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The part where 40 billion was spent on entertaining people with enough time and money for most part of a day. The part where spectators find inspiration in the money spent in watching other human beings contort themselves into whatever shapes for the moment of a few hours. The part where China is extolled for its amazing display of wealth, influence, talent, and power in not only being the one country over many to host such said exhibition, but to do so on such a breathtaking level. The part where 9 billion spent in comparison by London is deemed a pitiful amount. The part where the difference of 31 billion -not to mention even 1 percent of a billion- could have fed so many starving children, housed so many homeless, cured so many ailing for medical care, and saved so many lives. The part wherein I really wonder where the world has its priorities.

 

I agree with what you are saying Priya. In fact the first time i heard it on T.V, that was exactly my reaction. How the hell can they manage to invest 40 billion dollars in the Olympics, when there is so much poverty. China has been striving to be in the top league for years. I guess they finally got the chance to show the world, and hell they took real good advantage of it.

"The part where 40 billion was spent on entertaining people with enough time and money for most part of a day."

If we look at it that way, we can also argue about the number of money the world spends on entertainment each and everyday. Why do we watch movies? spend so much on video games, music and so on. Why doesn't the government ban all this stuff, so we can all start donating to the poor and hungry. Why do film makers spend millions on making movies?

You have a valid point about the priority given to such things!

 

And if it all falls apart, I will know deep in my heart, the only dream that mattered had come true. In this life, I was loved by you.

That is just the problem with most of today's marketing and spenditure; They target middle class people. "Oh you spend so much on feeding your dog when you could be saving a life". "Oh you could have saved so much more money not dining out at said restaurant and there are people starving." The magnitude of the amount is what is unsettling, and given the authority of power - being a national uplift of China is one thing, but then given the international propaganda and the amount put into such a short term proposition all at once rather than into a given long term commitment as in the daily lives of people - such argument is that belonging to the upper elite in attempting to ascertain a moral for their own lifestyles.

 

Well im definitely not marketing anything No matter how much the amount is, and trust me i'm NOT defending the Chinese, we can not sit here and complain all the time. I believe in giving credit where its due, and the Chinese definitely deserve credit for putting up an absolutely amazing show. In my opinion it was creativity at its best, did you see the ending ceremony? The way they put together all those dancers and the musicians was absolutely amazing. I know 40 billion was not only spent on the dancers and so on. The point remains, why only blame the Chinese? There are other events which are also short term. How long is a basketball season, a few months? How much does each basketball player get paid? IN MILLIONS! Each player!! and how many players are their on one team???? Think of how many people we can be feeding And we are only talking about US basketball teams, and ONE sport. At least the Olympics bring together athletes from around the world, and happen only once four years. And US has a very high poverty rate as well. Ok skipping the entertainment industry lets go towards government, how much do they spend on campaigning? Lets go check Hillary's campaigning costs, and she was only in the preliminary stage.

 

And if it all falls apart, I will know deep in my heart, the only dream that mattered had come true. In this life, I was loved by you.

I agree, that's another complaint - the sports salaries. The world's defense budget. Campaigning spenditure. Who has the bigger gold toilet. And so on and so on... AGREED. Obviously, as I said in my previous spiel; The extremity of amounts on either end.

And no, I didn't watch the Olympics, and I did not miss anything either.

 

Good that we agree Here's some pics for you Priya

Amazing how the Chinese showcased 5,000 years of their history to the world with such pride They portrayed their dynasties, religions, and so on...And the ending presented a positive view of the future =)

I mean i work with Chinese students, and their sense of pride was just WOW. Many considered China as a third World country, but China managed to prove the entire world wrong.

 

And if it all falls apart, I will know deep in my heart, the only dream that mattered had come true. In this life, I was loved by you.

Good Job by the Chinese as Chand stated . I didn't expect so much and they stood way above not just mine, rather all expectations!

 

Its like wishing for rain, as i stand in the desert, but i am holding you closer than most, because you are my heaven.

Well Chinese did a fantastic job in giving this Olympics a real success in both fame(hi-tech advancements) and name(altheletes n medals)..
Just a day before Olympics had started there was a documentary on CBC on people who were actually suffering due to olympics - poor people living in Beijing who were kicked out of their houses (jhopris indeed )..The govt just kicked them out without notice, they had to carry whatever amount of clothes/ equipments they could at that moment..
That so BIZZARE!!
i will try to find that documentary.
Its worth watching how GOVT in CHINA crushed the poor ppl who had no say whatsoever!!

 

Time flies but memories never fade

Obviously Australia is the best country in the Olympics. We have hardly any population and we still managed 6th spot. Eat that America! Lol

"....Indeed, many Chinese are proud of being able to stage such an important event.

But focusing solely on pride ignores another China, one far different from the upper class people with the money to travel to Beijing. As China has liberalized its economy, vast agricultural regions of the country have fallen far behind the cities — so much so that this “communist” nation now has one of the worst income inequalities in Asia. Indeed, according to the World Bank, over 200 million Chinese earn less than US$1.25 per day, a near-African wage, and today China’s Gini coefficient, the standard measure of inequality, is far higher than that of India. For these rural Chinese, the Olympics are just one more event to watch from afar, before they turn back to their daily struggle."

Courtesy: The New Republic
Joshua Kurlantzick is a special correspondent for The New Republic and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s China Program.

 

Chand is squint as in cock eyed!

 

Its like wishing for rain, as i stand in the desert, but i am holding you closer than most, because you are my heaven.

Scientists have flicked the switch on the biggest non-military experiment of all time, but it could be at least a month before the proton-smashing mega-machine yields any results — or perhaps even the apocalypse.

The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) hopes the world's most powerful atom-smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will pierce the greatest secrets of the physical Universe.


The $9.3 billion LHC, which experienced "small electrical problems" overnight, started without delay at 9:30am (5.30pm AEST) at its underground location near the Swiss-French border.


"After the (first proton) beam is injected, it takes about five seconds for the acquisition of the data," said LHC project leader Lyn Evans.

Shortly afterwards, a telltale flash on control screens confirmed the injection.

CERN hopes that by injecting the protons into the 27km ring-shaped tunnel at almost the speed of light, they may be able to re-enact the conditions of the "Big Bang" that created the universe.

Earlier today renowned British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking bet $US100 ($A122) that the mega-experiment would not find the holy grail of cosmic science.

"The LHC will increase the energy at which we can study particle interactions by a factor of four. According to present thinking, this should be enough to discover the Higgs particle," Hawking told BBC radio.

"I think it will be much more exciting if we don't find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of 100 dollars that we won't find the Higgs," added Hawking, whose books including A Brief History of Time have sought to popularise study of stellar physics.

Physicists have long puzzled over how particles acquire mass. In 1964, a British physicist, Peter Higgs, came up with this idea: there must exist a background field that would act rather like treacle.

Particles passing through it would acquire mass by being dragged through a mediator, which theoreticians dubbed the Higgs Boson.

The standard quip about the Higgs is that it is the "God Particle" - it is everywhere but remains frustratingly elusive.

While questioning the likelihood of finding Higgs Bosons, Hawking said the experiment could discover superpartners, particles that would be "supersymmetric partners" to particles already known about.

"Their existence would be a key confirmation of string theory, and they could make up the mysterious dark matter that holds galaxies together," he told the BBC.

"Whatever the LHC finds, or fails to find, the results will tell us a lot about the structure of the universe," he added.

Hawking, the 66-year-old Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, was diagnosed with the muscle-wasting motor neuron disease at the age of 22.

He is in a wheelchair and speaks with the aid of a computer and voice synthesiser.



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In short, Start praying! kidding! Jokes apart, seems like science has driven people selfishly crazy!

 

Its like wishing for rain, as i stand in the desert, but i am holding you closer than most, because you are my heaven.

Sounds like Brown material eh

 

No more like black!

 

Its like wishing for rain, as i stand in the desert, but i am holding you closer than most, because you are my heaven.