A look into the other side of he Rio Olympics
While millions are in Rio for the Olympics, and billions watching the games on TV, the glamour of the Olympics hides the reality in Rio de Janeiro. With rampant robberies, muggings, gang wars, prostitution, and administrative failures, Rio de Janeiro is a city in the grips of crime, vice and violence. We take a brief look at the darker side of the 2016 Olympics.
Condom distributors in the Olympic Village
A man named Eric, along with a small team of people, is going around the Olympic village in Rio de Janeiro with a huge sack of condoms. This is part of the larger initiative by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to promote safe sex during the Rio Games. 450,000 condoms are supposed to be distributed during the Olympics, along with 175,000 packets of lubricants.
Condom distribution in Olympics
The Olympic Villages over the years which have housed the Olympic athletes have had a reputation for promiscuity. As a result, condom distribution was started from the 1988 Olympics held in Seoul.
Tinder usage sees huge spike during the Rio Olympics
According to a new study, Tinder usage has spiked in Rio de Janeiro as the Olympics go on. Tinder matches went up by 129% in the Olympic Village. Furthermore, in the Olympic Village, daily active users went up by 64%, swipes went up by 69% and super likes went up by 73%. The app is also being used by prostitutes to attract clients.
Prostitution and the Olympics
Brazil's largest red light district, the Villa Mimosa, situated close to the Maracana Stadium, houses 3,000 prostitutes out of the 12,000 prostitutes in service in Rio de Janeiro. In an effort to attract more business during the Olympics, prostitutes made fliers in English offering "cut-price" sex. However, because of safety issues in the area, the impoverished prostitutes are not getting too many foreign clients.
Soaring crime accompanies the 2016 Rio Olympics
Street crime in Rio has been soaring from before the start of the Olympics. Apart from professional athletes being robbed, and stray bullets flying around, the Portuguese Education Minister was assaulted, followed by an attack on the security chief for the the Olympics. In another incident, there was a bomb scare at the end of the men's cycling event. The list keeps growing.
Crime in Rio
In June 2016, there over 11,000 registered cases of street robberies in Rio, an 81% increase from June 2015. To add to that, there were over 2,000 murders committed in Rio in the first seven months of 2016.
Underpaid cops intensifying Rio's problems
Although the state Government of Rio de Janeiro borrowed $850 million from Brazil's Federal Government to cover security costs during the Rio Games, cops and firemen in Rio de Janeiro continue to remain underpaid. A lot of policemen have not been paid for their services in May and June. Reportedly, some police stations cannot even afford petrol, toilet paper etc.
Luxury in the midst of abject poverty
Over 77,000 people were forcibly displaced for the construction of infrastructure and facilities for the Olympics, in a city of over 220,000 homeless people. While the Brazilian Government spent around $10 billion for the Olympics, thousands still languish in militia run favelas in impoverished parts of the city, with 85,000 deployed security forces to keep them in check.
