Script by LUC’S COOL Idiomas
This is the image Brazil wants to project around the world: the sunny beaches of Copacabana, year-run warm weather and iconic attractions like the Christ statue.
But this is the kind of images that Brazil has to worry about, all the ill-maintained underground utility lines blamed for a manhole cover explosion that injured an American tourist couple.
‘It’s not the first time’, says this Rio de Janeiro resident, worried about the frequency of such accidents.
Brazil has to fix infrastructure problems and fast. The country will host the World Cup in 2014 and two years later, the Summer Olympics will be held in Rio.
International football’s government body FIFA says Brazil is very late in preparing for the world’s biggest football event.
Sao Paulo, the country’s largest city, is in danger of being struck off as a host city if it doesn’t come up with an adequate stadium plan quickly.
There are charges government agencies are not talking to each other about necessary preparations.
“The governments can learn very fast how to solve these coordination problems. I think we can be on track.”
Rui Miranda Reis, Rio’s World Cup and Olympic secretary, agrees. He says Rio learned about organizing a mega event when it hosted the Pan American Games in 2007. He also points to the famous Carnival as proof of Rio’s civility to keep visitors safe in a city known for its high crime rate.
With a metropolitan area of almost 12 million people, Rio’s roads and highways can test anybody’s patience. Congestion is also an underground problem.
“This is what morning rush hour looks around in Rio’s subway system. People crowd the platforms. They have to wait for trains. They have to push their way through because they’ve been waiting for several trains to get on. Imagine what this could look like when tens of thousands of visitors come to the city.”
Rio’s metro is getting 184 new cars next year.
The Rio state government will spend as much as four and a half billion dollars fixing, updating, building and remodeling roads, bridges, trains and the subway, creating four million jobs in the next four years according to one recent study.
This cab driver thinks it will be good for business…but this kiosk vendor says people like him will lose out.
Rio’s aging international airport already started expanding and modernizing, increasing its capacity to 20 million passengers a year.
Half a million international visitors are expected for the World Cup and twice as many for the Olympics. All those visitors will be testing Rio’s reputation as Cidade Maravilhosa – Wonderful City and Brazil’s civility to compete on the world stage.
Rafael Romo, CNN, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
GLOSSARY
Iconic = famous
Host = [hospedar, receber]
Hold = [realizar]
Manhole = [bueiro]
Strike off = take out, eliminate
Come up with = present, show
Video link:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/sports/2010/07/12/romo.brazil.wc.host.challenges.cnn
