It is the year anniversary of the 2004 Olympic Games. Sure, Athens went all out and produced a great show, great venues, and a safe and secure Olympics.
Let's forget that Olympic spending went billions of dollars overbudget in a country that is already suffering from huge budget deficits (ok, so what country isn't, but still). Let's forget that the expensive, state-of-the-art Olympic venues have gone to waste, destruction and disrepair. Let's forget all the negatives and have a great big party to celebrate the one year birthday of the 2004 Olympic Games!
Forgive me for not being more excited, but what the fuck? Sure, the safe and secure Olympics showed the world that Greece was a nice place to visit, so tourism is on the rise this year. Sure, Greece proved to the world that they could offer a fine show, despite world pessimism they wouldn't pull it off. But - 13 billion euros spent to date? Venues that are standing empty, full of trash, yielding nothing? Excuse me, but any good American would have made a fekton off these venues over the last year. What options are there? Well, for one, one of these places could have been made a sporting center. Of course maybe Greeks aren't the same, but when Nashville came up with the Centennial Sportsplex tons of people came out. Why not exploit some of these places for tourism? Keep the places up to date, charge a couple of euros and tourists will pay to see the Olympic venues they couldn't visit during the actual games. Art exhibits, car shows, bazaars, oh hell, I am sure there are many, many good uses for these places. Sure, it might take some money, but it takes money to make money (or so I've heard, too bad I never had any money to try it).
Sure, I want to be supportive of my adopted country. I was proud when the Olympics came off without a hitch, with beautiful opening and closing ceremonies. But birthday parties every year? Showing the opening ceremonies a year later (hell, they might be planning to rebroadcast the whole damn thing)? If I want to see it, I'll buy the DVD. And I can guarantee you, that DVD isn't going to pay back 13 billion euros. Not by a long shot.
Greeks have an amazing ability to gloss over the bad stuff and just celebrate the good. Sure, sometimes you gotta do that to keep from blowing your brains out, but sometimes, you gotta stop and face the music.
Greeks, they'd rather dance to it.
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