50 billion dollars or whatever and it's the olympics.

duovamp, russia is a developing country and most people who live there are poor. as. shit. there are places in russia where people still live the way they did in the era of the czars. also, this looks like 50 billion to me right here. why is it surprising that 50 billion was not enough to turn a city in a despotic wasteland into something even remotely equal to Vancouver, fucking Canada?


http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...s_2719021b.jpg

So basically you're completely missing the point. What's upsetting is that this shit (from the link I posted and you didn't click and read):

happens in a place where so many people are living in destitute poverty. These Olympic games aren't about proving anything. It's about finding another way to squeeze more money out of the people and hand it to the wealthy few.

But you're saying it's acceptable because there are some poor-ass people in Russia. Okay, you got me there.

are you retarded


you said it's not a developing country, it really is. your other point had nothing to do with that

No no no, everything that we've seen so far in Sochi is perfectly fine because poors.

ok, so you are retarded.

Okay yep, and if you spend 50 billion dollars on Sochi, it's all going directly into hard costs which is why those pipes are the best Russia could do with their money.


Not because of corruption.



Because the equivalent of $50,000,000,000 only gets you bowls with water in Russia. No flushing.

Athens had the olympics not too long ago and you certainly cannot flush toilet paper there, the streets are covered in dog shit, and you aren't supposed to drink tap water. And this is in a fully developed, modern cosmopolitan city.

look up before and after pictures of sochi and think for a few minutes about how much it costs to redevelop an entire city

What are you even saying? Two wrongs make a right? It's okay because Russia is doing now what Greece did 10 years ago?

I think we are not talking about the same thing

Didn't the costs for one Olympic stadion triple because the company in charge did god knows what with the money? And then big guy Putin stepped in and promised all will be finished in time and no more bullshit because he found the black sheep and blabla.

Plus they built tunnels, streets, hundreds of trains etc.
Forget about the toilets, but water that's at least safe to wash yourself should be a priority over Athlete lounges with Play Stations (which they have), don't you agree on that rbg?

I won't argue that companies, investors and sponsors of this whole thing aren't likely corrupt.
But again - London managed child sized beds for athletes and a sanitary system that flooded the Olympic village with shit when it started raining. London.

of course, but I think the olympics are a sham in a much larger sense.

on this particular issue, I'm just struggling to understand why people are so surprised at how fucked up Russia is, poverty, corruption, all of it, if these are worldly travelers expressing awe at how crappy things are. why is it so shocking that their olympics are corrupt and put together like shit? that sounds exactly like what anyone could have predicted

redbreegull when you talk about russia, you sound like you are unaware of west virginia

russia is not "developing" it is "emerging" back onto the stage as a world power

yeah gross income discrepancy blah blah blah america is so better or something

Actually I expected worse but it hasn't even started yet. Knocking on wood and all, but the constructions... ya I know, safety inspections, but they were in a damn hurry to finish it all in time.

World Cup this summer will be the next fun.

the sprawling favelas outside of the city of gold, a randian paradise

this

hey at least they haven't gotten to outlaw homosexual propaganda here

yet

a boy can dream...

not until toc becomes grand poobah.

Not suprising russia can't put on the olympics properly. Totally fucked by communism forever. If you saw the chinese olympics last year those looked great because chinese are much smarter than russians

russians are like the red neck of europeans

Then the ones who decided it's smart to make child sized beds for the Summer Olympics weren't Brits?

what? were talking about RUSSIANS

*we were

Yea, and I'm comparing the inability of Russians to get the Olympics right to the inability London showed in 2012.

Also the Euro red necks are Bulgarians, everyone knows that.

uh i think the london games were a big hit

there's a lot of really stupid things about russia in this thread

"despotic wasteland"

WASTELAND DUDE WILL YOU JUST GOOGLE SOME SHIT ALREADY

"rednecks of europe"

yes because tolstoy and stravinsky are just yokels with jug bands

"developing country"

motherfucker russia is a major player always, to paraphrase "that phrase i do not think it means what you think it means"

yeah people are poor there. people are poor everywhere. and greece's economy is in no way even remotely as strong as russias, ever. in history. well maybe ancient greece.

skyrim belongs to the nords

and all this arm waving about i'm not sure exactly, lake placid was practically a guy in an ice fishing lodge before the olympics showed up, this is not new.