India's Commonwealth Games debacle

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Alan

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The people who awarded the 2010 Commonwealth Games to New Delhi should be wondering why they didn't select Hamilton.

They probably thought they were doing the right thing by awarding the Games to the world's second most populous country and they were counting on the emerging nation to follow in the footsteps of China, which staged a magnificent Olympic Games in 2008.

But India is no China and, with the Commonwealth Games scheduled to begin Oct. 3, the fears about its ability to stage the multi-nation sporting event have been realized.

When the world's top cyclists gathered in Quebec earlier this month, a prime topic of conversation was the unfinished velodrome in New Delhi. But that's turning out to be the least of the city's problems.

The first athletes began arriving this week and found that four of the five apartment blocks that are to serve as the athletes' village haven't been completed. Among other things, they lack toilets and other plumbing, electricity and Internet services. New Zealand insisted on moving its athletes to the completed block after describing its original housing as "unsafe, dirty and unhygienic."

Canada joined the chorus of unhappy nations yesterday.

"Unfortunately the completion of the village has left something to be desired and in short, it's not ready for our habitation yet," said Scott Stevenson, Commonwealth Games Canada's director of sport, who's been in New Delhi since Thursday.

"They were ahead of schedule only six or eight months ago; they've quickly fallen behind and it's not done," Stevenson said in a conference call.

While they are moving ahead as planned, the Canadians say the athletes will not stay in the village until it is deemed acceptable and there is no backup plan to house them elsewhere.

"Will we get there? We're really working hard full-steam ahead in the belief that we will get there and we're not going to stop believing that until the day that we don't get there.," Stevenson said.

"But we're pushing hard in hopes that we do," Stevenson said.

The story of the unfinished building was overshadowed yesterday afternoon when a 300-foot pedestrian bridge linking a parking lot to the main stadium collapsed. Twenty-three workers were injured, with five of them listed in serious condition.

Governments sell the idea of hosting Games by pointing to the benefits of the infrastructure left behind and the prestige garnered on the world stage. But the greatest legacy of the New Delhi Games might be one Montrealers know all too well. We came out of the 1976 Olympics with swimming pools and arenas, an extended metro and the white elephant that is the Olympic Stadium. We were also saddled with a $1-billion debt.

The debt in India will be much greater, as will the social cost to the country's poorest citizens.

More than 100,000 residents were relocated or displaced to make room for Games venues and funds for social programs have been diverted as the budget for the Games mushroomed from $1 billion to $6 billion.

One payoff is supposed to come in the form of tourism and the prestige of hosting a major international event. Tourist officials say that bookings are lower than expected amid fears of flooding, an outbreak of dengue fever and lax security after Islamic militants took credit for the shooting of two Taiwanese tourists outside a mosque last week.

Other major international competitions have experienced similar woes. The Olympic Stadium in Montreal made do with portable toilets; student protesters were shot in the days leading up to the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City while the Montreal, Moscow and Los Angeles Games all had to deal with boycotts. And then there was the massacre of Jewish athletes at Munich in 1972.

But no competition has faced as many different problems as New Delhi, and time is running out to find solutions.
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Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news...mes+disaster/3560553/story.html#ixzz10F92H1iX

This is rather embarrassing :o
 
blunomore said:
That sounds like the India that I know and love :)
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Yea, what the heck, the image I got from the article was:

A group of shiny spoiled athletes in white spacesuits arriving in a broiling metropolis and the shock of realising the competition is not taking place on the ISS, but on earth.

The poor athletes, to think that they have to pit themselves against the environment like that ! It's all too much to ask for
 
wrathex said:
Yea, what the heck, the image I got from the article was:

A group of shiny spoiled athletes in white spacesuits arriving in a broiling metropolis and the shock of realising the competition is not taking place on the ISS, but on earth.

The poor athletes, to think that they have to pit themselves against the environment like that ! It's all too much to ask for
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LOL!

That is how it is in India ... chaotic. It is not gonna change into Manhattan overnight.
 
You only need to go to some of these real 3rd world countries to realise and appreciate how developed South Africa actually is, and how much we take for granted here. Sure we have lots of townships and shanty towns, but our infrastructure is world-class in comparison to most other so-called "developing" countries.
 
deweyzeph said:
You only need to go to some of these real 3rd world countries to realise and appreciate how developed South Africa actually is, and how much we take for granted here. Sure we have lots of townships and shanty towns, but our infrastructure is world-class in comparison to most other so-called "developing" countries.
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True. Poverty in India is a million times worse than poverty in SA.

On the other hand, you cannot possibly compare a country of 45 Million people to a country of 1 Billion people.
 
I knew this would happen. Delhi is a crazy place, they should have held it elsewhere in India.
 
The indian govt and the organisers should take full responsibility for this farce!
 
deweyzeph said:
You only need to go to some of these real 3rd world countries to realise and appreciate how developed South Africa actually is, and how much we take for granted here. Sure we have lots of townships and shanty towns, but our infrastructure is world-class in comparison to most other so-called "developing" countries.
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But I understand that they have better broadband than us?
 
blunomore said:
True. Poverty in India is a million times worse than poverty in SA.

On the other hand, you cannot possibly compare a country of 45 Million people to a country of 1 Billion people.
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But none of the poor people go attack the other people for money in India. Crime wise India is million times better than SA.
 
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