There is so much corruption and huge financial costs involved with staging the it-was-a-good-idea event, and I have never believed that countries and cities actually benefit from hosting the Summer or Winter Olympics; what ends up happening is the complexes built for various events end up under-utilized once everyone goes home, and in the worst cases, those assemblages end up as veritable ghost-towns.
I remember hearing during the 1976 Olympics that 'Montreal will end up paying for this for twenty years'. When you're a kid, that time frame is unfathomable. Let's not even get into the issue of the "Big O" (or "Big Owe").
Let's not forget that very often the Olympics are heavily politicized: The athletes must feel at times as though they are pucks in a shuffleboard game.
And here comes Sochi....
It should be game over for the Olympics
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-lane-the-olympics-should-be-on-their-way-out/2014/01/20/cb610d62-820b-11e3-bbe5-6a2a3141e3a9_story.html?wpisrc=nl_opinions
2 comments:
Article in today's Globe about a Canadian businessman who was talked out investing in a bar in Sochi by friends who feared that the high level of corruption would result in consequences after the games end. Most likely, anyone who isn't a Putin crony will be "investigated" and their property "impounded" for a year or two, ultimately winding up in the hands of Putin and said cronies.
Scary.
I wrote a follow-up to the piece but have to upload.
Thanks for the comment.
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