THE RIO DE JANIERO OLYMPICS
(…games for many…and some fun just for some…)

The 2016 Summer Olympic Games seem to have started off without a hitch despite a lot of anxieties and misgivings about them…Brazil’s economic and political problems…pollution problems…non-functioning athlete accommodations…the Zika virus…doping scandals… and security concerns, etc.

Even so, their Brazilian hosts have managed to pull it off despite all those problems, so, for the moment there are games for many…and some fun for just some. The American athletes in particular have been raking in a lot of “gold” so far, so go USA.

To what extent any of this will provide Brazilians with any residual benefits after this Olympiad is over is an open question. Will the Olympic village structures be recycled into something useful…perhaps used to replace some of Rio’s favaelas slums? Or will they be simply bull-dozed to make room for new more grandiose structures to replace them? Either way that could generate some much needed job opportunities for those needing them, thus giving Brazil’s economy a temporary boost…if only a minor one.

It’s hard to say. Brazil is a very large and diverse region, the largest in South America, and one blessed with a wide array of natural resources. It should be one of the most prosperous in this hemisphere, and at one time, it was. Unfortunately, like too many other countries, its political and societal matrices over time haven’t managed to maintain an equitable balance which would allow its economic machinery to function as well as it might for the benefit of all of its citizens. Still, compared to many of its neighbors, it seems to be better able to muddle through it all with relative stability.

Well, those Brazilians we have known in our time were always a fun and bold lot (among these a few Brazilianas who were indeed quite pleasantly “bold”), which may explain why despite the many problems they currently have…one way or the other their resiliency from that boldness will always serve them well…to help to effectively resolve such problems.

Meanwhile, regardless of what any chi-chi coffee snobs might say about it…we’ll stick to our Brazilian stuff…because it makes a good honestly “bold” cowboy-style brew in which a spoon can stand up in…just the way we like it.

Bravo Brazil!

CENTURION