Olympics losing credibility

That the Chinese have lost all credibility amongst the people is a given. Folks all around are discussing stories about how the Chinese went about hosting the Olympics. Children were snatched away from their parents so they could be trained for the competition. Apparently, the Chinese officials were looking for certain physical profiles and any child fitting them was simply taken away from their homes and trained rigorously for the Olympics. Perhaps the under aged Chinese gymnasts were some of them. The fakery in the opening ceremony was well published, lip syncing singers, CGI fireworks etc. There are also stories of how the stadiums and other facilities were built. Communities were bulldozed, houses were torn down, people were simply asked to leave because their houses were in the way of the plans for Olympics. The Hans were too engaged in putting up a show than to care for their people, but then, when did they ever. Quashing Tibetian protests, heavy handed diplomacy and the general intolerance of anything unfavorable does not help their cause either.

All that effort does not seem to have paid off for the Chinese. Not the least financially. If seat occupancy is anything to go by, there not many spectators. The Chinese do not seem to have made much money in ticket sales. And surely, making arrangements, providing security, facilities for the various officials, athletes, tourists and making cosmetic changes to their cities may have cost them a lot.

With the cost increasing in hosting the Olympics, it won't be a surprising if there aren't any takes in the future. Obviously, security is going to be the biggest concern for everyone, the rising cost of fuel will increase transportation costs and huge infrastructure costs may just not make the Olympics economically viable.

And then there are talks of massive corruption in the IOC. The controversy with under aged athletes and the IOC not handling it properly, repeated doping scandals, allowing China to host the games apparently gives people an impression that corruption has a big hand in the functioning of the IOC. The Olympic charter is losing its meaning. It has now become a quest for medals at all costs (doping, snatching and training under age children) than spirit.

Environment consciousness and America...

...are poles apart. All the outwardly concern for the environment, by the American politicians, is empty rhetoric when juxtaposed with their policies.

Bush seems to believe that India and China are equally guilty of polluting the environment as the Americans. We have proven that bunk in the previous posts. Further, the American policies actually favor the inefficient and polluting.

The US is a country of automobiles. The cars there are highly inefficient and burn a lot of gas. The mileage efficiency mandate has remained stagnant since the early seventies. As a result the average mileage of today's cars in the US is the same as it was in the seventies. Surely there have been advancements in technology which could be put to use in increasing the mileage on a car.

In the mid nineties, electric cars began to appear on American roads. These cars were quickly becoming popular and were actually better than the gas burning cars. They were threatening to kill the gasoline burning ones. The electric cars were being offered to the people to meet the California Air Resources Board (CARB) mandates to reduce emissions in the state. However the oil lobby felt threatened and began a counter attack on the electric car programs. It bought out the CARB, the car companies argued that it was impossible to meet the emission mandates prompting the CARB to relax them and in effect killing the future of electric cars. This attack on the zero emission electric cars had the backing of the federal government under Bush, not surprising knowing his oil connections. To completely kill the electric car program, Bush announced investment in fuel cell technology which we all know is not viable. The fuel cell technology is four times as inefficient as the electric cars. The documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" discusses this pretty well.

When there is still a lot of money to be made on oil, until it runs out, the oil lobby will continue to squash all alternative developments that threaten it. And the American politicians are equally involved in this. Until the American leaders continue to do this, they are not going to sound credible at all. Bring back the electric car; it is the best thing to do. Kick the oil habit.

Related Posts:

Bush's lip service on climate change

Climate change can't happen without the US

American needs oil

Climate change can't happen without the US

Bush says climate change can't happen without India & China. Let's see if that is true.

This graph here shows that the CO2 emissions by country. Notice that the two most polluting countries are China & USA. India is miles below in the graph. So, to bring about a significant change in the environment, China & USA must change their polluting habits. And since the Americans claim they are the world leaders, why not take the lead here? Why pull India's name into the equation? Even if India were to change it's habit, it is not going to make any significant impact (this doesn't mean we continue polluting). The onus lies on the Americans & the Chinese.

The Americans are the most polluting ones. Consider this, just 300 million Americans manage to burn 25% of the world's oil. And they produce 4.5 pounds of soild waste each day. More than folks from most countries. Not to forget their phenominal food consumption.

America's refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol is another indication of their unwillingness to change their wasteful ways. It is also the receipient of the most polluting country award (along with two others) handed out by the UN (where it has immense clout). In face of all this, it doesn't sound too credible of the Americans asking us to bring about climate change. The US must own up and change it's polluting habits first.