The tangle, meant to favor some, exclude others: that’s why it endures

Riorealblog was created almost six years ago. Many times this blogger considered revamping the mission statement (at right), but ended up leaving it as is, a testimonial to more hopeful (and innocent) times.

In August 2010, no one dreamed we’d find ourselves in such a tragic situation on the eve of the Olympic Games. It seemed, then, that the alliance of federal, state and city government truly meant to tackle some of Rio’s worst problems, and that local citizens, with a healthy dose of skepticism, supported the attempt.

We’re discovering, day by day, the extent to which Brazilian elites played the game using a deck stacked with inside information and traded favors. How could we ever have thought of the Brazilian jeitinho as a charming cultural trait? Or that bureacracy was due to backwardness? But of course, the red tape and legal tangles…