Originally Posted by
dgcpaphd
Here is an interesting article that appears in today's New York Times [/url]
As a Carioca I am eternally optimistic. Maybe my lenses are not quite so "rose-colored" as are Mr. Cohen's (Apartments prices have not "quadrupled" in the last year anywhere here, doubled yes) but things are improving.
There was even a report by economists of Banco Santander today suggesting that Brazil will have fewer people living in poverty than does the US by the end of 2011! The progress is astounding and mostly very positive.
There are still negatives and the topic of this thread is one of them. Public works here seem to fall victim of what Henrique Mirelles, the new head of the games coordinating body, calls a "vibrant democracy". He's correct. Brazil is a very immature democracy so nobody is comfortable asserting dominance over anyone elses right to stop something.
Thus there remains lots of impunity and progress is sometimes slow.
Today I am optimistic. I think we'll somehow be ready.
Don't ask about tomorrow.
