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Commonwealth Games


sir roger
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Due to start in Delhi next week but there is talk that it may be called off, although that may be overly-alarmist.

 

Bridge has collapsed on the approach to the main Stadium with 20 odd people injured & the athletes village is a bit of a mess to say the least.

 

The 'village' seems to be a collection of high-rise flats that look a bit like those ones where all of the students used to end up on Netherfield Road.

TV showed footage from inside them & they look absolutely minty & the mattresses looked alive.

 

I assume nobody from the Commonwealth Games committee has been monitoring the ( lack of ) building programme.

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Guest The Chimp

They gave it to Delhi as there was a need to make the games inclusive. Only twice before (in Jamaica in the 60's and Kuala Lumpur in the 90's) have the Games taken part outside of typically "Anglo-Saxon" nations.

 

India have set back the cause of the developing Commonwealth here markedly. My mate was in charge of media for these Games and resigned two months or so back. Corruption has reportedly been rife here. A real shame to be honest, as I'd have loved to have seen a really well-organised and run games. I'll still be watching it, and trying to soak up some of the local culture, but my initial thoughts from what I've garnered so far are of "what might have been."

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Yeh, was hoping to see India make the best of this but it's been buggered by corruption. Don't think anyone realised just how widespread corruption was before this debacle, seemingly affecting every sphere of life in the country and every person in it. Must be a nightmare to live there. It'll definitely go ahead (despite many top athletes pulling out on a daily basis) so my main hope now is that no-one gets hurt rather than the games being an enjoyable spectacle.

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Commonwealth Games?? They still do this? What is the fucking point? Athletes who win can say they're the best runner in the whole of the UK, India and New Fucking Zealand?

 

What a complete waste of time. Is anybody actually surprised that the infrastructure is a shambles? When was the last time you saw an asian bricklayer?

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I suspect there is method in this indian madness..

 

"If you are having problems with your roof or for general building maintenance enquiries, press 1. Calls are charged at the standard rate"

 

*beeeep*

 

" Hello esteemed sir, you are speaking with.. erm.. Derek, how may I be of assistance with you today"

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Yeh, was hoping to see India make the best of this but it's been buggered by corruption. Don't think anyone realised just how widespread corruption was before this debacle, seemingly affecting every sphere of life in the country and every person in it. Must be a nightmare to live there. It'll definitely go ahead (despite many top athletes pulling out on a daily basis) so my main hope now is that no-one gets hurt rather than the games being an enjoyable spectacle.

 

First the cricket, and now this!

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The Indians had 7 years to prepare for this and still they managed to fuck it up. And why didn't the people in charge of these games think to check on the progress over the past few years? Looks like they only bothered checking up a few weeks before the games are due to begin.

 

Nah, it's looked very dodgy for at least the last couple of years. Amazed they haven't turned things around though with the amount of cash they've thrown at it, despite the corruption.

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Guest The Chimp

Thing is if it had of been successful it wouldn't have been a waste of money (or at least as much of a waste, depending on your viewpoint). India, couldn't hold a World Cup or an Olympics, but success here (in a second-tier global sports event) had the potential to highlight India abroad and also to instil a burgeoning national pride amongst the populace. It's two weeks where the Indian authorities ideally would have been able to show to a pretty significant audience a preferred version of their country. Look at how widespread the coverage of what's gone wrong is - it's still a big sporting event. As I said, I'm hoping India to salvage something from these games and present a good spectacle to alleviate some of the obvious negativity.

 

If this is a massive fuck up, it will make hosting of the games for the developing Commonwealth that much more difficult (and by default only available to those developed, Western nations in the Commonwealth). If that happens, you're absolutely right, and it does truly become an outdated concept.

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What an absolute shambles, all those people who need work and money and they still can't get it finished on time or at an acceptable standard.

The fucking pedestrian bridge leading to the stadium collapsed and they are still have have many things to finish and surely then fix because they will be done to Indian standards. One of the officials was saying it is the best athletes village ever, if that's the kind of people they have in charge no wonder it's a shit storm.

 

The Commonwealth games are shit anyway, does anyone care about them anymore I certainly don't.

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Ridiculous but not entirely unexpected. The fault usually lies with the nature of the initial bidding process. There is so much politicking and shmoozing of dignitaries that goes on, and the actual sporting event in question is relegated to a mere sideshow. The winning bidders then spend 2 years backslapping each other, then another 2 years completely overhauling the plans that won them the bid in the first place. Then comes the inevitable overspend and rush to get things completed on time. During that process you get the stooge "Comical Ali" impersonator telling everyone that everything is hunky dory.

 

Not to single out India here, but when the system of organisation and responsibility is as shoddy and arbitrary as it undoubtedly is over there, this will just escalate to unmanagable levels when trying to organise global events. I haven't even mentioned money and brown envelopes yet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Australia scored more goals in the netball than there were spectators, I think it was 50 something.

The crowd at the swimming sucked as well and thats one where the crowd usually gets loud. I suppose you wouldn't get that excited when your country doesn't have anyone competing, but you could still clap a bit.

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Anyone see the boxing just then? Great fight at Superheavy between a Kiwi and a Canadian.

 

Also watched some Gymnastics and the standards are hilariously poor. In the vault I think the silver medallist landed on his arse!

 

Those who asked who could be arsed, I most certainly am, it's good to watch really shit athletes struggling to grab some glory for once rather than some ninja American or Chinaman. Enjoying the swimming and boxing particularly, for me it's infinitely more interesting than the Ryder fucking cup.

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