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Peter Triggs
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Gone Fishin, Canada
Jan 2000
time: 05:19
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quote:
COckney:
can't wait for the tabloid headlines tomorrow, i'm sure they'll be the model of magnamimous in victory...
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For those who don't normally read The Sun:
quote:
And Nelson looked down
By VIRGINIA WHEELER
and JOSH BLAIR
MORE than 10,000 ecstatic Brits celebrated yesterday’s triumph over the French — in Trafalgar Square.
The Paris Olympic bid had been blasted out of the water to bring the 2012 Games back to London.
The occasion could not have been better scripted — in this the 200th anniversary of our greatest naval success. Admiral Lord Nelson looked down from his column at the historic events unfolding below him.
You could almost have touched the tension as the crowd watched on a giant screen before the IOC President, Belgian Jacques Rogge, opened the envelope 6,700 miles away in Singapore.
Silence fell as Mr Rogge finally spoke. “The Games of the 30th Olympiad in 2012 are awarded to the city of London.”
The roar in Trafalgar Square — and at the Games’ focal point in Stratford, East London — was deafening. And the party began.
Two tons of confetti — in the rainbow colours of the Olympic rings — showered down. Union Jacks were waved in jubilation as supporters hugged each other, some in tears.
Double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes beamed: “This is a dream come true for London.”
Fans waltzed around in face masks of Lord Seb Coe, who had led London’s successful campaign.
Pop princess Rachel Stevens, who had belted out her hit song Some Girls, shouted: “Thank you, London.”
The crowds were swelled by hundreds of schoolchildren in Olympic T-shirts and handing out stickers and flags. And how they danced.
M People’s Heather Small performed the official London bid song with the famous line What Have You Done Today (To Make You Feel Proud). She said: “I’m flattered and humbled the song helped us to win.”
There were gasps as RAF dispaly team The Red Arrows buzzed the centre of the capital.
Darryl Godrich, who had produced London’s promotional bid film, was thrilled. New York had relied on Hollywood great Steven Spielberg and Paris acclaimed Luc Besson for their videos.
But Godrich beat them hands down with his powerful images of children from South Africa, Mexico, Russia and China being inspired by watching the 2012 Olympics.
He said: “It was a huge honour and incredible to see us win.”
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver said: “I’m toasting the Olympic bidding team with a glass of a very nice English wine. Patriotic to the end.”
Horatio Nelson himself, could not have been a prouder.
The French had been sunk again.
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http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005310272,00.html
Follow the link for more.
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Saras
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Vilnius, Lithuania
Apr 1999
time: 06:19
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Interesting opinion:
quote:
Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.
London Gets Turn at Olympic Financial Disaster: Matthew Lynn
July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Londoners enjoy nothing more than beating the French. That's why, about a week after also celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, London's victory over Paris in the bid to stage the 2012 Olympics will have been particularly satisfying for the English.
Yet once the celebrations subside, the reckoning will begin.
In reality, the modern Olympics have turned into a financial monstrosity. They are a bloated political and economic circus and have lost touch with the original, noble ideals of the movement.
The only way to restore some sanity and sporting pride to the event would be to choose a permanent site.
For evidence of the willful extravagance of the Olympics, you just have to look at the recent financial history of the event.
Like a host surveying the wreckage of his house on the morning after a party, the Greek economy is still struggling to recover from the 2004 games in Athens. Costs ran out of control. The bill for the games ended up reaching 7.2 billion euros ($8.6 billion), 56 percent more than the initial budget. As a result, the Greek budget deficit expanded to 6.1 percent of gross domestic product in 2004, more than twice the permitted level for members of the euro region.
Now the government has to raise taxes. Greek citizens will be paying for the games for years.
And for what?
There have been no discernable benefits to the Greek economy. Indeed, tourism declined in Greece in 2004. Athens hotel-occupancy rates in the fourth quarter dropped to 57 percent, the lowest figure among 11 of Europe's biggest cities, according to the Athens-based consulting firm JBR Hellas Ltd.
Tourism Decline
And the number of visitors to Greece fell 3 percent last year, according to the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises.
Maybe people who might otherwise have felt like visiting the Parthenon were put off by the thought of running into some shot- put fans.
The Montreal Olympics in 1976 proved to be the biggest financial disaster of the past few decades. The event left a $1.2 billion deficit, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP study last year.
The situation improved for the 1984 Los Angeles games, which turned a profit of $355 million, the report said. Seoul had an operating profit in 1988, though the next three Olympic cities -- Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney -- only just managed to break even, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, citing figures based on prices in 1995 to allow comparison.
Chirac's Outburst
London might have a lot of fun in 2012, yet there is no evidence it will make the city richer. ``Our analysis finds that the economic benefits would be very small,'' Paul Dales, an analyst at Capital Economics Ltd. in London, said in a report published before the decision was made.
Even less dignified has been the jousting between the cities competing for the games. For the last year, Paris and London have been busily running each other down. That was perfectly illustrated in French President Jacques Chirac's outburst against the British this week. He told Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that the U.K. was the country with the worst food, except for Finland, and had contributed nothing to agriculture apart from mad cow disease, the French daily Liberation reported this week.
Not much sign of the spirit of Olympic friendship there.
In reality, there is no need for a traveling political and economic circus. The extravagance and in-fighting could be laid to rest. All that is needed is a permanent home for the Olympics. Everyone gathers there every four years to concentrate on sport.
26 Million Euros
Not convinced? Well, according to the Greek newspaper Ta Nea, Greece's government tomorrow will auction some of the venues built for the 2004 games. Among the choice assets up for grabs will be a 26 million-euro kayak slalom course.
They aren't likely to get their money back. For a new kayak slalom course to be built every four years at a cost of 26 million euros is madness. Build one and re-use it. With no disrespect to its fans, kayak slaloming isn't a mass-spectator sport. The world doesn't need to be dotted with Olympic-standard kayaking courses.
The values that we learn through sport, and which the Olympics are meant to celebrate, are stoicism, endurance, self- reliance, self-discipline, simplicity and rigor.
According to the International Olympic Committee's own Web site, Pierre de Coubertin, the French founder of the modern Olympics, had noble ideals for the games. He wanted them to provide a truce between men, and to ``adhere to an ideal of a higher life.''
The farce of the traveling Olympic circus has lost sight of those ideals. The event is now just an excuse for extravagance, indulgence and wastefulness, while bidding cities are forced to insult each other. A permanent home is the only way to bring it back to reality.
That way we could forget about the money and the politics and start concentrating on the sport.
After all, that's what the Olympics were meant to be about. |
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Ecthy
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Zhonghuŕ Rénmín Gňnghéguó
Mar 2000
time: 06:19
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London is now burning. Maybe you should delete this thread and top the other one, which is more interesting.
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Bereta_Eder
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The costs actually werent so much if you think that such costs as new metro extensions, tram lines, a rather attractive Athens facelift and a brand new bridge in.... Peloponese were included. Also IMO the organization was great on all respects.
IMO the bad thing was one and only (ok two): bypassing legislation to award public works through delaying them outrageously. The law dictates certain factors of transparency to be observed when awarding public works through bids. This cannot be bypassed. The only exception is when there's an "urgent need" to finish a work. By delaying the projects the gov. could invoke that law exception and award the public works to its little friends..... for triple the price....
Another thing that was bad was the terror lust and dangerology from abroad that had taken pathological size from some media. That kind of ruined the festivities for a lot of people. By the time people realized they were talking bullshit the games were almost over. But this is an asset for the future: don't pay attention to them so much.... in that respect it was good. Fortunately everyone knew that we had no danger from Arabs but mostly from them angloamerican "security companies" and their money grabing hands.
A third negative thing was that from a point on the people got "excluded" from the whole project. That was a slight communications mishap from the organization comittee but I think it was unavoidable from a point on.
But all in all it was enjoyed hugely (and slightly for rubbing it in the face of the critics, although as said they were from the offset ignored after it became obvious why they were going to such lengths with it).
Now of course it is time to pay. But things are not so tragic as Lynn portrays them. The problems are to be found elsewhere.
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Bereta_Eder
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Ironically the Brits found out first hand what they were salivating about happening to Athens for 2 years straight up to the Olympics... Right the next day they found out they won the next ones... If there's a God he has humor. A bit cruel. (read it on a greek forum). But once again it shows it isn't how much money "you spend on defense". It's who you have offended.
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Bereta_Eder
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Man... it's quite the antithesis. I'm reading a greek thread about the attacks (sympathy for the victims but about england proper and blair it's the inferno!)
I'll translate.
"Let me drop my little pebble (menir), personally for england I couldnt give a damn, they deserved it (i'm talking about england not those poor sods that died) and not because they had dizzied our eros about the security of our own olympic games but because as the little fleas of the americans they first gave presence and killed children in iraq and then we had that scum blair saying those were casualties of war. eh then sorry "mr" blair this is also a war casualty since for those people the war doesnt end when you say so. "
that's to give some perspective
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07-07-2005 10:04
)
ACK!
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