Well the 29th World Olympics kicked off in Beijing today, and I watched it live at work. The stream that I found was from some European site so the commentary was not in English. So while watching it I was reading on of the BBC commentator's blogs that was updated every couple of minutes.
All in all I think it was pretty decent. The fireworks were amazing and there are a lot of people there. I liked how everyone got into the shape of the world and stuff, it was all pretty neat.
I think that the Olympics are fairly over-rated though. Just to be blunt, I don't think it should be as big a deal as they are making it. I mean the opening ceremonies there, how much did that probably cost? I did a little bit of research, found this website, which puts us at almost 2 billion dollars for the olympics.....
Ok guys, seriously? Almost 2 billion dollars?
And this was only China's cost at hosting the games. Think of all of the money wasted everywhere else on advertising and television time. Gas money to drive and fly to China. Everything adds up and it is a horribly high price.
Now I realize that this is the best of the best, the most accomplished athletes in the world, but 2 billion dollars? I don't know, maybe its just me, but that seems like a lot of money to be throwing around on a bunch of sporting events when all I hear back home here is 'WE ARE GOING INTO A RECESSION!' 'PRICES ARE GOING UP!' 'TAXES ARE ON THE RISE!' and things like, 'WE NEED TO HELP AFRICA!' 'THERE ARE PEOPLE DYING FROM DISEASES!' 'DONATE TO THIS CHARITY!'
Maybe we could just spend a little bit less on the Olympics, and help support some other parts of civilization that really need it.
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