proclaimed that the rapist stepfather would not be excommunicated, because according to him, abortion is worse than rape.

There remains the possibility that less reactionary more compassionate minds will prevail. After all, the excommunication of a Holocaust denier was rescinded . . .

Stay tuned.