When I recently arrived in São Paulo, I was struck by the locals’ feelings about the upcoming World Cup. I would not say they were expressing World Cup fatigue from the build up to the event but rather full-blown World Cup disgust. There were no flags or posters. The anger at how much is being spent on stadiums instead of desperately needed improvements in education seemed to have the whole population of close to 40 million fed up.
The spirit in Rio, however, is remarkably different. Not that t...