A lot of unfair things said about the Brazilians here. And many of them were also said about London. Some people seem to have selective memories.
Inequality of opportunity:
Does nobody remember the comments about the irony of building the Olympic park in Newham, within spitting distance of desperately deprived neighbourhoods that had very little chance of accessing the opportunity to succeed in sport at a high level or even be able to watch? Of course Newham isn't a favela but London has a rich-poor divide just like Rio's.
Seats:
There was loads of criticism about empty seats in London. I went to Handball and there were some people without seats for that match trying to argue their in through the door near me, saying ' you don't want the tv cameras picking up those empty seats do you?' It got them in! There was also bad congestion through the public transport system. I remember walking for an hour and a half to avoid the worst of it.
I am regretting not going to Rio (usually go to Brazil for part or all of the Summer but didn't this year as I thought it would be too expensive and crowded and I didn't want to miss most of the events in an attempt to see just one) - turns out I could probably have watched loads.
I have been talking to my Brazilian family and friends about the problems and accusations and have got these responses (some translated so sorry if they sound stilted):
It is an opportunity that the government used to steal more, the river is not prepared mainly because of the violence. We are not satisfied with the government, but since you will have the Olympics, I hope it's good for the athletes and visitors. The athletes of England are staying in belo horizonte and liked it a lot :)) I'm going to two days of soccer games in belo horizonte
It's definitely something not appropriate for the moment we're facing in our country... Crisis, corruption scandals, violence, unemployment increase and so on... It's only a way to distract people from the real situation we're living now. Now, almost 100% of us will forget the reality and paralise our lives 'coz of these days of games, and then when the entertainment is over all the bad things will be already forgotten and vanished from our worries... I love sports, like a lot to watch the games, but once again we're will end acting like just a small and insignficant piece of this terrible scenary of our governors
I think the real issues about olympics/world cup are the resources deviated from health/security/education. Other than that, I think the games are fairly well organized, people attending the games are safe due to the heavy security increase, the routines in the city are changed in order to avoid traffic congestion. It brings a patriotic feeling after all and I think sometimes international media is a bit harsh and picture problems a little worst than they actually are. Not all the coast in Rio is infected with garbage, the mosquitoes are less frequent due to winter time, the athlete villages all have minor problems, wherever in the globe you are. I'm fully aware of all the socio-political issues of my country, but I think people should also stand for what we've accomplished.