I am disgusted, to the core. of all the articles, editorials, news reports and whatever else that i've been seeing all around. it seems people have suddenly woken up to the knowledge of upcoming Commonwealth Games. everyone suddenly seems to be of the opinion that we shouldn't be hosting the Games in the first place. what bull!
where were these intellectual geniuses when Delhi was putting in the bid ages ago? when we won the bid the impact of the expenditure on our 'poor developing economy', 'dwindeling resources', 'malnourished kids' was not the foremost thought on their minds! i can bet quite a few of them gave interviews, wrote articles and fought over tv space, gushing about what a proud moment it was for India.
the country won the bid quite a few years ago. but it's just now that they have woken up to the impact and the uselessness of it all. delhi has been in a pitiable state for the longest time now. every corner you go to, every street you drive through, some construction work is going on. roads are dug up, every second route diverted, trafffic in a chaos, metro schedules and functioning abysmal, pathetic powercuts, water shortage, what not. to top it, not only does our CM, lady dikshit turn down the offer of companies to lower the tariffs, the govt even levies additional taxes for the CWG. all these, no matter how painful and annoying, had been defended by most average delhiites for a long time. so much so, my cynicism was almost gone. but now, after years, seems most of the people in power or with the power are losing this optimism, doing their best to ensure that others follow suit.
'is it all worth the expenditure?', 'can we afford all this?', 'shouldn't the funds by delegated somewhere more useful instead?', 'people should boycott the Games if they know what's good for them' -some of the oft repeated sentiments these days. common people being tired of the difficulties they face, complaining about them is understandable. people worried about losing face due to the lax attitude of authorities, and moaning about the pathetic speed of work is justified. cursing in the crazy traffic jams and chaos is ok. taxpayers coming out in arms over misuse of their money is TOTALLY ok.
BUT... a former cabinet minister of the presently ruling government declaring publicly that he hopes the Games fail is NOT ok! people forgetting these Games all these years, overlooking the lax preparations, ignoring the blatant misuse and embezzlement of funds, staying quite all this while is loathesome. newspapers and TV channels doing exclusives on new stories everyday to further trash these Games at this last minute is downright careless and questionable. the governments (both central and state) forgetting about it all this while, uncontrolled epidemics, the doubts arising in the minds of the international community are abhorable!
as if the world doubting our ability to host CWG wasn't enough, now even we are looking down upon ourselves, booing what we've been working for all these years.
there was plenty of time to speak your mind. but none of you did. not till this minute. probably would not have made shrewd business sense, huh? but for once put your popcorn patriotism, your pseudo concerns for the damned non issues under scanner. if you can't be bothered to go buy a ticket, don't. just stop maligning the whole thing at this last hour over concerns which are general and in no way related merely to these games.
'is it all worth the expenditure?', 'can we afford all this?', 'shouldn't the funds by delegated somewhere more useful instead?', 'people should boycott the Games if they know what's good for them' -some of the oft repeated sentiments these days. common people being tired of the difficulties they face, complaining about them is understandable. people worried about losing face due to the lax attitude of authorities, and moaning about the pathetic speed of work is justified. cursing in the crazy traffic jams and chaos is ok. taxpayers coming out in arms over misuse of their money is TOTALLY ok.
BUT... a former cabinet minister of the presently ruling government declaring publicly that he hopes the Games fail is NOT ok! people forgetting these Games all these years, overlooking the lax preparations, ignoring the blatant misuse and embezzlement of funds, staying quite all this while is loathesome. newspapers and TV channels doing exclusives on new stories everyday to further trash these Games at this last minute is downright careless and questionable. the governments (both central and state) forgetting about it all this while, uncontrolled epidemics, the doubts arising in the minds of the international community are abhorable!
as if the world doubting our ability to host CWG wasn't enough, now even we are looking down upon ourselves, booing what we've been working for all these years.
there was plenty of time to speak your mind. but none of you did. not till this minute. probably would not have made shrewd business sense, huh? but for once put your popcorn patriotism, your pseudo concerns for the damned non issues under scanner. if you can't be bothered to go buy a ticket, don't. just stop maligning the whole thing at this last hour over concerns which are general and in no way related merely to these games.
1 comment:
well! i agree to it in parts. Those bringing in poverty as an excuse for not taking up anything like hosting an event as big as the CWG might be called 'non-progressive' or single-minded.
However, the reports on the lack of will on the part of the organizing committee were always there -the lack of security arrangements and stuff like that. When the Mumbai blasts happened there was a coverage on the ground preparations and how easy it was to plant timed bombs to make them explode on the D-day. Of course, the media is crooked and not as responsible as it should be in covering everything that matters at the expense of covering something that might not matter as much (but sells well) but, it doesn't meant that there were no reports on the lack of will on the part of the CWG organizing committees.
There were reports on how Mr. Kalmadi and his team had got miffed when the British body, overlooking the arrangements, made a remark on the lack of seriousness of the Indian organizing committee. There were reports on how the British guy was shown the door.
I don't think the press is wrong in criticizing the CWG committees even when the games are days away. It won't be democracy if you think the press should stop it for the time being because the Nation's 'pride' is at stake (Of course, i'm talking about the real press and not aaj-tak) . Unless the constituting bodies work independently the balance of power will shift towards those who are in the thick of things.
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