Sunday, October 3, 2010

Common Wealth Games: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Oh the Common Wealth Games. Where to even begin? Let's start with reverse order of the post title cliche with a couple of bonuses.

The Ugly
* Copious debris and waste at games village
* Dog and human feces in athletes rooms at unexpected places

The Bad
* Shoddy construction (e.g. pedestrian bridge collapsing, ceiling tiles falling)
* Lax security standards
* Massive graft (e.g >1000% cost over-run, $80 toilet paper rolls)

The Good
*
Despite all the hiccups, the opening ceremony was quite well-received

The Awesome
* India hires 38 langur monkeys to guard the games village and stadia. This is pretty sweet (full article here)




The Stupid

Why would Indian authorities offer to host an event with very little upside if a success but enormous embarrassment if a failure? When was the last time anyone heard of or watched the Common Wealth Games? Doesn't India alone account for some 80% of the Common Wealth's collective population anyway? India's disastrous organization has given the games more publicity than anything else in the games' history.


*****
Separately, apologies for the dearth of posts lately. Many of you know the reasons why. I'll be more in full force by end of this week!

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