Saturday, February 28, 2004

When you said "on time",

did you mean regular time or Greek time? The President of the International Olympic Committee has publicly expressed his concern that Athens will not be ready in time for the upcoming games in August, a very unusual thing for a high-ranking IOC official to say at so late a stage in the preparations. Quite a bit is still unfinished, including the domed roof for the Olympic stadium, which means that the opening ceremonies might have to risk exposure to the elements (good thing it doesn't rain all that much in August in Greece; the last time the games were there, in the Spring of 1896, the weather was blustery and forced the outright cancellation of some events!) and hazard looking a little slapdash to the four billion-plus viewers who will be tuning in to watch worldwide.

But I think the IOC is a little overly worried about this. There's no danger that the Olympics won't happen just because a few venues will have wet paint still drying on the walls or caution tape strung up around construction sites that are still under construction. There may be hassles and headaches, but athletes will gather and compete, and medals will be won, as always. What I find distressing is that in its quest for a "perfect" (a.k.a., corporate-friendly) Olympic host, the IOC seems to favor the efficiency of totalitarian states such as China - who admittedly is ahead of Athens in many respects although preparing for the games of the next Olympiad - over the necessarily messier business of a raucous but functioning democracy. I'm not sure the Ancient Greeks would approve. After all, the site of Olympia didn't even have running water until the 2nd Century A.D.!

No comments: