Left, Chicago, Right, Rio.
A sports event won't change this.
Yer gotta be amazed at the hullabaloo around the International Olympic Committee’s Selection of Rio De Janeiro as the site for the 2016 Olympics. Some Chicagoans were so stunned they were depressed for a week. Some were said to have thought it was the worst thing that happened to them.
That tells you something about their attitude to the rest of the world and what’s going on in it. Or even more stunning, what’s happening here in the US.
The international competition between nations for who gets to host the event is fierce. Each national capitalist class sees the tremendous potential for gain. Not only will the taxpayers of each nation guarantee that there are no losses, tourists will drop billions of dollars in to the pockets of the shopkeeper, hotelier, and other sellers of wares.
The fact that Chicago was not selected, despite a visit by president Obama to the IOC’s meeting in Denmark where he made a seven-minute speech, has been seized upon by the US mass media as a snub and further proof of the rest of the world’s anti-Americanism. It doesn’t take much to be labeled un-American in America.
Obama had not intended to fly to Denmark at taxpayer’s expense. The original plan was to send Michelle Obama and Valerie Jarrett, a close adviser. But you know US business, especially the thugs that run the city of Chicago around the Daly machine were not about to let an opportunity to make some money go to waste.
But why should the choice of Rio over Chicago come as such a surprise. Firstly, Latin America has never hosted an Olympic Games. As recently as a couple of weeks ago the US had not guaranteed the federal government would cover any losses. The president of Brazil Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva (Lula) on the other hand had already approved $240 billion in funding and guaranteed that the Brazilian taxpayer would cover any “shortfalls” in the organizing committee’s budget. * Rio is expecting to spend $14 billion on infrastructure improvement which will rake in some dollars for business and provide some employment for a city that needs it.
“If you choose Chicago, I promise you this: Chicago will make America proud and America will make the world proud.” Said Obama in his appeal to the IOC. Lula’s appeal was somewhat different, “I believe the Olympic Games are not only a privilege for the rich countries,” he said. “Are the Olympic Games a sport event where only rich countries have the right, or is it another thing?” Lula asked, “It can’t be a European or an American Olympic Games. It has to be a world Olympic Games.” he stressed.”
There’s no doubt that these statements will find receptive ears throughout the former colonial world; Brazilians were jubilant.
The whole affair also reflects the ongoing decline of US imperialism’s influence on the global stage amid the rise of China, Brazil, India and to a lesser extent, Russia, known collectively as the BRICS. Brazil is flush with cash at the moment and has some $250 billion in reserves thanks largely to high prices for soy, iron ore, and steel exports. The US could do nothing to help its proxy in Georgia, the new G20 is replacing the G7 and of course there's weakening of the dollar that has gone on for some time and will continue. The discrediting of the Anglo-Saxon economic model represented by the US as a result of the current crisis is real. Things have definitely changed.
But the jubilation a Brazilian worker, or millions of the poor in the underground economy will feel at this choice is not the same as the glee with which Lula and Brazilian capitalism will greet it. They will be salivating at the prospect of a summer of enrichment. Lula is staunchly pro-business, a populist who sees the role of government as the great regulator that will protect the masses (and more importantly capitalism, from the excesses of the market. Brazil’s huge oil deposits are the answer, Lula claims: “[The oil money] will be used to invest in education, science, and technology so we can end poverty and solve chronic problems.” He tells Business Week. ** I am old enough to recall this argument being made in Britain after the discovery of the huge oil deposits in the North Sea; look at the country now.
For the average person, this struggle between capitalists of different nations for access to what amounts to a great business opportunity matters very little. In the US, the failure to bring the games to Chicago the media will subtly or not so subtly portray as a confirmation of the hatred the world’s peoples have for us, a hatred rooted in jealousy and envy; they are envious of our freedom.
This will, at least temporarily, take our minds off the joblessness, housing crisis and general decline in our standard of living that will continue in to the future.
For the millions of Brazilian workers and poor, getting the Olympic Games will boost their confidence and national pride and is surely proof that their economy and the games will bring a brighter, more prosperous future.
This will, at least temporarily, take their minds off the joblessness, poverty and general decline in their standard of living that lies in their future.
•Wall Street Journal 9-23-09
** Business Week Oct. 2nd
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