Anxious to talk down comparisons between Beijing and London in the days leading up to these Games, Seb Coe's team have never tried to hide from the fact that they will be unable to match the Chinese Olympic experience.

In every way, they insist, these Games will be different to the ones that follow. But even Coe, who was absent last night because his father Peter is seriously ill, couldn't have expected to be set such a daunting example.

Every decade or so an Olympics will capture the spirit of the age. It is difficult to imagine what London will stand for in four years time when the world gather in Stratford for the celebration of the XXX Olympiad. The credit crunch Games anyone?

In terms of sheer numbers alone, one suspects London would struggle to raise the army of 14,000 dancers, musicians and volunteers who put on Beijing's show.

For London, of course, the wait for their moment in the spotlight will come much sooner than 2012. In 16 days time London mayor Boris Johnson will play a central role in an eight minute handover ceremony to mark the beginning of London's Olympic cycle.

There has already been controversy about the choice of an urban dance troupe and rap act ZooNation to represent London on the world stage, amid concerns over the message it will send out about modern Britain.

In contrast to the 16 ton globe which emerged from the floor of the enormous Chinese national stadium to close the first section of the opening ceremony, David Beckham will be kicking a football from the top of a red double decker bus accompanied by the X factor winner Leona Lewis.

But then London beat France in the vote for 2012 in Singapore three years ago by selling the International Olympic Committee a vision of a more modest, sustainable Games. London and the IOC, they argued, could no longer afford white elephants and lavish spending.

According to London organising committee chief executive Paul Deighton earlier this week, the bird's nest is likely to be the last genuinely iconic Olympic stadium in history. It is a sobering thought to look ahead to London's plans for a £525m flat pack stadium which will be taken apart after the event closes.

"I am not sure how many countries would have either the resources or indeed the controlled resources to put on an event like this," added Deighton.

"I doubt we will have 20,000 people doing things in unison in our opening ceremony. That's just fine. That's the beauty of the contrast."

In other words, if you can't beat them. Don't bother.
http://www.telegraph.co.u...emony.html

yeah, China has shown it really is the top leader in this world.
Who else on the face of this earth could ever be capable of pulling off such a feat?

Im sure the London games will be great in their own way but it kind of lets me down the way they are lowering expectations after what we have seen in Beijing so far.

And they've already started with that crappy logo...

,
[Edited 8/11/08 0:17am]

Dang, that's rough. This is more than just the opening ceremonies it sounds like.

London mayor fears flawed 2012 legacy
12 hours ago

LONDON (AFP) — London Mayor Boris Johnson voiced his fears that the city's 2012 Olympic Games will have no lasting value for the British capital, in an interview published Tuesday.

Johnson, elected to office in May, told the Financial Times newspaper that a lack of planning could jeopardise the event's legacy.

A British delegation are in Beijing to learn lessons from the Games currently being staged there.

But Johnson is "certain" that work that should have been done on London Olympics legacy planning "hasn't been done".

Since taking over from Ken Livingstone, Johnson has become increasingly concerned about preparations for the 2012 Olympics.

"I think there are things to be done on the venues still and I haven't lifted my reserve on that," he told business daily the FT.

"There are also, I think, serious questions to be asked about the legacy value of some of the sites and some of the venues.

"I want to make sure that we have lasting value from these sites and that this weird constellation of huge objects that we are building: this media centre, this velodrome, aquatic centre, the stadium, and the village.

"I want to make sure that we can alchemise them into gold for London for 50 years to come, and that is going to take some pretty crunchy work."

The 2012 London Olympics were originally predicted to cost 3.4 billion pounds, but the budget has now soared to 9.325 billion pounds (17.79 billion dollars, 11.95 billion euros).

A month after taking office, Johnson slammed 2012 organisers, saying they were clueless about what legacy the games would leave behind.

Johnson said there was no "legacy masterplan" for the Olympics venues and insisted it was pointless ploughing money into the east London site if no one knew "what on earth we're trying to achieve".

In April, an influential committee of British MPs accused the 2012 organisers of lacking foresight and spending money "like water".

http://afp.google.com/art..._5nKJdP83g

horatio said:

China's government also doesn't have to worry about environmental impact statements, zoning, relocating people it forcibly moved, heritage sites that have to be preserved etc.
They also don't have a constituency that can protest spending $300 million just to say 'Hello and welcome to China.'
They can also have 2008 people practice for two months or more and guarantee their jobs when the games are over.
Dictatorship has its privileges.

SUPRMAN said:

Also no labor unions in China.

dreamfactory313 said:

China does have a labor union. Ask WalMart and McDonalds. It is run by the government. It is also the only legal union and which foreign companies have to agree to unionized workers.