Checking in. Tudo bem? Key-toe'chimo, bri'gado.

Checking back into the craziness of Rio and not too much has changed. The new Minister of Sport, Aldo Rebelo, has been given extraordinary powers and handed the circus over to his cronies and family. Not only did he appoint his personal “people of confidence” , Dilma transferred the APO to the MdoE. That’s a Brazilian acronym to describe the Ministry of Sport, though it could also be MdoE/MoS, just to clarify things and ensure employment for stamp makers. The APO is the acronym for the Autoridade Público Olímpico. This is the body that is ostensibly in control of the R$30 billion budget and the agency that will direct all Olympic-related building projects. All of a sudden, it’s under the new minister. Here we go again, de novo.

FIFA goes along its way, keeping the idiots in charge as long as possible. Can someone please offer Sepp Blatter another job? How about washing dishes in a Brazilian prison? If you haven’t seen Andrew Jenning’s recent stuff, check out www.transparencyinsport.org.  This part might anger Eike Batista, Brazil’s richest, though not most-flatulent man: Ol ‘ Sepp gave the 2014 ticketing contract to his nephew on a no-bid basis. This might rankle the Eikster who said not long ago that if we wanted to get a ticket to the World Cup we would “have to talk to him”.  Let confusion reign.

Where does one begin to explain the differences between Rio de Janeiro and Vancouver? Winter and Summer? Canada and Brazil? South East Atlantic and North West Pacific? Sun People and Cloud People?  How about the airports? Jumpin’ Jaysus. The 40 step escalators at Galeão don’t work. Walking into Vancouver, you passed through a Disney-landesque version of a Rain Forest, which was, despite and because of the Disney factor, impressive and well executed. I thought it was cool, and gave a sense of the natural world one is entering beyond the airport. At Galeão, one also gets an sense of the external, without having to leave the airport.

Vancouver

Rio de Janeiro

It is hard to say which city has a more or less spectacular setting. It’s staggeringly beautiful  In either case, though one could argue that Vancouver has much better access to its environmental amenities. But please, Brazil’s beaches. The one beach I visited was clothing optional, very rocky, and with very cold water. Vancouver, where only the confident wade.

As pequenas barcas de Vancouver. Por que não na Lagoa ou Praca XV - SDU - Urca?

For public transport, is there a better central city area than Vancouver for bus and bike? Water Taxis? They’re as expensive and fancy as a gold tooth, but a great, efficient ride. Very nice, and even in wet, cold weather a good means to get about central Vancouver. I didn’t get to test the inter and intra city ferry system, nor the ferries out to Vancouver Island, but I have a sneaking suspicion that their bike policy compares favorably with that of Barcas S.A.

So, Rio has some serious work to do if it is going to make 50 years progress in 5, again. During my time in Vancouver, Rocinha was occupied by BOPE and MPERJ, OGlobo and Sky TV. Though of course too complex to completely wrap one’s head around, the occupation of Rocinha caused a jump in real-estate prices there and in neighboring São Conrado, an already wealthy enclave. It was widely reported that the marketing bobbleheads that pass for democratically elected leaders were well pleased with the international media attention. There’s no such thing as bad press, right? Not when OGlobo is on your team.

Things are too busy to do more than one or two more posts before the end of the year. One must feed the academic beast some tasty bits from time to time. If you’re just testing the cool waters of geostadia.com for the first time, starting from September 2009 you can find articles related to the Rio Olympics. I enjoy highlighting life’s absurdities and contradictions.  Rio de Janeiro is a seemingly inexhaustible font of inspiration. I enjoy a good circus but don’t want to be a clown. For those who are interested in a sample of my soccer coverage from North Carolina,  click here.  

One question that I would like to pose to those who see (or saw) the Brazilian mega-events through the rose-tinted lenses of dispassionate reason: Why did anyone expect that the negative elements of the Olympics were going to be mitigated in a country and city known for huge socio-economic inequalities, weak democratic institutions, oligarchic business practices, and newly deep pockets?

A bright, beautiful, and naturalized future ©

Lordy. When will the city government come to terms with the reality of how cities function? It’s a rhetorical question, the answer to which continues to shock and awe. Every day there is a new and more ridiculous edict intended to impose control on the uncontrollable. This week their Lordships launched the brave idea that all of the weekly ferias livres (open air markets) need to close promptly at 1pm. This un-loving squeeze (or the annihilation of space by time), which has also occurred  in São Paulo, was met with an entertaining, effective, and important protest, photos and video of which are below. In the short movie, well worth watching, the crowd is chanting “Epa, Epa, Epa, Quero minha xépa! Epa, Epa, Epa, Quero minha Xépa!”

Xépa is the discount price given by merchants at the tail end of the feira. The forced closing of the market at 13hrs will change market logics and eliminate long-standing custom. This is exactly against the principals of a free-market economy. The easiest thing to do to preserve the Xépa and the discursive integrity of their Lordships would just be to back the f€©k off and let the feiras be.

Informality will not be tolerated in the Olympic City of Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics Jogos de Verão 2016 Host City Olimpíada 2016, 2016, 2016, ©,™,℠,℗,ⅎ,∩, ₭. According to the ill-logic of the current regime that governs this city, Rio de Janeiro functions Best and Only when all of its elements are formalized, social practices regularized, and social formations crystallized. In order to accomplish this Sisyphean and Kafkaesque task, to contravene the very nature of the city, their Lordships are applying an extensive series of Shocks. Some of these shocks are, perhaps, welcome – at first. I like a swept street and sanitary restaurants as much as the next flaneur.  Shocks like the one being applied to the feiras are not only unnecessary, autocratic, and downright annoying, but contrary to principals upon which their Lordships depend for the continued accumulation of wealth and power. There is no Shock of Education, Shock of Health, Shock of Clean Air, Shock of Corruption – just the Schlock of Order.

The Saga of the Maracanã continues. This week, workers struck to protest the poverty of their wages and working conditions. The greve by the STRAICP union (Heavy Industry Construction) workers will continue into next week. After one of the workers was seriously injured by an on-site explosion, the workers walked out with a series of demands including an increase in the lunch allowance, safety inspections, and a health plan that is “equivalent to the directors’”. As the projects for the mega-events accelerate, the indices of accidents are bound to increase and workers' rights will be eroded. What is the highest blood/concrete ratio that Brazils’ major construction firms are willing to tolerate?

The Olympic governing structure is nearly erectus. It took awhile for their Lordships to figure out just where and how to pull and push and prod to get the juices flowing, but now that they’ve got it just about where they want it, the pistons of progress can lead us smoothly forward into a blissful, naturalized, and fully actuated future.  Just check out how easily the BRT lines are going to slice through the urban fabric, leaving a silky trail of effervescent efficiency. It's hard to see the tens of thousands of disappropriations happening in this video, but if you listen closely, you can hear the screams. 

The struggles to mount on Mount Olympus are the stuff of boring, though important tabloids. Henrique Mirelles has jumped out of the lower reaches of APO and moved to the Conselho Olímpico, a perch from which he will lend a certain sober credibility to the Herculean and Pharonic projects happening down below. The APO top spot belongs to Márcio Fortes de Almeida. The recent revelation was that he is willing to work with one third of the public functionaries that have been designated to work for him is a good indication of how much work the agency is going to do. Since Mirelles figured out where the real power lay and moved out, the APO has been stripped of nearly all significance. Remember, a few months ago the APO was going to have 484 positions. A senate committee hacked it down to 181 and now Fortes now only wants around 60. The APO will organize the  spending of R$29 public billions. I don’t think everyone working at the APO will be an accountant, especially as the organization is charged with determining what is to actually be built. How many urban planners will the APO employ? My guess is ZERO. This year, the paper tells me, just putting the APO together is going to cost the tax-payer R$22 million.  This is going to be a very expensive rubber stamp.

The other Olympic news of note was the announcement of the winner of the Olympic Park competition. AECOM of London (responsible for the London 2012 Olympic Park),  in conjunction with Daniel Gusmão (DG)of Rio, carried home the R$100 thousand prize and the right to deliver on their proposal. Interesting, the proposal intends to preserve at least a part of the Vila Autódromo, urbanizing and integrating it into the larger urban context of the Olympic peninsula. Whether this will actually happen or if the Vila Autódromo will be used as a Potemkin Village is yet to be seen. Here’s the video of that incredibly bright and interesting and naturalized future:

Ignorance, Indignation, and Power Games – Ignorância, Indignação, e Jogos do Poder

Nearly everyone loves the World Cup, not everyone knows what it takes to produce it. Some people still watch the Olympic Games but forget about the massive public investment required to produce them or the nebulous and contradictory legacies left behind – new transportation systems, public debt, elite sporting facilities, high maintenance costs, gentrification, residential displacement, developing of a tourist economy, loss of authenticity, market opporutnities, commercialization of public space, the list goes on.

After the series of talks I have just given, I am more convinced than ever that the current model of mega-event installation is more destructive than constructive for social relations and urban structures. The absurdly optimistic discourses about development and market share increase do not allow for the insertion of other possibilities. Does the possibility that that the tourist numbers might not be met ever enter the consciousness of even-promoters? Does it matter? Do the decent individuals within the corrupt NGOs responsible for the production of these events really believe what they say or are they willfully ignorant of the Brave New World they are intentionally producing? Once we stop taking the soma pills of developmental sporting discourse it is but a short leap from ignorance to indignation.

Brazilian journalists are stopping their medication. Pedro Peduzzi  has a very good article in the Journal do Brasil about the Maracanã and the total disrespect shown towards Brazilian football tradition, the fans, and the major problems involved in constructing stadiums with public money given to private contractors that have very cozy relationships with elected officials. Fernanda Odilla in the Folha do São Paulo investigated the economics of producing the World Cup stadiums and concluded that even with significant participation of private companies through PPPs (Public Private Partnerships), the three stadia using this model will be financed through at least 60% public money before being handing over to private concessions for up to 35 years. AS I have been saying all along, the private sector is not entering into the construction of stadia and/or mega-event infrastructure because it is not a viable investment and because they don’t have to, the state has it covered (by law and by contracts with the IOC and FIFA).

There is so much capital flowing through mega-event structures that the political figures and intrigue will make for a very good movie someday. I’m still working on the idea of the World Cup and Olympics as seasons six and seven of The Wire, mixed a bit with Deadwood. The plot, already very complex, is taking some sharp turns as the national and international media are hot on the trail of Ricardo Teixeira (Dr. Jowls). The good Andrew Jennings was in Brazil recently drawing attention to the criminal activities of the CBF. The irrefutable evidence being complied should make for some major shifts in the way Brasil 2014 is unfolding, if, if, if Dilma has the courage of her former convictions, which is so doubtful that I’ll throw in another and bigger IF.  

The Olympic power structure is also increasingly clear with Henrique Mirelles (former chief of Brazil’s Central Bank and a Harvard –educated economist [read: neo-liberal]) stepping away from the hot-seat of the Public Olympic Auhtority to preside over the Olympic Council. In his place was inserted Márcio Fortes, former Minister of Cities, who is going to be the one who takes the heat for the success or failure of the Olympic infrastructure plans. The editors from terra.com.br had a good time with the photo for this story, making it slightly difficult to tell which character is Fortes. I hope it’s the guy on the left. Of course, Fortes defended the RDC program which allows for the “flexibilization” of normal contracting process that I talked about a few posts ago.

Hopefully in the coming months geostadia.com will be able to get interviews with these power brokers to find out how much soma they have been ingesting. 

What is certain is that the presidency of the APO has been a political hot-potato. Recognizing the extreme political exposure of a position that will be responsible for a budget that is beginning at R$29 billion and urban projects that will change Rio de Janeiro forever, Mirelles went up a level to the Olympic Consular position. He, along with Rio’s Mayor (El Principe) and Govenor (Deputy Dawg Cabral) will have the final say on everything. This will be an interesting relationship to watch as El Principe has already made several failed movements to limit the power of the APO. However, this was when Mirelles was slated to take that position and now that things have changed, again, how these three megalomaniacs get along with the size-defying egos at the IOC and COB to continue the implementation of Gestapo tactics to produce the Olympic City will be fascinating and terrifying to watch.

Oh, some of the Maracana urbanization project has finally been approved. R$117,9 million to build a couple of footbridges. While this hardly qualifies as an “urbanization” project, it will create a new link between the stadium complex and the Quinta da Boa Vista. Now that the pesky Favela do Metrô has been wiped off the map, this project will be much easier to think about. [editor's note: only some houses in the Favela do Metro have been destroyed].

Pos-Carnaval scattershot

Brazil is expensive. Everyone keeps saying it, we all keep paying it. Here’s an example from yesterday. I filled up a very small car with gas, R$104 (US$65, about six dollars a gallon in a country that doesn’t import oil and has its own refineries). Then, it was time to change the oil. The synthetic quarts, sucked out of the ground, processed, produced and sold in Brazil were R$39 each. That’s twenty dollars a quart of oil. The oil change set me back R$186. So, between filling up the car and getting the oil changed I spent R$290 or US$ 175. Not to even mention the cost of buying and maintaining cars here, nossa senhora.  If you can say carro caro five times quickly without having both words sound the same then you are probably used to such prices and don’t even think about it anymore.

Brazilians are getting more and more into debt as the consumer society expands. The front page of OGlobo’s Economia section from Sunday: Brazilians already commit 22% of their salaries to pay down debts. This is up from 13.9% in 2003. The banks in Brazil charge up to 180% per year for credit card debt, and for short term cash loans, the percentages can be even higher. The best possible business to have in Brazil is a bank. As people begin to borrow against the inflated values of their homes and apartments and buy more and more things that they didn’t even know they needed until they had someone offering just that very thing, then wow! When the bubble bursts in 2017(?), it will probably still be good to be in banking (as the recent experience in the USA has shown).

There is a direct correlation between occupying a foreign country and occupying Rio’s favelas. The Brazilian military has been leading the UN’s occupation of Haiti for many years and has used the strategies and tactics of that occupation in the military exercises in the Complexo do Alemão. Sensitive as ever to the cultural nuances of “indigenous people”, a Brazilian coronel was quoted as saying, “it doesn’t get to be an organized crime unit like in Rio. Violence happens here may times because it is a part of their culture.” (Não chega a ser uma organização criminosa como no Rio. A violência acontece aqui, muitas vezes, por fazer parte da cultura do povo.)  There are other comparisons to be made here between the USA and Brazil, but I will leave it to the reader to make those connections.

O’Bama is planning a visit to Rio for St. Patrick’s Day week. He’ll give a big public speech in Cinelândia. I’m trying to call this the “Visita d’Obama” but was told this is not grammatically correct. It’s the “Visita do Obama”, which for me is one too many O’s.

Dilma officially indicated Henrique Mirelles as the head of the APO (Autoridade Pública Olímpica). The former head of Brazil’s Central Bank will preside over an institution that was significantly reduced in size during the deliberations in the Senate. The APO went from 480 to 181 official posts. The Lula government was sparing no expense, for anything, but Dilma has had more fiscally responsible ideas in her head. Sergio Cabral and Eduardo Paes also wanted the APO to have reduced powers and they appear to have been successful in their negotiations with the federal government. I haven’t been able to find the revised text of the Medida Provisória 510, so if anyone out there has some time and inclination, I’ll update this post and give due credit!

Classes started this week. I’m teaching a course called “Producing the Olympic City” in the Master’s program of Architecture and Urbanism at UFF. If anyone wants to get on the blog, google group, or zotero send me an email and I’ll get you signed up. Falando nisso, se houver Brasileiros interessados em participar no curso, estou abrindo as portas para vocês! (BTW, for those of you not familiar with zotero.com, it’s perhaps the best thing ever invented for researchers, even though it only functions in Mozilla).

Oh no, more APO...

Today, the Brazilian lower house is taking up the possibility of reforming Provisional Measure 503/2010 (MP 503/2010) that may or may not create a new state agency to run the 2016 Olympic Games. Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, has been expressing his dissatisfaction with the measure which will take much of the power over Olympic construction out of his hands and put more powerful and qualified people than him in positions of power. According to today's small column in OGlobo, there does not appear to be much chance of changing MP 503/2010 as it has to be voted on before March 1. If the vote is delayed, the MP will die and Rio's Olympic project will be delayed for another few months (not necessarily a bad thing).

Apparently Dilma, Paes, and Rio state govenor Sergio Cabral are willing to let the measure die rather than create the new state agency. The creation of the Public Olympic Authority and the Brasil Sport Legacy [sic] Company (or BRASIL 2016), was a fundamental piece of Rio 2016's bid. It has been nearly a year and a half since Rio won the Olympic auction. While I agree that MP 503/2010 needs to be radically reformed, there has been no public discussion of the MP in Rio and there will be no mechanisms for civil society to participate in the decisions taken regarding the city's future. There are R$30 billion hidden agendas in this process, but if MP 503/2010 does not get voted upon, it may be just the opporutnity that Rio's social movements and public defenders need to get insert themselves into the hurricane of creative destruction that is making its way to South America.

The TCU report from last week didn't have any immediate or noticable effect on the CBF or the organization of the World Cup. Today I published a o a slightly revised version of last week's article regarding the TCU's findings about Brazil's 2014 World Cup preparations at The Shin Guardian, one of the leading footy websites in the USA:
http://theshinguardian.com/2011/02/22/brazil-stadiums-budgets-that-border-on-complete-fiction/

Coming soon: photos from a Paulista clássico, Santos (1) x Corinthians (3)

Head of Autoridade Publico Olimpico announced; Nova Fonte Nova underway

In all of the shuffling of positions that occured with the change of government in Brazil, the ever-confused Minister of Sport Orlando Silva couldn't quite figure out where he was going. The CBF wanted him to stay in his current position as did the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB). If you find it shocking that Brazil has a cabinet position filled by a nominal communist, don't be, Mr. Silva is as red as an international finance manager.

The Dilma government decided to maintain Silva in his post at the MoS and has indicated Henruque Meirelles to occupy the top position in the APO. As president Mirelles will make R$22,000 a month and direct a budget of R$30 billion. His qualifications? For the past eight years Meirelles has directed Brazil's Central Bank, winning IstoE's 'Brazilian of the Year' award in 2009. As with nearly all Latin American central bank directors since the Chilean coup in 1973, Meirelles has passed through a conservative USAmerican institution (Harvard) and was the president and c.o.o. of Bank Boston.

There are some conflicts ahead for Mr. Meirelles. The APO is comprised of representaives from three spheres of government, federal, state, and city. The state governor of Rio appears to be on board but the mayor, Eduardo Paes has openly resisted the scope of power of the APO to direct the Olympic building projects. Yesterday he said that he wants "someone smaller" in the position, ostensibly so that Paes himself can have more control over what is going on. This will be an intersting clash of egos. It's unclear to everyone how the APO is going to function, where they will set up shop, who is going to fill the 400 odd positions, and the amount of authority they will wield over urban planning in Rio. We can bet that there will not be much in the way of transparency mechanisms as nearly a year and a half after the seletion of Rio as host of the 2016 Olympics, the website dedicated to Olympic transparency www.transparenciaolimpica.com.br has NO USEFUL INFORMATION.

In my other attempts to gain access to information about the organization of the World Cup and in particular the Maracanã project, I have been met with a vast and stunning silence. I will attempt in the near future to bang on the doors of the SUDERJ archives while continuing to call and email in order to get access to someone or something that will shed light on the inner workings of the World Cup project. The SUDERJ website is good for a laugh.

Which brings me to the World Cup. Four years after the selection of Brazil to host the 2014 tournament there is no didicated website. The CBF website (which only recently has started to work in any browser other than Explorer) has a link that takes one to the FIFA website. On the FIFA site, there are pictures of flaccid, pale middle aged men shaking hands and smiling. There is no public transparency mechanism for the World Cup, and it is increasingly difficult to figure out where money is coming from, where it is going, what the associated infrastructure projects are and who is in charge of anything. The media are as complicit in this obfuscation as as anyone, as I pointed out in my damning critique of IstoE last week.

Another example of the faux-journalism related to these projects came in yesterday's OGlobo. Buried in the middle of the sports section was a full page treatment of the Nova Fonte Nova in Salvador. The stadium was demolished last year over the protests of several residents' groups. There's an excellent article about why it was wrong to demolish the stadium, highlighting its historical function in the city, its multi-purpose utility, and the false and flawed logic employed by the government in order to build something to attend to the sick desires of the FIFA-mafia. Oh well.

The OGlobo piece talks about the public-private-partnership between two of Brazil's largest civil construction firms, OAS and Odebrect, the amount of public financing (R$300 million), the money spent on demolition (R$67 million), but does not mention how much private capital has gone into the project. The stadium will, you will be plesed to hear, "have 31 quiosks, 11 elevators, a panoramic restaurant, a football museum, and space for lectures, shows and business meetings." They might even have a football team play there, though nothing is confirmed. And of course, all of this destruction and construction is actually good for the environment as it will "utilze natural [sic] wind, recycle rain water and sewage, and will (somehow) preserve the environment around the stadium."

The second section of the report was not so glowing as the majority of the urban infrastructure projects planned for Salvador have not lept off the paper and into the lives of residents. The shocking thing about this article was the official statement that Salvador is expecting 70,000 tourists for the World Cup. That's it? 70,000? Surely they get more than that for Carnaval...The planned investments in urban infrastructure, which are needed, amount to R$750 million. But who is directing these projects? Will these projects only attend to the needs of the 70,000 visitors, or to the city at large, creating a more integrated urban transport system? How much will these (so far) phantom projects cost? As a demonstration of the logics behind the projects, the coordenator of the Salvador World Cup said, "It's no good to talk about exact values because the projects will be distributed between various municipal departments and some projects are only related to urban dynamics, and won't be considered part of the World Cup costs?"

Indeed, it is no good to talk about exact values, because these values are going to be hidden from public view. According to the vast majority of press reports, the World Cup and Olympics are responsible for EVERYTHING that will happen in Brazil through 2016. However, when it comes time to talk about the ways in which this will happen logistically or where the money will come from or how those money trails will be followed and accounted for or who will be responsible for delivering the finished product and ensuring that public money is spent in the interest of the public, the answer is always "não dá".

The APO doesn't exist! Rio 2016 and the failure to deliver authority

One of the most confusing and potentially harmful elements of hosting an Olympic Games is the creation of a legal authority created to "deliver" them. In the case of London there is the Olympic Delivery Authority, a non-governmental entity that has tremendous power to direct the budget, contract builders, and assume responsibility for the games. I have suggested in other places that the creation of a temporary, extra-governmental authority that is charged with delivering the Olympics only to disappear soon after, is akin to the installation of an authoritarian regime similar to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in post-invasion Iraq.

On March 14 of 2010, the slippery Minister of Sport gave an extensive explanation about how the Autoridade Público Olímpico (APO – Rio’s version of London’s ODA) would function. Minister Silva said, “We are going to have an executive department and will perhaps create a privatized, public company so that we can have flexibility in terms of contracting. This way, we will be able to pay market salaries to attract high level professionals to participate in the project”( Vamos ter um departamento executivo, talvez constituir uma empresa pública de direito privado, para termos flexibilidade em termos de contração. Com isso, poderemos pagar salários praticados pelo mercado e atrair profissionais de alto nível para participarem do projeto.) Minister Silva was tapped by Lula to head the APO and was put in the position of describing it without, perhaps, knowing exactly how it was going to work.

Things have changed since the elections.

Now, the PCdoB (Communist Party of Brasil) wants to keep Silva at the head of the Sports Ministry for the Rousseff government. Dilma agreed. This may explain why just the other day, Silva was pretending not to know anything about the existence of the APO, saying “this thing is an idea, a concept, an organization that doesn’t exist.” This, despite the fact that Lula went to some trouble to approve a Medida Provisória (MP ) brining it into existence. However, the APO requires the approval of all three levels of government and Eduardo Paes, the little prince of Rio, has begun to grumble about the extraordinary authority given over to the APO. Without the approval (or involvement) of Paes in the APO it is unlikely that his cabal of city council members will approve the MP, leaving the 2016 Olympics without an organizing structure. I am not against the disappearance of the APO, as it appeared to be an institution designed to deliver money to the contractor friends of the governor and mayor. But the IOC must really be wondering what the hell is going on with the organization of the 2016 Games, as 15 months after awarding them to Rio, there is no clear direction being taken for their implementation.

There has been rumor that the Dilma government will create an independent ministry to organize the Olympics. This is exactly what Brazil needs: another level of bureaucracy to smooth out the problems of chronic delay that already plague public works.

It is clear that no one really knows what is going on. On the front page of the Rio 2016 website is a Maracanã project that is not being planned (according to the SUDERJ and Brazil 2014 descriptions). The main news that is being spammed to the media outlets is about the countdown to the launching of the Rio 2016 brand on New Year’s Eve (oh, so exciting). The city government is launching aggressive and violent campaigns to kick people out of their homes so that huge concrete sluices can carry buses back and forth to the Olympic Zone in Barra de Tijuca. City, State, and Federal troops are occupying hills throughout the city.

Is this surprising? No. Why not? The same people who were in charge of the Pan American Games are directing the Olympics. The “legacy” benefits of that event were ZERO. Orlando Silva cited the event that he helped to direct as a failure (I heard him say this personally). Silva went so far as to blame the bloody defeat of Cesar Maia (former Rio mayor) in his bid for State Senator on the failures of the Pan. Ten years from now, who will we blame for the housing crisis, the lack of functional transportation, the poor air and water quality, the lack of decent jobs in the city, the absence of legacy benefits from the 2016 Olympics?

2016 Olympic Village apartments to cost R$400.000 each, to build...

The mega-builder Carvalho Hosken (one of the largest land holders in Barra de Tijuca the neighborhood where the majority of 2016 Olympic installations will be located), signed a contract today with Rio 2016 and the Rio city government to build the Olympic Village at a cost of R$1 Billion. Even without having fully negotated the terms of the loan from the Caixa Economica, Carvalho Hosken is set to build the 2.500 apartment residential complex.

The math is simple. One Billion divided by 2.500 = R$400.000. According to today's story, the "idea is to sell the apartments on the open market."

Looking back to the Pan American Games and the resulting emptiness of the Vila PanAmericana (which contrary to today's rosy reporting, has an occupancy level lower than 30% even though the majority of the apartments were sold after the Pan), we might be staring the same beast in the face. The VilaPan did not have sufficient financial backing, the scope of the project was reduced and the condominiums are mostly empty.

The head of Carvalho Hosken said of the 2016 Olympic Village "if I feel like I'm not going to be able to complete the project, I'll tell Nuzman (head of Rio 2016) and give up on the project." Great. So if C.H. can't finish the Olympic Village for a BILLION reales, then he'll give up and force someone else to take over at the last minute? Imagine what the average price for one of the apartments will be after this happens...R$500.000, R$600.000? This will certainly solve the grave housing crisis in Rio de Janeiro.

While this is going on, the Rio city government is ticking off a list of 119 favelas to be removed in the lead-up to the games. Many of these are within sight of the future Olympic Village. The Tribunal das Contas da União, responsible for monitoring government spending is going to have its work cut out for it. They still haven't finished processing people for the PAN 2007.

In other news, the Communist Party of Brasil (CPdoB) has begun to insist that the current Minister of Sport, Orlando Silva, maintain his post and not be shuffled over to head the Autoridade Publico Olímpico, the parallel government that will be responsible for building the Olympic City. We have already seen the ousting of Ricardo Leyser from the position of CEO of BRASIL 2016 (the private company that will be contracted  by the APO on a no-bid basis). Are the deck chairs being shuffled because the stink of the PAN is still heavy around all these Olympic insiders? Or is there a genuine effort to find people who are qualified for the job?

Two weeks away = massive update

Two weeks away from the daily tumult of Rio has left me with a pile of newspapers and magazines to read, some articles to write, and a need to catch the English-language world up on what has been happening in relation to the city, the World Cup and the Olympics.

To reiterate the general point of all of my commentary and critique of these events: there is no way to separate the production of mega-events and the production of urban space.

In Rio de Janeiro, the demands of the World Cup and Olympics have become the de-facto city plan. From transportation, to security, to stadiums, to hotels, to communications, airports, etc. the complex socio-spatial-economic-political exigencies of these events are pushing from the top down, restructuring space and society. The end goal is to accelerate flows of capital, information, people, goods, and more capital – imagining, imposing, and leaving behind a matrix of power relationships that articulate in urban space. These complex restructurings are happening in a compressed time frame – it’s as if no one in Rio de Janeiro government has thought of the year 2017, much less 2028, or 2042 when we will still be living with the impacts of the interventions that are taking place now.

In reading through the last two weeks of OGlobo to catch up on what I’ve missed, I understand that one of the critiques of this kind of analysis will be that I am reading too much into a single news source that is unabashed in its approval of all things mega-event. I also recognize that by focusing on these top down interventions that I am probably reinforcing their power by drawing attention to them in lieu of highlighting the bottom-up forces arrayed in opposition to the projects.Oh well, critique away. I'll get to the resistance soon enough. 

Olympic Update:

In my post entitled The Olympic Shell Game, I outlined the plans of the COB and Brazilian government to erect a parallel governmental structure to construct and conduct the Olympic Games. This parallel government was given life by President da Silva through two Medidas Provisórias (Provisional Measures) that if approved by the Brazilian Senate would have the force of law. In a tiny column on 23.9.10 (p.23), Luiz Magalhães reported that the senate failed to vote on the measures which cannot be taken up again in the same legislative year in which they were submitted.

This appears to be a big, big problem for the Rio 2016 OCOG, but a potential opportunity for civil society to stick their noses in where they belong. What this means is that there is currently no organizing structure to carry off the games beyond the cabal headed by Carlos Nuzman. The closed, opaque, and autocratic head of the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB), is also the head of Rio 2016, the first time in Olympic history that the same person has occupied both positions. This absurd concentration of power in one person has already revealed its true nature and received a very public rebuke. Here’s what happened:

Rio 2016 sent out a call for proposals for architectural plans for the Autódromo Nelson Piquet, the epicenter of the 2016 Olympics (and site of the Vila Autodrómo, whose struggle against forcible removal by the city government I covered here). The problem was that they only gave an opening of 16 days for firms to submit proposals for a project with a budget of R$ 216.4 million. The Institute of Brazilian Architects (IAB) raised a stink, and after some major coverage in OGlobo and pressure from the city government (and probably the IOC), Rio 2016 cancelled the call for proposals.

In reaction to this absurd episode (which was not accidental, but likely an attempt to steer the contract to one of Nuzman’s “friends” who had no doubt been preparing a proposal behind the scenes for some time), the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes is preparing a document requiring all Olympic projects to be cleared through four separate organs of  city government (Urbanism, Environment, Transportation, and Architecture and Urbanism). Can you say engarrafamento burocrático? Rio 2016 did the right thing by canceling the call for proposals. This is the first instance of a major reaction by the press and the IAB and the democratically elected government against Rio 2016. Let’s hope there were some lessons learned. 

So even though the Senate did not vote on the MPs creating the APO and BRASIL 2016, we can see that the foxes are going to have the keys to the hen house. The minister of sport, Orlando Silva, who was going to assume the presidency of the APO named Ricardo Leyser as the president of BRASIL 2016. Leyser, for those unfamiliar with the scandals of the 2007 Pan American Games, is still under investigation for his role in diverting hundreds of millions of R$ and generally botching the financing.Silva was in charge of the games themselves and Nuzman was head of the Organizing Committee. Same people, same roles, more money, different result? I don't think so. 

To confirm the general sensation that there is a gross lack of communication, organization, and competency between the agencies responsible for pulling off Brazil’s mega-events, on 22.9.10, President da Silva launched a Medida Provisória para o Esporte de Alto Rendimento (MP for high performance sport), designed to push Brazil into the top ten in medal counts in 2016. This MP is going to direct 2% of the national lottery to the COB which will then direct it to the various federations (a distribution system that has come under scrutiny by the government on more than one occasion). Incredibly, neither the COB or the national sport federations had any idea what the legislation was or about or that it had even been put forward by the national government. One would think that the Ministry of Sport would have some knowledge of these things and that because all of these people are in bed together that the communication would be more fluid. Perhaps the plan for medals is that silence is golden and no plan is a good plan. 

Jogos Militares:

I haven’t covered the 2011 World Military Games much on this blog, but they’re happening in Rio next July. The Military Games will be concentrated in the western suburb of Deodoro, bringing together six thousand athletes from 110 countries in fifteen sports. The Brazilian delegation has a number of Olympic athletes who are “joining” the armed forces for a little while. Brazil is far form the only country to use this tactic. The Military Games are considered a test for Rio’s mega-event capacity.

On the 16^th and 17^th of September, OGlobo reported that the organizing committee of the Military Games is under investigation by the Ministério Publico Militar  as well as the Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU) for awarding contracts without competitive bidding, irregularities in the construction of Games housing, sidestepping laws requiring projects to be evaluated by IPHAN (Institution of National Historical  and Artistic Patrimony), and possible contractual fraud with military engineering institutions. It’s not so bad, the budget for the Military Games is only around R$1.2 billion. I’ll be heading out to Deodoro in the coming weeks to get a first hand look at the Military Games installations and will report back with more information.

World Cup 2014:

Finally, finally, someone released photos of the Novo Maracanã. The demolitions have begun, but the Prefeitura has not yet approved the project as a whole, due to a series of bureaucratic necessities. As with most mega-events, and as was the case with the 2005-2007 reforms, the Maracanã project has begun without a plan. It happens so frequently that it must be the plan. 

Here’s the origin of some of the confusion: The state Secretary of Sport and Leisure, Marcia Lins, is in charge of SUDERJ (Superintendecy of Sports),which is in charge of the Maracanã. EMOP (Empresa de Obras Públicas) is responsible for public works and for providing construction services, and the municipal Secretary of Urbanism has to authorize the project vis a vis their coordinator for the licensing of special projects. There is a private firm that won the construction bid (RIO 2014) that has to pass the architectural designs through IPHAN, the preifeitura’s agencies, and the state government. These agencies all have to answer to the CBF and the 2014 Organizing Committee, which are in turn answering to FIFA, who answers to no one but global circuits of capital. So who is in charge of the Novo Maracanã project? Who knows. How much will it cost? Is anyone paying attention?

Jerome Valcke, secretary-general of FIFA,  blessed the Cidade Maravilhosa with a visit. He was here to check out places to install FIFA’s 2014 headquarters. Starting in 2011, Valcke is going to be living in Rio. He’s one of the few that won’t have much trouble affording an apartment in a city that has seen real-estate prices double since the announcement of the Olympics. 

The World Cup is being used as the final date for investments, creating the sensation that the event is stimulating everything that has to do with Brazilian economic growth. Two article headlines from the past two weeks: “Cabral: R$137 billion for Rio until 2014” (17.9.10); “R$ 3 billion for innovations until the World Cup”(14.9.10). These kind of headlines are typically completely unrelated to the articles that follow and are part of OGlobo’s (and global media’s) larger project of attributing economic benefits to an event that is wholly funded by the public. The idea that these kinds of investments are going to benefit the public at large is the same empty promise as Regan’s trickle-down economics. This contradiction is evident within the paper itself, as to the side of the second headline is this: “Player arrested with false passport.” The continuing exploitation of young players by unscrupulous agents is the very base of the profits that drive the global political-economy of football.

What is happening economically is that mega-events are bringing sales events to Rio. Last year I reported on the Expo-estadio. This year, Rio is receiving Sports Events as well as SoccerEx. The goal of the events, as reported on 19.9.10, is to exploit glowing economic by institutions paid by the ministry of sport, that suggest that the 2016 Olympics are going to generate R$102 billion for Brazil. In my cautious estimation, I think the 2016 Olympics will cost at least R$60 billion. When we include the investments for the World Cup, Pan 2007, etc. the cost to the public will be around $100 billion. Granted much of this investment is necessary, and I am working on teasing out the various fonts, agencies, projects, that are combining to produce the spaces and places for maximum capital accumulation through mega-events.

Urban changes:

There are massive changes underway in Rio’s urban and social systems as preparations are made to host the coming mega-events. These interventions are not accidental or random in the way that the confusion surrounding the stadium projects is. Rather they are intended to discipline urban-social relations through increased policing, or to open up corridors to accelerate flows of people, goods, and information (which means money, money, money).

On 16.9 Oglobo reported on Operation Hooligan, which targeted members of the torcidas ogranizadas of Vasco and Flamengo, arresting nine for a laundry list of crimes. The three month investigation involved 160 police who monitored Orkut trying to find where the torcidas would stage their battles in public space. Several weeks ago, a Vasco fan was killed after the game against Fluminense by a tire iron. The head of the Vasco torcida Forca Jovem has suffered several attempts on his life. Threats of violence are so severe that the Fla-Flu clássico only had 15,000 spectators (which of course has to do with the problematic access to the Fechadão).

One of the responses to the problem of fan violence is on the same page. An article entitled “New Delegation Against Disorder” reports the creation of the Delegacy for Public Order. The chief of the civil police called it a “process of combat and cleaning to get rid of the bandits that infiltrate the torcidas organizadas. We are a city that is going to host the World Cup and Olympics and we can’t be like this. We are going to bring peace to the public.” Ok. No problem with bringing peace to the public, but how about addressing the cause and not the symptom?

The announcement of the “Pentagon Carioca” confirms the idea that certain areas of the city are being transformed into defensible fortresses while others are being left to fend for themselves. This building will be the control center for all of Rio’s emergency services and will concentrate eight organs from three spheres of government: Policia Militar, Corpo do Bombeiros, Guarda Municipal, Defesa Civil, CET-Rio, Polícia Rodoviária Federal, and the Rio version of 911. The concentration of information and firepower as well as emergency services is one of the guarantees made by the organizing committees of the World Cup and Olympics to FIFA and the IOC. The article points out that the group that put the design together traveled the world in search of models. This included a stop in New York, where they hopefully learned at least one lesson from that city. Don’t put the coordinating agency of your city’s emergency services in a place that is likely to be attacked!

In the Olympic zone in the south-west of the city, the implementation of staggeringly ambitious transportation projects that continue to depend on the internal combustion engine, petroleum, and wheels is underway (17.9.10, p.22). The widening of the Avenida das Americas is going to cause the destruction of 30% of the buildings along its path and 70% are going to lose their frontage. People are complaining. No one was consulted. The bulldozers are there, doing their thing. Customers will be lost, home owners are not being justly compensated. There is something very familiar about all of this.

Today, there was an article that lamented the 40% increase in the number of cars on the roads in Rio in the last five years. When I compared the number of pages of actual news with the number of pages and classifieds for auto sales, guess which was bigger? I suppose it’s one way to keep the inexorable march to a doomed consumer society marching forward, which will eventually sell more newspapers, but does no one see the direct relationship between rezoning urban space to produce massive Miami style condominium complexes, an advertising section for cars that is bigger than the rest of the paper combined, and Rio’s chronic traffic problems? At least there was an article on the 21^st that prophesied 10% fewer buses on the roads by 2012 (p.16). Gee, that will really help once the fleet of cars increases by another 20%, especially as the “special bus lanes” will mean fewer lanes for all those cars.

And last but not least, the march of the UPPs continues with “Next stop: Mangueira and Macacos” (18.9.10, p.25). Mangueira is significant because it sits directly across from the Maracanã. Macacos is more problematic as it is larger and is where the now infamous helicopter was shot down last October. On the same page, the inaguratoin of the UPP in the Morro de Salgueiro did not have the customary festive atmosphere because three MPs assigned to that UPP have been killed in the last week.

Two weeks away and I only covered a fraction of what’s been going on, from one news source. It's a complicated mess and if you've read this far you'll be interested in the upcoming International Conferrence Mega-Events and the City, 3-5 November at UFF in Niteroi. 

The Olympic Shell Game (O jogo do bicho olímpico)

As I have mentioned in numerous posts and interviews, part of the process of hosting a mega-event is the restructuring of space and re-presenting culture in order to accelerate flows of capital, goods, information, and people. “Inefficiencies” are structured out of the city, “strategic areas” are “regenerated”, and “urban legacies” left behind. City, state, and national governments promise massive urban and social interventions, signing contracts with international sporting federations that take precedence over social contracts with the local population, even though it is the latter group that is footing the bill. The current model of mega-event production is broken. The World Cup and Olympics are guaranteed to leave behind sporting, tourist, and urban infrastructures that have little or no post-event utility, do not attend to the basic needs and priorities of locals, and waste a singular opportunity to shape urban space and culture in a way that will create a more just and livable society. We are in need of Olympic-lessness, not events that are ever bigger and more transformative.

Brazil 2014 and Brazil 2016 will be corrupt, non-transparent mega-events that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, exacerbate existing socio-economic divides, and leave behind acontextual, redundant, and under-used sporting, tourist, and urban infrastructures. Among the many reasons for this chronicle of a failure foretold is the fact that Brazil receives only 5 million tourist visits a year. Poland receives 15 million. Bulgaria receives 5.2 million. Bulgaria! The obvious solution is to move Brazil closer to North America and Europe, eliminate the tourist visa, or not spend one billion reales in stimulus to construct hotels for which there will be no post-event demand. With that kind of money you could fly in another million tourists. The results from Athens 2004 and South Africa 2010 should be warning enough. Alas, in Brazil the federal government has made it ever easier to build on a massive scale while creating complex legal structures to ensure the total opacity of the process.

In May, President Lula signed into law Provisional Measure 488/2010, giving birth to Empresa Brasileira de Legado Esportivo S.A. - BRASIL 2016 (The Brazilian Sport Legacy Company Ltd. – BRASIL 2016). On the same day, he signed Provisional Measure 489/2010, creating the Autoridade Pública Olímpica – APO (Public Olympic Authority). These two institutions will be directed by the Conselho Público Olímpico (Public Olympic Council -CPO). These new institutions will use the legal measures outlined in the Olympic Act (Lei nº 12.035/2009) along with their exceptional powers to “transform” Rio de Janeiro into an Olympic City. How will this work?

The federal government will pass R$29 billion to the CPO, comprised of the president of the republic, the governor and mayor of Rio de Janeiro “or their representatives”. The CPO can decide whether or not to extend the life spans of the APO and BRASIL 2016 past their 12/31/18 death date (kind of like the mutants in Bladerunner). The CPO will pass the money along to BRASIL 2016, which will then pass it along to the APO, which will then pass it along to contractors that do not have to go through a public bidding process in order to receive contracts with public money. Neither BRASIL 2016 or the APO will be required to hire their employees through the normal legal channels. All goods imported for the Olympic and World Cup projects are exempt from tariff duties (especially aggravating when it will cost me R$275 to liberate my birthday package from the mail room). By the time a contractor starts to work on a project, the money will have passed through three inter-connected yet independent organizations, none of which will have non-governmental auditors. Just to get the APO up and running will cost R$94,8 million. In Brazil, money does actually grow on trees but you have to cut them down to get it.

The APO is responsible for the creation and delivery of the Caderno de Encargos Olímpicos (CAPO – Olympic Projects) which the agency alone defines. These projects are highly varied, and in many cases assume the responsibilities normally undertaken by state agencies. The APO is not required to have liaisons with any state agencies, becoming a form of urban governance unto itself. This ensures that the APO will become the agency that is planning the city for the next generations. Will they hire urban planners? Will the total autonomy from democratic process facilitate the development of strong community relations? Will the lack of accountability in awarding contracts ensure a more transparent expenditure of public funds? Once BRASIL 2016 and the APO expire, to what government agency will citizens be able to turn to register complaints or search for answers? How many of the people who were in charge of the massively over budget, non-transparent 2007 Pan American Games will be directing these agencies? How will these extraordinary powers be used as we get ever closer to opening ceremonies? Will Ricardo Teixeira, president of both the CBF (Brazilian Football Federation) and the LOC (Local Organizing Committee) ensure that public money does not go into his private organization? Will Carlos Nuzman, president of the COB (Brasilian Olympic Committee) and Rio 2016 (which has an uncertain yet continuing role in all this) ensure that his business relationships are not going to benefit from the opacity of the Olympic Structure? Will the government site dedicated to monitoring Olympic Projects (http://www.transparenciaolimpica.com.br/ ) ever have information that is worth looking at?

Perhaps in anticipation of the answers to these questions, the Ministry of Sport is planning on spending between R$15-R$22 million per year to improve its image.

The deployment of provisional measures in addition to the alteration (or suspension) of national, state, and city laws in order to “prepare” Brazil to host sports mega-events highlights the radical nature of these events.

The IOC and FIFA make demands, Brazil bends over backwards to meet them. The clock is running and badly needed investments in health, education, and public transportation get bypassed for new priorities.  The government, in fealty to slick criminals, makes new laws, grants exemptions, and creates a parallel government that will take public money, have little or no accountability (either financial or democratic), and then once the games have passed, will simply disappear. As I mention in my article in the Journal of Latin American Geography, this is similar to what happened during the USAmerican invasion of Iraq with the establishment of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). The CPA went in after a total “restructuring” (Shock and Awe), changed all of the laws and then evaporated. Here, the Shock and Awe comes in a different, somewhat less violent form, but the idea is the same: restructure space and culture for the maximization of profit.