hosting olympics

the venue for the 2012 olympics was decided last week at singapore. london was the chosen one this time around. it outlasted the other 4 giants- paris, new york,moscow and madrid.

the event had grabbed considerable media attention throughout the world. during the last few days before the selection, the lobbying became even more intense with all major sportspersons supporting their favourite city. famous personalities like david beckham and her better half, raul, lance armstrong and other sportsperson coming to singapore in the final few days. world leaders and nation heads also arrived to support their cities. the prime egs being tony blair, french president jacques chirac,etc.

the interesting thing was that all of them were the biggest cities of their respective countries and therefore expensive as well. their budget for organising the event ran into billions. all of them claimed to be the best with regards to infrastructure, transport, security, health and environment. well they must be since they are the major cities of developed countries.

since the sydney olympics ( it was one of the most elegant), all bidding teams woo to be more beautiful than the previous one. ofcourse it is nice to be elegant and create a splendid show. but we must observe that this is fast turning into a paegant sort of thing. this indirectly leads to more costs and more taxes for the host city residents. the organisers may argue that they are actually helping out the economy by this event. they are generating employement and other facilities. those arguments are going to continue forever.

in all this, we are forgetting that the olympic bidding teams consisted of rich cities. in this, if a city from a developing country like india, say for instance mumbai, bids then it is obvious that they hardly have a chance. no wonder istanbul from turkey has lost 3 times. in other words, the IOC in its attempt to make the event beautiful hardly supports the developing countries to come forward to organise.

an effective solution would be to let the developed countries help in preparing cities of developing and underdeveloped countries. this would not only help the olympic from spreading everywhere in the world in the truest sense but also bridge the economic difference between the poor nations and the rich clubs like the G8. this especially at a time when they are discussing ways to remove poverty in africa.

joke of the day:

joe's wife bought a new line of expensive cosmetics after hearing that they would make her look years younger. after applying the products, she asks her husband, "darling, tell me honestly what age would you say i am?"
looking her over carefully, joe replied,"judjing by your skin, 20, your hair, 18, and your figure, 25."
"oh, you flatterer," she gushed in delight.
"wait a minute," joe warned. "i havent added them up yet."