Tudo bem vs. tudo ruim

Final, Copa do Brasil, ida

It’s now official, Eduardo Paes (EP) and I do not agree on anything but our football team. The following are quotes taken from an interview published yesterday with the around the rings website. Below each of the quotes is a recent quote from geostadia.com or the indicated publications.  

EP: Things are going very well.

Geostadia: I would like to write about all of the good news related to the top-down installation of mega-events but am having trouble finding any. 

EP: Infrastructure-wise, the biggest project for Rio is a transportation overhaul. Paes says everything is “fine” on that front. 

Geostadia: The forced, violent removal of people and homes in preparation for the crashing wave of mega-events has begun.

EP: I think there are no more differences between the IOC vision and the city’s vision. 

Geostadia in Reuters: "This is very authoritarian, top-down, with no public audiences, no democratic participation — and it's going to change the city for ever,"

EP: It’s going to be a tough thing to get on time but I think we’ve got the right schedule. By 2016 everything is going to be ready.

Geostadia: The city government is operating with a heavy, autocratic, and brutal hand as a slew of international media reports have recently shown. Last week the UN commission on housing rights and evictions paid multiple visits to communities that are being brutalized by the city. The tactics are Machiavellian, the results Dickensian. People throughout Rio de Janeiro (and the rest of the World Cup cities) are living in fear and insecurity. When the SMH comes with their spray can, the scarlet letters do not indicate a brighter future but imminent removal at the hands of an authoritarian state whose strings are being pulled by huge white men hidden in small black boxes.

EP:Maracana is going fine. The World Cup is much much easier to do than an Olympic Games, at least from a city point of view…But I mean it’s a fact there are some delays because of different levels of government in different cities. 

Geostadia in the New York Times:  It’s just one reform after another without anyone ever doing any kind of research as to what the people who actually use the stadium want.

EP: In Rio things are fine. I don’t see it as a problem concerning the Olympics. Actually, I think it’s a big asset for the Olympics because the mistakes that were done in the planning of the World Cup are not being repeated in the Olympic Games. And that’s good. It’s going to be perfect.

Geostadia in the Guardian: None of these projects have taken off because all of the money is coming from the public sector; a very, very good indication that they are not financially viable,

EP:  I think the World Cup has a communication problem. We are talking about 12 cities, Rio is on time. We have some problems with the airport but it will be ready on time. The problem with the airport is much more services than infrastructure. I think the problem of services will be okay by ’14.”

Geostadia in the Shin Guardian: Two of the major infrastructure works being planned for the World Cup have been paralyzed for lack of transparency in their contracting process. Rio Metrô has had their Linha 3 project stopped and São Paulo’s Garulhos (international) Airport has been halted. The latter is perhaps the most critical link in the entire World Cup construction process as São Paulo is the main point of entry to Brazil. Will Brazil be able to pull all of this together in time and if they do, what will be the cost, and who will pay? If it results in anything like what happened in South Africa, the outlook for Brazil is not encouraging.

Could we be doppelgangers? Can we both be right? Were we separated at birth? Will we find each other on LinkedIn? So many questions.

Monthly readership is hovering around 3,000. Thanks for all of the positive feedback and connections. If more people start to listen to my answers than to EPs then we can perhaps start to make some progress instead of increase to ingressos.