> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > Brian Walters > > > To be perfectly honest I couldn't give a rat's arse about the > performances, except for the 200m butterfly where Nick D'Arcy failed to > make the final. There is some justice in the world. > > Australia has no right to expect to be in the top half doz or so > nations (as it has been in the past few Olympics) given our modest > population. Our spending priorities are absurd. After the Olympics, > there's going to be all sorts of enquiries about where it all went > wrong and our Olympic officials will be screaming for more money from > the Government (who will undoubtedly give it to them). > > Sorry - didn't mean that to become a rant :-)> > >
There's an article on the BBC website about Australian sports-navel-gazing and why-oh-whying: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19165636> In summary: Australian coaches are the best in the world, so the rest of the world has bought them. Another article explains where the UK medals comes from - the National Lottery: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19144983> This is the money that we put aside for 'luxuries', that is, not hospitals, schools and so on. It also funds arts and various other cultural things. This is one of the reasons why I have a regular bank payment to buy a lottery ticket. To avoid the idea of it being a 'tax on stupidity', I soothe myself with the idea that I'm helping to buy nice pictures, put on operas, buy gold medals, and to fund lesbian performance art collectives and Jessica Ennis's six-pack. National pride is a strange, irrational thing, but it's a sad nation that can't find some way to fund a bit of fun. I hope Australia (my birthplace - my parents went to the games in Melbourne) does find a way to get back to the top branches of the sporting tree very soon. And as I write that, Sally Pearson of Australia wins gold in the 100m hurdles. B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
