lukaszpoznanski: It's interesting that in all the discussion of the 2010 Olympics on this forum, no one has mentioned any of the controversies concerning this year's games. I live in Vancouver, and will point out that *a lot* of people here think hosting the 2010 games was a huge, huge mistake. On the opening day, thousands of Vancouverites poured into the streets to protest the games, which are expected to cost upwards of CAN$8,000,000,000. Yes, eight BILLION dollars. They've spent around $900 million on security alone (!!!), essentially just militarizing the city and eroding civil liberties here. Over 1,000 surgeries have been canceled in Vancouver hospitals to pay for this, so McDonalds, Coca-Cola and the rest of the so-called "sponsors" can rake in huge profits at everyone else's expense. Vancouverites will likely spend decades paying for this event, not only in tax dollars, but also in terms of greatly diminished social services. How would you feel if your babcia or dziadek was refused medical care because hosting a huge (and hugely wasteful, not to mention environmentally destructive) party was deemed more important? You'd probably feel disgusted, like me and thousands of other Vancouverites. Not only that, but Vancouver has some truly appalling social crises that are being totally ignored. Google "Downtown Eastside" and you'll start to get the picture. We have the largest AIDS epidemic *in the entire developed world*, and the largest population of people suffering from intraveneous drug addiction in all of North America. Yes - even Los Angeles and New York have fewer heroin addicts. If you ever walk down East Hastings Street here, you'll probably never look at addiction and poverty the same way. It's simply heart-breaking. Imagine what $8,000,000,000 would do to alleviate these problems! Does Vancouver's political establishment care about all this human suffering? No. They just want a huge party, no matter what the costs. They figure that more ignorant the world is about the realities of life in Vancouver, the better.
You make many good points...A friend on another forum, who lives in British Columbia, has brought some of these points up for discussion over there.
Tak, Olympic Games are usually an economic disaster for the hosting cities...I believe Athens is still paying off debts from it's games, and probably China, too, although I am rather ignorant of the current tax situation in China, and assume that Communist Party paid for much of it. However, CCP makes money off the backs of Chinese people.
Benefits of Olympic Games for some cities is an increase in government investment in infra-structure, such as transportation, and a quick influx of tourist monies. Now, Vancouver already has the two 'SkyTrain' lines, plus other good transportation, so money will be saved there.
Negative effects include big debts, as many of the structures (stadiums, arenas, dormitories) built for games usually do not 'convert' well for other uses, and therefore do not make a profit, even years down the line. Some countries may be getting smarter with this construction, building structures that may be more easily 're-usable' or are attractive for sale by private investors.
Olympics are primarily a 'status' thing, showing host country is ready 'for prime time'...In the fairly recent past I believe that only the Los Angeles Summer Games, run ny Peter Ueberoth, may have broken even, or possibly made a small profit...But in LA, there were already stadiums and such in place, so 'overhead' was much lower...Winter Games are much harder to sell, as the sports do not attract th TV audience...This year, TV network expects to LOSE some $200 million televising games.
As to police state, security matters, yes, these are troublesome, and a great inconvenience to locals...Olympics are a globalist corporate affair, and, as such, corporate interests trump any 'inconvenience' of locals.
I am also aware of heroin problem, and related AIDS situation in Vancouver...This will not be discussed or made public @ games.
Is it worth it?...Perhaps there should be a binding referendum on the matter in city that has ideas for hosting games...Unfortunately, these decisions are usually made at 'top level' by big pigs.
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