Sobriety at the Carnival - The Economist
EVER since Barcelona reinvented itself after its Olympic games in 1992, host cities have tried to repeat the success. Eduardo Paes, the smooth-talking mayor of Rio de Janeiro, who will host the next games in August 2016 and oversees the bulk of the preparations, thinks he can do better. “Everybody knows Brazilians can throw a party,” Mr Paes says. These days the pollution in Guanabara Bay is so bad that Olympic sailors may have to dodge dead dogs. Many of the construction firms responsible for building the games’ venues are caught up in the multi-billion-dollar scandal surrounding Petrobras, the state oil company (see article ). The precedent of last summer’s football World Cup is not... It cost Brazilian taxpayers 21. 4 billion reais ($9 billion), a record sum for the competition. One is that, while the federal government played the biggest role in putting on the Copa , the city of Rio has taken the lead in preparing for the Olympics. The mayor’s Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB) is at the business-friendly end of the governing coalition in Brasília. Among the old-style politicians who dominate the party, he stands out as a moderniser (see article ). Mr Paes has coaxed private investors to pay two-thirds of the cost of stadiums through public-private partnerships. Source: www.economist.com
