Brasil Celebrates Olympic Win.

NYTIMES/
"There was pride and the feeling that something powerful had just happened to the country. The International Olympic Committee’s decision to entrust the games to Brazil — the first in South America — confirmed this country’s arrival onto the world stage with a defining moment that to many here promised even greater prosperity in the decade to come.
“My Brazil is solid,” said Celso de Nascimento, an electrical technician, who danced shirtless with his wife in the hot afternoon sun. “We have it all.”
The Olympic glow seemed to reinforce the perception that Mr. da Silva was born under the luckiest of stars. Brazil rode a commodity and consumer-spending boom the past half-decade as the government tamed inflation, expanded the economy and narrowed a wide inequality gap. In just the past two years Brazil has discovered huge troves of deep-sea oil."