Looking ahead to London 2012
Everyone has been talking about how wonderful the Beijing Olympics, particularly the opening ceremonies, were. The implication is that London won’t do as well. Jacques Rogge has been fulsome – excessively, perhaps – in the achievements of China for the games.
Given the difference in spending and the facility with which the Chinese Communist Party ignores minor details like its citizens, it seems inevitable that the opening ceremonies at Beijing 2008 will be rather grander than London 2012. We may well be able to point out some of the issues with the recent ceremonies – making sure that children are sufficiently attractive, using CGI ‘just in case’ and dressing people up in costumes and passing them off as representing different ethnic groups. Hopefully, we’ll do better on those fronts.
Nevertheless, it probably won’t have the same spectacle. That doesn’t mean the spectacle won’t be wonderful; in any case, the sports are the thing. We should remember that the admittedly impressive achievements of BOCOG had a heavy price on the poor unfortunates who just happened to live in the wrong place.
xD.
September 14th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I am one of those who opposed (and still oppose) London’s hosting of the Games. We plan to be out of London for the duration. Unfortunately, we will not be able to avoid being mugged to pay the debts it incurs.
The Beijing Games should have convinced all but the hopelessly dogmatic that hosting the Games does nothing to open up a country and make it a better world citizen. In fact, it confers a kind of legitimacy on evil regimes.
London should fit into that pattern nicely, then, assuming that Labour is still in power by then.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Silver,
Fair enough if you didn’t support the idea of the Olympics coming to London. Can I ask, though, if you think it would be appropriate for any city to host the Olympics? Would its citizens not have the same objections as you and a goodly amount of other Londoners? It does seem that your position rapidly ends the idea of the Olympics.
On the second point, do you really think that the current Government in Britain is even remotely like the CCP or are you saying that for effect? There is this tendency on the blogosphere to make ‘jokes’ along the ‘ZaNuLab’ line which demean those who are opposing genuinely unpleasant regimes and cheapen the level of our political discourse; they are a meaningless shorthand of abuse. Sorry if I sound snarky, but it annoys me.
While I concede that the Summer Olympics have gone to some unpleasant regimes (China, Nazi Germany, USSR) it’s also gone to Greece (three times), France, the USA (four times), Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Australia (twice), Italy, Japan, Mexico, West Germany, Canada and South Korea. It has been to London twice before now and in 2016 will go to Chicago, Madrid, Rio or Tokyo.
xD.