When you start poking around behind the glossy headlines, some pretty disturbing statistics start to emerge from World Cup and Olympic hosts Brazil. The mainstream media is usually content just to report on Brazil’s growth figures spectacular before the 2008 crash and still respectable at 4% four years after the crash. The EU would die for those sort of figures. But these sort of broad brush statistics only tell part of Brazil’s story. Admittedly, Brazil is no longer under the direct control of the generals, and its national government, like much of South America, has a leftist direction to it.

The hold of the neo-liberal, IMF Chicago school of economics is definitely weakening and grassroots democracy is slowly but surely starting to assert itself. All good stuff. In some respects, South America is now putting Europe to shame. But it is not all roses in the garden as the following grim figures will testify.

Scratching around on the web the following bleak statistics emerge. In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, there were no less than 176 murders in the month of October and 571 murders across the state. These are war magnitude figures which make Kabul and Bagdad seem relatively benign. And of course, there is a war in Brazil one between the haves and the have not’s. Or, to put it in more contemporary language, a war between the one percent against the ninety-nine percent. It is not surprising then that some 95 police officers have been murdered so far this year up from 47 in 2011. Remember, we are talking of just one city. Of course the Brazilian media, like their western counterparts, does not talk in these socio- economic, class terms, but rather of a war against crime and criminal gangs. While it is true that brutal criminal gangs exist, they are only able to thrive because of the sea of poverty and desperation that surround the Brazilian cities.

And then there is Rio, host city for the 2016 Olympics. Most Olympic cities have their run-down, poverty stricken areas, which the authorities try their best to eradicate, disguise or simply demolish. Beijing was apparently very good at the latter solution. In London the wheeze was all about regeneration, though I will bet my last dollar that in ten years time the material and cultural poverty surrounding the Olympic Park will be as deep-seated and tenacious as ever. But in Rio the problem of poverty is overwhelming. There are some 700 Favelas surrounding the up-market centre of Rio with millions of citizens being condemned to appalling housing, health and education provision. For many, there is simply no provision at all.

What is the National and City response to this overwhelmingly grim situation? Send in the UPP’s- the police pacification units. It’s got a real fascistic ring to it all right. Of course let us assume the motives are honourable, to cut out the gangsters and allow for an increase in social provision. Just 30 of the 700 slum favelas have been ‘pacified’ and in reality all that has happened in that the criminal overlords have decamped to the next shanty town. Problem solved? Not a bit of it.

Of course, it is easy to sit back and blog from the relative comfort of a West London suburban house. And it is probably not the Brazilian authorities, state or national, that should bear the brunt of the criticisms. They have a truly gargantuan task on their hands, much of it the legacy of decades of US multinational exploitation of the very worst type. No, the real venom of our criticism must be directed towards FIFA and the IOC who glibly award their global sporting fests to developing countries but singularly fail to help assemble the resources necessary to ensure a genuine social legacy for the host cities. Having awarded Brazil a double whammy of sport, both organisations should spend the ensuing decade promoting social development in the most deprived areas and amassing the resources needed to deliver on that development. Rather than be the self-serving mafias that they have become, both organisations should be under the direction and control of the appropriate UN department, and both organisations should be as committed to social development as they are to corporate sponsorship. And pigs might fly.