2004-08-15
OLYMPICS - Part 2
CNBC's talking heads squawked yesterday about the dearth of occupied seats in the gymnast's sessions | What seemed lost on them was that the "cheap seats" were packed | I'd venture to guess that, just as it was years back when I worked at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, the greed factor overrode the pragmatic planning aspects | As with most extravaganzas, event planners spend far too much time currying favor from the privileged, not enough time realizing that the bills 
have to be paid | Next time, have available seating go cheaper | Takes more effort to get to the top dollar figure but, it may work | Anyway, I guess I can't get away from the social justice angle, even when relaxing |
Here's a couple more pix from the tv screen last night during the cyclist competitions | The left side has them coming in en masse to the finish | The one on the right, is, I'll admit, pretty fuzzy | But it's the only shot I got of the Acropolis besides the one from yesterday's entries | I could be disingenious and say it was on purpose, to capture the sense of speed, but that's not it at all | I liked the color texture though |
¶ 21:37
CNBC's talking heads squawked yesterday about the dearth of occupied seats in the gymnast's sessions | What seemed lost on them was that the "cheap seats" were packed | I'd venture to guess that, just as it was years back when I worked at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, the greed factor overrode the pragmatic planning aspects | As with most extravaganzas, event planners spend far too much time currying favor from the privileged, not enough time realizing that the bills have to be paid | Next time, have available seating go cheaper | Takes more effort to get to the top dollar figure but, it may work | Anyway, I guess I can't get away from the social justice angle, even when relaxing |
Here's a couple more pix from the tv screen last night during the cyclist competitions | The left side has them coming in en masse to the finish | The one on the right, is, I'll admit, pretty fuzzy | But it's the only shot I got of the Acropolis besides the one from yesterday's entries | I could be disingenious and say it was on purpose, to capture the sense of speed, but that's not it at all | I liked the color texture though |
Little know facts: A more sombre aspect of the Olympics is the fact that 13 workers died while the Olympics venues were constructed in Athens | According to a Yahoo/Asia news release: "Deaths at construction sites have spurred a small but vocal anti-Olympics movement in Athens, adding to anger over massive security measures and commercialism surrounding the world's biggest sporting event | "People won't forget their problems, no matter how big the party is and how many fireworks are used during the opening ceremony," protest organizer Giorgos Mavrikos said | Construction crews raced round the clock this year to finish off seriously delayed Olympic venues and infrastructure projects, pushing up the Olympic budget to more than US$7 billion and compromising worker safety, according to protest and human rights groups | Amnesty International, the human rights watchdog, said the Olympic death toll could be as high as 40 workers" |
¶ 21:37
