Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Tough Lessons for Delhi from Commonwealth Games

Seen as a major opportunity for Delhi and India to showcase themselves, problems early on instead highlighted endemic issues.

Hosting the Commonwealth Games was supposed to be India's chance to show the world that it had left behind the old stereotypes of an economy blighted by corruption and political interference.

Sadly for them their preparations for the Delhi Games have shown that staging these events do have a potentially damaging downside.

Rather than beaming images of gleaming stadiums and happy athletes producing world class sport the last 24 hours have reminded India that the 24 hour modern media culture has a nasty downside. Get it right and the world sits back and applauds. Get it wrong and your failings are transmitted to the globe's rolling news networks.

Delhi learning downside of hosting Games
BBC
September 22, 2010