# Stop Giving Major Sporting Events to AWful or Incapable Countries **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 4, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497 "2014-02-04T17:35:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/121 "2014-02-17T02:47:34Z")
In all fairness, it’s been warmer in Sochi for almost the entire duration of these Winter Olympics than it has here in _Florida_. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/122 "2014-02-17T09:33:16Z")
One of my colleagues went. He’s a cynical and sceptical kind of a guy. He said don’t believe a word of the hatchet job being carried out by the media, and the games have been fantastic. Or to put it another way: see my post #19, plus add a good solid helping of “it may be 2014, but some people haven’t stopped fighting the cold war”. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/123 "2014-02-17T13:07:57Z")
My journalist friend who has been to every Olympic since Salt Lake says much the same. Last minute problems were apparently worse in London. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/124 "2014-02-17T13:33:14Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > My journalist friend who has been to every Olympic since Salt Lake says much the same. Last minute problems were apparently worse in London. But how are they ever going to drive traffic to their blogs with headlines like that? ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/125 "2014-02-17T13:38:24Z")
Part of me wanted some horrendous breakdown of Russin infrastructure (preferably hilarious: all the wild dogs breaking out of their holding pens and running amok through the opening ceremonies?). But the rational side of me is relieved to see no huge tragedy (so far) due to terrorists or Putin. ---
**Author:** ![Bouncer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@Bouncer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bouncer)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/126 "2014-02-17T15:31:31Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > My feeling is that we should have a single Summer Olympics spot (preferably in Greece, since that’s where the games originated) and a single Winter Olympics spot (I dunno, Finland? Canada?) and be done with it. > > Either that or we say fuck it and have the next Winter Olympics in Zimbabwe. San Carlos de Bariloche. That way we can have summer AND winter games at the same time. Plus it’s nice, exotically far away, and has the infrastructure (minus some ridiculous stadium), hell it’s even got ex-nazis hiding out so the reporters will have all kinds of stuff to babble about! Regards, -Bouncer- ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/127 "2014-02-17T15:49:04Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Well, Russia is a bit of a train wreck right now. But South Africa? Brazil? China? These are not Luxemborg, for sure, but hardly the pits of hell. I don’t know by what conceivable standard you think Russia is a ‘train wreck’. Standards of living in Russia are a bit higher than Brazil, and _much_ higher than South Africa or China. South Africa, in particular, has seen a decline in their standard of living in the last twenty years, mostly due to the HIV epidemic. I’d think that most reasonable people would much rather live in Russia than in South Africa. > **[List of countries by Human Development Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index)** > > This is an accepted version of this page > > > > The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) compiles the Human Development Index (HDI) of 193 nations in the annual Human Development Report. The index considers the health, education, income and living conditions in a given country to provide a measure of human development which is comparable between countries and over time. > The HDI is the most widely used indicator of human development and has changed how people view the concept. However, sever... ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/128 "2014-02-17T16:11:05Z")
Train wreck in terms of having a particularly ridiculous leader who has been pretty ridiculous about the Olympics. It’s not generally a horrible place to live. Really none of the listed places are- unless you happen to think that anything outside of the US and maybe Western Europe is horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/129 "2014-02-17T16:15:00Z")
I don’t think Putin is ridiculous. His economic policies are much too right-wing for me, and I wouldn’t vote for his party if I lived there, but he’s far from the worst leader imaginable, and most things in Russia (economic growth, unemployment, abortion rates, birth rates, etc.) have actually improved under his watch, which is more than you can say for (say) South Africa. ---
**Author:** ![Esco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9de053/32.png) [@Esco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esco)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/130 "2014-02-17T16:20:24Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > I don’t think Putin is ridiculous. His economic policies are much too right-wing for me, and I wouldn’t vote for his party if I lived there, but he’s far from the worst leader imaginable, and most things in Russia (economic growth, unemployment, abortion rates, birth rates, etc.) have actually improved under his watch Yes, Russia have come a long way. Especially Moscow is booming right now. I dated a Russian girl, and Russian people have a lot going for them ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/131 "2014-02-17T17:33:32Z")
Moscow may be boomng. And they’ve obviously spent a lot on Sochi. But how much has their oil wealth served to improve the lives of the average Russians? Because in many cases, the countries that are sitting on vast amounts of oil seem to be very corrupt with many people still in poverty despite the billions being earned. (For example, that appears to be the case in Venezuela and Nigeria.) ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/132 "2014-02-17T17:58:42Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Moscow may be boomng. And they’ve obviously spent a lot on Sochi. But how much has their oil wealth served to improve the lives of the average Russians? Because in many cases, the countries that are sitting on vast amounts of oil seem to be very corrupt with many people still in poverty despite the billions being earned. (For example, that appears to be the case in Venezuela and Nigeria.) It’s not really the case in Venezuela. They have a socialist government, and between 1998 and 2011 saw a very sharp reduction in economic inequality, according to the CIA factbook: [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2172.html](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2172.html) Russia is a more unequal place than in Soviet times, of course, but both Russia and Venezuela currently have less economic inequality than the United States, as measured by the Gini coefficient: > **[Russia Economy 2024, CIA World Factbook](https://www.theodora.com/wfbcurrent/russia/russia_economy.html)** > > Russia Economy 2024, CIA World Factbook That’s not saying all that much - the US is one of the most unequal societies in the developed world- but perhaps in the United States should hesitate before criticing unequal income distributions in countries like Russia or Venezuela. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497/133 "2014-02-17T19:51:55Z")
Venezuela may have reduced economic inequality but my understanding is that there is still a massive shortage of housing for the poor. With all of that oil money, I’d expect the situation to be better. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stop-giving-major-sporting-events-to-awful-or-incapable-countries/680497.md?page=6)