On June 17, fewer than 50 days before the start of the Games, the state of Rio de Janeiro declared a "state of public calamity." A financial crisis is preventing the state from honoring its commitments to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the governor said. That crisis is so severe, he said, it could eventually bring about "a total collapse in public security, health, education, mobility and environmental management." The authorities are now authorized to ration essential public services and the state is eligible for emergency funds from the federal government. Measures like these are usually taken for an earthquake or a flood. But the Olympics are a man-made, foreseeable, preventable catastrophe.
    I went to Rio recently to see how preparations for the Games are going. Spoiler: not well. The city is a huge construction site. Bricks and pipes are piled everywhere; a few workers lazily push wheelbarrows as if the Games were scheduled for the next year. Nobody knows what the construction sites will become, not even the people working on them: "It's for the Olympics" was the unanimous reply, followed by speculation about "tents for the judging panels of volleyball or soccer, I guess."
    Safety is of great concern to athletes and tourists. They are right to worry. According to local news reports, drug traffickers are involved in territorial disputes in at least 20 Rio neighborhoods.
    Eight years ago, the government established the Pacifying Police Units, a heavily" armed force that tries to reclaim favelas from the gangs. But these units seem to have worsened the drug war rather than ended it. The country will deploy 85,000 soldiers and police officers, about twice the number used in the London 2012 Olympics.
    How did everything get so messed up? Money is one problem. "The state is bankrupt," Francisco Dornelles, the interim Rio governor, admitted in an interview with a magazine two weeks ago.
    So if it's not only money, maybe the problem is also politics. Brazil is, of course, having a major political crisis. The president, Dilma Rousseff, was forced to step aside on May 12 because of allegations that she manipulated the state budget. The political turmoil has paralyzed the country and frozen the economy. Decisions on important reforms and infrastructure projects are being delayed, and the uncertainty has discouraged investment. But Leonardo Picciani, who took over as sports minister after Ms. Rousseff's suspension, asserts that the Games will be "fantastic." Almost everything was ready by the time he took up his post, he claims.  It can be learned from Paragraph 1 that ______.