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>>Campbell Brown: Just listening to your attitude about the protest that had been raging in
Rio. It's quite good. >>Eduardo Paes: Yeah.
>>Campbell Brown: But they are there, in part, because they may not necessarily agree with
your vision. So -- and income disparity is obviously driving
a lot of it. How can you use the ideas that you're talking about, technology, to connect
with these people in a positive way and address some of the problems that they are screaming
and yelling about? >>Eduardo Paes: As I said, I mean, I wish
I had the answers, but what you mainly had in Brazil -- and I mean, there's movements
of protests all over the world and this was not in only Rio so I'm not depressed because
of that. It was not something against me. It was also against me.
But what I think -- obviously there's always the issue about corruption. This is an issue
that spreads all over the world. But there's this issue about participation. I mean, people,
they want to be more -- more active. The web, the social networks, they tell people
what's going on. But at the same time we in government, we don't -- we haven't created
the ways or the means that people could come to us and say, "Okay, we don't want this,
we want that." So we're still living in a world in the back.
I mean, I was reelected last year in the first ballot, 65% of the vote. It was a record in
the history of Rio. But that did not give me the political legitimacy
to get things done. So what I want to provoke here a little is,
I mean, how can we develop, how can we create ways so that people can participate more in
the polis, the cities, I mean, it's where we live.
The world is becoming so urbanized so the cities are the perfect environment for us
to social networks, the web, things that Google creates, things that most of the people here
create, so that we can be more legitimate on what we are doing, so we can listen more
to people. >>Campbell Brown: Be a little more specific,
though, about what you're trying to do with the operations center that takes some of this
into account. >>Eduardo Paes: Yeah. We just -- we built,
like two years ago, a big operations center. We used lots of technology. I mean, Google
is present there. Ways is present there. There's lots of other companies present there. I mean,
we got together like almost 50 departments of the city using lots of technology and that
helped us run the city much better. But again, I think it's still -- it's not
the way that people expect us to use technology. I mean, that operations center, it helps us
manage the city, but -- and informs the people of lots of the things that are happening,
but that does not mean that people are participating more.
I mean, we just started using Ways, like two, three weeks ago, a month ago, and we had all
these systems for getting the traffic, and then suddenly we realized, okay, there's something
that people can contribute. Ways is a social network. People are telling us what's going
on on the streets. So I would say that this is the first tool
that we use in the operations center for people to participate. But the challenge, again,
in my opinion is different levels of governments, especially local governments, are using technology
to improve the way they manage the cities, but we have a lack of instruments of participation.
>>Campbell Brown: Talk a little bit about collaboration between cities, how important
it is. Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, was here a couple years ago talking about how important
it is to -- for him to work with other cities. Are there cities that Rio feels like -- a
connection to, that you are trying to collaborate with?
>>Eduardo Paes: I would say there's a diplomacy of cities these days. I mean, we had last
year in Rio what we call Rio plus 20, the environment summit, and the head of states,
they got together and didn't decide anything. The mayors, led by Mayor Bloomberg -- he's
the president of C40 -- >>Campbell BrownExplain what C40 is.
>>Eduardo PaesC40 is the network of the 40 biggest cities of the world, so Mayor Bloomberg
is leaving office. I'm taking his job now. I'm taking as president of C40.
So we had this meeting, and it was amazing because, you know, heads of states haven't
decided anything about the environment. I mean, it was -- I would say that this meeting
was a failure. And the mayors, there was like 20, 25 mayors,
from Johannesburg, from New York, from Rio, from São Paulo, from a lot of -- from Seoul
in Korea. So we made a lot of decisions. I mean, common footprints, goals. We told people
what it was going to be. So there's this network of mayors and we trade a lot of experiences.
And again, by -- by 2050, 70% of the population of the world are going to be living in cities,
and this is a reality. I mean, this used to be called a problem. This is not a problem
anymore. On the contrary, I mean, I think cities -- when you gather people, when you
put people together, it's a great experience. So again, I think there's this diplomacy in
the local level that really can give faster actions, faster answers, but people are asking
for that. And the problem is we are not -- you have
a great experience. I mean, if you look at Peru, Lima, the mayor
in Peru, she's doing a great thing with the budget. Mayor Emanuel -- Rahm Emanuel in Chicago,
he's doing lots of interesting things using the Internet.
I used just a few weeks ago a Google Hangout. I got like six people that were against me
in the social networks, so I told them "Okay. You are free to ask anything you want to ask,"
and that's a good way to participate. But again, we still have a lack of participation.
I really think that being in the local level and using the Internet, the web, it might
be the answer to the problem we face today. >>Campbell Brown: Very quickly -- we have
a minute left -- it's always a story, whoever is hosting the Olympics. Are you going to
be ready? Are you going to have everything done in time? Where are you in the process?
>>Eduardo Paes: We're going to be ready. I mean, we're through the worst part of the
process. We are 3 years from the Olympics, 3 1/2 years that we won the Olympics, so we
are right in the middle of the process, so everyone is saying, "This is not going to
work, this is not going to happen." It's going to work.
But again, it is also a challenge. I mean, lots of the protests in Brazil were
against the World Cup. I mean, people say, "Okay, you're spending too much money on stadiums,"
and this is also a challenge for mayors all over the world. I mean, how do you do these
big events that are important for the cities, leaving more legacy, spending less money on
venues? This is also -- and how can you try -- how
can you explain to people that these big events, they have to do with the sport events but
they can bring great change to a city? So -- but Rio is going to be ready. Don't
worry. Come to Rio in '16. It's going to be a great Olympics.
>>Campbell Brown: Mr. Mayor, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
>>Eduardo Paes: Thank you very much. [ Applause ]