Check your fears

Don’t fret as Rio welcomes the world to a spectacular show

IT’S as predictable as the fixed, twoyear calendar for the Olympics themselves.

Before every edition of the Games – winter or summer, rich or developing world – a litany of complaints, criticisms and doomsday predictions play out in the news media and among foreigners and host country locals alike.

Beijing was going to snap under the tension of east veLiversus west sensibilities. London was going to grind to a standstill, paralysed by security fears.

In the days before Sochi started two years ago, social media crackled with criticism and images mocking Russian workmanship.

In Brazil, as Rio de Janeiro gears up for the opening ceremony today, a slew of problems have indeed made many question the success of the Games – from a recession, to cost overruns, to forced evictions, to pollution, to the collapse of a new bike path that killed two people.

An outbreak of the Zika virus, a corruption investigation that jailed dozens of politicians and rich executives, and a political crisis prompting the president’s impeachment have also battered Brazil’s reputation and self-confidence.

But with as many as 500,000 foreign visitors descending upon Rio just days before show time, a familiar sense of anticipation and festivity are leading many to come to another habitual realisation: Things might actually go okay.

“Despite all the talk and all the media, I think Brazil is going to pull off a great Olympics,” said Farhad Panahi, a visitor from Toronto, enjoying the contrast from on high between verdant mountains and playful beaches during a tour of Rio’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue.

“It’s going to be fun and the city is going to have a good time.”

True, plenty could still go wrong, even forgetting the financial hangover expected after Brazil spent about US$12.3bil (RM50bil) to host the Games just as it reels from its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Traffic jams and other logistical problems could make for long waits and missed events. Quick fixes and last-minute construction could still cause problems at venues and Olympic housing. And the threat of terrorism, at a time of growing attacks by militants, continues to hang over the event.

Even concerns over Zika infections, which have waned dramatically during Brazil’s winter because lower temperatures slow reproduction of the mosquito that spreads the virus, could intensify if a sustained heat wave caused the bugs to rebound.

More than 85,000 police, soldiers and other security personnel will be on hand – over twice the force deployed during the London Olympics in 2012.

More than 50,000 volunteers will be in place across the city to help wayward visitors.

What’s more, Brazil has a history of being able to put spectacle first, no matter its other travails.