Investments and environmental disaster: the two faces of the Olympics
Beijing (AsiaNews) – “New Beijing, Great Olympics” is the slogan with which organisers are the Beijing games are celebrating the new face of the Chinese capital: state of the art grounds, restoration of pre-existent sports centres, new infrastructure built ad hoc for a total of 200 million dollars: beneath the shiny surface however, many unresolved problems emerge.
Beijing is renovating 11 old sports gymnasiums to make them standard venues for next summer's Games, others are being “restyled”, while 8 “temporary” venues will be used expressly for the duration of the competition, such as the cities cycling circuit. All of the new and pre-existent venues will be completed by the end of the year with the exception of the National Stadium (better known as the Bird’s Nest) ; costing nearly half a billion dollars it will seat 91,000 people and will host the opening and closing ceremonies as well as athletics and football. It is scheduled for completion early next year.Massive changes have also been made to the transport system: in order to accommodate the forecast one and a half million tourists in Beijing, a new wing is being added to the main airport doubling it in size, for an n investment also breaking the nine digit barrier: 3.6 billion dollars. To manage traffic congestion, Beijing is spending a record 9 billion to construct hundreds of miles of new highways and subway lines. Public transport will also be increased with an 80% reduction on the cost of tickets, while for the duration of the games private automobile circulation will be limited, excluding them from all areas closet o the games: more than half of all Olympic venues as well as the Olympic village are concentrated in one small area of northern Beijing known as the “Olympic Green”.
Green, nature, the battle against pollution are other examples of the meticulous preparation gone into the games: for over two years now scientists have been trying to dissolve the thick cloud of smog which covers the city (in 2007 investments in pollution control will hit 3 billion dollars), while since 2002 – the year in which the games were first assigned to Beijing – to today more than 200 million new trees have been planted. 15 thousand taxis and buses declared “over the limit” of carbon emissions have been banned from circulating while “highly pollutant chemical industries” have been closed down.
Companies have long traded on the feel-good spirit and massive viewing figures associated with the world's most famous sporting occasion, but the Beijing Games are shaping up to break all records. According to a recent study, 68% of Chinese sports fans are more likely to buy brands that sponsor the Olympic Games than those that don't. Its estimate that in the 12 months before the Games begin, official sponsors will spend as much as billion on advertising, and that's just in China. Only in security is Beijing spending less than Athens, “just”2.6 billion, half of what was spent for the 2004 Games.
Despite the shiny surface of celebrations, however many unresolved problems remain, and pollution is just one among many: Humanitarian groups claim the Chinese government has evicted more than 1 million people to clear the way for venues and other Olympic facilities (some sources say as many as a million and a half). As a result many people have been left without a roof over their heads.
During next years Olympics, drinking tap water will also be banned unless you are within the Olympic village. The warning arrives from authorities, who admit that the billions spent to clean and modernize the Chinese capital were not sufficient to guarantee clean drinking water for everyone. On April 16 a group of residents protested the erection of high voltage electricity cabins near their homes, necessary to guarantee the electrical supply. Cases of corruption are widespread, among them the case which involved the city’s deputy mayor, Liu Zhihua, arrested on June 11th for having pocketed bribes and conducted a “decadent” lifestyle.
The government has high hopes in the outcome of the games helping to raise China’s profile on an international scale and for the first time, aims to top the US record of the most medals won. At a year’s distance it is difficult to make forecasts but Beijing can already boast one sad first place: with 142 micrograms of CO2 per meter cubed of air, the city is the most polluted in the world. The chance that Beijing may not reach the gaol of acceptable air quality in time for the games is now a risk: in April there were only 11 days of clear sky, the worst in the last five years. In the first four months of the year only 51 days registered the minimum pollution levels. In order to get to the Olympic committees desired target (239 days of “acceptable air quality” in a year) the capital would need to have 22 days of clean skies a month for the next seven months. “One world, One dream” is the official slogan of the 2008 Olympics, but for many Chinese this dream is fast becoming a nightmare.
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30/08/2004
18/04/2008
