Lost Ambitions of the Olympics

Just as the Olympics games 2008 is finally put to rest, 2012 rears its ugly head and this time it’s Britain’s turn to pick up the tab.

Unfortunately for Britain the standard set by China was not only extraordinarily high but also caused a severe blow to the ego to those countries who doubted China. Granted, their bumpy start allowed a few questions to arise about whether China was really in a position to host the Olympics. But with a few villages destroyed to make way for empty skyscrapers, a few Tibetan protesters thrown out the way and a few thousand drums drummed, the Chinese have successfully proven their superpower status against the West and quite frankly, Britain needs to prove they’re still in a position to compete.

So let’s think of this as a competition of nationalistic pride, because ultimately that’s what it is. We’re technically already failing at this considering the apparent £20 billion spent on the 2008 Olympic Games, with our budget only stretching to £9 billion. Then, of course, came the credit crunch and the next thing we know The Olympic Delivery Authority have lost our main supporters, Lend Lease, and guess who will be left to pay the bill? Of course it’s the British taxpayer.

This week, John Armitt, director of ODA, said that a 3,000-unit development on the Olympic campus in east London may have to be entirely funded by the taxpayer at a cost of £1 billion. This is because the credit crunch has meant the funding has fallen through from private banks and developers.

The expenditure of the opening ceremony in China alone cost £50 million. Now without intentionally missing the point of the Olympic Games opening ceremony, I am. Yes, China’s display of fireworks going off all through Beijing was outstanding and I especially enjoyed the computer-generated script telling the tale of Chinese paper making, but I cannot see how a performance which lasts three and a half hours and costs that much money really makes that much difference to the world? After all the Olympic Games are supposed to celebrate the achievements of great sporting heroes, not simply a chance for countries to flex their economic muscles in the direction of the rest of the world.

Last week it was made clear how much difficulty charities, such as Oxfam, were having gathering funding and that they had asked for £500 million from the government. Surely this is a better way to spend our money? The credit crunch has meant mounting concerns over mortgages and people do not have money to buy houses leading to British real estate being in dire straits. Perhaps a closer look should be taken at the stability of Britain’s financial status before trying to compete with rapidly expanding superpowers?

In a survey carried out by The Guardian online, 79.9% of people disagreed with the suggestion of using our taxes on The Olympic Games. Maybe this should be seen as an indication to the general consensus surrounding the games.

The taxes keep increasing but what have we to show for this increase, the NHS is under funded and oversubscribed, people cannot afford roofs over their heads and banks need more and more injections of capital.  I think there are obviously more pressing matters in Britain requiring attention, before spending all this effort and time on a superficial display of unnecessary extravagances.