the experience of Athens, it was very bad for Athens. If you look for the Montreal experience they are paying the debt until now. It depends on how you do the thing". BRISSENDEN: At seventy, Fernando Gabeira has seen a great deal of the dramatic economic and political shifts in his country. A one-time firebrand who was a part of the armed resistance to the military dictatorship, he's a highly respected elder Statesman who only narrowly missed out on the Mayor's job. FERNANDO GABEIRA: "Of course we did our job. We overcame the dictatorship. Now we are a democracy, not a perfect democracy but we're just improving". BRISSENDEN: It's fair to say he's mellowed over time but he's still got a sharp eye for injustice and the pitfalls of Brazil's boom time. FERNANDO GABEIRA: "Thousands and millions of people came to the big cities and they concentrated in the Brazilian metropolitan areas and we are not able to give them what they deserve, transportation, sanitation, education and security. And this is one of the most important social consequences of this growth". BRISSENDEN: There may be growing pains but the growth has propelled so many people up the social and economic ladder that not too many in Brazil feel any nostalgia for the past and there's one man almost everyone thanks for the country's change of fortune. LULA DA SILVA: [News conference] "Brazil needed these Olympic Games. Brazil's always been a great and important country, with extraordinary people. They deserved this