Olympic Capitalism: Bread and Circuses Without the Bread
The author of Brazil's Dance With the Devil: The World Cup, The Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy, Dave Zirin, must love sports, as I do, as billions of us do, or he wouldn't keep writing about where sports have gone wrong. But, wow, have they gone wrong!
Brazil is set to host the World Cup this year and the Olympics in 2016. In preparation Brazil is evicting 200,000 people from their homes, eliminating poor neighborhoods, defunding public services, investing in a militarized police and surveillance state, using slave and prison labor to build outrageous stadiums unlikely to be filled more than once, and “improving” a famous old stadium (the world's largest for 50 years) by removing over half the capacity in favor of luxury seats. Meanwhile, popular protests and graffiti carry the message: “We want ‘FIFA standard' hospitals and schools!” not to mention this one ((FIFA = Fédération Internationale de Football Association, aka Soccer Profiteers International):
