Olympic Hurdle

I didn't watch the opening ceremony last night. I saw the beginning with Kenneth Branagh as Brunel quoting Shakespear on an artificial hillside & just thought that I didn't want to spend 4 hours of my life watching it. From the reports today it seems to have been spectacular & popular, so well done to everyone who made it happen - really.

But....you know there is a but coming...Why does anyone have to spend so much money, time & effort on hosting the games? Doesn't that immediately make them elitist? Only countries that can afford it can host. I have nothing but the highest admiration for all the athletes who dedicate their lives to their sport & who achieve such amazing levels of skill. How can you not admire the hard work & the pain they go through to achieve their best performance on the day?

Do we really need all the panoply & hype that goes with it though? Has anyone really done a cost / benefit analysis of previous games in recent history. Did they really make worthwhile amounts of money, was there really a long term legacy for ordinary people? Or were they a gravy train for a minority & did the unused facilities fall into disrepair soon after?

The other aspect of this that I find impossible to reconcile is the dicotomy of lavish spending on games when millions of people are dying all over the world for lack of water, food, basic sanitation, a reasonable home & mindless wars. As I think I have mentioned before, it's like the dying Roman Empire hosting gladiatorial contests to take the people's minds of the very real problems they face.

The other problem I have with it is how come we actually have the money to pay for all of this? I'm no financial whizz, but if we haven't got the money for good quality public services, if people are taking pay cuts or have no jobs, if people are losing their houses, how are we funding this spectacle? Maybe it's "quantitative easing"? In other word we are just printing more money without the reserves to back it up. How long can that go on for?

So, all in all, the biggest hurdle I can see is justifying it all.