The Olympics have turned a spotlight on all of Rio’s problems

Five weeks until the Rio Olympics. It’s time to put the finishing touches on the city. Let’s check the news and see how’s it going.

“Police say a mutilated body has washed up on Copacabana beach…” a reporter explained recently.

It’s not going well. And very different from the promise seven years ago.

In addition to the pollution problems, there is the fear of getting the Zika virus, which has some athletes skipping the trip altogether.

Some of this is out of Brazil’s control, especially the drop in the price of oil which has pushed Brazil back into recession.

But this also looks like an example of a city seeing the Olympics as a magical event that could somehow cure an enormous and corrupt bureaucracy, which in Brazil’s case restricts free trade, promises benefits it can’t deliver, and thrives on bribery.

The Olympics have only turned a spotlight on those problems — with the government building spectacular stadiums even as its hospitals fall apart.

Of course, the one thing still going for Rio is the matchless natural setting so long as reporters don’t look behind the postcards.

But on the bright side, there are still five weeks left to clean it all up.

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