The London Olympics

Posted by Cathy Smith Mar 16, 2007

The big build-up for the 2012 Olympic Games in London is underway. As has happened before in other countries, the budget has swelled into a sum three times the original estimate.What bugs me is that nobody asked me if I wanted the Olympic Games in my town.

I don’t live in the area where the site will be built but the Games have become this huge monster that tramples to death established areas of cities and, in the case of some, i.e.Montreal in 1976, the city was left with a gigantic debt which took thirty years to pay off. Sure, they can bring advantages too. The 2000 Sydney Games were not only a big success they presented a glowing image of the city to the world, and no doubt increased the tourist income by millions of dollars.

You just never know what will happen if your city takes on the games. In 1936 Berlin was awarded the games and only two years later Adolph Hitler came to power and the Nazis used the games as a way to promote their sickening idealogy. They spent tons of money on grand stadiums, swimming pools and a super Olympic village. Then came World War II and no more games until London put them on in 1948.

There were those who thought spending should be curbed when there were so many European countries still in ruins and people starving. They went ahead but participants had to bring their own food. No Olympic Village was built and particpants were housed in the empty huts of a former army camp. Do we in the wealthy west really need to spend fortunes on the Olympic Games. Or, a better question might be, should we?

I know there are also reasons why the Games can be a “good thing”. But I’m not entirely convinced. What about those people who now live in East London who have to be ‘re-located’ from areas where they have spent their whole lives.? But then... I’m not running the games.

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