After the Olympics, 'Brazil has to stand up to its problems'

In one momentSaturday night, a collective cheer thundered up from Maracana Stadium, echoing around Rio's hills and back down to Copacabana's bars, as Brazil won the gold medal in men's Olympic soccer. Fans pounded their chests with pride; suddenly the Rio Olympics seemed worth it.

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But come Monday, as some venues are torn down and others scaled back for the financially hobbled Paralympics in September, the bills willbe tallied and the legacies measured.

"My biggest concern is what is going to happen the day after the Olympics, because for now, we had two weeks of a very beautiful party, but we know that all the serious problems of Rio will remain and perhaps noone will pay attention to us anymore,"says Mauricio Santoro, professor of political science at Rio State University.

Brazil's economic crisis, the worst in 30 years, and its political tumult, on hold for the Olympics, will command attention again and the state of Rio is already broke.

"There is always a hangover when you throw a party, when you throw a celebration. But I mean this is a country full of challenges that I hope is getting out of a political and economic crisis.I hope things will get better now," says Eduardo Paes, Rio's mayor.

In spite of mosquitoes, muggingsand smelly bays, he says, Rio pulled off a spectacular party.

The Games were "much better"than expected,better than "even in my sweetest dreams when we campaigned for the bid,"he told CBC News.

But the reality for many in Brazil is more nuanced.

'The host usually pays'

A block from the marathon finish line Sunday, a Brazilian street artist sprays the finishing touches on a mural. It shows a long dinner table, wine glasses upended, chairs overturnedand a metre-long bill with the Olympic rings.

"It says who's going to pay the bill after all the party,"says Paulo Ito, a street artist.

"The host usually pays; maybe it wasn't really a good time for Olympics."

Rio won the Olympics promising improved infrastructure. It got that a subway extension, and a new bus rapid transit line. A complete overhaul of the port area created a lively, enticing new public space, crowded daily for the Olympics.

But two of Rio's biggest problems, security and sanitation, did not benefit from any Olympic glow, leaving disappointment and skepticism.

"The Olympics for me is lack of sanitation in the favelas," saysJose Martins de Oliveira, part of a residents' activist groupRocinha without Borders.

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He's standing at what the locals call the "sewage waterfalls,"inRocinha, Rio's largest favela, climbing up a hill between the Olympic Park and Ipanema.

At the top end of a small gully between rickety houses, raw sewage streamsunimpeded down to the ground, its flow slight or heavy depending on how many are flushing their toilets or sinks.

Sewage pipes extend out from the houses but then stop unconnected to anything.

"Without piping we have big cases of tuberculosis, stomach worms and skin problems," says de Oliveira.

"The Olympics for me is also the Guanabara Bay,promised to have been cleaned up, with the financial resources to do it, and it was not done."

"Obviously, Rio is not a perfect place," counters Mayor Paes."Rio has a lot of problems. And the Olympics were not about solving all those problems of the city. It was about getting people's lives better.

"This is a country with a lot of inequality.Countries like Brazil, continents like South America, they have the right to get the Olympics. It doesn't have to be only in developed countries always North America or always Europe or some dictatorship."

Final price tag unknown

The actual cost of these Olympics has not been transparent. Projections run close to $12 billion US.The mayor says for the venues and the organization, 80 per centis being paid from the private sector, "it's a cheap bill."

He frequently cites Montreal's experience with cost overruns and white elephant structures as an example that Brazil will avoid.

High above Guanabara Bay, in the middle-class neighbourhood of Santa Theresa, Mauricio Santaro says his biggest worry was a terrorism attack. That didn't happen.

But a steady beat of robberies, and street crime, the odd stray bulletin venues, and stone-throwing vandals from favelas, kept organizers on the defensive, while state security forces held running battles in some favelas trying to contain the violence within.

"During the Olympics we had massive shootings in the biggest slums in Rio," says Santoro. "It didn't make the headlines as much, but it was much more serious than some American swimmers making bad things in Rio."

Still, "I'm relieved,"says Mayor Paes, "I am very proud of my country, very proud of my city and excited about what can come after."

Sunday night, he wascentre stage as the Olympic torch passed to Tokyo and Brazil went back to its everyday crises.

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The Olympics exposed Brazil's problems, now Brazilians need to have courage to fix them, says Santoro.

"OK, it was not a tragedy, but there were many serious problems and we have to address those problems, not just because of the Olympics, not just because of the foreign tourists, but because of the lives of the people who actually inhabitRio and we have to stand up to these problems after the Olympic circus is gone."