RIO STREET CRIME BRINGS OLYMPIAN CHALLENGE

Stratos Safioleas has $11,000 of his equipment stolen in Rio, but Greece to Benefit from changes in future Olympics

by Fabian Colbachi, CPW NEWS SERVICE

     With reports that a Russian diplomat under attack by thieving street thugs shot and killed one assailant and videos of gangs beating, snatching from and otherwise intimidating tourists going viral on the internet, Anna Jean Kaiser and Andrew Jacobs have reported in the Aug. 7, 2016 New York Times "Crime Plagues Rio as Olympics Begin, Despite Force of 85,000."

     The Rio games are bringing concerns about not only crime, the Zika virus and runaway costs in a nation that has been challenged by poverty and crime, but many in the Olympic community are calling for a complete makeover of future games.

     "That's right," said Apollo Dimopolis from Athens, Greece who was heartbroken that Stratos Safioleas, a fellow countryman, lost $11,000 in camera and other equipment in Rio due to thieves.  "We have seen the Olympic games become a spectacle of embarrassing proportions whether they were in Berlin, Munich, Peking or Rio.  It has all come to ahead in Rio.  Enough is enough.  I have been in conversation with family members of Jesse Owens who support the permanent move of the Olympic games to their birthplace, Mount Olympus, Greece.  They all believe that it is poor stewardship of the earth to continue to build and rebuild these showy, gaudy, every-four-year puke-fests and now crime-bazaars like we see in Rio.   They believe that if the international community had demanded from the beginning that only democratic nations can compete in the Olympics, considering that Greece was the birthplace of modern democracy, Jesse would not have had to go to Berlin in 1936 to run in that weird circus that Hitler had seen as a way to showcase his military might," said Dimopolis.

      Dimopolis is one of a wave of people who believe that it is long past time for the Olympics to be returned to Greece.  "As for the Winter Olympics?  Not to worry.  In a decade or so there won't be any snow and ice because of global warming," said Dimopolis.   According to the Move The Olympics To Mount Olympus Committee, or MOTMOC, their movement requires all nations to be democracies with a strict definition of that term and including peaceful transfer of power with an anti-totalitarian constitution and a mutually agreed upon rule of law that forbids Sharia Law except for thievery conducted during the two weeks of the completion with hand severing to be strictly observed. Functioning monarchies are banned from participating.  All participating nations must sign an international declaration of human rights and observe the rule of law and sign the new ZCFA, or "Zero Carbon Footprint Accords".

       When asked about where the Winter Olympics will be located, Lars Olson, secretary of the MOTMOC, said "I agree with Dimopolis.  In two decades there will be no ice or snow so that will kind of take care of itself." 
      Sverin Norskropft, Director of Winter Olympians Against Global Warming, or WOAGW, said "the faster we get the Olympic Games to Greece the better our chances of saving our beloved Winter Olympic Games."
     Others have pointed out the Brazil has paid upwards of $6.5 billion for hosting the World Cup and that the cost of the Rio Olympics is twice that amount in a nation plagued with poverty, drug addiction and child prostitution.  Dimopolis, Olson and Norskropft all agree that the move to a permanent site in Greece near or on Mount Olympus would bring a new level of attention to the Olympics while enhancing the world's best chance of continuing on a road toward enlightenment and improving conditions for all people.