Zika and crime will not water down Olympics

If you do not live in Brazil and are interested in travelling there for the next month’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, be very afraid. In fact, if possible stay away.
There is a virus called Zika that you will contract as soon as you disembark from the plane.
It is a devastating epidemic that is claiming many Brazilians today.
If you are lucky to avoid Zika, it is unlikely that you will survive the high crime rate in a city where income inequality is prevalent.

And if you somehow evade the aforesaid issues, the city is littered with workers’ strikes so much so that the Games are a by the way.
Furthermore, the Olympics are going to be watered down because Rory McIlroy, LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Jason Day have all withdrawn because of Zika.
Welcome to the world of propaganda. Welcome to the new age of an era where the media decides and dictates life. Welcome to Rio de Janeiro 2016.
I will fly to Brazil for the Olympics next month not bothered one inch by the baloney being fed to the world by western-orchestrated hate campaign in the media.
And when the Games end on August 21, Rio de Janeiro will seal its place in history as the first South American city to have staged the world’s biggest games – and a successful Olympics at that.

The West’s perception towards events not staged by them stinks.
Who can forget the hogwash written about South Africa’s preparations for 2010?
Yet after the final the tournament was bestowed with one of the highest ever ratings for a Fifa World Cup.
In the build-up, we had been told of how crime was going to mess the tournament. We were time and again reminded of the inadequate preparations and numerous strikes by workers in the host cities.
For a moment it looked like the worst decision in the history of sport was awarding South Africa the right to host the World Cup.

A blog by the Guardian’s Louise Taylor highlighted the dangers that lay ahead for visitors to South Africa, with detailed analysis of the catastrophe that lay ahead.
When the tournament was done and dusted, I felt compelled to write an e-mail to Taylor to get a feel of how her humble pie tasted.
“If there is anything I regret in my career, it is writing that blog,” an admittedly contrite Taylor replied. Taylor, I later learnt, had never travelled to South Africa. She had concocted her insipid blog from information fed to her by, who knows, ‘others Taylors’ and a sea of bitterly disappointed elements in major western media houses, who struggled for years to adjust to the idea of a World Cup tournament being staged in Africa.

Same old talk
Four years after 2010, Brazil was forced to contend with negative stories emanating out of the country’s preparations for the World Cup. Hardly a day passed in the between January and June 2014 without questions asked of the readiness of the host cities, corruption in the World Cup budgetary planning, security and strikes.
It was basically South Africa 2010 all over again.
Both tournaments went ahead successfully against the predictions of doomsayers who foretold gloom.
So while basketball superstars James and Curry have opted out to join prominent golfers McIlroy, Vijay Singh and Day, the world will not end.

The Olympics will go ahead, medals will be won and lost, and the carnival atmosphere in Rio will be one for the ages.
Gone are the days when the west controlled world media. Today, there is a limit to how much they can shape opinion of global issues.
The small organisational challenges facing Rio are the same experienced by any host city be it Atlanta, Sydney, London or Tokyo. It is nothing new.
However cases of that nature are conveniently magnified when the Games are staged in a continent the western media does not approve of.
Regardless, the parties in Lapa, Ipanema and Copacabana are the one the world will savour come August 5.

Growth of Formula One
This weekend is the ninth Grand Prix of the 2016 Formula One season with Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel hitting the remodeled Red Bull Ring in Austria for points.
Formula One in Uganda has steadily grown thanks to a combination of SuperSport and detailed coverage of the man and machine sport in local media.
Perhaps the biggest eye opener for the sport was the formation of the Formula One Association of Uganda whose cause has grown interest and passion in the country.
Today, it is not uncommon to see replica gear of Mercedes and Ferrari in Kampala.

Of course Formula One’s growth in the greater scheme of things remains a work in progress.
But the on-going promotion by City Tyres and Pirelli (you buy four Pirelli tyres to enter the draw every month) that will see eight lucky winners watch the season-ending Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi has improved fervor for the sport two-fold.
A few wealthy Ugandans have watched F1 races in Monaco (France) and Interlagos (Brazil) but the chance to enjoy VIP treatment at the Yas Marina, even for fans who have been there before, is one to cherish.
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@mnamanya