lrd1rocha

I just got back from spending a week in Buenos Aires. I can't attest for the athletic infrastructure of the city, which looks very dated on pictures, but at least they are trying to improve their transportation issues by expanding the metro system. Although the metro system/commuter train infrastructure is still incredibly limited compared to Mexico City, it is somewhat equivalent to what I saw in Rio. Just like Rio, Buenos Aires' main international airport is quite far away from the city center. On the other hand, there was an obvious foreign exchange black market going on. The new restrictions on converting Pesos to Dollars certainly had effects. I could not shake the feeling that things could go really wrong, really soon.

Using that reasoning, the bailout of the US banks means that the United States is a poor country. The same would apply to the UK since it bailed out the Royal Bank of Scotland. The difference between the bank bailouts in the US/UK with that of Spain is that Washington and London have more control than Spain does (since it is in the Eurozone). Of course, if the PIIGS decide to jump ship and default, then the German banks will join the bail out club.

I don't know why anyone should be surprised by these events. It is pretty obvious that the Chinese government intended to use the games a platform to show the economic development of China, however they failed to see that hosting this kind of events is a two way street. You can't simply expect the rest of the world, dissidents included, to go along without an input. Besides, politics have always been present in the games. In any case, today I came back home from university to find out that "Students for a Free Tibet" had climbed the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled two big banners. It's beyond me why the Chinese picked San Francisco as one of the stops for the torch relay. SF might be 1/3 Chinese, but many people in the Chinese community are linked to groups opposed to the policies of the People's Republic of China. That might be the reason why the Chinese consulate is actually far away from Chinatown, which happens to be the home of the Taiwanese consulate. Also, they overlooked or ignored the fact that San Francisco is the equivalent of "Demonstration-town, USA." You can bet people will be protesting the torch relay, which explains why the route is sticking to the Embarcadero (waterfront) as opposed of hitting the streets.

That got some laughs from me

I'm nor sure why. Getty images are copyright (the source you are using) so it may be a security mechanism. aND My Problem ? thanks ??? It seems to be a generalized problem. I get that one with the Olympic Mascots thread...

The Aztec Stadium is already outdated, but the owners are quite happy by the fact they can get money from the soccer clubs that currenty play there. Anyway, a renovation wouldn't hurt the stadium....

No problem. *And now the giant that overshadows the small Mexico 68 stadium * Another pictures of Estadio Azteca, the only one that has hosted two World Cup Finals (70 and 86) And who wouldn't consider it a giant when it can host more than 120,000 people and survived the 1985 earthquake ???

The Mexico city is pretty ugly, is now used by one of the soccer clubs of the Mexican league, and just two years after the Olympics it was downgraded and overshadowed by its younger and bigger cousin, the Aztec Stadium that hosted the World Cup Finals of 70 and 86. *The Montreal Stadium is impressive. *The Memorial Coliseum was quite "classical" in 84 *The Munich stadium looks quite futuristic and attractive But my all time favorite must be the Barcelona one The Atlanta one was really....everything except impressive. :hmm: