My prayers to the 'Intelligent Designer' appear to be working because TV coverage this morning shows a very nice, dense smog has settled over Peking. My joy will be unconfined if the druggies in the 100m race cannot see the finish line, and the marathon runners lose their way. You will not be surprised to know that I shall not be watching the farrago that opens these disgusting 'games'. I am not a killjoy, I enjoy the spectacle of genuine sporting endeavour, but the sheer, mind-boggling expense of these 'games' is vomit-inducing. Any potential pleasure turns to dust and ashes when you contemplate the misery of hundreds of thousands of poor Chinese forced from their homes or dismissed without compensation from their jobs because their factories have been closed either for demolition or in a frantic panic to cut down on pollution. Many of them lack even the means to get back to the poverty-ridden countryside from which they came in order to get work. If that fails to make you queasy then just remind yourselves that a tiny, miniscule fraction of the multi-zillions spent on this disgusting freak show would buy half a dozen Mercy Ships. I have added one final prayer to the 'Intelligent Designer' - please let there be a small earthquake in Peking, not enough to bring down buildings and kill people, but just large enough to make all those 'fun palaces' unsafe and un-usable. Better still, that would mean they would have to be demolished or made safe thus giving back jobs to all those migrant workers.
Additional: Dearie me! (By the way, whatever happened to him?) Where was I? Oh yes, dearie me, I regret to say that the 'Intelligent Designer' has taken my prayers a little too far by starting WWIII on the same day as the Olympic opening ceremony. Apparently the Russians and the Georgians are going to war and it can only be a matter of time before some other hot-heads rush in. Whilst, I am delighted for anything that subverts the preposterous and vulgar extravaganza in Peking, WWIII seems a touch excessive!
Just yesterday we were watching a video presentation at work, taken from youtube a Discovery film about building of the Bird's Nest National stadium in Beijing.(Modern Marvels series). It was a couple years old (the construction wasn't completed at teh time). The price ticket quoted in the film was $400 BILLION.
Posted by: Tatyana | Friday, 08 August 2008 at 15:15
Some one please pass me a sickbag!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 08 August 2008 at 15:18
A co-worker's correction: he thinks it was a mere $40 bln. It's my notorious megalomania again! They are much, much more prudent with people's money!
To understand the scale of this madness, here's just one detail: the Chinese had to develop - and test and test and test - a special steel, for the existing ones wasn't structurally suited for combined forces at work: usually the steel beams are straight, and those that comprise the Bird's Nest exterior are curved.
If you ever had to solve one structural 'vector of forces' equasion, you'd have an idea of just HOW mad these people are.
Posted by: Tatyana | Friday, 08 August 2008 at 16:30
Maybe, Tatyana, but as far as I'm concerned the Chinese government can be as stupid and profligate as they like with their own money, what fills me with 'fear and loathing' is the knowledge that this whole ghastly travesty is heading for London in 4 years time! Aaaaargh!
Posted by: David Duff | Friday, 08 August 2008 at 16:49