At least none of the athletes has dug a bug out of the floor and dropped a chandelier on the folks below. (Old, oft-repeated tale.)
Because Russia just spent $51 billion trying to convince the world that it can put on a huge international sporting event, and it doesn’t seem to have finished the job.
And how fortunate we precious few, the true cosmopolites, content to rest on our makeshift futons of masticated banana leaves and bushbaby dung.
Actually, Russia is not a poor country and Russians would have a higher standard of living if it wasn’t for widespread corruption and an autocratic government that prioritizes staging the most expensive olympic games in history over taking care of the basic needs of its citizens and ensuring they have basic human rights. Given that the games cost $51 billion, it is surprising that the hotels are shitholes and it is reasonable that the corrupt and repressive government get mocked for what is a publicity stunt for their illegitimate regime.
Go ahead and mock Putin. I am all for that. But the whole “OMG how will I live without a shower curtain!” thing is just embarrassing and makes our press corps look like a bunch of prima donnas.
A missing shower curtain is kind of a pain in the ass if you consider the time you’ll have to spend drying off your bathroom and the potential for leaks. No running water in a hotel is kind of a big deal. And it’s really not just a press thing since a lot of people are traveling to Russia to attend the games. Russia basically promised they would build a whole city to host the games, which isn’t normally what happens. It’s a tremendous project and it looks like they couldn’t finish the job on time.
It’s also true that there’s always a pattern to these Olympics: first there’s a rash of stories about how the host city may not be ready on time, then that gets forgotten and everyone writes that the games are incredible, and then some time later we hear about all the decaying and unused stadiums and the lost money. I’m guessing Russia won’t let us hear quite as much about that last one. It’s possible that the accommodations really aren’t up to snuff this time, and don’t forget that a lot of people are already predisposed to be critical of Russia because of the anti-gay laws. That story won’t go away, of course. I guess if there are lots of complaints about the hotels and nothing else, it’s not so bad. But it could get worse.
Why would anyone go there and not expect to be spied upon?
Where was the media person who left the water running all day from? No matter the reason, it was a asshat thing to do anywhere. IMO
You think it really happened? How charming.
Have to admit I found it totally plausible and had to google “borowitz report” to confirm it was satire.
In my weak defense, I saw CNN report it as a real news story this morning and thought that’s a little bizarre, and then thought of it when I saw this thread with the hotel stories and threw in my Google hit as a cite before hitting submit.
CNN recycles the same stories throughout the day, but I haven’t seen this again for some strange reason…
There are people questioning the NBC story about the laptop hijacking - http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/02/nbcs-claim-you-will-be-immediately-hacked-sochi/357834/ - most notably that he was in Moscow, not Sochi.
Here’s a Sochi horror story for you: The Ministry of Internal Affairs Police choir performed “Get Lucky” before the opening ceremonies.