The Zika virus scare aside, it is the economic and political turmoils taking place right now in Brazil that are not only threatening societal chaos, but are also putting the 2016 Summer Olympic games in doubt.
With just under 50 days until the world’s athletes travel to Rio to compete in the 31st Olympiad, the Brazilian government in the State of Rio de Janeiro just declared a state of Public Calamity, warning of a risk of total collapse in public security, health, transport due to a financial crisis that has been brewing since around July of last year.
Earlier today, the IAAF announced that Russian track and field athletes would be banned from the Rio Oympics due to allegations of systematic doping. Rune Andersen, who heads the IAAF task force overseeing Russia’s attempts to reform, said that a “deep-seated culture of tolerance, or worse, appears not to be materially changed”. “No athlete will compete in Rio under a Russian flag,” he said.
Perhaps instead of fighting this decision, Putin’s response should be a simple “thanks” because just hours later, and just 49 days before the start of the Olympics, the Rio state government declared a state of“public calamity” (yes, that’s the technical term) warning of a risk of total collapse in public security, health, transport and virtually everything else, because as the local government explained, the financial crisis is preventing it from fulfilling its requirements for the Games. - Zerohedge
Some analysts believe Brazil’s financial troubles are due in part to the decline in oil prices, and the continuing upheaval involving numerous politicians tied to a bribery scandal with their national oil company. But the truth of the matter is that the show trial impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff was a planned Western operation to strike at the fringes of the BRICS coalition just as the group was preparing for an alternative monetary system outside the dollar.
From the very beginning, the appointing of Rio de Janeiro as the caretaker of an Olympic games was a foolhardy decision, and had all the elements to turn Brazil into the next Greece. From polluted water, to corruption in the contracts signed to build the Olympic facilities, which was then followed by the Zika virus and an overthrow of the government, one has to wonder if the odds on the 2016 Olympic games even being played have now dropped to barely even, or if the societal climate will continue to get worse and they will have to be cancelled completely as the nation deals with much bigger issues.
Kenneth Schortgen Jr is a writer for Secretsofthefed.com, Examiner.com,Roguemoney.net, and To the Death Media, and hosts the popular web blog, The Daily Economist. Ken can also be heard Wednesday afternoons giving an weekly economic report on the Angel Clark radio show.