Chicago and Rio de Janeiro have one thing in common – they are both cesspools of thuggery. Chicago has much to offer the visitor as long as he doesn’t stray off into its poverty stricken neighborhoods where he is almost sure to get mugged. I’ve been to Chicago several times and it’s been that way for years and years.
Rio is a beautiful city. I know because I’ve been there three times. It has some of the greatest beaches in the world. The beautiful babes in their skimpy boob-revealing bikinis are a slobbering sight to behold. But up the mountainside, behind the rows of high-rise condos that line the beaches, are some of the world’s worst slums.
Every day at dusk, thugs from Rio’s slums descend on the beaches to mug anyone who is foolish enough to still be there. There are only a handful of enclaves where it’s safe because they are guarded by an army of cops. The rest of the city is also dangerous. Whenever I ventured ashore in Rio, the Captain assigned a tough member of the ship's crew to accompany me as my personal bodyguard.
After my last visit, a couple of friends told me they were going to Rio. I warned them not to be on Copacabana beach by the onset of dusk. Time got away from them and they were still on the beach after dusk. They were surrounded by a gang of knife-wielding thugs who robbed them of all their valuables.
Chicago and Rio were competing to host the 2016 Olympics along with Madrid and Tokyo. Chicago was represented at the meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Copenhagen by some heavyweight luminaries. Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey were there for several days and the President arrived in time to make a formal presentation to the IOC before its vote.
Barack, Michelle and Oprah were in Copenhagen to seduce the IOC with their charm and charisma. Sports writers thought the trio had made the choice of Chicago a slam-dunk. TV news correspondents were all over the tube dishing out heaps of praise over Michelle’s performance and the president’s address to the IOC.
Unfortunately the seduction of the IOC by Barack, Michelle and Oprah flopped big time. Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting because it received the fewest number of votes. (Tokyo was eliminated in the second round and Rio beat out Madrid in the final round.) Poof went the magic dragon of charm and charisma.
I don’t know how much the president and Michelle’s sojourn cost the taxpayers. To me that’s not an issue. It would have been to the president's credit had Chicago won. But as it truned out, the selection of Rio was an embarrassment for President Obama. More important though, his personal involvement in behalf of Chicago ended up as an embarrassment for the United States.
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