Brazil: Pictures of the Rio2016 celebration · Global Voices
Paula Góes

Brazilians have spent the last week celebrating: Rio de Janeiro won the right to host the 2016 Olympic Games, which for the first time will take place in South American soil. If a recent Forbes magazine survey had already shown that Rio was the World's Happiest City, now it must be the most elated place on Earth.
See below a selection of Twitpics and Creative Commons pictures posted on Flickr showing the celebration, the Brazilian sense of humor and also the concerns that the news have brough.
Brazilians wait the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to announce its decision and then celebrate on the streets of Copenhagen:
Copenhagen Countdown. Photo: comawe
Copenhagen Countdown. Photo: comawe
Meanwhile, in Rio de Janeiro, an Obama lookalike holding a flag of surrender and a cutout Michelle wearing a Rio2016 outfit were caught on Twitpic:
Photo by @SuzanaLinhares
@sergiofonseca commented on his own similar picture:
Obama saiu às pressas de Copenhagen. Mas tinha motivo. #RIO2016.
And thousands celebrated in Copacabana, by the Sugar Loaf mountain and the Christ the Redeemer statue, up to the small hours of Saturday:
Twitpic: @sergiofonseca
Messages of support to Rio2016 bid have been left by those visiting the Rio 2016 Wheel, located at Copacabana Fort, which publicized the city’s bid for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. More than 150,000 visitors were able to admire the landscape of Rio de Janeiro from the 36 meter high in the month it was opened.
Photo: Marco Pompei
The Galactic Empire shall win the Olympics in 2016, according to Flickr user Stéfan in his daily shot of Stormtroopers:
Vader says: "2016 push-ups for Rio 2016". Photo: Stéfan
The Olympic Committee just announced that Rio de Janeiro will be hosting the Olympics in 2016. Amongst the four finalists, Chicago was the first city voted out, then Tokyo. The final choice was between Madrid and Rio.
Congratulation for Brazil, the first south-american country to host the Olympics!
Now, everyone get ready, as the Imperial team has already began its intensive training program. They will own these Games.
The man in the poster below is Mussum, a deceased Brazilian humorist, member of the Brazilian comedic quartet Os Trapalhões.  “Créu” is a Portuguese slang made popular by Funk music lyrics and meaning, in this context, ‘nailing it’ but in a very funny way. A take off from Barack Obama's campaign slogan of ‘Yes We Can’ but with a quite different meaning,”Yes, We Créu” made it to the Twitter trends on the days following the announcement.
Photo: ursonate
Leodf explains the meaning of the bilingual word play in a language web forum:
it is a funny way to say you “got it”
I went out with that girl and “créu” her: that means I had *** with her
I went to that test and “créu” it: that means I got most of the questions, it was easy
I “créu” the opportunity: that means I was selected for the opportunity
ok it is most used in Rio… but a very famous Funk Music brought it to our routine as we had a lot parody of this music […]
And I doubt who started the “Yes We Créu” had intentions to offend Obama or USA, that was just a joke, a nice one for our context that only brazilians will get its spirit
Brazil will host the two most important sporting events of the next decade, as the country will also host football's 2014 World Cup. Many critics say Brazil does not have the necessary facilities or the level of security and safety required, and doubt the country can offer more than a spectacular setting with stunning beaches and famous landmarks, despite its positive evaluation by the International Olympic Committee in its final report on the four finalists for 2016. The series of pictures Rio 2016: We are already ready! published by Twitpic user @microcontoscos portray this worry:
Cyclism. We are already ready. Twitpic by @microcontoscos
Whereas Nelson Correa, from Pomeu, highlights the extreme poverty that many cariocas – as Rio citizens are known – live in.
Panis et Circense. Photo: pomeu.
The text in the picture above reads:
Copenhagen, 2nd October 2009
“…Rio being chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games makes Brazil stop this mania of thinking we are small” (Luis Inácio Lula da Silva)
Date: 30 September 2009
Time: 1:30 pm on a rainy afternoon
Local: Rio de Janeiro, in a side street on a corner with an important avenue in the Southern area of the city, where competitors and supporters will pass through during the Olympic games.