鈥淚 am absolutely convinced that history will talk of the Rio de Janeiro before the Games and the much better Rio de Janeiro after the Olympic Games,鈥 said Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee.
Rio Olympics
Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Visa and the rest of the corporate sponsors of the August 5鈥21 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro won't be paying any taxes on the money they earn due to a tax exemption law that is set to cost Brazil hundreds of millions of dollars.
Jorge Knijnik is a researcher at the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Western Sydney, and specialist in sport and social justice issues.聽He spoke to Lalitha Chelliah from the Solidarity Breakfast Show on Melbourne community radio station 3CR on August 6 about the many social issues swirling around the 2016 Rio Olympics. Below is an edited and abridged transcript.
An American Muslim fencer, who is the country鈥檚 first Olympian to wear a hijab, says she does not feel safe in the US due to the country鈥檚 increased anti-Muslim rhetoric, The Independent said on August 5.
Rafael 鈥淩afucko鈥 Puetter is a Rio-based artist and activist who put together an 鈥淥lympic anti-souvenir shop鈥 to highlight the injustices that arrive with the summer games.
I just returned to the United States from Rio de Janeiro, where I was researching a story on the Olympics in August for The Nation.
People spoke to me about the displacement and police violence that are accompanying the games. Yet one of the hottest points of discussion emerged from outside the country: a call to move, or at least postpone, the Olympics to prevent the global expansion of the Zika virus, currently exploding in Rio.
The overthrow of Brazil鈥檚 President Dilma Rousseff in an institutional coup by right-wing forces has been justified by allegations of corruption 鈥 even though issue Dilma is being impeached on is use of a relatively normal government spending mechanism.