Rio de Janeiro 2016, Brazil 2014 and Beijing 2008: Not Games.

Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid have been selected yesterday as the candidate cities to host the 2016 Olympics.
The chosen quartet of cities – who had all been expected to survive the first stage in the selection process - will now have to compile a detailed dossier and submit it by February 12, 2009 giving the reasons why they should be chosen to be the next host after London in 2012.
After that, a panel of IOC experts will visit each of the cities, tour the proposed sites and meet with bid and government leaders. The panel will release an evaluation report to the IOC members a month before the vote on October 2009.
Rio, which hosted the 2007 Pan American Games, would be the first South American city to get the Olympics. This possibility, as remote as it might seem, immediately makes me wonder about how our beloved Rio and Brazil would look like in 2016.

Questions are: Is it imperative to Brazilians, as much as it is to Chinese people, to host such a huge event, thus triggering a massive effort on hiding severe wounds (mostly social wounds)? Do we need to hold the Olympics to acknowledge the “need” to become a regional power? Are this people talking about the same country where I was born and raised?

Last night I was watching my beloved Fluminense’s amazing victory over Argentina’s Boca Juniors at Libertadores Cup semi-final and I was deadly proud of how our country and our people are devoted to football and, in broader sense, sports. No doubt that we are ready to organize the best FIFA World Cup ever, in 2014.
Summarizing: one step at once, rite? There is a lot to be done before FIFA World Cup 2014 and I am not talking about Sports.