At 17:47 07/08/2012, you wrote:
As a perceptive poster and as a resident of the UK I wonder if Keith has any thoughts on the Olympics in general and the impact the games are having on everyday life in the UK or in your home town.
The UK is divided between those who are wildly enthusiastic about it and those who curse Tony Blair for bagging London as a venue some six or seven years ago. Even at a fairly early stage, the cost was calculated at about US$900 per UK family. It will have multiplied at least two-fold since then. The enthusiasts tend to be among parents, the middle-aged and the old -- apart from the small minority of the young athletes and sportspeople themselves of course. Children and young aren't greatly turned on by sport anyway. Any time they used to spend on leisure sport (about 4 hours a week on average) has now been mostly cannibalized by their PCs and mobiles.
The old observation -- that international sports is warfare in another guise -- still applies, of course. The UK's imperialist streak of the 19th century still runs strong. For the past few years the government have lavishly subsidized many sports associations in order that we'll win more gold medals than anybody else (apart from China and America, of course). However, in the last two years of austerity, the government have been selling state school playing fields in their hundreds -- so that shows just how sincere they are about sport as such for young people.
One thing which showed through strongly in TV interviews troubles me. It is that, although still only a minority, a great many very young children are being manipulated into sports training by over-ambitious parents and lose a great deal of their normal childhood in having to train every day. Most of it done in the hope of commercial sponsorship later. Very few will succeed and many childhoods will have been blighted.
The coverage of the Games by the BBC has been far beyond anything that's reasonable. As well as 3 channels for several hours a day each, there are 23 other brand new channels, each being devoted to every minute of one or two sports. This involves hundreds of reporters, production workers and admin staff and must be costing many millions out of the licence fee we have to pay. No doubt this has been done at the government's behest but it means that we'll be deprived of many good quality TV programmes in the coming year or two.
I've been dipping into the Games every day but I'll be glad when the show is over and the BBC can give us a more balanced view of the world.
Keith Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
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