I was thinking of writing something about the Olympics now that the whole thing has finished and we are back to our every day lives. There are so many things I would like to say about it but I don’t have the time or the energy left. Just a few words then and that’s it. Although I must admit it was fun and quite moving to take part in the Olympic experience I still think that Athens 2004 was a big mistake. Yes the opening ceremony was great, the volunteers where helpful, the stadiums magnificent and Athens looked almost like the capital of a European nation. But we have already received the bill and I must say that it wasn’t worth it. No, it wasn’t worth the 14 dead and dozens of wounded workers that had to work for months, even years in appalling conditions because we where running late and the construction companies did not want to pay for all the necessary safety measures and equipment to be in place. It wasn’t worth the incredible security costs for equipment, training, personnel that every Greek knew that we would never really need. We bought all this junk because of the constant blackmail (yes, that’s what it was) of the negative publicity. Every time some security corporation wanted to shove their products down our throat some major news source or monitoring organization reported problems with the security of the Olympic games. These reports disappeared once we bought their merchandise only to reappear again when someone else wanted a piece of the pie. It was absolutely appalling to see all the hypocrisy behind the Kenderis-Thanou doping scandal when everybody with 3-4 nerve cells still working could clearly see what was going on in Greek Athletics in the last 8-10 years. It was disappointing to see Greek fans cheering when our opponents lost, booing them for having the nerve to beat “our Guy/Gal”. The already dreadful urban environment has been burdened with millions of tons of concrete. There are many things that come into mind but the most disappointing of all is the fact that we did not learn a bloody thing. Athens is getting dirty again, its inhabitants are as rude as ever, and people still prefer their private cars to public transport. I really can see anything positive about the whole “after” experience and for now I just hope we will be able to survive the aftermath without many casualties.
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10:46:44 PM
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