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Police and protesters clash in Rio anti-Olympic showdown


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Police and protesters clash in Rio anti-Olympic showdown

 

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Protesters set fire to the Brazilian flag in Rio ahead of the Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday, angry at a spectacle they feel has nothing to do with them.

 

The $12 billion dollar price tag to organise the Games has aggrieved many in one of the world’s most unequal societies. Much of Rio’s population couldn’t even afford to attend.

 

Demonstrators denounced corruption and overspending on the Games, amid Brazil’s worst economic downturn in decades.

 

And as the country staged its most intense security operation ever, police used stun grenades against a few hundred anti-Olympic protesters.

 

A demonstrator identifying himself as ‘Spiderman’ said: “Brazil is crying blood. People are dying. The bombs they set off there..this is war. We are in Iraq. This is Iraq.”

 

But as tear gas filled the air, others in Rio dubbed those burning Brazilian flags “idiots”, saying they had gone too far.

 

Shop owner Antoni Carlos Figueiredo said that the Olympics are important for Brazil and for Rio de Janeiro.

 

“No one who likes Brazil would do something like that,” he complained.

 

“There are many ways to protest. This is not the right way and it is sad that it is like this that we are hosting people from around the world.

Earlier on Friday, thousands marched alongside Copacabana beach.

 

It was a show of support for Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s suspended leader, who is now facing an impeachment trial. But the rally was principally a protest against interim President Michel Temer, who was also jeered by the crowd at the opening ceremony.

 

 
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-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-08-07

 

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We get it.  They're angry.  But now the Olympics will be going on for the next few weeks.  Thousands of the best athletes in the world will be competing, and tens of millions of people ww will be watching for enjoyment.  Come on, of course there are flaws as there are with any large-scale undertaking.  Let the athletes compete and the spectators enjoy the spectacle.   The protesters are out of line.

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I dunno. If you're poor, there are no jobs with little help form the government (fire workers not getting paid, etc) while an inordinate amount of money is being blown on entertainment, I can kind of see where they're coming from. Why should they be happy for something relatively trivial that they're not a part of when they're worried about putting food on the table?

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29 minutes ago, daveAustin said:

I dunno. If you're poor, there are no jobs with little help form the government (fire workers not getting paid, etc) while an inordinate amount of money is being blown on entertainment, I can kind of see where they're coming from. Why should they be happy for something relatively trivial that they're not a part of when they're worried about putting food on the table?

 

I think it's terrible these countries spend this type of money on an event like this, while not helping their poor.  Much of Brazil is desperately poor.  They've got a right to complain.  Luckily, they can.  They couldn't in Russia.  Crazy how much money Russia spent:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Winter_Olympics

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In preparation, organizers focused on modernizing the telecommunications, electric power, and transportation infrastructures of the region. While originally budgeted at US$12 billion, various factors caused the budget to expand to over US$51 billion, surpassing the estimated $44 billion cost of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, making Sochi the most expensive Olympics in history.

 

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7 hours ago, boomerangutang said:

We get it.  They're angry.  But now the Olympics will be going on for the next few weeks.  Thousands of the best athletes in the world will be competing, and tens of millions of people ww will be watching for enjoyment.  Come on, of course there are flaws as there are with any large-scale undertaking.  Let the athletes compete and the spectators enjoy the spectacle.   The protesters are out of line.

they are also uneducated, have poor sanitation, no medical care and in some cases hungry. most live in fear for their lives on an almost daily basis. i dont blame them for being pissed off at 12 billion being miss spent. it would go along way to providing for the poor. no point protesting when the games are finished.

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