← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · xmetalhead
Thread ID: 19001 | Posts: 11 | Started: 2005-07-06
2005-07-06 16:17 | User Profile
[I]The neocon FoxNews a-holes will, of course, gloat about the fact that Paris lost, indulgding in their Franco-bashing and praising the British for winning the games. You see, the American/Zionist press will count the victory for England as a reward for Tony Blair's commitments of blood and treasure in the "war on terror".[/I]
[B][SIZE=3][COLOR=DarkRed]London named 2012 Olympics host[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [B]City to host first Games since 1948, beats out Paris in final voting[/B]
SINGAPORE - London was awarded the 2012 Olympics on Wednesday, upsetting European rival Paris in the final round of voting to take the games back to the British capital for the first time since 1948.
After Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated in the first three rounds, London overcame its cross-Channel opponent 54-50 on the fourth ballot of the International Olympic Committee vote ââ¬â capping the most glamorous and hotly contested bid race in Olympic history.
Paris had been the front-runner throughout the campaign, but London picked up momentum in the late stages with strong support from Prime Minister Tony Blair.
[URL=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8476616/]Entire Story[/URL]
Missing from the MSNBC story and which might explain better, the decision of the Olympic Committee's choice of London over Paris, from Le Monde:
[QUOTE][B]Au cours de son grand oral, mercredi, Londres, "la ville où se parlent 200 langues", a mis en avant son dynamisme et sa diversité.[/B] L'ex-athlète Sebastian Coe, président de Londres 2012, a insisté sur l'expérience "magique, électrisante, énergisante" que doivent être les Jeux "pour la jeunesse du monde entier" et assuré que Londres préparait des sites de qualité, réalisés en collaboration étroite avec la commission des athlètes.[URL=http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3242,36-670131@51-627742,0.html]Link[/URL] [/QUOTE]
What it says is that, basically, in London, 200 languages are spoken and that put London forward due to it's dynamics and diversity.
In any case, the Olympic host cities always lose millions of dollars anyway, so hosting the Olympics is more curse than blessing.
2005-07-06 16:38 | User Profile
If they wanted diversity, how did New York lose?
Paris should have been able to compete with London on this one, if that was the criterion. As of the 1999 census, not quite 20% of Parisians were born outside of France.
I was hoping for Moscow, myself.
2005-07-06 16:46 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]In any case, the Olympic host cities always lose millions of dollars anyway, so hosting the Olympics is more curse than blessing.[/QUOTE] Tell me about it. The 1996 Olympics was a disgusting spectacle of mercantilism and crooked urban politics. Naturally, Atlantans are still paying the additional sales and professional license taxes that were assessed at the time.
2005-07-06 17:34 | User Profile
I'm just glad that NYC didn't win. We already have constant gridlock in the city and, being the number one terrorist target on Earth, it would have been an irresitable target. Not to mention upstate taxpayers would get saddled paying for a new stadium that would latter be a giant give away to a professional football team. It's no wonder that the only group asking to host the Olympic games are politicians; they line their pockets and everyone else pays through the nose. As for Tony Blair's constant lies; if London is so proud of its racial diversity, how come there are practically daily arrests made due to clashes between Britains and foreigners? The man wouldn't know the truth if it slapped him upside the head. I guess Blair is trying to surpass Sir Winston as the most corrupt politician in British history.
2005-07-06 17:56 | User Profile
[QUOTE=robinder]If they wanted diversity, how did New York lose?
Paris should have been able to compete with London on this one, if that was the criterion. As of the 1999 census, not quite 20% of Parisians were born outside of France.
I was hoping for Moscow, myself.[/QUOTE]
New York lost because visiting athletes from Syria, Egypt, Iran, etc....you know the countries of the world that the United States has publicly humiliated by calling them "terrorists"....would have a very difficult time getting into the United States and probably cause major embarrassments for athletes. Post 9/11 Homeland Security goons strip searching and retina scanning and fingerprinting foreign athletes and thousands of foreign visitors alike??
Paris has their diversity, no doubt, but 200 languages??? Nah, not even close.
[QUOTE=Brian Hassett]I'm just glad that NYC didn't win. We already have constant gridlock in the city and, being the number one terrorist target on Earth, it would have been an irresitable target. Not to mention upstate taxpayers would get saddled paying for a new stadium that would latter be a giant give away to a professional football team.[/QUOTE]
I'm with you buddy. Our city and surrounding areas would have been made to pay exorbitant taxes to fund construction of facilities that will just add to degrading the quality of life here even further. Plainly stated, the Olympics in NYC would have been an unmatched nightmare of epic proportions unseen in the city's history.
2005-07-06 19:56 | User Profile
I really doubt that the 200 languages comment is anything more than hyperbole, unless they mean that at any time there are a handful of people are speaking that many languages. Most major cities in the West probably have at least a few hundred residents speaking various foreign languages. But no matter what else, I'd like to see the statistics because for the time being I don't believe that Paris is much more, if any more, "native" in its population demographics.
2005-07-06 22:23 | User Profile
The metropolitan area of Paris is one of the most multi-cultural in Europe. At the 1999 census, 19.4% of the total population of the metropolitan area were born outside of metropolitan France.
As a comparison: at the 2001 UK census, 19.5% of the total population of the metropolitan area of London was born outside of the (metropolitan) United Kingdom, while at the 2000 US census 27.5% of the total population of the New York-Newark-Bridgeport metropolitan area was born outside of the United States (50 states), and 31.9% of the total population of the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County metropolitan area was born outside of the United States (50 states).
Still at the 1999 French census, 4.2% of the total population of the metropolitan area of Paris were recent migrants (i.e. people who were not living in France in 1990). The most recent immigrants to Paris come essentially from mainland China and from Africa.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris#Demographics[/url]
2005-07-06 23:12 | User Profile
I live in London and whilst I'm peased that we won the bid. The Olympics does seem like a white elephant to me. I don't like the fact that Londoners will be paying for the Olympic project directly out of our council taxes.
British council tax is a poll tax based on property value and Londoners already pay far to much for a third world standard of public services.
Greg
"They should rule who are able to rule best." - Aristotle
2005-07-07 02:02 | User Profile
I've heard Calgary is still in debt from Olympics held in the 1970s or 80s.
2005-07-07 02:58 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Luh_Windan][url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris#Demographics[/url][/QUOTE] 19,4% born outside France? Thus my personal figure for Paris being 25% non-white seems now a bit outdated. I could well be near one third, pretty scary. How will we be able to overcome that decay?
The video advertising London is far better in my opinion, but the ugly thing is at the beginning :
Our London, historic, contemporary, diverse** (emphasis not mine).
Indeed, European capital cities are competing to know at which pace they will displace the indigenous elements and replace their own population with third world detritus.
The french one : rtsp://realserver.tf1.fr/eurosport/2005/07/06/presparis_20821_1_82_3_240x180.rm
The english one: rtsp://realserver.tf1.fr/eurosport/2005/07/06/preslondon_7_20825_1_82_0_240x180.rm
2005-07-07 08:46 | User Profile
This is a victory for Ken Livingston over the Jews.