Olympics 2016

Well the waiting is over and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is the winner of the 2016 Summer Olympics. With Brazil hosting the World Cup (Soccer Championship where teams from around the world compete in 2014, unlike American baseball's World Series which features two teams from the United States)Brazil will probably be in good shape. The recent discovery of two large oil fields will definitely help stimulate the economy and the building and tourist dollars will keep a lot of people employed in one form or another for the next decade.

Since my wife is Brazilian I am happy that Brazil gets to be the first South American country to ever host the Olympics.

Of course we have to comment on the whole process. Because the American President and First Lady got involved in lobbying for the city of Chicago, President Lula came to represent Rio de Janeiro, King Juan Carlos came for Madrid and members of the royal family put in an appearance for Tokyo.

The world is in an economic crisis and the leaders of the world decided that the priority is to promote sportsmanship and athletics, maybe to distract peoples' attention away from the fact that more than half the world is unemployed and living under the poverty level. I realize that competitions like the Olympics bring short term employment, but they can also bring long term debt and these factors need to be balanced and considered very carefully.

Personally, I think the mayors of the cities involved, along with their committees should have handled the presentations. The appearance of the heavy guns, especially in Chicago's case of the Obamas and the Oprah. My opinion is that they did more harm than good and we will wait and see if the members of the Olympic Board share their thoughts.

Anyway, the vote is done, now hopefully President Obama can get back to the White House and concentrate on the economy and health care.

Time will tell.

Its Common Sense!