An international sporting event like Olympic Games serves to bring together sportsmen from all around the world. They have held after every four years with the Winter and Summer Olympics 2 years apart. There are more than 200 participating nations in the variety of numerous competitions. There is also the Paralympics for people who are physically challenged. The International Olympic Committee organize it, and the host nation is usually chosen from a number of countries that had submitted their requests in a random manner. The Olympics are sponsored by various corporate companies who see it as an opportunity for advertising and marketing themselves. Brazil was chosen to hold the 2016 Summer Olympics which were to take place in Rio de Janeiro. This seemed like a big victory for Brazil, who stood to make a lot of money. For the Olympics to be successful, new facilities had to be created while some preexisting ones had to be revamped. Thus there had to be a lot of money input from the government and involvement of contractors to do the building. Seeing it as a lucrative deal, contractors would do anything to acquire the tenders including bribing officials. This brought corruption to the limelight. Furthermore, the Brazil president, Dilma Rousseff was suspended pending an impeachment. The situation in Brazil continued getting worse with the outbreak of Zika virus which has led to some athletes excluding themselves from the games.
Economic Instability
The economy is an imperative aspect of any country. It serves as a basis by which countries are classified and also signifies strength and abilities of the country. The economy of Brazil was stable and projected to grow at the time at which Brazil was awarded the responsibility of hosting the Summer Olympic Games in 2010. This came just after the announcement that some oil deposits had been discovered which looked to propel the country’s economy. The discovery of a large corruption scandal which was then followed by demonstrations demanding for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff led to a complete turn-around of that prediction. Brazil’s economy came plummeting down and is now in the midst of an economic crisis facing its worst recession after a very extended period of time with inflation having risen by about 10% while unemployment is at 9% accounting for 11.4 million unemployed Brazilians. This led to the slashing of budgets including that of the Olympics forcing organizers to seek their savings. Olympic officials have also been hard hit with their food and traveling costs being cut. The widespread protests that were calling for the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff also dealt the economy a huge blow as scores of people participated and boycotted their works. There were also numerous worker strikes which affected the economy. The funding of the building of the venues of the Olympic Games and infrastructure also heavily drained the budget. Consumer confidence fell leading to fleeing off of foreign investors. The tourism sector had also been hit a big blow by the Zika virus which scared off tourists. The increased corruption index in Brazil also served to deter foreign investors from investing. This will have a significant impact on the athletes and fans traveling to Brazil for the Olympics bearing in mind that there was a plan to charge athletes for air conditioning in their rooms. Despite all these acts, Brazil stands to attract more foreigners since its currency has maintained a relatively stable position thus will not have a large impact on the incoming visitors. Corruption, political scandals, and Zika virus were the biggest factors that affected the Brazilian economy.
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Corruption in Brazil
It is an enormous social problem in Brazil. According to Transparency International, Brazil fell in ranking from 43 points to 38 points in 2016. This index serves to show the increased rate of corruption. The largest fraud case was of Petrobras, a state-run oil company that is alleged to have received bribes of over $2 billion from Odebrecht Construction Company so as to obtain contracts. Names of powerful politicians were mentioned in this case, and it had an adverse impact on President Dilma Rousseff who had led the Petrobras board for some years during which the alleged bribery took place. Furthermore, all the five companies involved in building most of the venues and infrastructure for the Olympics worth about $10.8 billion are caught up in the investigation into price fixing of the scandal which brings up a question of integrity. This also led to the opening of surveys on Port Maravilha project worth 8 billion and the City metro’s line expansion which all serve the Olympic. Despite the fact that Odebrecht is at the center of the Petrobras scandal, it is involved in the majority of the Olympic projects leading to allegations that it may have bribed itself into those contracts also. The fact that it is believed to have a specialized sector in its company for paying bribes does not help its case. Despite the fact that anti-corruption reforms are not effective, the government believes that they are making sufficient strides towards eliminating corruption. (Wescott, 2016 ).
Political Scandal
The coming to light of the corruption scandal led to people questioning the leadership of President Dilma Rousseff resulting in the drop in her approval ratings as she was the chair of the board of Petrobras during the alleged time bribery was taking place. This led to demonstrations in the street with up to 68% of people demanding for her impeachment. Crowds of about 2 million people filled the streets demanding for her impeachment which was worsened by the fact she said she wouldn’t resign insisting on her innocence. The fact that the nation had hit its worst recession in a long time made matters worse for her as people saw her as the problem. She is accused of shifting government funds around, which is breaking the law, to plug budget holes which she claims was a common practice. Supporters of President Dilma Rousseff believe that the case of impeachment has been hugely blown out of proportion by the media owned by the wealthy families. The wealthy families plan to ouster her because of her fight for the poor through her Worker’s Party. Furthermore, they have failed to defeat her fairly during elections time and again and thus have been looking for a way to ouster her as they are not known for accepting defeat or fighting fairly. Corrupt members of parliament were forefront in voting for her motion of impeachment which ultimately led to her suspension despite the fact that she has not been charged with anything. This political situation has scared off some promoters of the Olympic Games who view Brazil as politically unstable with the held demonstrations serving as a base for their allegations. Her opponents claim that the fact she broke fiscal laws is ground enough for her impeachment despite the fact that previous rulers did the same (Miranda, 2016).
Zika Virus
The first case was reported in Uganda in 1947 and is transmitted by the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito which also carries yellow fever and dengue fever. It may also be spread through blood transfusions or sexual contact sometimes and from mother to fetus. According to the World Health Organization, it is spreading explosively in the Americas. It can be detected in the saliva and urine of infected people. Symptoms may include fever, pain in the joints, rashes, redness in the whites of the eye, headache and pain in the muscles though rare. Very few people experience the symptoms. When passed from mother to fetus, it can cause some defects at birth such as microcephaly characterized by the birth of infants with abnormally small heads. It has no vaccine and thus prevention is the best solution. Prevention methods include wearing long sleeved clothes so as to reduce chances of being bitten by the virus. Use of certified environment insect repellants is also advised, but caution is to be taken, and the instructions followed. Use of condoms during sex or abstinence is encouraged. People in Zika-prone areas are advised to stay indoors and use screen doors and insecticides to curb the entry of the mosquitoes. This has served to scare off some people especially pregnant women or those who are planning to get pregnant from attending or participating in the Olympics. This situation has been worsened by the fact that Brazil is considered as ground zero for the virus. However, officials are reassuring everybody of their safety as they are conducting day-to-day screening of Olympic venues for mosquito breeding grounds. The government also plans to send troops door to door to combat the virus. Furthermore, the government believes that there will be fewer mosquitoes due to the onset of the dry season. (Quigley, 2016).
References
Quigley, J. (2016). Rio Olympics. Five controversies are looming over the games. Retrieved from www.cbc.ca/beta/news/world/rio-olympics-five-controversies-1.3430807
Wescott, L. (2016). Newsweek. Brazil takes the biggest tumble in annual corruption perception index. Retrieved from www.newsweek.com/brazil-petrobras-corruption-perception-index-419848
Miranda, D. (2016). The Guardian. The real reason Dilma Rousseff’s enemies want her impeached. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/21/dilma-rousseff-enemies-impeached-brazil
Adalja, A. (2016). WebMD. Zika Virus: What you should know. Retrieved from www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/zika-virus-symptoms-prevention
