Games

Much to my surprise, fans of environment protection often lie low for the Olympic Games.

Of course it is grand and attractive to hold the event every 4 years in a different city, but building a new set of stadium and Olympic village each time is another story.

Think: How often would Beijing people go to the Nest Stadium after 2008 ?

And it is not merely the construction of the white elephants. You need the maintenance. To make it appear to be better used, officials would no doubt give it for events that could be held in a much smaller place - yet aggravating the wastage.

Well, we shouldn't be too critical. It is just too common to believe building a theatre with gigantic atrium would promote cultural activity, or filling your shelf with dozens of books from the Fair means better knowledge, or underlining and highlighting every sentence of the textbook guarantees a pass in the medical examination.

PS. It is impressive to learn how Japanese re-name the Martial Arts Hall, built for the 1964 Summer Olympics, to the Nippon Budokan (武道館) and use it for pop star concerts. In a sense, the white elephant was sucessfully made used of by the Carthage of the east.