2012 Olympics

The other day, much to many people's surprise, London won out over Paris to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. By now we all know that there were terrorist bombings shortly thereafter.

I was talking to my students and no one had heard the news yet of the bombings.

Many people were astonished to hear that not only was I not upset that NYC didn't "win" the bid but that I actually thought Paris or London (or maybe a different American city) would be better. They thought I was BS-ing because I grew up near New York. When I got them semi-convinced that I was being honest, they all immediatedly said "Oh yeah, New York is dangerous. Terror. Terror."

This is a common pattern with them. Yeah, New York was hit on 9/11 a few years before, but let's take a look at the other candidate cities:

London - years of IRA terror, multiple Al Quaeda style attempots thwarted recently.
Paris - home to lotsa wanna-be terrorists, frequent arrests of said people.
Madrid - years of ETA bombs not to mention the very recent train bombings.
Moscow - Chechnya anyone?

Not to knock these places, just to point out how even educated, "internationally minded", well- traveled people get certain ideas in their head(s) that make thier memory VERY selective. It's true, the organizers have to worry about terrorism at a NYC Olympics but COME ON, the Olympics could be on the moon and they'd have to worry about it. It was a big worry at Athens just last year. Duh.

Not to mention one hour later 4 bombs went off in trains and buses in London.

Once we got over that hurdle, (NYC = terror) people set thier sights on the surprise part of London's victory. Ok, it had been gaining ground for weeks, helped by a big push by Tony Blair and rude comments by Jack Chirac. But why did this roomfull of well-intended, educated, travelled, bi-lingual people think that London had won? Could it be because the London team had done a better sales job? Could it be because the London site might have been technically superior? (I'm not saying that it is, just the possibility...) Could it be because France had pissed off a lot of people by rejecting the EU constitution that they wrote? Etc Etc...

Nope.

Now prepare yourself for a theme I just know you're gonna see a lot in the blogs to come.

London won because: America made the judges vote for it.

That's right. Somehow America magically convinced judges from around the world at the last minute to forget anything they had thought about for the two years or so, and, by America's sheer military might and current popularity (cough), force them to overlook Paris and by the slimmest margin choose another fascinating world city in an economically robust, multicultural country. Well, I can see thier point. It's certainly more logical that the reasons I've given.

I expressed my scepticism at that and asked people present to explain. I was willing to listen if someone could just try to back it up a little.

The reason? (Here comes another soon to be common theme:) "I don't know but the expert on TV said so." Followed by emphatic and unanimous nods around the room.

I'm not trying to say my country is perfect but jeez, is it at the heart of EVERYTHING that goes wrong? And can't anyone take what they hear on TV with a grain of salt?