I Will Travel To Rio

There were no parties in Madrid. The samba danced on till the wee smalls in Rio instead. The Olympics. Some years from now. There were presumably a few Brazilians in Mallorca who were dancing the night away as well. Or make that more than a few. The numbers of Brazilians on the island are strangely high given that the great world carve-up of the late fifteenth century denied Spain the largest of South America's countries.

The awarding to Rio of the 2016 games was the fairest result. To have continued to deny South America a piece of Olympic action would have seemed miserly. If South Africa can have the World Cup, then Brazil can have the Olympics, and indeed, given the national team's pre-eminence for so many competitions, it is curious that it has not been granted another World Cup since 1950 whereas an under-performer like Mexico can have had two, albeit that the second was a late change when Colombia fessed up to not being able to stump up the financ and also that Brazil will host the 2014 competition.

Disappointment there may be that Madrid has lost out - again - but it may have been for the best. Now, in all truth, is not the time to be taking on the sort of financial commitment that an Olympics demands. The games may be seven years down the line, but the work starts now, as does the handing around of the cap. The Spanish Government would have been insane to have started chucking money that it doesn't have at a Madrid Olympics. And it might only have fuelled more regional resentment. The Catalans have not exactly been supportive of any Madrid bid, which is a tad churlish as Madrid lent Barcelona its backing in 1992. It might be noted, though, that Juan Antonio Samaranch, who made the emotional plea in favour of Madrid, was born in Barcelona.

But of course, as we keep being told, the Olympics are about more than just a huge tax burden, they are about legacies, promotion of sport and healthy lifestyles and all the usual twaddle. They are also about politics (as in Beijing) and tourism (as in all of them). Though one felt pride at London being chosen for 2012, there must be many now, given the economic circumstances, who would have preferred not having put one over the French or indeed Madrid. Only one city in recent times has truly benefited from the games, and that was Barcelona - all that money that was lavished on bringing it up by the boot- and athletics shoe laces from the sand-pit it had been allowed to become during Franco's time and turning it, once again, into one of Europe's great cities. But there is the pride angle, always assuming the organisers don't completely cock-up and turn a host city into a laughing-stock (Atlanta was never that but it wasn't far short). London Pride, let's hope to God there will be grounds for it and indeed grounds fully developed.

The Olympics are the not the only vehicle for a bit of civic tourism promotion and legacy-building, whatever this latter is. There is the rather more down-scale city of culture malarkey. Palma is up for some of this, as it had been for riding the crest of the wave of the America's Cup before Valencia hoisted its victorious sail. At least no-one's suggested that Palma should have the Olympics - yet. A city of culture, though, seems fair enough. It would make all that cultural tourism stuff seem worthwhile, and who knows, were Palma to be the culture capital - in 2016 by coincidence - maybe all the new tourists that this would create (one hopes) might also contemplate visiting other parts of the island. The actual candidacy is in fact for Palma and the Balearics, which sounds like stretching the city angle a bit. More likely, the tourists who come to those other parts would be shuttled off on excursions to Palma in order to get a bit of cultural action. And action, moreover, that will probably include bands of Brazilians beating drums and dancing sambas, resplendent in yellow and green t-shirts with legends declaring Rio 2016.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Morning Glory", Oasis, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr7MSSPNH9o. Today's title - he was the one with the woolly hat.

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