The Olympic Games are over and athletes are returning home to hero welcomes. Individuals may have broken records and surpassed personal bests but just what did the actual Olympics accomplish?
Sad to say that the poor didn’t get anything much; some lost their homes and livelihoods altogether for the construction of the arenas. 20,000 families were displaced to make way for Olympics-related infrastructure in Rio. The games were held, in a city of such desperate financial circumstances that state workers are not being paid and healthcare centers cannot even afford to take on the Zika virus crisis. Rio declared bankruptcy ahead of the games, and the state’s governor declared a “state of calamity.” After the excitement, there is no substantial change to the deplorable conditions. The only benefactors from the Olympics have been the corporations who have milked the cow to the last drop of the milk, and various government politicians who wave the flag and take the credit for success.
Around the world, people are dying of hunger and being killed with no regard for human life whatsoever. The Olympic Games was nothing but a distraction to the real issues and displacing from the media headlines the tragedies of capitalism. A token gesture of including refugee team participate, but wouldn’t the real gesture be donating the $4.6 billion which the Olympic Games cost to the amelioration of the refugee crisis?
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