Rio – the Ultimate City

By Ben Igiebor

RIO - THE ULTIMATE CITY is a sequel to Rio - Halfway to Paradise and it’s intention is to debunk the often - held view in the Western media of Rio De Janeiro as an unsafe and run - down city, paint a truer picture of what the city and country are really like, all to encourage more visitors and tourists to travel to this lovely city and enjoy all the beauty it has to offer, thereby promoting tourism. It is a photo-book, meant to make it more attractive to readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jun 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781728354460

Ben Igiebor

Ben Igiebor comes from Edo State, Nigeria, attended Mater Dei Grammar School, Ashaka, Delta State, then went on to King’s College, Lagos for his higher school and thereafter, worked for 5 years in banking. He then got sponsorship to train in shipping management in the head-office of the Danish East Asiatic Company, Copenhagen and after that, with Escombe McGrath, Liverpool and London, before going on to study shipping and international trade at the London School of Foreign Trade. Thereafter, he went on sea-training as part of a programme to understudy port operations in European and West African ports, travelling for 6 months on 3 roundtrip voyages to Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg, Rouen, Tilbury [Europe] and Abidjan, Tema, Freetown, Lagos and Port Harcourt [West Africa], on 3 EAC/NNSL vessels. He then worked as Container Operations Manager for Alraine Nigeria Ltd, Apapa in the Apapa and Tin-can Island ports in Lagos [1981-85] after which he returned to the UK for an MSc degree course at the University of Wales in Cardiff. He also sat for and obtained professional qualifications of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers and London Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He taught shipping on the professional course at the then London Guildhall University [now part of London Metropolitan University] between 1990 and 1994.

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© 2020 Ben Igiebor. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/26/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-5447-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-5446-0 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Introduction

How It All Began

About The Author

Appreciation To My Teeming Brazilian Friends

Chapter 1 The Western Media Perspective

Chapter 2 Rio – The Unadulterated City

Chapter 3 Cariocas – A Happy People

Chapter 4 Rio Infrastructure And High-Rise Buildings

Chapter 5 Cariocas – A Very Cultured People

Chapter 6 Rio – A Leading City In A Leading Developing Nation

Chapter 7 Rio – A Leading Light To Other Cities In Developing Countries

Chapter 8 Certainly The No. 1 Destination For Fun And Laughter

An eye-witness narrative and analysis of a recent visit to the city of Rio de Janeiro, when it hosted the Olympic Games, with the city literally flooded by tourists, athletes and spectators from the entire globe. Oh what a celebration of global sports, competition and togetherness…. nearly ruined by an orchestrated attempt to prevent it happening!

INTRODUCTION

T his book is a sequel to Rio – Halfway to Paradise, itself an eye-witness narrative of a visit to Rio by the author. However, this is also a narrative, but much more in the sense that it seeks to, above all else, correct the very biased western media perspective of a city and country that is seen as a ‘den’ of criminals, a ‘disease-ravaged’ hell-hole, a politically infantile state and one whose economy is in disarray. This, has kept away hundreds of thousands of potential travellers and tourists yearly from perhaps the most attractive and enjoyable destination in the world, for any holiday. Whether this was deliberate, will, in time surface but enough of it!

On the issue of Rio being seen as a ‘haven’ of criminals, there is nothing further from the truth…! After staying for 12 days in a very affluent part of Rio, I went on to an area in the favela area and stayed in a hostel there for a good 14 days to gather data and in all that time, never experienced or saw one single crime, even on my first night there, when I went through the cobbled streets and crannies of the area.., at 11.30pm, alone, at night! So, without any doubt, it is all a blatant lie and a huge hoax, to keep away potential tourists. Besides, with the news of four American swimmers making up a story that they were attacked during this period of the Olympics, and it later turning out to be a big lie, it is apparent that it is all a calculated attempt to run down people, all for ulterior motives.

It is a very comprehensive write-up in 9 chapters, written from a point of view of someone who has been to and has experienced, the good, the bad and the ugly about Rio de Janeiro and its people, and so, knows what he is talking about. He spent 12 days in the affluent part of Rio, then 14 days in a location in the favela area and the last 2 days in a middle-class but perhaps the most beautiful part of Rio, just to get a very balanced view of what makes Rio what it is.

Chapter 1 looks at the Western media perspective, probable reasons for their apparent bias, economic considerations, political gains, etc., why this view has held for decades and why it needs to be debunked and replaced by the truth.

Chapter