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Let the Games begin…sort of

Thu, 23 Sep 2010

The Delhi Commonwealth Games debacle may be the final straw that puts an end to expensive sporting extravaganzas that benefit the few at the expense of the many.

The Games have long been a disaster in the making and will be recalled along with other such fiascos, including a series of Olympic Games marred by boycotts of one sort or another.

While almost any major international sporting occasion attracts public interest for a time, the price paid must be questioned, particularly as political realities demand these events now be held in the Third World.

Only a dictatorship could mount the Beijing Olympics, which apart from its astronomical budget was noted for its many violations of basic human decencies.

South Africa claims benefits from staging the Fifa World Cup earlier this year, but it hardly proved to be the tourism bonanza that was expected. The republic’s reputation for its crime rate remains and it is still a place only the intrepid will visit.

The granting of the 2016 Olympic Games to Rio de Janiero will create similar problems. Sure, Brazil will spend billions on improving its transport systems and other amenities – but the crime and favelas will still be there long after the athletes, officials and media have left town.

More bread, less circus

The rulers of ancient Rome had no more reason to account for the true cost of their spectacles than their modern equivalents.

This because the Games are not presented as commercial activities but as ones of unsullied sportsmanship and honour. Professional sports may not be fully self-supporting, but at least the subsidies are limited.

That is not the case when a large number of competitors are pitted against each other for their country’s glory.

One can only guess at what the true cost of the Commonwealth Games will be to India.
The bad publicity will do damage enough.

It is even worse when a simple project, such as the athletes’ village, cannot be built on time without corruption scandals, huge cost overruns and shoddy construction.

The same problems occurred in Athens, though the Olympic Games there went ahead regardless, as no doubt will the Delhi Games.

The competing athletes also need to harden up about the realties. Terrorist threats have been associated with world sporting events since the Munich Olympics in 1972.

Poor sanitation, leaky buildings and dengue fever are a fixture anywhere in India during the rainy season.

But taxpayers do have a right to question the prime minister’s okay to leave it to the athletes, some of whom have substantial public funding, to decide whether they should go.

If they don’t, they should immediately rule themselves out of any further funding. Those who are going regardless – saying any threats to the life and health are just part of the deal – should be rewarded and praised.

Meanwhile, Third World countries and their leaders should think twice before they are smitten with Games disease and instead focus on solving their more immediate problems.

A life cut short

The sudden death of Graeme Hunt, a long-time colleague and friend, came as a shock – as all such deaths do.

I first met Graeme when he was business journalist during the 1980s boom, when historical perspective was the best ally for anyone trying to keep a level head during the rapid rise in share values and the plethora of company floats, mergers and takeovers.

Graeme later wrote a book – among a total of 15 – called Hustlers, Rogues & Bubble Boys (2001), a history of white-collar crime and corporate shenanigans.

Apart from a deep interest and knowledge of history – he was the best team member you could have in a trivial pursuit fund-raiser – he loved nothing more than public controversy.

Two stand out – the campaign against MMP (an uncompleted task given the referendum is still to come) and his exposure of accountability for the Cave Creek disaster after an official whitewash absolved the Department of Conservation of blame for killing 14 people when a flimsy viewing deck collapsed.

At the other end of the scale, Graeme redefined how the history of how business people got rich should be written when most academic historians preferred to downplay their role and importance.

His most recent project could have launched him into a new career as a local body politician. He was standing for a number of posts, including the Auckland Council, from his new base of North Shore, a place notorious for its political Neanderthals.

Graeme would have changed that. Tributes to Graeme are at NBR Online.

The Stasi does Dallas

The reunification of Germany has thrown up some excellent movies on the East-West divide. Now comes the first TV soap opera.

Among the films, The Lives of Others (2006), Goodbye Lenin! (2003) and Sonnenallee (1999) were standouts. But the latest sensation, Weissensee (a suburb of East Berlin), has been compared with Dallas for its high melodrama and impact.

The setting is 1980 and it tells the story of a family heavily involved in the state’s apparatus of control – the father and son are Stasi officers, while the other son is a policeman.

Another character is a famous East Berlin singer, whose lyrics antagonise the Stasi agent who is following her. The reaction from those who experienced communist rule say it is realistic.

Certainly, Spiegel Online reports, interest in the Stasi is rising among tourists as well as Germany’s younger generation:

Following the release of "The Lives of Others," a number of foreign tourists visiting the memorial at the Stasi prison in the East Berlin district of Hohenschönhausen came asking questions about different parts of the story, says Andre Kockisch, a spokesman for the memorial.

Interest in the Stasi has steadily increased there over the years, with a 20 percent increase in visitors each year. In 2009, some 314,000 went to the Hohenschönhausen complex, the majority of whom were from the former West Germany. At least half of the visitors were students.

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Let the Games begin…sort of
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