How in keeping with the Olympic Spirit of all-inclusive welcoming and sportsmanship is that?<\/em><\/p>\n Rio not Alone<\/strong><\/p>\n The displacement of the host city\u2019s poor in preparation for the greatest show on earth, has become almost endemic to the modern games. Korean dictator General Chun Doo-Hwan pulled a similar stunt<\/a>\u00a0in the lead up to the Seoul Games in 1988. As did the Chinese leadership in brutal fashion<\/a> in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Games.<\/p>\n Alongside forced evictions the other less overt tactic host cities have used to \u2018socially cleanse\u2019 their streets, is the process of gentrification<\/a>. The poor are priced out of their neighborhoods when property values are hiked.\u00a0\u00a0In Sydney, for example, rents rose by up to 40%<\/a>\u00a0as the city prepped for the Games in 2000, in Salt Lake City<\/a> rents rose before and after the Winter Olympics in 2002, in Vancouver Olympic planning<\/a>\u00a0included redeveloping the Downtown Eastside area of the city and in London<\/a> the Games intensified the city\u2019s pre-existing housing crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the Deal?<\/strong><\/p>\n The deal is that the Olympic Games are a sham when the host city stands accused of multiple human rights and civil liberties violations<\/a>. And they\u2019re a sham when host cities spend billions of dollars to put their city on the world tourism map, all at the expense of the poor and the forcibly displaced.<\/p>\n When I read about the NBA \u2018Dream Team\u2019 (worth billions in itself \u2013 and what was that about the Olympics being about amateur competition?) chilling out in their luxury cruise ship in the Port of Rio . . Isn\u2019t there something obscenely wrong with this picture?<\/p>\n![\"Vancouver-mural-940x400\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/675\/2016\/08\/Vancouver-mural-940x400.jpg\")
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